Research will be performed in two areas of theoretical high energy physics: phenomenology and fundamental theory. The first is concerned with theoretical predictions (based on a new symmetry of nature: supersymmetry) of an array of ongoing experiments to discover new principles of how particles interact. These include testing of whether the proton is stable or whether it decays into lighter particles, detection of cosmological dark matter whose composition is as yet unknown but is believed to make up more than 90% of the matter of the universe, etc. This research is exciting in that any of these experiments could revolutionize our understanding of particle theory. The second area is concerned with superstring theory, an effort to unify all the forces of nature including gravity into a single theory. Research here is concerned with 11 dimensional M-theory (of which 7 dimensions are compactified into a very small volume)to resolve outstanding problems of black hole physics, the quantum theory of supermembranes, etc. This research aims at the exciting possibility of the discovery of a fundamental new theory of all particle physics.
