Abstract

The chemodynamics of the stellar populations in the Galactic Bulge inform and constrain the Milky Way's formation and evolution. The metal-poor population is particularly important in light of cosmological simulations, which predict that some of the oldest stars in the Galaxy now reside in its center. The metal-poor bulge appears to consist of multiple stellar populations that require chemo-dynamical analyses to disentangle. In this presentation, I will describe our detailed chemo-dynamical study of the metal-poor stars in the inner Galaxy, named The COMBS Survey which uses VLT/FLAMES spectra of ~350 metal-poor stars. I will discuss the results and the implications for early Milky Way formation and chemical evolution. In addition, I will present ongoing work on the detailed dynamical analysis of Milky Way bar stars and preview results from an ongoing survey of carbon-enhanced metal-poor stars, which are thought to be solely enriched by the first generation of stars.