Prof. Jogesh C. Pati
Formerly of Maryand University, USA Presently at SLAC, Stanford, USA

The concept of unity in diversity - that is seeing oneness behind many - has had exciting applications over the last four decades in the field of elementary particles ( the fundamental building blocks of all matter) ) and their forces . Following a brief survey of our current knowledge of the fundamental particles and their forces, the colloqium will present recent attempts to unify the apparently diverse particles and their forces and the spectacular empirical success of some of these attempts. It will also note the implications of such a unification for the evolution of the early universe , whereby the very large ( the universe) and the very small ( the microscopic world of the elementary particles) get intimately linked.