I describe a new integral field spectroscopic survey called MaNGA (Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory). One of three core programs in the 6-year SDSS-IV project† that began on July 1st, 2014, MaNGA will deploy 17 fiber-bundle IFUs across the Sloan 2.5m Telescope's 3 degree field-of-view, targeting a mass-selected sample with a median redshift of 0.03, typical spatial resolution of 1-2 kpc, and a per-fiber signal-to-noise ratio of 4-8 in the outskirts of target galaxies. For each galaxy in the sample, MaNGA will provide maps and measured gradients of the composition and dynamics of both stars and gas. I discuss early results that highlight MaNGA's potential to shed light on the ionization and chemical enrichment of gas in galaxies, spatial patterns in their star formation histories, and the internal makeup of stellar populations. MaNGA's unprecedented data set will not only provide powerful new insight on galaxy formation and evolution but will serve as a valuable benchmark for future high-z observations from large telescopes and space-based facilities.

We present the ambitious project J-PAS, that will cover 8000 deg2 of the northern sky with 54 narrow-band (∼145Å) contiguous filters, all of them in the optical range (3700Å-9200Å). J-PAS will provide a low resolution spectra (R ∼ 50) in every pixel of the northern sky by 2020, leading to excellent photometric redshifts (0.3% uncertainty) of 100 million sources. J-PAS will permit the study of the 2D properties of nearby galaxies with unprecedented statistics. Some viable studies are the distribution of the star formation rate traced by Hα, the stellar populations gradients in elliptical galaxies up to a few effective radii, or the impact of environment in galaxy properties. In summary, J-PAS will bring a superb data set for 3D analysis in the local Universe.

We have learned much about galaxy evolution since z = 2, and something to even higher redshifts. How can it be that we know so little about! the star formation histories (SFHs) of individual galaxies? Although great progress has been made accumulating huge samples with only rudimentary properties, progress in galaxy evolution means connecting what we've learned to detailed measurements of the life-histories of specific –- not just representative –- systems.

We examine the evolution induced by secular processes of an initial, cosmologically motivated, radial chemical distribution, in a barred and an unbarred disk.