The Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey is a large galaxy redshift survey, in the third year of observing in the Anglo-Australian Telescope. The main science aims of GAMA are: the Dark Matter Halo Mass Function and M/L ratio, from the group velocity dispersion; Galaxy Stellar Mass Functions; the evolution of galaxy merger rates. My application of GAMA is using the spectroscopic redshifts to calibrate photometric redshifts for the whole of SDSS, in order to make the best possible clustering measurements. I will talk about improvements to the GAMA spectroscopic pipeline in the form of PCA sky subtraction to improve the quality of the spectra. I will describe my method of producing photometric redshifts showing the improvement from existing photometric redshifts in SDSS. Finally I will show some preliminary results of measuring galaxy clustering as a function of redshift and intrinsic colour.

Models of stellar atmospheres are a fundamental tool in contemporary astronomy. Used to derive the chemical composition and many parameters of stars, their importance is far reaching but their systematic uncertainties are seldom discussed. I will tell the tale of the classical models and how the new 3D hydrodynamic models are changing the game. There have been a few bumps towards the adoption of 3D models, most notably the controversy surrounding the chemical composition of the Sun itself. I will discuss these problems and show some results from my PhD thesis, where I systematically tested the 3D solar models against several observations. Lastly, I will outline the state-of-the-art regarding 3D models for late-type cool stars and current efforts to allow a widespread adoption of this new tool in stellar spectroscopy.

In this talk first I will shortly review the most important breakthroughs in the Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB) field occurred in the last year. Then I will talk on the important role in the field of the rapid responding robotic telescopes. Finally I will present the development status of the BOOTES network of robotic telescopes all over the world in order to catch their prompt optical-near IR emission.

Quasar absorption spectra are a key observational probe of the hydrogen reionisation epoch. The appearance of the Lyman-alpha Gunn-Peterson trough approaching z=6 indicates the neutral hydrogen fraction in the intergalactic medium (IGM) is increasing with lookback time. However, the constraint this observation provides on the IGM neutral hydrogen fraction is very weak; Lyman-alpha absorption saturates at neutral hydrogen fractions which are still small - around 1 part in 10^4. Fortunately, the Lyman-alpha forest at z < 6 can still provide valuable constraints on the temperature of the IGM and the metagalactic ionising emissivity, and hence provide further, indirect insight into the reionisation and thermal history of the Universe at higher redshift. I will discuss the recent results of our work in this field, their implications for the reionisation history and conclude by discussing where future progress can be made.