Olivier Le Fevre, Director
LAM Institute, France
Abstract:
Understanding galaxy and large scale structure formation and evolution requires the observations of unbiased samples of galaxies in large volumes all along cosmic time. The multi-slit spectrograph VIMOS has been designed to do just that, and has been the workhorse for deep surveys at the ESO-VLT since 2002. I will discuss some of the key results which have been obtained on the VIMOS VLT Deep Survey (VVDS) and the zCOSMOS survey, from which a clearer picture of galaxy evolution is emerging. I will discuss the power of deep redshift surveys as a probe of the cosmological model, with expectations from the on-going VIPERS survey. I will conclude with a presentation of DIORAMAS , the next generation Multi-slit spectrograph under study for the ESO-EELT.