About James Kakalios
James Kakalios is a professor in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Minnesota, where he has taught since 1988, and where his class “Everything I Needed to Know About Physics I learned from Reading Comic Books” is a popular freshman seminar.
In 2007, when the creators behind the “Watchmen” movie asked the National Academy of Sciences for a consultant to help them translate the acclaimed graphic novel to film, they looked no further than Kakalios and his superhero expertise. He also appears on the DVD version of the film in a featurette which discusses some of the science behind one of Watchmen's central characters — Dr. Manhattan.
In 2009 The University News Service video “The Science of Watchmen,” in which Kakalios appears, won a regional Emmy Award in the “Advanced Media: Arts/Entertainment” category.
He received his Ph.D. in 1985 from the University of Chicago, and has been reading comic books for much longer. He lives in Minneapolis with his wife Therese and his three children.