  Various recently developed connections between supersymmetric Yang-Mills
theories in four dimensions and two dimensional integrable systems serve as
crucial ingredients in improving our understanding of the AdS/CFT
correspondence. In this review, we highlight some connections between
superconformal four dimensional Yang-Mills theory and various integrable
systems. In particular, we focus on the role of Yangian symmetries in studying
the gauge theory dual of closed string excitations. We also briefly review how
the gauge theory connects to Calogero models and open quantum spin chains
through the study of the gauge theory duals of D3 branes and open strings
ending on them. This invited review, written for Modern Physics Letters-A, is
based on a seminar given at the Institute of Advanced Study, Princeton.
