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Neal J. Evans II studies star formation and the connection between interstellar gas and newly formed stars. His 2012 review with Robert C. Kennicutt Jr. compares ways of estimating gas content and star formation rates, from individual molecular clouds to entire galaxies.

The comparison matters because neither quantity is simply read off a photograph: a measured signal must be converted into gas mass or a star formation rate. The review assembles those measurement prescriptions before comparing the physical relations inferred from them.^[ref]

Robert C. Kennicutt Jr. studies how gas becomes stars in galaxies. His 1998 observational analysis combined normal spiral galaxies and starburst galaxies, finding an approximately $1.4$ power law between disk-averaged star formation rate per unit area and gas surface density. This Kennicutt–Schmidt law connects measurements across whole galaxies to prescriptions used in models of galaxy formation.^[ref]

With Neal J. Evans II, he also reviewed how different observations estimate star formation rates and how the gas–star formation relation changes between molecular clouds and whole galaxies.^[ref]

By Robert C. Kennicutt Jr. and Neal J. Evans II. Sections3–6 describe rate diagnostics and the relation between gas, clouds and galactic star formation.