Lawrence Krauss to Retire From Arizona State After Sexual Misconduct Accusations

Lawrence M. Krauss, a prominent theoretical physicist at Arizona State University, announced Sunday that he will retire from the university at the end of the academic year after several women accused him of sexual misconduct.

In announcing his departure, Krauss denounced the university’s investigation, which found that he grabbed a woman’s chest at an event in 2016, and claimed he had been treated unfairly. He has been on paid leave since March and the dean of his department recently recommended that the professor be dismissed from the university.

“To be clear, I have never harassed or assaulted anyone and have most certainly not exhibited gender discrimination in my professional dealings at the university or elsewhere,” Krauss, 64, who joined Arizona State in 2008, said in a statement on Twitter. “I look to the future for new and different challenges and opportunities.”

He will remain on paid leave, drawing a salary of $265,000, until his retirement in May, the university said. Krauss said the university had not allowed him to present his side of the story or let him “cross-examine witnesses.”

In response to his statement, a university spokesman said Krauss had mischaracterized what took place. “Dr. Krauss’ description of our review process is inaccurate,” the spokesman said, adding that he could have questioned witnesses at a hearing. “Dr. Krauss chose to retire rather than to move forward with that process.”

Krauss rose to prominence in 1995 for his book “The Physics of Star Trek” and has become a well-known cosmologist and prolific writer of popular-science books. Respected in the “skeptic” movement, he has argued that science, and not God, can explain how the universe could be created from almost nothing. He has also criticized attempts to teach creationism in the classroom and to gut the theory of evolution from textbooks.

His retirement announcement capped a precipitous fall from prestige and power in recent months. It started after BuzzFeed reported in February that several women had made sexual misconduct allegations against him that spanned a decade, including accusations of fondling and making sexist remarks. Arizona State opened an investigation, which concluded in June that he had groped a woman during a photo at a function in Australia in 2016, and moved to strip some of his positions from him.

The woman told investigators that he grabbed her chest after they took a photo together at a conference gala and then told her not to post their photo on Facebook. The image, which she showed to investigators, did not capture the alleged assault but showed Krauss’ arm over her shoulder with his hand in the air.

When investigators asked him about the photo, Krauss said his hand might have been out to catch her after she lost balance or maybe his hand was extended to block the camera’s flash, according to the university’s report.

After the investigation, Krauss was removed as the director of Arizona State’s Origins Project, which he founded when he joined the university in 2008 as a multidisciplinary research effort to address questions about life, the universe and complex social problems. He had previously taught for 15 years at Case Western Reserve University and has also written essays and op-eds that were published in The Times.