White dwarfs, the end stage of stellar evolution for the vast majority of stars, provide unique insights into stellar populations of the past. Spurred by the advent of wide-field CCD imagers, studies of open cluster white dwarf populations have flourished in recent years. Studies of open cluster white dwarf populations provide independent tests of stellar evolutionary theory,constraints on the the masses of core-collapse supernova progenitors and on mass-loss processes in post-main sequence evolution. I will attempt to provide an overview of the current state of affairs in these subjects as well as my own contributions to the study of massive white dwarfs in young star clusters and the observed deficit of white dwarfs in several open clusters.

Refreshments will be served at 3:30pm in the Steward Observatory Lobby.