Photon 2003: a theorist's summary and outlook

Abstract

In this talk I present a summary of some of the discussions at the conference on various topics in Photon physics, selected with a view to give a theorist's perspective, of the current status and future prospects, of the developments in the field. After discussing some of the recent theoretical developments in the subject of Photon Structure function, I will focus on what the photon has helped us learn about the spin structure of a proton, aspects of perturbative and nonperturbative QCD as well as forward and diffractive physics. I will discuss the challenges that the data on heavy flavour production in the two photon reactions and in photo production, seem to have presented to the theorists. Then I discuss the direction in which photon physics is likely to go in future and what we {\em need} the photons to still tell us. I will end by talking about the newer developments in prospects for photon studies at future colliders and opportunities that these will provide us to learn about the physics beyond the Standard Model.