The relationship between certain branches of mathematics and superstring and M-theory physics has been a continuing theme for a number of years. Research into these inter-disciplinary subjects has been, and continues to be, particularly rich and productive.
Last year, a group of mathematicians and physicists at Penn initiated a research seminar dedicated to the mathematics and physics of superstrings.
The basic organizing group for this seminar is Burt Ovrut in the Physics Department , and
Ron Donagi , Antonella Grassi , Tony Pantev in the Mathematics Department .

This seminar has attracted a large group of participants from both disciplines, including visitors from other institutions. Topics include non-perturbative solitons, D-branes, anomaly "inflow", calibrated cycles, "small" instantons, elliptic fibrations of Calabi-Yau spaces and superstring and M-theory duality among many others.