Cosmological simulations have evolved over the past two decades to match ever more restrictive constraints on galaxy formation and evolution. For much of this time, simulations struggled to match global properties of observed galaxies: stellar mass--halo mass relations, integrated star formation rates--gas masses (integrated Kennicutt-Schmidt), etc. However, the latest generation of zoom-in simulations is just now able to spatially resolve many of these galaxy scaling relations, just as spatially-high resolution galaxy surveys and studies move the goalposts from global properties to spatially-resolved distributions. In my talk, I will discuss several studies of spatially-resolved galaxy scaling relations in the FIRE (Feedback In Realistic Environments) suite of cosmological simulations, among them: Kennicutt-Schmidt, star formation rate profiles, and line of sight velocity dispersions and star formation rates. I will explore how modern cosmological simulations are moving closer to observations, both in their results and their ability to model observables directly. Finally, how we can use these simulations to understand what star formation/feedback physics these scaling relations are actually sensitive to.
