NOTES ON MATRIX AND MICRO STRINGS

We review some recent developments in the study of M-theory compactifi cations via Matrix theory. In particular we highlight the appearance o f IIA strings and their interactions, and explain the unifying role of the M-theory five-brane for describing the spectrum of the T-6 compac tification and its duality symmetries. The 5+1-dimensional micro-strin g theory that lives on the fivebrane world-volume takes a central plac e in this presentation.