Lawrence Krauss

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Lawrence Maxwell Krauss (born May 27, 1954) is a Canadian-American theoretical physicist and cosmologist who taught at Arizona State University (ASU), Yale University, and Case Western Reserve University. He founded ASU's Origins Project in 2008 to investigate fundamental questions about the universe and served as the project's director.

Krauss is an advocate for public understanding of science, public policy based on sound empirical data, scientific skepticism, and science education. An anti-theist, Krauss seeks to reduce the influence of what he regards as superstition and religious dogma in popular culture.<ref name="Krauss 2010">Template:Cite magazine</ref> Krauss is the author of several bestselling books, including The Physics of Star Trek (1995) and A Universe from Nothing (2012), and chaired the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Board of Sponsors.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Upon investigating allegations about sexual misconduct by Krauss, ASU determined that Krauss had violated university policy, and did not renew his directorship of ASU's Origins Project directorship for a third term in July 2018.<ref name="Wadman 2018"/> Krauss retired as a professor at ASU in May 2019, at the end of the following academic year. As of 2022,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> he was listed as Principal Officer of The Origins Project Foundation, Inc. (a new organization, founded in 2019<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>). <ref>Origins Project Foundation.</ref> Krauss hosts The Origins Podcast with Lawrence Krauss<ref name="Origins Podcast">Template:Cite webTemplate:Dead link</ref> and publishes a blog titled Critical Mass.<ref>Critical Mass. Via Substack.</ref>

Early life and education

Krauss was born on May 27, 1954, in New York City, but spent his childhood in Toronto. He was raised in a household that was Jewish but not religious.<ref name="WHYY 2017">Template:Cite news</ref> Krauss received undergraduate degrees in mathematics and physics with first-class honours at Carleton University in Ottawa in 1977, and was awarded a Ph.D. in physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1982.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite webTemplate:Dead link</ref>

Career

After some time in the Harvard Society of Fellows, Krauss became an assistant professor at Yale University in 1985 and associate professor in 1988. He left Yale for Case Western Reserve University in 1993 when he was named the Ambrose Swasey Professor of Physics, professor of astronomy, and chairman of the physics department until 2005. In 2006, Krauss led the initiative for the no-confidence vote against Case Western Reserve University's president Edward M. Hundert and provost John L. Anderson by the College of Arts and Sciences faculty. On March 2, 2006, both no-confidence votes were carried: 131–44 against Hundert and 97–68 against Anderson.<ref name="Jaschik 2006">Template:Cite news</ref>

In August 2008, Krauss joined the faculty at Arizona State University as a foundation Professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at the Department of Physics in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. He also became the director of the Origins Project, a university initiative "created to explore humankind's most fundamental questions about our origins".<ref name="Origins Project 2015">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Krauss CV">Template:Cite webTemplate:Dead link</ref> In 2009, he helped inaugurate this initiative at the Origins Symposium, in which eighty scientists participated and three thousand people attended.<ref name="ASU 2009">Template:Cite webTemplate:Dead link</ref>

Krauss appears in the media both at home and abroad to facilitate public outreach in science. He has also written editorials for The New York Times. As a result of his appearance in 2002 before the state school board of Ohio, his opposition to intelligent design has gained national prominence.<ref name="Ratliff 2004">Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Krauss attended and was a speaker at the Beyond Belief symposia in November 2006 and October 2008. He served on the science policy committee for Barack Obama's first (2008) presidential campaign and, also in 2008, was named co-president of the board of sponsors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. In 2010, he was elected to the board of directors of the Federation of American Scientists, and in June 2011, he joined the professoriate of the New College of the Humanities, a private college in London.<ref>"The professoriate" Template:Webarchive, New College of the Humanities, accessed June 8, 2011.</ref> In 2013, he accepted a part-time professorship at the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics in the physics department of the Australian National University.<ref name="ANU 2013">Template:Cite webTemplate:Dead link</ref>

Krauss is a critic of string theory, which he discusses in his 2005 book Hiding in the Mirror.<ref name="Boutin 2005">Template:Cite web</ref> In his 2012 book A Universe from Nothing Krauss says about string theory "we still have no idea if this remarkable theoretical edifice actually has anything to do with the real world".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Released in March 2011, another book titled Quantum Man: Richard Feynman's Life in Science, while A Universe from NothingTemplate:Em dashwith an afterword by Richard DawkinsTemplate:Em dashwas released in January 2012, and became a New York Times bestseller within a week. Originally, its foreword was to have been written by Christopher Hitchens, but Hitchens grew too ill to complete it.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The paperback version of the book appeared in January 2013 with a new question-and-answer section and a preface integrating the 2012 discovery of the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider. On March 21, 2017, his newest book, The Greatest Story Ever Told—So Far: Why Are We Here? was released in hardcover, paperback, and audio version.

A July 2012 article in Newsweek, written by Krauss, indicates how the Higgs particle is related to our understanding of the Big Bang. He also wrote a longer piece in The New York Times explaining the science behind and significance of the particle.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In January 2019, Krauss became President of the Origins Project Foundation,<ref name="Origins Project Foundation">Template:Cite web</ref> a non-profit corporation intended to host public panel discussions on science, culture, and social issues.<ref>Template:Cite webTemplate:Dead link</ref> On June 21, 2019, a new video podcast, The Origins Podcast with Lawrence Krauss, launched with Krauss as host.<ref name="Origins Podcast"/> The first episodes included dialogues with Ricky Gervais, Noam Chomsky, and Jenny Boylan.

In 2024, Krauss edited the book The War on Science, a collection of essays from 39 academics addressing perceived threats to academic freedom and scientific progress, such as DEI programs, wokeness, and cancel culture. Contributors include Nicholas Christakis, Richard Dawkins, Peter Boghossian, Jordan Peterson, Steven Pinker, Alan Sokal and Elizabeth Weiss. Krauss wrote an introductory overview and an epilogue. This is his third book published through the conservative Christian imprint Post Hill Press.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Scientific work

Krauss lecturing about cosmology at TAM 2012

Krauss mostly works in theoretical physics and has published research on a variety of topics within that field. In 1995 he argued in favour of the energy-density of the universe being dominated by the energy of empty space, quoting many other scientists who supported the existence of a nonzero cosmological constant.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> In 1998 this prediction was confirmed by two observational collaborations and in 2011 the Nobel Prize was awarded for their discovery. Krauss has formulated a model in which the Universe could have potentially come from "nothing", as outlined in his 2012 book A Universe from Nothing. He explains that certain arrangements of relativistic quantum fields might explain the existence of the Universe as we know it while disclaiming that he "has no idea if the notion [of taking quantum mechanics for granted] can be usefully dispensed with".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> As his model appears to agree with experimental observations of the Universe (such as its shape and energy density), it is referred to by some as a "plausible hypothesis".<ref name="Boutin 2005"/><ref name="Dreifus 2004">Template:Cite magazine</ref> His model has been criticized by cosmologist and theologian George Ellis,<ref name="Horgan 2015">Template:Cite news</ref> who said it "is not tested science" but "philosophical speculation".

Initially, Krauss was skeptical of the existence of the Higgs boson.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> However, after it was detected by CERN, he researched the implications of the Higgs field on the nature of dark energy.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Activism

File:Solidarity message to ex-Muslims - Lawrence Krauss.webm Krauss has argued that public policy debates in the United States should have a greater focus on science.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite AV mediaTemplate:Cbignore</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He criticized Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson's statements on science, writing that Carson's remarks "suggest he never learned or chooses to ignore basic, well-tested scientific concepts".<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Krauss has described himself as an antitheist<ref>"I cannot hide my own intellectual bias here. As I state in the first sentence of the book, I have never been sympathetic to the notion that creation requires a creator. And like our late friend, Christopher Hitchens, I find the possibility of living in a universe that was not created for my existence, in which my actions and thoughts need not bend to the whims of a creator, far more enriching and meaningful than the other alternative. In that sense, I view myself as an anti-theist rather than an atheist." Template:Aut, Everything and Nothing: An Interview with Lawrence M. Krauss Template:Webarchive. Samharris.org, January 3, 2012</ref> and takes part in public debates on religion. Krauss is featured in the 2013 documentary The Unbelievers, in which he and Richard Dawkins travel across the globe speaking publicly about the importance of science and reason as opposed to religion and superstition.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He has participated in many debates with religious apologists, including William Lane Craig<ref name="Barnes 2013">A universe from nothing? Putting the Krauss-Craig debate into perspective by Luke Barnes, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, August 13, 2013.Template:Dead link</ref> and John Lennox.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

In his book A Universe from Nothing: Why There is Something Rather than Nothing (2012), Krauss discusses the premise that something cannot come from nothing, which has often been used as an argument for the existence of a prime mover. He has since argued in a debate with John Ellis and Don Cupitt that the laws of physics allow for the Universe to be created from nothing. "What would be the characteristics of a universe that was created from nothing, just with the laws of physics and without any supernatural shenanigans? The characteristics of the universe would be precisely those of the ones we live in."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In an interview with The Atlantic, however, he states that he has never claimed that "questions about origins are over". According to Krauss, "I don't ever claim to resolve that infinite regress of why-why-why-why-why; as far as I'm concerned it's turtles all the way down".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Honors

In an interview with Krauss in the Scientific American, science writer Claudia Dreifus called Krauss "one of the few top physicists who is also known as a public intellectual."<ref name="Dreifus 2004"/> Krauss is one of very few to have received awards from all three major American physics societies: the American Physical Society, the American Association of Physics Teachers, and the American Institute of Physics. In 2012, he was awarded the National Science Board's Public Service Medal for his contributions to public education in science and engineering in the United States.<ref>University of Texas at Austin. The M.E.L. Oakes Undergraduate Lecture Series Template:Webarchive</ref>

Controversies

Relationship with Jeffrey Epstein

In 2006, Krauss helped organize a conference on gravity funded by a foundation run by financier and later convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The conference was held on St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands and included a trip to Epstein's private island for dinner.<ref name="Patel 2019">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Kantor 2019">Template:Cite web</ref> Krauss helped invite roughly 20 well-known physicists to the conference, including Gerard 't Hooft, David Gross, Frank Wilczek, Stephen Hawking, Kip Thorne, Lisa Randall, Maria Spiropulu, Barry Barish, and Alan Guth, as well as author Betsy Devine.<ref name="Krauss 2006">Template:Cite web</ref>

Later, The Origins Project, which was at the time under the direction of Krauss, received $250,000 from an Epstein foundation called "Enhanced Education".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Potter 2019">Template:Cite news</ref>

Krauss defended Epstein after his 2008 guilty plea of procuring for prostitution a girl below age 18. In 2011, Krauss told an interviewer, "As a scientist I always judge things on empirical evidence and he always has women ages 19 to 23 around him, but I've never seen anything else, so as a scientist, my presumption is that whatever the problems were I would believe him over other people...I don't feel tarnished in any way by my relationship with Jeffrey; I feel raised by it."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Harvard Professor Steven Pinker said that Krauss was one of several colleagues who invited him to "salons and coffee klatsches" that included Epstein.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In August 2025, the New York Times published reports of letters given to Epstein for his 63rd birthday, including one from Krauss. Krauss stated that he did not recall the letter but attended several gatherings at Epstein's home.<ref name="Enrich 2025">Template:Cite web</ref>

On November 12, 2025, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform published additional files related to Epstein showing that Krauss responded via e-mail to Epstein, answering Epstein's joke "Let's do a men of the world conference." Krauss suggested the notional conference include Kevin Spacey, Bill Clinton, Al Franken and Woody Allen. Each of these men had been accused of sexual wrongdoing.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In an email dated 2017, Krauss asked Epstein what to do if Krauss was accused of sexual misconduct.<ref>Nathan VanderKlippe and Adrian Morrow, Canadian physicist Lawrence Krauss sought Epstein’s advice on how to respond to sex-misconduct allegations, files show, The Globe and Mail, 15 November 2025</ref>

Allegations of sexual misconduct

In a February 2018 article describing allegations that "range from offensive comments to groping and non-consensual sexual advances",<ref name="Scragg 2018">Template:Cite news</ref> BuzzFeed News reported a variety of sexual misconduct claims against Krauss, including two complaints from his years at Case Western Reserve University.<ref name="Aldhous 2018">Template:Cite news</ref> Krauss responded that the article was "slanderous" and "factually incorrect".<ref name="Scragg 2018"/> In a public statement, he apologized to anyone he made feel intimidated or uncomfortable, but stated that the BuzzFeed article "ignored counter-evidence, distorted the facts and made absurd claims about [him]."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Chang 2018">Template:Cite news</ref> Case Western Reserve responded to the student complaint by restricting Krauss's access to campus, although by the time the sanctions began he had already left for ASU.<ref name="Aldhous 2018" />

ASU stated that they had not received complaints from faculty, staff, or students before the BuzzFeed article but subsequently began an internal investigation regarding an accusation that Krauss grabbed a woman's breast while at a convention in Australia.<ref name="Wadman 2018">Template:Cite journal</ref> Investigators interviewed two eyewitnesses, and two other witnesses who immediately spoke with the unnamed woman. The witnesses described the woman as troubled and shocked. The woman told investigators that "she did not feel victimized, felt it was a clumsy interpersonal interaction and thought she had handled it in the moment."<ref name="Wadman 2018"/> ASU found that the preponderance of evidence suggested that Krauss had violated the university's policy against sexual harassment by grabbing a woman's breast without her permission.<ref name="Searle 2018">Template:Cite letter</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> As a result, Krauss was not renewed as director of the Origins Project<ref name="Shea 2018a">Template:Cite news</ref> and the university moved its staff to a project run by planetary scientist Lindy Elkins-Tanton, formally ending the Origins project.<ref name="Shea 2018b">Template:Cite web</ref>

In response to the university determination, Krauss produced a 51-page appeal document responding to the allegations, including a counter-claim that a photo claimed to be of Krauss grabbing a woman's breast was actually showing his hand moving away from the woman.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Several organizations also canceled scheduled talks by Krauss.<ref name="Scragg 2018"/> Krauss resigned from the position of chair of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Board of Sponsors when informed that its other members felt his presence was distracting "from the ability of the Bulletin to effectively carry out [its] work".<ref name="Sinclaire 2018">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite letter</ref>

Following the ASU investigation, Krauss was placed on paid administrative leave starting in March 2018 and was recommended for dismissal by the dean of the department. He later retired from ASU at the end of the 2018–2019 academic year.<ref name="Haag 2018">Template:Cite news</ref>

Bibliography

Krauss has authored or co-authored more than three hundred scientific studies<ref name="Google Scholar">Template:Cite web</ref> and review articles on cosmology and theoretical physics.

Books

Contributor

Articles

  • Template:Cite web
  • "A dark future for cosmology". 2007. Physics World.
  • "The End of Cosmology". 2008. Scientific American. Template:Issn
  • "The return of a static universe and the end of cosmology". 2008. International Journal of Modern Physics.
  • "Late time behavior of false vacuum decay: Possible implications for cosmology and metastable inflating states". 2008. Physical Review Letters.
  • "The Cosmological Constant is Back", with M. S. Turner, Gen.Rel.Grav.27:1137–1144, 1995
  • Template:Cite magazine

Media

Documentary films

Television

Films

Awards

Krauss is given the Richard Dawkins Award by Mark W. Gura and Melissa Pugh of Atheist Alliance of America at the Reason Rally 2016.

References

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