Wittenberg welcomes theoretical physicist and famed author Michio Kaku, Ph.D., as part of the 2014-15 Wittenberg Series at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 30, at Wittenberg University’s Pam Evans Smith Arena, 250 Bill Edwards Drive.

The 2014 Fred R. Leventhal Family Endowed Lecture and IBM Endowed Lecture in the Sciences, Kaku’s presentation is titled “How Science Will Revolutionize the Next 20 to 50 years.” In addition to his lecture, Kaku will participate in a colloquium at 4 p.m. in Bayley Auditorium, Barbara Deer Kuss Science Center, to discuss the future of the mind, the topic of his most recent publication.

One of the most widely recognized figures in science and the co-founder of string theory, Michio Kaku is an internationally recognized authority in Einstein’s unified field theory, which he is attempting to complete, and in predicting trends affecting business, commerce, and finance using the latest scientific research.

The Henry Semat Chair in Theoretical Physics at the City University of New York, Kaku graduated summa cum laude from Harvard University in 1968 before earning his Ph.D. in physics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1972. For three decades, Kaku has served as a professor at the City University of New York, with additional time teaching at Harvard and Princeton. His goal is to complete Einstein’s “theory of everything,” an equation that will summarize all the physical laws of the universe.

Kaku is the author of several international best-sellers, including Hyperspace and Visions: How Science Will Revolutionize the 21st Century, as well as Physics of the Impossible and Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by 2100, which details how scientists think the world of commerce, medicine, computers, and space exploration may evolve during the next century. His most recent book, The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance and Empower the Mind, was published in February. His weekly radio program, Science Fantastic, is the largest nationally syndicated science radio show on commercial radio in the United States and perhaps the world.

This Wittenberg Series event is made possible by a gift from the Fred R. Leventhal family of Springfield, whose generosity has welcomed numerous distinguished guests since 1982, including Pulitzer-Prize winning reporter and author David Halberstam; influential financial analyst Malcolm Forbes; Nobel Peace Prize recipient Elie Wiesel; historian Doris Kearns Goodwin; journalist Carl Bernstein; and environmental lawyer and activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr; and by a gift from the IBM Corporation, which brings distinguished scholars to campus in order to enhance the role and image of science on a liberal arts campus and to bring about a larger understanding and appreciation of science as a most crucial contemporary exercise.

Now in its 32nd year, the Wittenberg Series brings distinguished lecturers and performing artists of national and international prominence to the Wittenberg campus and Springfield community. To make special arrangements, request a Series poster, or become a friend of the Wittenberg Series, contact Nuggie Libecap at libecapn@wittenberg.edu. All Wittenberg Series events are free and open to the public.