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The Center for Star Formation Studies is a consortium of researchers working together in a coordinated fashion to construct a comprehensive theoretical model of the process of star formation. The Center has been funded by the NASA Astrophysical Theory Program since 1985, and is directed by David Hollenbach, of NASA Ames Research Center. Its Co-Investigators include Chris McKee and Eugene Chiang from the University of California at Berkeley (UCB), Richard Klein from Lawrence Livermore Laboratories and UCB, K. Robbins Bell from NASA Ames Research Center, and Greg Laughlin and Doug Lin from the University of California at Santa Cruz (UCSC). Center members include senior researchers, postdoctoral fellows, graduate students and visitors from NASA Ames, UCB and UCSC, as well as researchers from nearby institutions.

The CSFS functions to stimulate collaborations and communication between different researchers in order to construct a self-consistent theory of the many facets of star formation. The Center holds regular workshops to achieve this goal. Although theoretical research forms the main focus of the Center, many observers are Center members and regularly attend and speak at the workshops. Monthly one-day workshops are held at NASA Ames. Weeklong summer workshops are held generally at UCSC every other summer. In alternate summers, we help organize workshops on star formation at other locations. In the past, workshops have been held at Wellesley College (with the collaboration of the star formation group at the Smithsonian Astrophsyical Obsevrtory), in Taiwan and in Italy. We sometimes hold a two-day winter workshop in collaboration with star formation researchers from Southern California. Upcoming agendas and schedules for these workshops are available on this website. The Center has also organized star formation special sessions at the annual meetings of the American Astronomical Society.

The CSFS supports postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, and Senior visitors to NASA Ames, UCB and UCSC. Typically, the Center will fully fund one postdoctoral position, the "Center Postdoctoral Position", and will partially fund several other postdoctoral positions. Currently, one graduate student is supported at UCB and one at UCSC. The CSFS also provides support for short visits (up to 3 months) of senior visitors and partial support for senior visitors on sabbatical leave.

The CSFS is part of NASA's overall program to study the origin of stars and planets and to ultimately understand how life arises in the Universe. Much of the research of the Center is applicable to observations from NASA's space and airborne observatories, especially those which operate at infrared wavelengths. In addition, the research provides scientific rationale for future NASA missions. The CSFS has close links with many of the key efforts at the NASA Ames Research Center, including the efforts in Infrared Astronomy, in Planetary Astronomy, Laboratory Astrophysics, Exobiology, and Astrobiology.