The interstellar medium (ISM) is the material from which
stars are formed and which in turn reacts on the energy, mass, and metal
output of the stars. Therefore the evolution of the ISM is closely linked
the evolution of galaxies. Current theories see the ISM as several gas
phases (cold molecular clouds, warm neutral and ionized gas, and a hot
(105 to 107 K) plasma), which are roughly in pressure equilibrium.
Young massive stars (and the subsequent supernovae explosions)
structure the ISM on small (few parsec) and as effect of the combined
action of large associations on scales of kpc. Our main research lines
concentrate on the this interaction of massive stars with the ISM. Currently
we investigate the nature of the diffuse ionized and hot gas in the
halos of spiral galaxies, large bubbles and outflows into the halos
of galaxies and the effects of outflows on the galaxy evolution, the
effects of magnetic fields on outflows and gaseous halos, the physics
of interfaces between the hot and cold gas and the molecular gas in
low metallicity systems.
