Lawrence Krauss
Lawrence Maxwell Krauss (born May 27, 1954) is a Canadian-American theoretical physicist and cosmologist whose research focuses on the early universe , cosmic inflation , and the intersection of particle physics with cosmology. Born in New York City and raised in Toronto , Krauss earned his PhD from MIT in 1982 and held faculty positions at Yale and Case Western Reserve University before joining Arizona State University (ASU) as a foundation professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration and Department of Physics. He is recognized for contributions including early work on vacuum energy's role in cosmic expansion and for authoring influential books that bridge advanced physics with public understanding, such as A Universe from Nothing : Why There Is Something Rather than Nothing (2012), which argues that quantum fluctuations can account for the universe 's origin without invoking a creator, and Quantum Man: Richard Feynman's Life in Science (2011), a biography emphasizing Feynman's scientific innovations. Krauss has received major awards from all three primary U.S. physics societies—the American Physical Society , American Institute of Physics , and American Association of Physics Teachers—making him the only physicist to achieve this distinction. As a prominent public intellectual, Krauss has advocated for scientific skepticism , atheism , and the separation of science from religious dogma through lectures, debates, and media appearances, while directing ASU's Origins Project to explore interdisciplinary questions of cosmic and biological origins until 2018. His tenure ended amid multiple sexual misconduct allegations spanning over a decade, including reports of unwanted advances and physical contact; an ASU investigation substantiated at least one violation of university policy—involving grabbing a woman's breast at a 2016 conference—but Krauss denied broader wrongdoing and retired from the university.
Lawrence Maxwell Krauss was born on May 27, 1954, in New York City . His family relocated to Toronto , Canada , shortly after his birth, where he spent his childhood and formative years.
Krauss grew up in a Jewish household that emphasized inquiry over religious observance, with his parents—neither of whom completed high school—encouraging intellectual curiosity despite their limited formal education. His father's family originated from Hungary , while his mother's had fled Europe amid the rise of Nazism , instilling a cultural heritage marked by resilience rather than strict dogma. This environment, non-religious yet supportive of education, aligned with his mother's aspirations for him to pursue medicine , though Krauss's interests gravitated toward science from an early age, influenced by popular works that sparked his fascination with physics before high school completion.
Krauss earned undergraduate degrees in both mathematics and physics from Carleton University in Ottawa , Canada . He subsequently pursued graduate work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he completed a Ph.D. in physics in 1982. His doctoral dissertation, titled Gravitation and Phase Transitions in the Early Universe , examined gravitational effects during cosmological phase transitions and was supervised by Roscoe C. Giles III.
Krauss's academic path was shaped by early exposure to science , including volunteer work at the Ontario Science Centre during high school, which fostered his interest in physics. Key intellectual influences included physicists Albert Einstein and Richard Feynman , whose approaches to theoretical physics and public communication of complex ideas resonated with him. Additionally, writings by Sir James Jeans on physics played a significant role in drawing him toward the field during his formative years. These figures emphasized empirical rigor and the explanatory power of physical laws, aligning with Krauss's later focus on cosmology and particle physics .
