Jvangiel · CC BY-SA 3.0

Lawrence Krauss made his name in cosmology by predicting, in 1995, that empty space carries an energy density that would come to dominate the universe, a claim later folded into the observational discovery of dark energy, and became a visible public defender of science against religious dogma through bestsellers including A Universe from Nothing. He founded and directed Arizona State University's Origins Project. In 2018, following a public investigation and an ASU inquiry that found he had violated sexual harassment policy, the university removed him as the project's director; he has also acknowledged a long correspondence with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, whom Krauss publicly defended after Epstein's 2008 conviction.