Research in theoretical elementary particle physics will investigate various mechanisms which can generate masses for the quarks and leptons in the superstring framework. Of special interest is the possibility that a see-saw mechanism can arise which would lead to ultralight Dirac or Majorana neutrino masses. Conditions under which such a mechanism can appear will be studied. In particular, discrete symmetries which allow or forbid certain entries in the mass matrices will be identified. An effort will be made to find a suitable compactification manifold with the appropriate discrete symmetries. The general issue of quark and lepton families will be addressed, as well as the possibility of mirror families. Other unforeseen research may be done in response to the evolution of the field. The work will be carried out by a highly-respected theoretical elementary particle physicist, and is important to the furthering of our understanding of the elementary particles and the basic forces.
