Panoramic Radio Astronomy: Wide-field 1-2 GHz research on galaxy evolution

In this contribution we give a brief overview of the Panoramic Radio Astronomy (PRA) conference held on 2-5 June 2009 in Groningen, the Netherlands. The conference was motivated by the on-going development of a large number of new radio telescopes and instruments which, within a few years, will bring a major improvement over current facilities. Interferometers such as the Expanded Very Large Array (EVLA), Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP), Allen Telescope Array (ATA), Karoo Array Telescope (MeerKAT) and the Aperture Tile In Focus (APERTIF) upgrade to the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT) will provide a combination of larger field of view and increased simultaneous bandwidth, while maintaining good collecting area and angular resolution. They will achieve a survey speed 10-50 times larger at 1-2 GHz than the current possibilities, allowing for the first time optical-like all-sky extra-galactic surveys at these frequencies. Significant progress will be made in many fields of radio astronomy. In this conference we focused on research into the evolution of galaxies over the past few Gyr. In particular, wide-field observations at 1-2 GHz will provide an unprecedented panoramic view of the gas properties and star formation in galaxies, embedded in their environment, from z 0.2-0.5 to the present. Within the framework of our current knowledge of the galaxy population at z