ASU theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss announced Thursday he will be replaced as director of The Origins Project, an initiative he famously led until this year’s sexual harassment allegations against him.
“The University decided not to renew my director appointment when my most recent 5 year appointment expired in July,” Krauss wrote in a Twitter statement. “It has been a great privilege to create and lead the Project at ASU over the past decade.”
He will be replaced as director by Lindy Elkins-Tanton, who is the director of the School of Earth and Space Exploration and herself a noted planetary scientist. She is also the principal investigator of the ASU-NASA partnered Psyche Mission.
Krauss’ alleged sexual misconduct was first reported by BuzzFeed in an article containing allegations by students and colleagues from multiple institutions and spanning more than a decade. Since that story broke, ASU has been investigating Krauss to determine whether he engaged in any sexually inappropriate conduct at ASU or with any of its affiliates.
Read more: ASU professor Lawrence Krauss accused of sexual misconduct
Krauss, who has been on paid leave since March, released a statement the day after he was suspended by ASU disputing the allegations made against him in the BuzzFeed article. In that statement, Krauss levied accusations of his own against BuzzFeed and its reporters that they attempted to construct a false narrative, calling the story “libelous.”
Regardless of these comments, Krauss did not choose to pursue a case against BuzzFeed in court.
Update: After several months, ASU found last week that Krauss did violate the University's sexual harassment policy in 2016 in an incident described in BuzzFeed's article first breaking the story and originally reported to the University by Professor Melanie Thomson.
Read more: Lawrence Krauss violated ASU sexual harassment policies, investigation shows
Editor’s note: This article may be updated to include more information as the story develops.
Reach the reporter at parker.shea@asu.edu or follow @laconicshamanic on Twitter.
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