  This thesis develops a method for obtaining the star formation histories of a
mixed, resolved population through the use of color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs).
The method is applied to the derivation of the local star formation rate,
modeling observations of the Hipparcos satellite wigth synthetic CMDs computed
for different star formation histories with an updated stellar evolution
library. Parallax and photometric uncertainties are included explicitly and
corrected using the Bayesian Richardson-Lucy algorithm. We find that the solar
neighborhood star formation rate has a characteristic timescale for variation
of about 6 Gyr, with a maximum activity close to 3 Gyr ago. This suggests a
global, rather than local, star forming event. The summary and conclusions are
included here, the full thesis is available at the URL listed above.
