The Scientific Contributions of Joel Scherk

Abstract

Joel Scherk (1946--1980) was an important early contributor to the development of string theory. Together with various collaborators, he made numerous profound and influential contributions to the subject throughout the decade of the 1970s. On the occasion of a conference at the Ecole Normale Superieure in 2000 that was dedicated to the memory of Joel Scherk I gave a talk entitled "Reminiscences of Collaborations with Joel Scherk". The present article, an expanded version of that one, also discusses work in which I was not involved.