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We summarize some of the highlights of this workshop, the first of its kind dedicated to observing and modeling the tidal disruption of stars by black holes in the centers of galaxies (or star clusters). We review the lessons learned from recent observations and from theory and identify outstanding questions and areas where more theoretical and observational work is needed. We also consider upcoming observing facilities that can be used to study tidal disruption events and speculate what these new facilities may contribute to the field.

We present an initial analysis of 49 bright transients occurring in the nuclei of galaxies with no previous known Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN). They have been discovered as part of the PanSTARRs 3π survey, and followed up with the Liverpool Telescope. Based on colours, light curve shape, and a small number with optical spectra, these transients seem to fall into three groups. Red/fast transients are nuclear supernovae of various types. Some bright nuclear transients are blue and decay on a timescale of a few months; these may be candidates for tidal disruption events. However most of the events we have found are blue and are either still rising or decaying slowly, on a timescale of years; the few spectra we have show AGN at z ∼ 1. We argue that these transients are background AGN microlensed by stars in foreground galaxies by a factor 10–100. Monitoring such events gives us very promising prospects for measuring the structure of AGN and so testing current theories.

Tidal disruption events are expected to produce a luminous flare of radiation from fallback accretion of tidally disrupted stellar debris onto the central supermassive black hole. The first convincing candidates for tidal disruption events were discovered in the soft X-rays: large-amplitude, luminous, extremely-soft X-ray flares from inactive galaxies in the ROSAT All-Sky survey. However, the sparsely sampled light curves and lack of multiwavelength observations for these candidates make it difficult to directly constrain the parameters of their events (e.g., Eddington ratio, mass of the black hole, type of star disrupted). Here I present a review of the recent progress made in studying tidal disruption events in detail from taking advantage of wide-field, multi-epoch observations of UV and optical surveys (GALEX, SDSS, PTF, Pan-STARRS1) to measure well-sampled light curves, trigger prompt multiwavelength follow-up observations, and measure rates. I conclude with the promising potential of the next generation of optical synoptic surveys, such as LSST, to probe black hole demographics with samples of thousands of tidal disruption events.