The effort to reconcile quantum mechanics, which governs microscopic phenomena, and general relativity, which governs strong gravitation, led to the emergence of the superstring theory. It is the leading candidate to give a unified description of Nature at its most microscopic level, but frankly what interests me most about superstring theory is its exceptionally rich internal structure.

The theory is so rich that it not only necessitates the use of cutting-edge mathematics, but it has also occasionally given a new area of mathematics, which later received rigorous and vigorous study by mathematicians. For example, the study of supersymmetric states of string theory is now know to be related closely with algebraic geometry and representation theory. My hope as a physicist in this Institute is to unearth more ideas from string theory, to be polished into perfection by mathematicians in the same building, thus connecting the P (physics) and the M (mathematics) of the IPMU.