JAMES P. ALLISON

James Patrick Allison was born in Alice, Texas, U.S.A., in 1948. He obtained his BS in Microbiology in 1969, and later in 1973, his Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from the University of Texas (UT), Austin, TX, USA. He did his postgraduate fellowship in Molecular Immunology at Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation. Afterwards, he served in several reputable universities and Hospitals all over the US as professor, director, chair and head of Molecular and Immunology Departments or Cancer. Since 2012, he has been a Professor at the Department of Immunology at MD Anderson, Vivian L. Smith Distinguished Chair in Immunology, Director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, Chair of the Department of Immunology, Executive Director of the Immunotherapy Platform and Deputy Director of the David H. Koch Center for Applied Research of Genitourinary Cancers at MD Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas in Houston.

Professor Allison is a well renowned scientist who has pioneered the concept of immunotherapy blockade by showing that antibody-mediated suppression of the T-Cell inhibitory molecule CTLA-4 can promote tumor rejection which lead to a groundbreaking method of treatment that is the standard of care in the clinic and is saving lives around the world. His seminal work in developing an antagonistic anti-CTLA-4 antibody has led to effectively opening up the field of “immune checkpoint therapy” and the effective treatment of different types of cancer with this methodology.

He published over 250 highly cited articles, with a total ISI (Google Scholar) citations of 40,796 (56,683) and an H-index of 102 (117). He is a member of the editorial board of several scientific journals and has participated in various conferences and exhibitions in his field.

Professor Allison recivied over 60 awards and honors he has received including the Dana Foundation Award in Human Immunology Research, Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award and Canada Gairdner International Award.

Professor James P. Allison, has been awarded the 2018 King Faisal Prize in Medicine for his outstanding contribution to the development of the field of immunotherapy for cancer. He identification of CTLA-4 as an inhibitory receptor of T-cells and pioneering the development of immune checkpoint inhibitors for the treatment of a range of cancers.

He, along with Tasuku Honjo, was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2018 for their discovery of Cancer therapy by inhibition of negative immune regulation.

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CHANDRA KUMAR NARANBHAI PATEL

C. Kumar N. Patel was born in Baramati, India on 2 July 1938. He received the B.E. from the College of Engineering in Poona, India and the M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in 1959 and 1961, respectively.

Patel joined the Bell Laboratories in 1961. He is currently Executive Director, Research, Materials Science, Engineering and Academic Affairs Division at AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ.

Patel's discovery, in 1963, of the laser action on the vibrational-rotational transitions of carbon dioxide and his invention, in 1964, of efficient vibrational energy transfer between molecules, led to his series of experiments which demonstrated that the carbon dioxide laser was capable of very high cw and pulsed power output at very high conversion efficiencies. No other laser has made a greater impact on society.

In 1966, Patel began pioneering studies which created a new field of infrared nonlinear optics which led to his 1969 invention of the spin-flip Raman laser, a class of tunable infrared lasers and the first tunable Raman laser in any wavelength region. Using this laser, he carried out very high resolution spectroscopy of both ground and vibrationally-excited states of molecular gases, resulting in his contribution to the problem of atmospheric pollution detection. In 1970, he developed a tunable laser opto-acoustic measurement technique for extremely small concentrations of pollutant gases. In 1973, he carried out the first measurements of the temporal variation of concentration of nitric oxide in the stratosphere, which provided crucial data bearing on the problem of ozone depletion by man-made nitrogen oxide emission from sources such as the SST. His opto-acoustic spectroscopy studies of cryogenic liquids and solids, begun in 1980, are providing crucial data in understanding these materials and have culminated in the first observations of high vibrational over-tone absorption of molecular hydrogen in solid hydrogen. Patel's current research interests include spectroscopy of highly transparent liquids and solids, and surgical and medical applications of carbon dioxide lasers.

Patel has received numerous awards, including The Optical Society of America's Adolph Lomb Medal (1966); Coblentz Prize (American Chemical Society, 1974); Association of Indians in America's Honor Award (1975); IEEE Lamme Medal (1976); National Academy of Engineering's Zworykin Award (1976); OSA Townes Medal (1982); New Jersey Governor's Thomas Alva Edison Science Award (1987); Hon. D.Sc, New Jersey Institute of Technology (1988); George E. Pake Prize of the American Physical Society (1988); OSA Frederic Ives Medal (1989). He received the IEEE Medal of Honor in 1989, "For fundamental contributions to quantum electronics, including the carbon dioxide laser and the spin-flip Raman laser."

Patel is a Fellow of the IEEE, the American Physical Society, the Optical Society of America, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Association for Advancement of Arts and Sciences, the Laser Institute of America, and the American Society of Laser Medicine. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Science.

Patel and his wife Shela, a Graduate Advisor at Kean College, NJ, have two daughters: Neela, a second year Ph.D. student in Molecular Biology at UCLA; and Meena, a Freshman at Claremont-McKenna College. His interests include tennis, windsurfing, and gourmet cooking.

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BIRBAL SAHNI

Birbal Sahni was an Indian palaeobotanist who founded the Institute of Palaeobotany at Lucknow, which was later renamed as Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany after his death. He was a pioneer in palaeobotanical research in India and was also a geologist who took an interest in archaeology. Palaeobotany is the study of fossil plants, and his interest in the subject stemmed from his childhood fascination with plants, shells, and stones. Born in late 19th century India, he was a bright and curious child who loved to explore and examine his surroundings. He grew up in an intellectually stimulating environment where his parents ensured that he received the best education possible. After attending the Government College at Lahore where he studied botany under S. R. Kashyap, he moved to England to further his education. After earning his doctorate from the University of London in 1919, he briefly worked in Germany before returning to India. Soon he became the Head of the Botany Department of the Lucknow University and proved to be an excellent teacher with a great passion for palaeobotany. Soon he made the department an active centre for palaeobotanical research and also inspired his students to venture into the field. The establishment of the Institute of Palaeobotany was the culmination of his years of hard work though he unfortunately passed away just a week after the foundation stone laying ceremony.

EARLY LIFE

Birbal Sahni was born on 14 November 1891 as the second son of Lala Ruchi Ram Sahni and Shrimati Ishwar Devi in Bhera, Shahpur District, West Punjab. His father was a patriot and social reformer who was active in India’s struggle for independence. An educator, he eventually became a Professor of Chemistry in the Lahore Government College.

Birbal’s childhood home was often visited by the likes of Motilal Nehru, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Sarojini Naidu, and Madan Mohan Malaviya which ensured that the young boy grew up in an intellectually stimulating environment.

He received his early education from the Mission and Central Model schools. Then he went to study at the Government College University, Lahore, where his father worked, before moving on to the Punjab University from where he graduated in 1911.

He was a brilliant student, and one of his mentors, S. R. Kashyap, had instilled in him a deep love for botany and motivated him to pursue his interest in the field. Thus Birbal moved to England for his higher studies.

He studied at the Emmanuel College at Cambridge and obtained a first class in Part I of the Natural Sciences Tripos in 1913 and completed Part II of the Tripos in 1915. At around the same time he also received his B.Sc. degree from London University.

He found a mentor in his teacher Sir Albert Charles Seward under whom he started doing his research on palaeobotany. Along with him, he worked on the study of Indian Gondwana Plants, the findings of which were published in the book, ‘Indian Gondwana Plants: A Revision’ in 1920. Meanwhile he was awarded his D.Sc degree by the University of London in 1919.

CAREER

During his stint in England Sahni joined Professor Seward to work on a Revision of Indian Gondwana plants (1920, Palaeontologica Indica). In 1919 he briefly worked in Munich with the German plant morphologist Karl Ritter von Goebel. In 1920 he married Savitri Suri, daughter of Sunder Das Suri an Inspector of Schools in Punjab. Savitri took an interest in his work and was a constant companion.Sahni returned to India and served as Professor of Botany at Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi and Punjab Universityo for about a year. He was appointed the first Professor and Head of the Botany Department of the Lucknow University in 1921, a position he retained until his death. The University of Cambridge recognised his researches by the award of the degree of Sc. D. in 1929. In 1932 Palaeontologica Indica included his account of the Bennettitalean plant that he named Williamsonia sewardi, and another description of a new type of petrified wood, Homoxylon, bearing resemblance to the wood of a living homoxylous angiosperm, but from the Jurassic age.During the following years he not only continued his investigations but collected around him a group of devoted students from all parts of the country and built up a reputation for the University which soon became the first Center for botanical and palaeobotanical investigations in India. Sahni maintained close relations with researchers around the globe, being a friend of Chester A. Arnold, noted American paleobotanist who later served his year in residence from 1958–1959 at the institute He was a founder of The Paleobotanical Society which established the Institute of Palaeobotany on 10 September 1946 which initially functioned in the Botany Department of Lucknow University but later moved to its present premises at 53 University Road, Lucknow in 1949. On 3 April 1949 the Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru laid the foundation stone of the new building of the Institute. A week later, on 10 April 1949, Sahni succumbed to a heart attack.

AWARDS AND ACHIEVEMENTS

Sahni was recognised by several academies and institutions in India and abroad for his research. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London (FRS) in 1936, the highest British scientific honour, awarded for the first time to an Indian botanist. He was elected Vice-President, Palaeobotany section, of the 5th and 6th International Botanical Congresses of 1930 and 1935, respectively; General President of the Indian Science Congress for 1940; President, National Academy of Sciences, India, 1937–1939 and 1943–1944. In 1948 he was elected an Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Another high honour which came to him was his election as an Honorary President of the International Botanical Congress, Stockholm in 1950. For his work in numismatics he received the Nelson Wright Medal in 1945.

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Minister of Education in 1947 offered the post of Secretary to the Ministry of Education to Sahni. This he reluctantly accepted.

The Birbal Sahni Gold Medal for students of botany was instituted in his memory. A bust of Sahni is placed in the Geological Survey of India in Calcutta.

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MICHIO KAKU

Dr. Michio Kaku is a theoretical physicist at the City College of New York, a best-selling author, and a well-known popularizer of science. He’s the co-founder of string field theory (a branch of string theory) and continues Einstein’s search to unite the four fundamental forces of nature into one unified theory.

He has appeared frequently on television, written for popular science publications such as Discover, Wired, and New Scientist, been featured in documentaries such as Me & Isaac Newton, and hosted many of his own documentaries. 

His books include The Future of the Mind (2014), Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100 (2012), Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration of the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time Travel (2008), Parallel Worlds (2006), Einstein’s Cosmos (2005), Visions (1999), Beyond Einstein (1995), and Hyperspace (1994), in addition to several Ph.D.-level textbooks.

EARLY LIFE

Physicist Michio Kaku was born on January 24, 1947, in San Jose, California. His parents were both of Tibetan descent, and his grandfather immigrated to the United States for work in the cleanup efforts following the devastating 1906 earthquake in San Francisco.

Kaku first became attracted to science as a young child, and while a student at Cubberly High School in Palo Alto, he famously built an atom smasher in his parents' garage.

Kaku eventually landed at Harvard University, where he graduated first in his physics class in 1968. From there it was on to the University of California at Berkeley, where he worked at the Berkeley Radiation Lab and earned his Ph.D. in 1972.

The following year Kaku lectured at Princeton, but not long after, the Army drafted him. He was trained as an infantryman but spared combat when the Vietnam War ended shortly before he was scheduled for deployment.

ACADEMIC CAREER AND PUBLICATIONS

Kaku has expertise in several fields such as hadronic physics, supersymmetry, supergravity, superstring theory, and quantum physics among others. His knowledge on these topics has been subject of more than 70 publications in different journals covering physics-related subjects such as Physics Review.

Michio Kaku is known as a popularizer of science, and he has authored several popular science textbooks. His first book was released in 1994 – Hyperspace, followed by Beyond Einstein which he wrote with Jennifer Thompson a year later. In 1998, he published Visions: How Science Will Revolutionize the 21st Century, then two books in 2004: Einstein’s Cosmos and Parallel Worlds. His most recent works include Physics of the Impossible (2008), Physics of the Future (2011), and The Future of the Mind (2015).

All of these publications have sparked a great interest in the minds of scholars and curious minds alike who are interested in the realm of theoretical physics and other related disciplines given the futurist vision that Michio Kaku believes in.

Michio Kaku’s publications reflect his involvement in the ongoing search for understanding and unifying the forces of nature into just one theory. He continues his works based on Einstein’s earlier findings, and Michio Kaku is known as one of the founders of string field theory. His book Hyperspace was a great best seller and was voted as one of the top science books by both The Washington Post and The New York Times in the same year.

THE POPULARIZER OF SCIENCE

This is a commonly heard phrase whenever Michio Kaku’s name is mentioned, and not without good reason. Apart from comprehensive publications of both books and journal articles, he has a known presence in many different forms of media.

He has made appearances on several notable television channels such as BBC, Discovery, ABC, CNN, and the Science Channel just to name a few. Apart from his publications in Physics Review, his works and articles are also available to the public through popular science publications such as Wired, New Scientist, and Discover.

Some of his more recent media exposure includes the History Channel’s The Universe; BBC’s Time; where he went through an extraordinary exploration of time; and BBC’s Vision of the Future, where he explored today’s science as well as that of the future.

On a weekly basis, Michio Kaku can be heard on radio programs which are broadcasted all over the USA. He hosts Science Fantastic and Explorations in Science. Apart from these weekly radio programs, his talks about physics and his studies can be seen in several websites dedicated to his work, and on YouTube channels.

He has also been part of documentaries such as Obsessed and Scientific which discusses the possibility of time travel, ABC’s UFOs: Seeing is Believing, and he was one of the scientists who were featured in Me and Isaac Newton. For BBC, he has hosted the three-hour documentary Visions of the Future. In 2009 when he hosted a weekly TV series at the Science Channel called Sci Fi Science: Physics of the Impossible. One of his more interesting thoughts has been featured on Discovery Channel’s Alien Planet where he discussed the possible future of interstellar exploration.

His presence in different media and his skill in communicating complex theories in easier to understand language has made him an influential popularizer of science.

Kaku is a father to two daughters and is married to Shizue Kaku. His favorite songs include the Star Wars Theme as well as Star Trek’s Next Generation Theme, both in line with his interest in physics and interstellar matters of science.

BOOKSEdit

Kaku is the author of various popular science books:

• Beyond Einstein: The Cosmic Quest for the Theory of the Universe (with Jennifer Thompson) (1987)
• Hyperspace: A Scientific Odyssey through Parallel Universes, Time Warps, and the Tenth Dimension (1994)
• Visions: How Science Will Revolutionize the 21st Century(1998)
• Einstein's Cosmos: How Albert Einstein's Vision Transformed Our Understanding of Space and Time(2004)
• Parallel Worlds: A Journey through Creation, Higher Dimensions, and the Future of the Cosmos (2004)
• Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration into the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time Travel (2008)
• Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100 (2011)
• The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind (2014)
• The Future of Humanity: Terraforming Mars, Interstellar Travel, Immortality, and Our Destiny Beyond Earth (2018)

Hyperspace was a bestseller and voted one of the best science books of the year by The New York Times and The Washington Post. Parallel Worlds was a finalist for the Samuel Johnson Prize for nonfiction in the UK.

RADIOEdit

Kaku is the host of the weekly one-hour radio program Exploration, produced by the Pacifica Foundation's WBAI in New York. Exploration is syndicated to community and independent radio stations and makes previous broadcasts available on the program's website. Kaku defines the show as dealing with the general topics of science, war, peace and the environment.

In April 2006, Kaku began broadcasting Science Fantastic on 90 commercial radio stations in the United States. It is syndicated by Talk Radio Network and now reaches 130 radio stations and America's Talk on XM and remains the only nationally syndicated science radio program. Featured guests include Nobel laureates and top researchers in the fields of string theory, time travel, black holes, gene therapy, aging, space travel, artificial intelligence and SETI. When Kaku is busy filming for television, Science Fantastic goes on hiatus, sometimes for several months. Kaku is also a frequent guest on many programs, where he is outspoken in all areas and issues he considers of importance, such as the program Coast to Coast Am where, on November 30, 2007, he reaffirmed his belief that the existence of extraterrestrial life is a certainty. During the debut of Art Bell's new radio show Dark Matter on September 16, 2013, Bell referred to Kaku as "the next Carl Sagan", referring to Kaku's similar ability to explain complex science so anyone can understand it.

Kaku has appeared on many mainstream talk shows, discussing popular fiction such as Back to the Future, Lost,and the theories behind the time travel these and other fictional entertainment focus on.

TELEVISION AND FILMSEdit

Kaku has appeared in many forms of media and on many programs and networks, including Good Morning America, The Screen Savers, Larry King Live, 60 Minutes, Imus In The Morning, Nightline, 20/20, Naked Science, CNN, ABC News, Conan, CBS News, NBC News, Al Jazeera English, Fox News Channel, The History Channel, , The Science Channel, The Discovery Channel, TLC, Countdown with Keith Olbermann, The Colbert Report, The Art Bell Show and its successor, Coast to Coast AM, BBC World News America, The Covino & Rich Show, Head Rush, Late Show with David Letterman, and Real Time with Bill Maher. He was interviewed for two PBS documentaries, The Path to Nuclear Fission: The Story of Lise Meitner and Otto Hahnand Out from the Shadows: The Story of Irène Joliot-Curie and Frédéric Joliot-Curie, which were produced and directed by his former WBAI radio colleague Rosemarie Reed.

In 1999, Kaku was one of the scientists profiled in the feature-length film Me & Issac Newton, directed by Michael Apted. It played theatrically in the United States, was later broadcast on national TV, and won several film awards.

In 2005, Kaku appeared in the short documentary film Obsessed & Scientific about the possibility of time travel and the people who dream about it. It screened at the Montreal World Film Festival; a feature film expansion is in development talks. Kaku also appeared in the ABC documentary UFOs: Seeing is Believing, in which he suggested that while he believes it is extremely unlikely that extraterrestrials have ever actually visited Earth, we must keep our minds open to the possible existence of civilizations a million years ahead of us in technology, where entirely new avenues of physics open up. He also discussed the future of interstellar exploration and alien life in the Discovery Channel special Alien Planet as one of the multiple speakers who co-hosted the show, and Einstein's Theory of Relativity on The History Channel.

In February 2006, Kaku appeared as presenter in the BBC-TV four-part documentary Time which seeks to explore the mysterious nature of time. Part one of the series concerns personal time, and how we perceive and measure the passing of time. The second in the series deals with cheating time, exploring possibilities of extending the lifespan of organisms. The geological time covered in part three explores the ages of the Earth and the Sun. Part four covers the topics of cosmological time, the beginning of time and the events that occurred at the instant of the big bang.

On January 28, 2007, Kaku hosted the Discovery Channel series 2057. This three-hour program discussed how medicine, the city, and energy could change over the next 50 years.

In 2008, Kaku hosted the three-hour BBC-TV documentary Visions of the Future, on the future of computers, medicine, and quantum physics, and he appeared in several episodes of the History Channel's Universe series.

On December 1, 2009, he began hosting a 12-episode weekly TV series for the Science Channel at 10 pm, called Sci Fi Science: Physics of the Impossible, based on his best-selling book. Each 30-minute episode discusses the scientific basis behind imaginative schemes, such as time travel, parallel universes, warp drive, star ships, light sabers, force fields, teleportation, invisibility, death stars, and even superpowers and flying saucers. Each episode includes interviews with the world's top scientists working on prototypes of these technologies, interviews with science fiction fans, clips from science fiction movies, and special effects and computer graphics. Although these inventions are impossible today, the series discusses when these technologies might become feasible in the future.

In 2010, he began to appear in a series on the website Gametrailers.com called Science of Games, discussing the scientific aspects of various popular video games such as Mass Effect 2 and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.

Kaku is popular in mainstream media because of his knowledge and his accessible approach to presenting complex subjects in science. While his technical writings are confined to theoretical physics, his public speaking and media appearances cover a broad range of topics, from the Kardashev scale to more esoteric subjects such as wormholes and time travel. In January 2007, Kaku visited Oman. While there, he talked at length to select members of that country's decision makers. In an interview with local media, Kaku elaborated on his vision of mankind's future. Kaku considers climate change and terrorism as serious threats in man's evolution from a Type 0 civilization to Type 1 on the Kardashev scale.

He is featured in Symphony of Science's songs, "The Quantum World", " Our Place in the Cosmos", "The Secret of the Stars", and "Monsters of the Cosmos"

On October 11, 2010, Michio Kaku appeared in the BBC program "What Happened Before the Big Bang" (along with Laura Mersini-Houghton, Andrei Linde, Roger Penrose, Lee Smolin, Neil Turok, and other notable cosmologists and physicists), where he propounded his theory of the universe created out of nothing.

Over January 22–25, 2011, Kaku was invited to the fifth annual Global Competitiveness Forum (GCF), held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, next to renowned specialists including the British journalist Nick Pope, the Canadian ufologist Stanton Friedman, and the French astrophysicist Jacques Vallée.

Kaku appears on the DVD and Blu-ray extras of the 2012 version of Total Recall, discussing the technological aspects of the future explored in the film.

WEB SERIESEdit

In 2018, Kaku hosts the web series Next World with Michio Kaku on CuriosityStream.

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