Joseph Samuel is a theoretical physicist and by natural inclination a classical mechanic. Over the years he has strayed into other fields like optics, general relativity and very recently DNA elasticity. A unifying theme in his work is differential geometry and topology in physics. He keeps moderately fit by raising and lowering indices and relaxes by playing semiclassical guitar.

We describe some instances of the appearance of Chern's mathematical ideas in physics. By means of simple examples, we bring out the geometric and topological ideas which have found application in describing the physical world. The- se applications range from magnetic monopoles in electrodynamics to instantons in quantum chromodynamics to the geometric phase of quantum mechanics. The first part of this article is elementary and addressed to a general reader. The second part is somewhat more demanding and is addressed to advanced students of mathematics and physics.

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Address for Correspondence
Joseph Samuel
Harish Chandra Research Institute
Jhusi, Allahabad 211 019, India.
and
Raman Research Institute
Bangalore 560 080, India.
Email: sam@mri.ernet.in