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Michio Kaku

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Michio Kaku
BornJanuary 24, 1947
NationalityAmerican
Alma materHarvard University
U.C. Berkeley
Known forString theory
Scientific career
FieldsTheoretical Physics
InstitutionsCity University of New York
Doctoral advisorEdward Teller


Dr. Michio Kaku (加來 道雄 Kaku Michio, born January 24, 1947 in the United States) is a Japanese American theoretical physicist, tenured professor, and co-founder of string field theory, a branch of superstring theory. He is a widely known popularizer of science, the host of two radio programs, and the author of numerous books.

Biography

Kaku attended Cubberly High School (now closed) in Palo Alto, California where he was known as Mike Kaku and played first board on Cubberly's chess team around 1963. During this time, he had been experimenting heavily in his parents' garage. This attracted the attention of famous physicist Edward Teller, who took Kaku as a protege. 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 "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 co-authored Beyond Einstein with Jennifer Thompson.

Kaku strongly protested the launch of the Cassini Space Probe, claiming if the amount of nuclear propellant "is somehow dispersed into a populated environment, there is no question that such an accident could cause significant health effects resulting in thousands of casualties." He also accused the NASA risk assessment study of "scientific dishonesty."

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.

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.

In January 2007, Dr Kaku visited the Middle Eastern country of Oman. While there, he talked at length to select members of that country's decision makers. In an interview with local media, Dr Kaku elaborated on his vision of mankind's future. Dr Kaku considers terrorism as one of the main threats in man's evolution from a Type 0 civilisation to Type 1.

On January 28, 2007, Kaku hosted the Discovery Channel series 2057.

Radio

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 April 2006, Dr. Kaku started broadcasting on 90 commercial radio stations. The program is called "Science Fantastic (radio show)," 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.

In addition to hosting his own radio shows, since August 1997 Dr. Kaku has been a frequent guest on Coast to Coast AM, where he has spoken on issues including nuclear safety, civilizations, string theory, space missions and cosmology.

In March 2007 on his radio program Dr. Kaku responded to a caller that global warming was real and man made, but that the ice caps on Mars were not melting, even though NASA has said before and after that the ice caps on Mars are shrinking because of melting.

Media appearances

Bibliography


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