Transactions IAU, Volume XXIXA Proc. XXIXA IAU General Assembly, August 2015 Thierry Montmerle, ed. c  International Astronomical Union 2016 doi:10.1017/S174392131600096X DIVISION H COMMISSION 37 STAR CLUSTERS AND ASSOCIATIONS AMAS ET ASSOCIATIONS STELLAIRES PRESIDENT Giovanni Carraro VICE-PRESIDENT Richard de Grijs PAST PRESIDENT Bruce Elmegreen ORGANIZING COMMITTEE Peter Stetson, Barbara Anthony-Twarog, Simon Goodwin, Douglas Geisler, Dante Minniti HIGHLIGHTS OF COMMISSION 37 SCIENCE RESULTS Abstract. It is widely accepted that stars do not form in isolation but result from the frag- mentation of molecular clouds, which in turn leads to star cluster formation. Over time, clusters dissolve or are destroyed by interactions with molecular clouds or tidal stripping, and their members become part of the general field population. Star clusters are thus among the basic building blocks of galaxies. In turn, star cluster populations, from young associations and open clusters to old globulars, are powerful tracers of the formation, assembly, and evolutionary his- tory of their parent galaxies. Although their importance (e.g., in mapping out the Milky Way) had been recognised for decades, major progress in this area has only become possible in recent years, both for Galactic and extragalactic cluster populations. Star clusters are the observational foundation for stellar astrophysics and evolution, provide essential tracers of galactic structure, and are unique stellar dynamical environments. Star formation, stellar structure, stellar evolu- tion, and stellar nucleosynthesis continue to benefit and improve tremendously from the study of these systems. Additionally, fundamental quantities such as the initial mass function can be successfully derived from modelling either the Hertzsprung-Russell diagrams or the integrated velocity structures of, respectively, resolved and unresolved clusters and cluster populations. Star cluster studies thus span the fields of Galactic and extragalactic astrophysics, while heavily affecting our detailed understanding of the process of star formation in dense environments. This report highlights science results of the last decade in the major fields covered by IAU Commission 37: Star clusters and associations. Instead of focusing on the business meeting - the out-going president presentation can be found here: http://www.sc.eso.org/ gcarraro/ splinter2015.pdf - this legacy report contains highlights of the most important scientific achievements in the Commission science area, compiled by 5 well expert members. 1. Embedded and massive star clusters in the Milky Way Ignacio Negueruela, Universidad de Alicante, Spain The past decade has been an era of discovery in the Milky Way, ushered in by our increasing capability to see through dust. This text is a short summary of the observations 502 https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S174392131600096X Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 54.162.69.248, on 16 Jun 2020 at 20:34:55, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at