Distinguished Professor Pierre Ramond spends most of his time working on the cutting edge of physics, but on Tuesday of March 21, 2006, he took the time to speak about his field with physics undergraduates. For over one and a half hours, he answered questions, gave advice, and lectured on string theory.

Professor Ramond began speaking about how he became involved in string theory, taking the audience on a historical tour from the birth of the theory to its present status. He explained several prominent ideas in theoretical physics such as supersymmetry and Yang-Mills theory, ideas that, without his commentary, would have seemed impenetrable and hopelessly complicated to the average student. He also shared invaluable advice to physics students, one of which was how to use the computer to explore wavefunctions in quantum mechanics. Dr. Ramond also urged the young physicists in the audience to follow their passion and work on what they believed in, rather than cowering to what society expects of them. He spoke fondly of being a professor, noting that his job allowed him the freedom to go after his curiosity and get paid for it. He joked that to become a professor, of course, one had to painfully endure a rite of passage called graduate school.

It was quite an honor to be able to meet and discuss physics with Professor Ramond, who is well-known for pioneering work he did in string theory. Among his many honors and awards are the Guggenheim Fellowship, Boris Pregel Award, and the Oskar Klein Medal. In 2002, he was the Reimar Lust Lecturer of the Max Planck Society at the Albert Einstein Institute. He has also been a participant of the famed Solvay Conferences in Brussels. His accomplishments in string theory have done much to advance the field. According to the Elegant Universe by Brian Greene, in 1971 "he took up the challenge of modifying the bosonic string theory to include fermionic patterns of vibration." Because of his work and others, a newer version of string theory began to emerge. A paper he published around this time, entitled "Dual Theory for Free Fermions," is listed on the SPIRES high energy physics literature database as a renowned paper, with over 500 citations. In theoretical physics, the Ramond-Ramond field is named after him. He continues to work today with his colleagues in the hopes of bringing physicist closer to Einstein's dream of a unified theory of physics.