I was born in New York City and shortly afterward moved to Toronto, spending my childhood in Canada. I received undergraduate degrees in mathematics and physics from Carleton University in Ottawa Canada, and my Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1982.
After three year a stint in the Harvard Society of Fellows, I was a professor at Yale University for eight years and then, when I was 38 I moved to become Ambrose Swasey Professor of Physics, professor of astronomy, and Chairman of the Physics Department at Case Western Reserve Universit. Since then I have held endowed positions at a variety of Universities around the world in departments ranging from physics and astronomy, to earth and space exploration.I retired from academia in 2019 at age 65 when I became President of The Origins Project Foundation, (www.originsprojectfoundation.org) and independent non-profit foundation furthering the public understanding of science, and enhancing connections between science and culture. In the same year I became host of The Origins Podcast with Lawrence M. Krauss (www.theoriginspodcast.com), where I have extended video dialogues with the most interesting people in the world.
My research focuses on the beginning and end of the Universe. Among my contributions to the field of cosmology, I helped lead the search for dark matter, and proposed the existence of dark energy in 1995, three years before its observational discovery, which received the Nobel Prize in 2011.
I write regularly for national media, including The New York Times, The New Yorker, the Wall St. Journal, and other magazines, as well as doing extensive work on radio and television and most recently in feature films.
I am strongly committed to public understanding of science, and have helped lead the national effort to preserve sound science teaching, including the teaching of evolution, for which I was awarded the National Science Board's Award for the Public Understanding of Science. I also served on Barack Obama's 2008 Presidential campaign science policy committee. I was honored to be Chair of the Board of Sponsors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists from 2006-2018, and from 2010-2019 was on the Board of Directors of the Federation of American Scientists.
I became a scientist in part because I read books by other scientists, such as Albert Einstein, George Gamow, Sir James Jeans, etc, when I was a child, and was inspired meeting various scientist-heroes including Richard Feynman and my popular writing returns the favor. One of my greatest joys is when a young person comes up to me and tells me that one of my books motivated them to become a scientist.
I believe science is not only a vital part of our culture, but is fun, and I try and convey that in my books and lectures. I am honored that Scientific American referred to me as a rare scientific public intellectual, and that all three three major US Physics Societies: the American Physical Society, the American Association of Physics Teachers, and the American Institute of Physics, have seen fit to honor me with their highest awards for research and writing.
I have now written 11 popular books on various aspects of science and culture, including the two New York Times Bestsellers, The Physics of Star Trek, and A Universe from Nothing. These two books sold over 500,000 copies in English alone and the latter was translated into 25 languages.
I am extremely excited by my newest book, The Physics of Climate Change, to be published in January 2021. This book presents cuts through the confusion by succinctly presenting the underlying science of climate change. This book aims to present the underlying science behind climate change, free of political bias, or jargon so that all readers can understand one of the most important issues of our time, and allows laypeople to assess which climate predictions are firmest and which are more speculative . The narrative, opens and closes on a Mekong Delta riverboat, and lyyrically explores the history of how scientists progressed to our current understanding of the Earth’s climate and its future. A departure from much of the focus of my past books, I believe this book could be the most important book I will have published thus far.
When not writing or doing research or relaxing at home with my family, I love to mountain bike, fly fish, and scuba dive.
You can find more about my research, my activities, and my opinions on my web page lawrencemkrauss.com or on my twitter feed @Lkrauss1 or at https://wakelet.com/@LawrenceKrauss
