Harvard announced Thursday that it had sanctioned mathematics and biology professor Martin Nowak for his extensive ties to the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. In an email to faculty, graduate students, and fellows in the math and biology departments, Claudine Gay, dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, wrote that the university would shut down the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics, which Nowak founded and where he served as director. The program had received $6.5 million in funding from Epstein. Nowak is also barred for the next two years from serving as a principal investigator on any new laboratory experiments or advising any new students or fellows. Harvard had put Nowak on leave after its investigation into the links between him and Epstein found that Nowak had gone to extraordinary lengths to help Epstein rehabilitate his public image after the well-connected financier gave the professor millions. Nowak and a cadre of other notable Harvard professors visited Epstein’s private island Little St. James, known locally as “Pedophile Island,” in 2007.
