Michio Kaku, renowned physicist and TV science show host, comes to UNR

RENO, Nev. – Popular physicist and professor Michio Kaku is a co-creator of string field theory. He continues Einstein’s search to unite the four fundamental forces of nature into one unified theory and has published doctoral textbooks on quantum field theory. When he’s not working to explain the origin and evolution of the universe, he’s bringing science to the public.

Kaku hosts national television and radio shows, and next month will give a public lecture at the University of Nevada, Reno titled “The Next 20 Years: How Revolutionary Advances in Science Will Alter Human Destiny.” The lecture is at 7 p.m., Feb. 7 and is part of the College of Science’s annual Discover Science Lecture Series.

“Our goal with the Discover Science lectures is to bring science to the community, to take some of the mystery out of it and help people understand the important role science has in our daily lives and our future,” Jeff Thompson, physicist and dean of the College of Science, said. “Michio Kaku fits the bill perfectly. He can communicate complex ideas in simple and entertaining ways.”

Kaku has published over 70 articles and 11 books. His “Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration into the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time Travel” book made the New York Times Best Seller List. He is host of the Science Channel’s TV series, “Sci Fi Science,” as well as a national science radio show that airs in 140 cities.

He will lecture about his latest New York Times best-seller “The Physics of the Future,” about how science will revolutionize our world in the next 10, 50 and 100 years.

For more than 25 years, Kaku has taught at The City College of New York where he holds the Henry Semat Chair and Professorship in theoretical physics. He received a bachelor of science (summa cum laude) from Harvard University in 1968. He went on to the Berkeley Radiation Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley and received a doctorate in 1972. In 1973, he held a lectureship at Princeton University.

Now in its third year, the Discover Science Lecture Series has featured Bill Nye the Science Guy and Robert Trivers, evolutionary biologist and Doug Smith, director of the Yellowstone Wolf Project. Next in the line-up in the series of lectures is Steven Strogatz, a professor of applied mathematics at Cornell University and a frequent guest on National Public Radio's “RadioLab.” His presentation is scheduled for Thursday, April 4.

The annual Discover Science Lecture Series features several presentations a year and has brought some of the world’s leading scientists to the Reno-Sparks community to share their knowledge, including anthropologist Anna Roosevelt, physicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, Nobel Laureate and physicist Eric Cornell, chemist and green energy expert Harry Gray and Jeff Lieberman, musician, artist, researcher and host of “Time Warp” on the Discovery Channel.

Admission is free. Lectures are at 7 p.m. in the Redfield Auditorium, Davidson Mathematics and Science Center at the University of Nevada, Reno. Seating may be limited in the auditorium and will be on a first come-first serve basis for the Michio Kaku presentation. This lecture will also be live streamed to other nearby classrooms on campus.

Parking is reserved for the event on the upper level of the Brian J. Whalen Parking Complex. For more information, call (775) 784-4591 or visit the College of Science Web pages at www.unr.edu/science.

— Writer Mike Wolterbeek is a Media Relations Officer for the University of Nevada, Reno. He can be reached at mwolterbeek@unr.edu