The main topic of my research is the study of stellar populations, both
resolved and unresolved, in nearby galaxies. In the LMC, I am carrying out
multiband HST studies of the surroundings of SN1987A (30 pc radius), of the
double cluster NGC1850 and of the 30 Doradus region. In order to cope with the
complex spatial pattern of interstellar absorption in these ISM rich regions,
I have developed a method to recover the INTRINSIC properties as well as
reddening for each star from photometry alone. Pre-Main Sequence stars in
these young regions are identified through their H
excess.
The unresolved populations I am studying, also with HST, include selected
regions of M81, M51 (including the nuclear region) and NGC454, an interacting
pair of galaxies in which we have detected and characterized a group of young
stellar clusters (10 Myr old or less).