Lawrence M. Krauss

Lawrence M. Krauss
Krauss at Ghent University, October 17, 2013.
Born	Lawrence Maxwell Krauss (1954-05-27) May 27, 1954 New York City, New York, USA
Nationality	American
Fields	Theoretical physics Cosmology
Institutions	Arizona State University Australian National University New College of the Humanities Yale University Case Western Reserve University Harvard University
Alma mater	Massachusetts Institute of Technology (PhD) Carleton University (BSc)
Known for	Dark energy Zero-energy modeling
Spouse	Katherine Kelley (1980–2012; divorced, 1 child) Nancy Dahl (2014–present)
Website
krauss.faculty.asu.edu

Lawrence Maxwell Krauss (born May 27, 1954) is an American theoretical physicist and cosmologist who is Foundation Professor of the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University and director of its Origins Project.^[1] He is known as an advocate of the public understanding of science, of public policy based on sound empirical data, of scientific skepticism and of science education. He is also the author of several bestselling books, including The Physics of Star Trek and A Universe from Nothing.

Biography

Krauss was born in New York City but spent his childhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. On January 19, 1980, he married Katherine Kelley, a native of Nova Scotia. Their daughter, Lilli, was born November 23, 1984. Krauss and Kelley separated in 2010 and were divorced in 2012. Krauss married Australian/American Nancy Dahl on Jan 7, 2014. Krauss received undergraduate degrees in mathematics and physics with first class honours at Carleton University (Ottawa) in 1977, and was awarded a Ph.D. in physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1982.

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 was named the Ambrose Swasey Professor of Physics, professor of astronomy, and was chairman of the physics department at Case Western Reserve University from 1993 to 2005. In 2006, Krauss led the initiative for the no-confidence vote against Case Western Reserve University's president Edward M. Hundert and provost 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.

In August 2008, Krauss joined the faculty at Arizona State University as 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.^[2] In 2009, he helped inaugurate this initiative at the Origins Symposium, in which eighty scientists participated and three thousand people attended.^[3]

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 2004 before the state school board of Ohio, his opposition to intelligent design has gained national prominence.^[4]

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.^[5] 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.^[6]

Krauss is a critic of string theory, which he discusses in his 2005 book Hiding in the Mirror.^[7] Another book, released in March 2011, was titled Quantum Man: Richard Feynman's Life in Science, while A Universe from Nothing: Why There is Something Rather than Nothing – with an afterword by Richard Dawkins – was 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.^[8][9] The paperback version of the book appeared in January 2013 with a new question-and-answer section and a new preface that included material on the Higgs boson.

A July 2012 article in Newsweek written by Krauss indicated how the Higgs particle may explain the causation of the Big Bang. He also wrote a longer piece in the New York Times explaining the science behind and significance of the particle.^[10]

Scientific work

Krauss lecturing about cosmology at TAM 2012.

Krauss mostly works in theoretical physics and has published research on a great variety of topics within that field. His primary contribution is to cosmology as one of the first physicists to suggest that most of the mass and energy of the universe resides in empty space, an idea now widely known as "dark energy". Furthermore, 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. As his model appears to agree with experimental observations of the universe (such as of its shape and energy density), it is referred to as a "plausible hypothesis".^[11][12]

Initially, Krauss was skeptical of the Higgs mechanism. However, after the existence of the Higgs boson was confirmed by CERN, he has been researching the implications of the Higgs field on the nature of dark energy.^[13]

Atheist activism

Krauss is an atheist activist and self-described antitheist.^[14] Krauss has participated in many debates with theologians and apologists, including Hamza Tzortzis^[15] and William Lane Craig.^[16] The debate with Tzortzis resulted in controversy when Krauss complained to the Muslim organisers about the gender segregation of the audience; he only stayed when men and women were allowed to sit together.^[17] Later, the audience protested at his comment that it's "not clear" to him that incest is objectively wrong, saying that he wouldn't recommend it but may listen to rational arguments concerning the objective morality of such acts.^[18]

Krauss also featured in a full-length documentary entitled 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. They also interview prominent figures such as Stephen Hawking, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Sam Harris, and Cameron Diaz.^[19]

In his book, A Universe from Nothing, Krauss discusses the premise that something cannot come from nothing, which has often been used as an argument for the existence of an uncaused cause, or creator. He has since argued in a debate with John Ellis (physicist) 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." ^[20]

Honors

Krauss is one of the few living physicists described by Scientific American as a "public intellectual"^[12] and he is the only physicist 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.^[21]

During December 2011, Krauss was named as a non-voting honorary board member for the Center for Inquiry.^[22]

Media

Selected publications

Krauss has authored or co-authored more than three hundred scientific studies and review articles on cosmology and theoretical physics. His popular books include:

• The Fifth Essence (1991) ISBN 0-465-02377-0
• Fear of Physics (1994) ISBN 0-465-02367-3
• The Physics of Star Trek (1995) ISBN 0-465-00559-4
• Beyond Star Trek (1997) ISBN 0-06-097757-4
• Quintessence (2001) ISBN 0-465-03741-0
• Atom (2002) ISBN 0-316-18309-1
• Hiding in the Mirror (2005) ISBN 0-670-03395-2
• Quantum Man: Richard Feynman's Life in Science (W. W. Norton / Atlas & Co., 2010) ISBN 978-0-393-06471-1
• A Universe from Nothing: Why There is Something Rather than Nothing (Free Press, 2012) ISBN 978-1-4516-2445-8^[23]

Documentary films

• The Unbelievers (2013)

Television

• How the Universe Works (2010–)

Awards

Krauss (right) during TAM9 in 2011, with Neil DeGrasse Tyson and Pamela Gay.

• Gravity Research Foundation First prize award (1984)
• Presidential Investigator Award (1986)
• American Association for the Advancement of Science's Award for the Public Understanding of Science and Technology (2000)
• Julius Edgar Lilienfeld Prize (2001)
• Andrew Gemant Award (2001)
• American Institute of Physics Science Writing Award (2002)
• Oersted Medal (2003)
• American Physical Society Joseph P. Burton Forum Award (2005)
• Center for Inquiry World Congress Science in the Public Interest Award (2009)
• Helen Sawyer Hogg Prize of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada and the Astronomical Society of Canada (2009)^[2]
• Physics World Book of the Year 2011 for Quantum Man^[24]
• National Science Board 2012 Public Service Award and Medal (2012)
• Premio Roma "Urbs Universalis", Rome (2013)
• Elected as Laureate of International Academy of Humanism (2013)

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Lawrence M. Krauss

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lawrence M. Krauss.

• Krauss debates why there is something rather than nothing
• Arizona State University faculty listing
• Lawrence M. Krauss at the Internet Movie Database
• Debate with philosopher Julian Baggini on role of science and philosophy
• Debate with CERN physicist John Ellis and Cambridge theologian Don Cupitt on the origins of the universe