Integral field spectroscopy of galaxies in the distant universe

Major advances in the development of instruments for 8 and 10 m class telescopes are revolutionising our understanding of galaxy formation. In particular, Integral Field Spectrographs now permit studies of distant galaxies in nearly as much detail as local galaxies in our cosmic neighborhood. These instruments can be employed to investigate specific problems in galaxy formation across 90% of the history of the Universe, and in this talk I will review some of the recent observations which have demonstrated their capabilities; probing galaxy evolution from z = 0.1 to z = 5.