Dust in External Galaxies
  Existing (Spitzer Space Telescope) and upcoming (Herschel Space Telescope)
facilities are deepening our understanding of the role of dust in tracing the
energy budget and chemical evolution of galaxies. The tools we are developing
while exploring the local Universe will in turn become pivotal in the
interpretation of the high redshift Universe when near--future facilities (the
Atacama Large Millimeter Array [ALMA], the Sub--Millimeter Array [SMA], the
Large Millimeter Telescope [LMT], the James Webb Space Telescope [JWST]), and,
possibly, farther--future ones, will begin operations.
