Abstract 
Understanding subnuclear forces and in particular the strong interactions has been for decades in the forefronts of research both theoretical and experimental. Most of the difficulties in theoretical research stem from the fact that this is a genuine strongly coupled system for which traditional perturbative methods are generically not applicable.

New theoretical tools, conceptual and practical, have been progressively introduced after realizing that classical gravity and string theory can be used in a precise sense to understand aspects of strong interaction and more generally of strongly coupled systems.
A particularly fruitful line of research has been formed, generically called gauge/gravity correspondence, which has been at the core of many developments.

We introduce the subject by first explaining the apparent paradox, since gravity seems to have no relevance for strong interactions. Then we gradually establish the connection of strong interactions to gravity and string theory. In the course we present a survey of the fundamental interactions in Nature through the different scales involved in the various physical systems. We also present some applications.

About the Speaker
Konstantinos Sfetsos is a Professor at the Physics Department of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. His research has been in theoretical physics, mainly focusing on the different aspects of field and string theory and on their relation.

Prior to his position at NKUA he has held academic and research positions at the U. of Surrey, U. of Patras, U. of Neuchatel, CERN and the U. of Utrecht. He holds a PhD from the U. of Southern California. He has published more than 120 peered reviewed articles in international journals and has supervised many PhD, Master and Diploma students as well as Postdoctoral Fellows.
More information can be found at his webpage: http://users.uoa.gr/~ksfetsos/

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