Opinion: Editorial: CWRU should Rate My Professors (pg. 8)
The Case Western Reserve
Observer
Friday, November 21, 2025 Volume LVII, Issue 13 Est. 1969
NEWS
Epstein advised former CWRU professor Lawrence Krauss on sexual allegations, files show Darcy Chew
Executive Editor On Nov. 12, the U.S. House Oversight Committee released more than 20,000 documents in connection to the investigation of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The files show the extent of the financier’s connections in academia, politics and journalism, including Noam Chomsky and former Harvard University President Lawrence Summers. Among the documents, Case Western Reserve University appears in emails between BuzzFeed News reporter Peter Aldhous and former CWRU physics professor Lawrence Krauss into sexual misconduct allegations made against Krauss. The newly released emails shed light on several exchanges in which the former professor sought Epstein’s advice on responding to Aldhous’ inquiries into the allegations. These exchanges took place after Krauss left CWRU. Krauss was the Ambrose Swasey Professor of Physics and a professor of astronomy at CWRU from 1993 to 2008. He also served as the chair of the physics department from 1993 till 2005. In 2008, he joined Arizona State University. At the height of his career, Krauss was a prominent theoretical physicist. He entered the public sphere with his book “Physics of Star Trek” and was known for his passionate lectures and public talks. The BuzzFeed article revealed another side of his legacy, chronicling multiple sexual misconduct allegations made against Krauss during his time at CWRU. One incident was previously described, without mentioning Krauss’s name, in an op-ed about gender discrimination in science and engineering published by The Observer almost ten years earlier, on Feb. 29, 2008. In the piece, the then-fourth-year physics major described “one particular creep of a professor who once told me he
thought differently of me compared to other students and asked me to dinner.” In the following issue, current CWRU physics professor Cyrus Taylor, who was dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the time, responded in a letter to the editor. “I was deeply concerned by the writer’s description of an incident that she considered reporting as sexual harassment,” Taylor wrote. He later told BuzzFeed that he encouraged the student to make a formal complaint. “I raised concern that in a situation like this, if it doesn’t get reported, then there’s the potential for future victims later.” The op-ed writer recently confirmed to the Observer that her opinion piece was referencing Krauss. She also claimed that the university opened an investigation into Krauss’s behavior. BuzzFeed reported that Krauss was banned from CWRU campus following the investigation. In response to a request for clarification, a CWRU spokesperson stated that the school “cannot comment on personnel matters.” Epstein and Krauss’ history Epstein often called himself a “science philanthropist.” He surrounded himself with prominent scientists, including Nobel laureate Stephen Hawking, and donated millions to institutions, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University and the Santa Fe Institute. In 2006, with the support of the J. Epstein VI Inc. Foundation and CWRU’s Center for Education and Research in Cosmology and Astrophysics (CERCA), Krauss organized a small conference on St. Thomas, one of the U.S. Virgin Islands located near Epstein’s infamous private island. The conference explored the topic of “Confronting Gravity.” Its 22 attendees ranged from particle physicists to cosmologists, including Hawking and fellow Nobel laureates Gerard ‘t Hooft, David Gross
Krauss gained public prominence for his bestselling book “The Physics of Star Trek,” which analyzed the franchise’s scifi concepts through the lens of real-world science. Jason Lustig/The Observer
Among Jeffrey Epstein’s network of prominent scientists was theoretical physicist and anti-theist Lawrence Krauss, a former professor at CWRU. In addition to financial support for his research, Krauss corresponded with Epstein for advice responding to sexual harassment allegations. Courtesy of Sgerbic via Wikimedia Commons and Frank Wilczek. CWRU’s website lists the March 16, 2006 “Confronting Gravity Workshop” on CERCA’s events page, although the event description is password-protected. The webpage states “There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.” In an interview with Krauss published by Edge.org, the CWRU-supported conference is described as an opportunity for attendees to “meet, discuss, relax on the beach and take a trip to the nearby private island retreat of the science philanthropist Jeffrey Epstein, who funded the event.” Other guests recounted Epstein’s presence less innocuously. MIT physicist and attendee Alan Guth later told The New York Times that “[Epstein] was always followed by a group of something like three or four young women.” The New York Times reported that Krauss and other attendees visited Epstein’s island during the conference. Epstein also sponsored another one of Krauss’s scientific endeavors. Between 2010 and 2017, Epstein donated $250,000 through his Enhanced Foundation to Krauss’s Origins Project at ASU. But their relationship went beyond funding. Krauss defended Epstein in an interview following the
latter’s 2008 arrest for soliciting underage sex. “Jeffrey has surrounded himself with beautiful women and young women, but they’re not as young as the ones that were claimed,” Krauss said in a 2011 interview with the Daily Beast. “As a scientist I always judge things on empirical evidence and he always has women ages 19 to 23 around him, but I’ve never seen anything else, so as a scientist, my presumption is that whatever the problems were I would believe him over other people.” Krauss in the files The documents released last week reveal new details about the private relationship between Krauss and Epstein. They show that Krauss turned to Epstein several times for advice on handling sexual misconduct allegations after he left CWRU. On Aug. 24, 2017, Krauss reached out to Epstein, asking “can we talk tonight? I need advise.” He followed up two hours later: “I have a question of some urgency.” Continue reading on page 3