The post-main sequence evolution of stars of intermediate or large masses is
notoriously complex. In the recent past, a number of workshops and meetings
have focused on either the Asymptotic Giant Branch of intermediate mass stars,
or the evolution of massive stars. But how well defined is the boundary between
these categories of objects defined? How would an observer proceed to classify
stars into one or the other category? How do objects near the boundary evolve,
die, and contribute to the chemical evolution of their environment? During this
3-day international workshop, 26 high quality presentations were given by
specialists in the relevant fields of astrophysics, and stimulating discussions
followed. It is technically impossible to provide an exhaustive census of the
results and ideas that emerged. In this brief article, we choose to point to
key elements of the workshop, some of which are now the topic of new
collaborations and will lead to publications elsewhere. For the sake of
brevity, we deliberately cite only the contributors to the workshop and no
external references. Many bibliographic references can be found in the original
presentations, which can be retrieved through:
http://astro.u-strasbg.fr/observatoire/obs/stars2009/stars2009.html The
programme workshop, which includes the titles of the individual contributions,
is provided as an appendix.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure