This book is a collection of the lectures and talks presented in the Tohoku Forum for Creativity in the thematic year 2015 'Fundamental Problems in Quantum Physics: Strings, Black Holes and Quantum Information', and related events in the period 2014-2016.This volume especially contains an overview of recent developments in the theory of strings and membranes, as well as topological field theory.

Noncommutative geometry is a novel approach which is opening up new possibilities for geometry from a mathematical viewpoint. It is also providing new tools for the investigation of quantum space?time in physics. Recent developments in string theory have supported the idea of quantum spaces, and have strongly stimulated the research in this field. This self-contained volume contains survey lectures and research articles which address these issues and related topics. The book is accessible to both researchers and graduate students beginning to study this subject.

A project by Asia Competitiveness Institute (ACI), Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore (NUS) on the competitiveness analysis for Indonesian provinces.