Face of Nation : Disgraced hedge fund manager Jeffrey Epstein was attending on-campus meetings as recently as 2014 with professors at Harvard University, a school he had supported with at least one multimillion-dollar donation, even though the registered sex offender‘s ties to the school had already raised questions.
Epstein, who donated $6.5 million to Harvard’s Program for Evolutionary Dynamics in 2003, had phone calls, meetings and meals with members of the Harvard faculty at least six times in 2014, according to the online personal calendar of Dr. George Church, a renowned geneticist who holds professorships at Harvard, Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
On April 22, Epstein met with Church at the Harvard Medical School’s Genetics Department building, according to the calendar. The two had a phone call the next day. He had lunch with Church on June 21, according to the calendar. The entry for the note also includes the notation “Martin Nowak’s Institute.”
On Nov. 30, the calendar lists a dinner with multiple attendees: “Dinner w/ Jeff Epstein, Joi Ito, Reid Hoffman and Martin Nowak, 8pm, Martin Nowak’s institute, 1 Brattle Square, Suite 6, Cambridge, MA.” The address matches the address for the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics.
Ito is an entrepreneur and journalist. Hoffman is a venture capitalist and the co-founder of Linkedin.
Church, Ito, Nowak and Clement did not respond to requests for comment. Church did not respond to questions about who else might have attended the meetings and whether “Martin Nowak’s institute” refers to the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics. Hoffman declined to comment.
All the meetings were presumably related to genetics research. It is not known whether any of the participants were aware of Epstein’s status as a registered sex offender.
Epstein touted his affiliation with Harvard long after agreeing to federal and state plea deals, pleading guilty to a single state charge and registering as a sex offender in 2008. A bio published on the web in 2014 by Epstein’s foundation said, “Mr. Epstein is the founder of the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics at Harvard University… the Program has developed critical mathematical models of how viruses and cancer cells evolve.” In a 2003 Vanity Fair article that referred to “the Epstein Program for Mathematical Biology and Evolutionary Dynamics” at Harvard, Epstein said he was reluctant to have his name attached to the program, but Harvard President Larry Summers “persuaded” him.
A Harvard source said the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics has never borne Epstein’s name.
Epstein’s press releases have repeatedly referred to a $30 million gift he made to Harvard in 2000. A Harvard source familiar with Epstein’s donations was unaware of any significant gift to Harvard other than his initial $6.5 million donation in 2003.
A Harvard spokesperson said that the university does not comment on specific gifts.Harvard declined comment in December 2018 when the Crimsonagain asked if the school would return Epstein’s money.
Epstein, who has been photographed wearing Harvard gear, did not attend the university. He attended Cooper Union and New York University without graduating.
