String Theory has proven to be an enormously powerful tool in tackling difficult questions in quantum field theory. I will attempt to explain why, and explain some of the things that it can tell us.
Jacques Distler received his PhD from Harvard in 1987. He went on to a postdoc at Cornell, and then joined the faculty at Princeton in 1989. In 1994, he moved to the University of Texas at Austin, where he has been ever since. At UT he is the Director of the Theory Group.