He lives in Evanston with his wife, Erika, and their six children. His laboratory is tucked away in an ornate, gray, neo-classical building on the Hyde Park campus. Ramirez is 40. He is beginning to bald. He wears a dull, plaid shirt that comes loose as he constantly darts from his office desk to a blackboard to a bookshelf, out to his lab and then back again. He can’t keep still because this is the most exciting time of his life. He is making new discoveries almost every week and he keeps moving as fast as the thoughts come to him. He is one of the hottest young stars in his field, and his field is hotter now than it ever has been.