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Education & Academic History:

•1977 - Undergraduate degrees in mathematics and physics at Ottawa's Carleton University, having earned first class honours.
•1982 - Physics Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology
•1982 to 1985 - Member of the Harvard Society of Fellows
•1985 to 1993 - Assistant and then associate professorship at Yale
•1993 to 2005 - He went on to serve as the Ambrose Swasey Professor of Physics, Professor of Astronomy, and Chairman of the department of Physics at Case Western Reserve University
•2008 to present (2011, at least) - Foundation Professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration and Physics Department, and Inaugural Director of the Origins Project at Arizona State University

Scientific Background:

Lawrence Krauss is a cosmologist, meaning that he studies the origins of the universe. In fact, he now runs the Origins Project at Arizona State University, which is a "transdisciplinary initiative that nurtures research, energizes teaching, and builds partnerships, offering new possibilities for exploring the most fundamental of questions who we are and where we came from." In this capacity, together with his scientific writing, he seeks to spread knowledge about the origins, evolution, and history of the universe to a general public.

Krauss and Scientific Controversies:

Lawrence Krauss is not one to shy away from a controversy, and working to find the origins of the universe can certainly cause some controversies.

Religion and Science: Though he is an atheist, he often takes a devil's advocate-style position which at times places him in amiable conflict with some more prominent atheists, such as Richard Dawkins (who once said Krauss asked him an "I'm an atheist, but..." question, which are far harder to tackle than the outright pro-religion questions). It seems that Krauss's goal is to teach everyone - the faithful and the atheist - what science tells us about the universe and its history, not particularly caring about changing their underlying belief structure.

String Theory Critic: Krauss is one of the most prominent and respected critics of string theory. His 2005 book, Hiding in the Mirror details the history and allure of invoking extra dimensions as a physical explanation, and calls into question whether this is really justified.



Last Edited by Person445 on 01/28/2014 02:39 PM