Lawrence Krauss: Movies & Box Office

Lawrence **Maxwell Krauss** (born *May 27, 1954*) is a Canadian‑American *theoretical physicist* and cosmologist whose work has profoundly shaped modern understandings of dark energy, the cosmological constant, and the quantum origins of the universe. Born in New York City and raised in Toronto, Krauss earned his dual BSc honours in mathematics and physics from Carleton University before completing a Ph.D. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1982, where his dissertation on gravitation and early‑universe phase transitions laid the groundwork for a career that would span the world’s leading research institutions. After a post‑doctoral stint with the Harvard Society of Fellows, he joined Yale University as an assistant professor in 1985, rising to associate professor before moving to Case Western Reserve University in 1993, where he directed the physics department and championed faculty governance. In 2008 he accepted a foundation professorship at Arizona State University, founding the interdisciplinary Origins Project to explore fundamental questions about the cosmos, and later held appointments at the Australian National University and the New College of the Humanities in London. Krauss’s scientific contributions include the 1995 proposal that the universe’s energy density is dominated by empty‑space vacuum energy—a prediction confirmed by supernova observations in 1998—and his influential popular‑science writings that argue the universe could arise from “nothing” under quantum‑field theory.

Beyond academia, Krauss has become a prominent public intellectual, authoring best‑selling titles such as *The Physics of Star Trekk* (1995) and *A Universe from Nothing* (2012), the latter reaching the New York Times bestseller list within a week and spawning widespread debate over its philosophical implications. He has served on the board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, received major honors including the Andrew Gemant Award, Lilienfeld Prize, Oersted Medal, and the National Science Board’s Public Service Medal, and appeared in documentaries like *The Unbelievers* (2013). His outspoken anti‑theism and advocacy for evidence‑based public policy have made him a polarizing figure, leading to both celebrated outreach and serious controversies over alleged misconduct, which culminated in his retirement from ASU in 2019. Today he directs the Origins Project Foundation and continues to host *The Origins Podcast*, fostering dialogue at the intersection of science, culture, and society.