Presidential Speaker Series features Dr. Michio Kaku, April 2

Illinois State University is pleased to announce it will feature futurist, physicist, and bestselling author, Dr. Michio Kaku, as the next guest speaker in its popular Presidential Speaker Series.

As part of the Presidential Speaker Series, one guest speaker each semester will be invited to campus throughout the year. This series will provide invaluable opportunities for the college community to engage with influential individuals from various fields, fostering intellectual growth and a deeper understanding of complex topics. 

All presentations will be free and open to the public.

Join us on:

• Thursday, April 2, 2026
• 7 p.m.
• Brown Ballroom III, Bone Student Center

Kaku is an internationally recognized authority in two areas: Einstein's unified field theory, which he is attempting to complete, and predicting trends affecting business, medicine, finance, and our way of life, based on the latest research in science.

His goal is to complete Einstein's dream of a "theory of everything," to derive an equation, perhaps no more than one inch long, which will summarize all the physical laws of the universe. He is the co-founder of string theory, a major branch of string theory, which is the leading candidate today for the theory of everything. His Ph.D. level textbooks are required reading at many of the world's leading physics laboratories.

Bestselling books

Kaku has written three New York Times bestselling books, including The Future of the Mind, Physics of the Future, and Physics of the Impossible. The Future of the Mind ranked number one on the New York Times, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble Best Sellers Lists, making it the highest ranked, number one hardcover, non-fiction book in the country. Physics of the Future was selected as one of Amazon's Top 100 Books of 2011. Physics of the Impossible was ranked the number one science book in the nation and earned glowing reviews from the LA Times, New Scientist Magazine, Guardian Newspaper, and many more.

His latest book, The Future of the Mind, details the stunning breakthroughs being made in neuroscience, which are finally beginning to unravel the mysteries of the most complex object in the known universe, the human brain. Recent scientific advances in brain-machine interface have made possible a form of telepathy, telekinesis, recording and uploading memories, and even photographing thoughts.

His book, Physics of the Future, became the basis of a six-hour television special on the Science Channel called Futurescape.

Television and radio

Kaku hosts his own national weekly radio program, which is the largest nationally syndicated science radio shows on commercial radio in the U.S., and perhaps, the world. He regularly appears on international radio and television shows, including the Larry King Show, Nightline, 60 Minutes, Good Morning America, CNN, ABC-TV News, Fox News, BBC-TV, BBC-Radio, PBS's Nova and Innovation, the David Letterman Show, the Colbert Report, the Conan O'Brien Show, and the Bill Maher Show.

Kaku has appeared on numerous science specials, including PBS's Steven Hawking's Universe, Science Odyssey, and Einstein Revealed, the BBC's Future Fantastic, Parallel Universes, Copenhagen, Channel 4's The Big G: the story of gravity, the Discovery Channel, the Learning Channel's Exodus Earth, A&E, and the History Channel's Universe series, as well as many science documentaries.

Education

Kaku holds the Henry Semat Chair in Theoretical Physics at the City University of New York (CUNY). He graduated summa cum laude from Harvard University in 1968 and received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1972. He has been a professor at CUNY for almost 30 years and has also taught at Harvard and Princeton Universities.

For more information, visit Dr. Michio Kaku's official website.

If you need a special accommodation to fully participate, please contact Presidential and Trustee Events at (309) 438-8790 or [email protected]. Please allow sufficient time to arrange the accommodation.