Virtual galaxy formation

In this contribution, I briefly review the status of efforts to directly si mulate the evolution of galaxies and their pre- and post-formation environm ents. A few phenomenological applications are discussed: the intracluster m edium in galaxy clusters, the structure of the Ly alpha forest, galaxy clus tering in cosmic volumes and the internal structure of galaxies. Given the strongly empirical character of the problem, 'reverse engineering' of the o bserved galaxy distribution is a fair characterization of the near-term sta te of affairs. The thorny problem of how galaxies trace the overall mass on large scales may be yielding some ground, but efforts to resolve smaller-s cale features of galaxies are challenged by the complex nature of star-gas interactions on kiloparsec scales.