Pierre Ramond
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| Dr. Pierre Ramond | |
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| Born | January 31, 1943 Neuilly-sur-Seine, France |
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| Fields | Physics |
| Institutions | University of Florida |
| Alma mater | Syracuse University |
Pierre Ramond (b. 31 January 1943 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France) is a Distinguished Professor of Physics at University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida.[1]He played an important role in the development of superstring theory.
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[edit] Academic career
Ramond completed his BSEE from Newark College of Engineering (now New Jersey Institute of Technology) in 1965 and completed his Ph. D. in Physics from Syracuse University in 1969. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow at NAL (FermiLab) from 1969 to 1971. He became Instructor at Yale University from 1971 to 1973 and Assistant Professor at Yale University from 1973 to 1976. He was a R. A. Millikan Senior Fellow at Caltech from 1976 to 1979 and Caltech Research Associate from 1979 to 1980. He became a Professor of Physics at University of Florida from 1980 to 1999. Then he became a Distinguished Professor of Physics at University of Florida.
[edit] Superstring theory
Ramond played a major role in the development of superstring theory. In 1971, Ramond generalized Dirac's work for point-like particles to stringlike ones. In this process he discovered two-dimensional supersymmetry and laid the ground for supersymmetry in four spacetime dimensions. He found the spectrum of fermionic modes in string theory and the paper started superstring theory. From this paper André Neveu and John Schwarz developed a string theory with both fermions and bosons.[2]
According to quantum mechanics, particles can be divided into two types: bosons and fermions. The distinction between bosons and fermions is basic. Fermions are particles which have half integer spin (1/2, 3/2, 5/2 and so on), measured in units of Planck's constant and bosons are particles which have integer spin (0, 1, 2 and so on), measured in units of Planck's constant. Examples of fermions are quarks, leptons and baryons. Quantum of fundamental forces such as gravitons, photons, etc are all bosons. In quantum field theory, fermions interact by exchanging bosons.
Early string theory proposed by Yoichiro Nambu and others in 1970 was only a bosonic string. Ramond completed the theory by inventing a fermionic string to accompany the bosonic ones. The Virasoro algebra which is the symmetry algebra of the bosonic string was generalized to a superconformal algebra including anticommuting operators also.
[edit] Honors and awards
Ramond has received several awards for his contributions to theoretical physics. He is a fellow of American Physical Society. University of Florida has awarded several awards to Dr. Ramond. In August 2004, he was awarded Oskar Klein Medal by the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences & Stockholm University.
[edit] Publications
- Field Theory : A Modern Primer. ISBN 0201304503.
- Journeys Beyond the Standard Model. ISBN 0813341310.
- Memoirs of an early string theorist Contribution to the "Birth of String Theory" Commemorative Volume
