Producer, Star of ‘The Unbelievers’ to Present Next ALLELE Lecture at UA

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Dr. Lawrence Krauss, an internationally known physicist, bestselling author, public intellectual and executive producer of the feature film documentary “The Unbelievers,” will present “A Universe from Nothing: Cosmic Evolution, Natural Selection, and How to Get Something From Nothing,” as part of The University of Alabama’s 2013-2014 ALLELE lecture series.

Krauss’s lecture will take place Thursday, April 10 at 7:30 p.m. in the Biology Building Auditorium on the UA campus.

ALLELE lectures are coordinated by UA’s Evolution Working Group, and they are free and open to the public.

Krauss will also participate in a question-and-answer session Friday, April 11 at 9:30 a.m. at the Bryant-Jordan Performing Arts Center on the Bryce campus. The session will focus on the nature of science, cosmology and evolution. Seating will be offered on a first-come, first-served basis and is limited to approximately 200 guests.

Krauss is the author of more than 300 scientific publications and nine books, including the international bestseller, “The Physics of Star Trek,” and his more recent bestseller, “A Universe from Nothing,” which is now being translated into 20 languages. Copies of “A Universe from Nothing” will be available for purchase following the lecture.

After receiving his doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1982, Krauss joined the Society of Fellows at Harvard, was a professor at Yale University and chaired the physics department at Case Western Reserve University. He now serves as foundation professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University, where he is also the director of the Origins Project.

He is the winner of numerous international awards and is the only physicist to have received major awards from all three U.S. physics societies, the American Physical Society, the American Institute of Physics and the American Association of Physics Teachers.

He is also one of the few prominent scientists today to have crossed the chasm between science and popular culture. For example, Krauss has performed with the Cleveland Orchestra, narrating Gustav Holst’s “The Planets” at the Blossom Music Center in the most highly attended concert at that venue, and he was nominated for a Grammy award for his liner notes for a Telarc CD of music from Star Trek. In 2005 he also served as a jury member at the Sundance Film Festival.

He contributes regularly to publications such as the New York Times, the Wall St. Journal, New Scientist, Scientific American and Slate, and he appears frequently on radio and television. In 2012, he was awarded the National Science Board’s Public Service Medal.

In 2013, he starred in a the full-length feature film documentary “The Unbelievers,” which follows Krauss and his colleague, Richard Dawkins, around the world as they discuss science and reason. A number of celebrities including Woody Allen, Werner Herzog, Cameron Diaz, Ricky Gervais, Ian McEwan, Cormac McCarthy, Sarah Silverman and others appear in the film, for which Krauss was the executive producer.

The 2013-2014 ALLELE series is supported by UA’s College of Arts and Sciences, the Alabama Museum of Natural History and the departments of anthropology, biological sciences, communicative disorders, geological sciences, philosophy, religious studies and others.

The ALLELE lecture series is part of UA’s College of Arts and Sciences, the University’s largest division and the largest liberal arts college in the state. Students from the College have won numerous national awards including Rhodes Scholarships, Goldwater Scholarships and memberships on the USA Today Academic All American Team.