Lawrence Krauss

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. An anti-theist, Krauss seeks to reduce the influence of what he regards as superstition and religious dogma in popular culture. 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.

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 for a third term in July 2018. Krauss retired as a professor at ASU in May 2019, at the end of the following academic year. As of 2022, he was listed as Principal Officer of The Origins Project Foundation, Inc. (a new organization, founded in 2019). Krauss hosts The Origins Podcast with Lawrence Krauss and publishes a blog titled Critical Mass.

Krauss has faced scrutiny for his association with child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. He organized a 2006 physics conference funded by an Epstein foundation and received funding from Epstein for an academic project. He also publicly defended Epstein after his 2008 conviction and maintained correspondence and social contact with him over many years.