The broad objective of 11HUGS is to understand the star formation demographics of the local volume, through measurements of the H-alpha and UV emission in a complete sample of nearby galaxies. The survey data also provide a foundation for follow-up studies of the HII region populations, chemical abundances, and ISM properties of galaxies in the local universe. The 11HUGS dataset is being further augmented by Spitzer mid- and far-infrared imaging through the Local Volume Legacy Survey, which is delivering the full suite of UV, H-alpha, mid- and far-infrared imaging to the astronomical community.

11HUGS is the result of a team-effort involving myself, Robert Kennicutt, data analyst Sanae Akiyama (Steward), Jose Funes (Vatican), and Shoko Sakai (UCLA). Our program has obtained H-alpha+[NII] and R-band imaging for all known spiral and irregular galaxies which are within a distance of 11 Mpc, outside of the plane of the Milky Way (|b|>20), and brighter than 15 B magnitudes. Observations have also been made for a number of other local galaxies that fall outside these selection criteria. UV data at 1500 A and 2300 A for a complete subset of the 11HUGS catalog are currently being collected through an ongoing GALEX Legacy program, for which Christy Tremonti (Steward), Armando Gil de Paz (Universidad Complutense de Madrid), and Liese van Zee (Indiana) have joined our collaboration. My thesis research, on the star formation properties of dwarf galaxies, was focused on the H-alpha component of the survey. Extensions of this work will involve the combination of the H-alpha imaging, which provides snapshots of the current star formation averaged over several million years, and the UV imaging, which traces star formation over a longer ~100 Myr timescale. The synthesis of the two datasets will allow us to understand how systematics in the UV and H-alpha based measurements of the star formation rate (SFR) affect our picture of the global stellar birthrate properties of galaxies in the present-day universe.

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Dwarf Galaxies Starburst Statistics in the Local Volume.  2009.  Lee, Janice. C., Kennicutt, R. C., Funes, J., Sakai, S. & Akiyama, S.  ApJ, 692, 1305

An H-alpha Imaging Survey of Galaxies in the Local 11Mpc Volume.  2008.  Kennicutt, R.C., Lee, Janice C., Akiyama, S., Funes, J. & Sakai, S.   ApJS, 178, 247

The Star Formation Demographics of Galaxies in the Local Volume.  2007.  Lee, Janice. C., Kennicutt, R. C., Funes, J.G., Sakai, S. & Akiyama, S.   ApJ, 671L, 113  

11HUGS & LVL: Star Formation Properties of Local Volume Galaxies.  2007.   Lee, Janice C., Gil de Paz, A., Tremonti, C. Kennicutt, R., van Zee, L., Sakai, S. & Funes, J.G.  AAS, 211, 9504   [jpeg poster file]

Stochastic Star Formation in Low Mass Galaxies: A case study of DDO 210.  2007.   Tremonti, C., Lee, Janice C., van Zee, L., Kennicutt, R., Sakai, S., Funes, J. & Akiyama, S.  AAS, 211, 9503   [pdf poster file]

11HUGS: The 11Mpc H-alpha and Ultraviolet Galaxy Survey.  2004.  Lee, Janice C., Kennicutt, R. C., Funes, J. G., Sakai, S., Tremonti, C. A. & van Zee, L.  AAS, 205, 6004