ASU professor put on leave amid misconduct claims
Arizona State University professor Lawrence Krauss, internationally known as an outspoken atheist and for his work on the symbolic “Doomsday Clock,” has been put on paid leave by university officials after allegations of sexual misconduct were published in a recent BuzzFeed article.
The university, in a statement issued late Tuesday, said it began a review of the professor’s conduct after it was contacted for the article.
“In an effort to avoid further disruption ... as the university continues to gather facts about the allegations, Krauss has been placed on paid leave and is prohibited from being on campus for the duration of the review,” ASU said in a written statement.
Krauss, a theoretical physicist known internationally for his work,
has denied the allegations. The article includes at least nine allegations of inappropriate behavior or comments, some more detailed than others.
On Tuesday, Krauss resigned as chairman of the elite Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ board and reiterated that denial in a resignation letter to the board.
“As you know, I have denied the story’s allegations. BuzzFeed was provided with abundant counter-evidence that was ignored or distorted in their story,” he wrote in the statement.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is most famous for its “Doomsday Clock,” a symbolic yearly pronouncement based on whether the events of the previous year have pushed humanity closer to destruction.
Krauss, 63, is a prolific author and speaker who was recruited to ASU in 2008 to become the inaugural head of the Origins Project at ASU. The research project explores questions about origins of the universe, human origins and origins of consciousness and culture.
Lately, though, Krauss has received less than flattering attention.
He was the subject of a lengthy Feb. 22 BuzzFeed article that described allegations of inappropriate behavior over the last decade, “including groping women, ogling and making sexist jokes to undergrads, and telling an employee at ASU, where he is a tenured professor, that he was going to buy her birth control so she didn’t inconvenience him with maternity leave.”
Krauss denied all of the accusations to BuzzFeed, calling them “false and misleading.”
“It is common knowledge that celebrity attracts all forms of negative attention from many different angles,” Krauss told BuzzFeed in an email. “There is no pattern of discontent revealed here that suggests any other explanation.”
Some of the groups Krauss is associated with have moved to distance themselves from him.
The American Physical Society withdrew its invitation for Krauss to participate in its April meeting.
The society said, “This action was taken following reports of allegations of sexual misconduct against Prof. Krauss. The APS deplores harassment in all its forms and remains committed to ensuring a respectful and safe environment at its meetings.”
Krauss issued a lengthy statement on Wednesday, calling the BuzzFeed article a “libelous story defaming me specifically, and by association the skeptical and atheist community in general.”
In the statement, he acknowledged his language and demeanor sometimes made others uncomfortable and apologized for that.
But he said the article “paints a false picture of me and my relationships with others through a mosaic constructed largely out of anonymous hearsay and a web of often vague innuendo.”