The Impact of Massive Stars on their Surrounding Interstellar Medium

In this paper, I present a brief overview of the observational evidence for the interaction between the winds of hot stars and their surrounding interstellar medium (ISM). As the star evolves, it will impinge on the gas in different ways depending on the nature of its wind and on the physical state of the interstellar gas. The three main evolutionary phases of massive stars, the main sequence O phase, the intermediate red supergiant or luminous blue variable phase and finally the Wolf-Rayet phase are discussed. The study of the ISM in the vicinity of hot stars is shown to be a powerful tool to study the history of the gas and gain more insight into the evolution of the star. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.