Like people, each of the billions of galaxies in the universe developed its own unique traits over a complicated lifetime. Until recently, astronomers have only been able to study galaxies closest to the Milky Way in detail, leaving much of the universe's history a mystery. Dr. Strom will show how astronomers are now using the world's largest telescopes to determine the chemical DNA of even very distant galaxies, and how this information is answering key questions about how galaxies like our own formed and evolved.