One of the greatest strengths of string theory is the web of connections among seemingly unrelated areas of physics and mathematics. To this date, I have concentrated my research activity in two main directions: the study of exact conformal field theory (CFT) solutions in string theory and the study of topological strings. Regarding CFT, I am interested in how the world-sheet and target-space descriptions interact and how methods from conformal field theory can solve problems in supergravity and vice versa. My interest in topological strings is mainly related to the exploration of the correspondence between crystal melting and the topological A-model.