Peter Goddard of the University of Cambridge and David Ian Olive of University College of Swansea (the United Kingdom) have won the 1997 ICTP Dirac Medal for their pioneering work on string theory. The award, established in 1985, carries a $5,000 cash prize. String theory, which has captured the imagination of physicists worldwide, proposes that the fundamental elements of nature are not "idealized" dots but vibrating strings that exist in 10 dimensions. The theory holds the potential to explain all natural phenomena -- from the behaviour of atoms to the behaviour of the cosmos. In fact, some observers have labelled string theory, the "theory of everything."