Overview of recent results from the STAR experiment

Abstract The Solenoidal Tracker at RHIC (STAR) experiment utilizes its excellent mid-rapidity tracking and particle identification capabilities to study the emergent properties of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD). The STAR heavy-ion program at vanishingly small baryon density is aimed to address questions about the quantitative properties of the strongly-interacting Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP) matter created in high energy collisions ( η / s , q ˆ , chirality, transport parameters, heavy quark diffusion coefficients…). At finite baryon density, the questions concern the phases of nuclear matter (the QCD phase diagram) and the nature of the phase transition, namely: what is the onset collision energy for the formation of QGP? What is the nature of phase transition in heavy-ion collisions? Are there two phase transition regions? If yes, where is the critical point situated? At Quark Matter 2015, the STAR collaboration has presented a wealth of new experimental results which address these questions. In these proceedings I highlight a few of those results.