This talk reviews the deep historical connections between geometry and physics.   In modern times, the extra dimensions of string theory has provided a new opportunity for enhancing this interplay which will be illustrated by concrete examples.

Cumrun Vafa was born in Tehran, Iran in 1960. In 1977, he came to the United States to study at MIT, where he received a B.S. degree in physics and mathematics. He pursued his graduate education at Princeton University and obtained his Ph.D. in physics in 1985 under the direction of Edward Witten.  While at Princeton he met his future wife, fellow student, Afarin Sadr. Later in 1985, he became a Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows. He was appointed as a full professor in the Department of Physics at Harvard University in 1990 where he is currently the Donner Professor of Science.

Dr. Vafa is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences and has
received a number of awards including the Dirac Medal of ICTP, the AMS Leonard Eisenbud Prize for Math and Physics, the APS Dannie Heinemann prize in mathematical physics and the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics.