Ramos was born near
Barranquitas, Puerto Rico in a family of educators, and attended high school in Barranquitas. She studied physics as an undergraduate at the
University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus, working there with Jorge J. Santiago-Aviles. Santiago moved to the
University of Pennsylvania in the 1980s, and brought Ramos with him as a graduate student. She earned a master's degree in electrical engineering at the University of Pennsylvania in 1987. She went on for further graduate study in physics at
Purdue University, leaving with a master's degree in 1992. Since 1993 she has been on the faculty at University of Puerto Rico at Humacao, where her student experience as the only woman in her classes inspired her to provide more opportunities for other women in physics. She has been collaborating with the University of Pennsylvania on a project in physics education, first as a Collaborative to Integrate Research and Education (CIRE) project from 1999 to 2004, and subsequently through the
National Science Foundation Partnership for Research and Education in Materials (PREM). ==Recognition==