Michio Kaku

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Michio Kaku (born January 24, 1947 in the United States) is a theoretical physicist, tenured professor, and co-creator of string field theory, a branch of string theory. Kaku received a B.S. (summa cum laude) from Harvard University in 1968 where he came first in his physics class. He went on to the Berkeley Radiation Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley and received a Ph.D. in 1972. In 1973, he held a lectureship at Princeton University.

Dr. Kaku was drafted and entered the U.S. Army as an infantryman. He completed basic training at Fort Benning, Georgia, but the Vietnam War ended before he was to be shipped out.

Currently he holds the Henry Semat Chair and Professorship in theoretical physics at City College of New York, where he has taught for more than 25 years. Presently, he is engaged in working on Einstein's "Theory of Everything," seeking to unify the four fundamental forces of the universe: the strong force, the weak force, gravity and electromagnetism. Additionally, he has been a visiting professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, as well as at New York University.

Dr. Kaku is the author of several scholarly, Ph.D.-level textbooks and has had more than 70 articles published in physics journals covering topics such as superstring theory, supergravity, supersymmetry, and hadronic physics (although he has not published an original research article in seven years). Based on the number of citations his work has received in the academic literature, Kaku has an h-index of 22.

He is also known as an author of popular science books, including the best-sellers Visions, Hyperspace, and Parallel Worlds. He has coauthored Beyond Einstein with Jennifer Thompson.

Kaku hosts "Explorations," a weekly syndicated program produced by station WBAI-FM in New York City, a Pacifica owned station. "Explorations" is heard on the Pacifica stations as well as community and independent radio stations and on the world wide web. Dr. Kaku defines the show as dealing with the general topics of science, war, peace and the environment.

In 2005 Kaku appeared in the short documentary Obsessed & Scientific. The film is about the possibility of time travel and the people who dream about it. It has appeared at the Montreal World Film Festival and is in developmental talks about becoming a feature.

In February 2006, he hosted a four-part, four hour science documentary for BBC-TV, about the mysterious nature of time. Called Time, it won critical acclaim in reviews in the London media. Part One of the series concerns personal time, how animals and humans perceive and measure the passing of time. Part Two concerns cheating time, i.e. whether it's possible to extend the life span of animals and humans. Part Three concerns geological time, the quest to determine the age of the earth and the sun. And Part Four concerns cosmological time, the question of understanding the beginning of time and what happened at the instant of the big bang. Eventually, the BBC-TV special will be seen around the world.

In April 2006, Dr. Kaku started broadcasting on 90 commercial radio stations. The program is called "Science Fantastic," and is the only nationally syndicated science program on commercial radio in the United States. It takes listener phone calls from around the country. Guests have included Nobel Laureates as well as top researchers in areas such as string theory, time travel, black holes, gene therapy, aging, space travel, artificial intelligence, SETI, and futurology. Its focus is the future of science. It is syndicated by Talk Radio Network.

Dr. Kaku also contributed a 22-minute audio commentary for the show Wonder Showzen. The commentary is for an episode called "Time" and deals with time travel and parallel worlds.

Dr. Kaku has become a popular figure in mainstream media, due to his knowledge, as well as his accessible approach to explaining complex physics (quantum mechanics and other topics) from a layperson's point of view.

While Dr. Kaku's technical writings are confined to theoretical physics, his public speaking and media appearances take many areas of interest. At such events, he has discussed topics ranging from the Kardashev scale to more esoteric subjects such as wormholes and time travel.

In addition to his work in physics, Dr. Kaku's interests extend to a number of subjects. Dr Kaku has been an outspoken critic of nuclear war and nuclear power. He has been concerned about global warming, nuclear energy and the general misuse of science.