Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 August 2017
Advances in both theoretical understanding and observational capabilities in the past few years have made possible the determination of the effective temperature, surface gravity and chemical abundance of massive stars with unprecedented accuracy. These data are in turn important for the study of galaxies, as stars are important sources of information concerning the evolutionary state, past and present chemical composition, and distance of the parent galaxy. In addition to this diagnostic role, stars are crucial as sources of light, matter, and metals in the galaxy. Thus an improved understanding of massive stars makes possible a better determination of the physical conditions in a galaxy as well as a deeper understanding of how it functions.