One of the most significant developments in the last decade in Theoretical Physics is string theory which is currently the only promising candidate for the final theory of all fundamental forces in the universe. In history the interactions of mathematics and theoretical physics have motivated many exciting developments in both disciplines, the many exciting examples include Einsten's general relativity and Riemannian geometry, positive mass conjecture and the understanding of manifolds with positive scalar curvature, Yang-Mills theory, Seiberg-Witten theory and four dimensional geometry and topology, Chern-Simons string duality and mirror formula, the Marino-Vafa formula, renormalization group flow in quantum field theory and Perelman's breakthrough in Ricci flow and Poincare conjecture. Physicists made many exciting challenging mathematical conjectures based on physical theories, which stimulate many revolutionary developments in mathematics, in particular in geometry, topology and algebraic geometry. On the other hand the mathematical proofs of these conjectures provide the most convincing evidences for their theories, and the mathematical techniques and theories developed in geometry and topology have also played fundamental roles in theoretical physics. These have been the most fruitful interactions in the history of sciences.
This is a proposal to seek funding from the National Science Foundation to provide travel support for young mathematicians from the U.S. to attend the Strings 2006 conference to be held in Beijing, China on June 19th to 24th 2006.The ``Strings'' conferences are the premiere international meetings in the field of String Theory and are held annually to bring together the world's leading researchers to present and discuss the latest developments of string theory. There have been many activities in geometry, topology, number theory, statistics and applied mathematics in China. The workshops before and after conferences will feature some of the more mathematical aspects of String Theory. These workshops will serve as a venue for international experts to interact with young mathematicians from US and around the world and for their institutes to foster long-term collaborative strategy. As China is increasingly aware of the importance of fundamental researches and increases its funding accordingly, the global science community is going to experience a surge of scientific activities in the country. We are eagerly looking forward to closer collaboration with the international community.
