Prof. Sunil Mukhi
Prof. Sunil Mukhi is Coordinator/Head of the Physics Programme, at IISER Pune. His field of research is Theoretical Physics, specifically Quantum Field Theory and String Theory. Earlier he was Professor of Physics at TIFR, Mumbai

In this talk I will highlight the role of consistency and symmetry in the past, present and future of fundamental physics. The initial focus will be on gauge symmetry and general coordinate invariance, the predictions from these and their stunning experimental verifications. This will be followed by a discussion more recently proposed symmetries that may be tested in the near future, notably supersymmetry. The concluding part will address the most highly consistent and symmetric theory we know, string theory. I will emphasise the questions that it tries to address, the degree of success to which they have been addressed and the possible ways in which it could be experimentally verified.