String theory has become the leading candidate for a unified theory of the fundamental interactions, replacing theories of pointlike particle interactions with elastic, one dimensional, extended objects. Strings enlarge and extend the symmetry and structure of spacetime, matter, and forces in ways that are not yet fully understood. One of the goals of this research is to discover the underlying principles of string theory, which may enable us to solve some longstanding problems of physics. One of these is the reconciliation of quantum mechanics and general relativity. String theory appears to reconcile the quantum with the equivalence principle by modifying the microscopic structure of spacetime while preserving differential geometry as a large- scale approximation. One of the mathematical structures that may be a key to this new geometry is the connection between string dynamics and two dimensional surfaces; this connection has been the focus of the recent work of this investigator. The investigator is one of the new Presidential Young Investigators for FY 1987. He is an exceptionally promising young theoretical elementary particle physicist whose future work on string theory and on other areas of elementary particle theory should be very significant and interesting.
