More Scientists, Institutions with Links to Jeffrey Epstein

Researchers continued to meet and accept funding from the wealthy donor even after he was convicted of sex crimes in 2008.

Written byCatherine Offord

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ABOVE: Some of Jeffrey Epstein’s meetings with researchers took place at Harvard University.
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A number of scientists and research institutions continued to maintain links with convicted sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein after he was sentenced to prison in 2008, BuzzFeed News reported yesterday (August 26). While some of the payments and meetings he had with members of the research community were already public knowledge, others were identified by the news site through public records requests.

Epstein died by suicide earlier this month while awaiting trial for fresh charges of sex trafficking underage girls. After being convicted for paying an underage girl for sexual acts in 2008, he spent 13 months in prison in Florida.

Some scientists refused to continue associating with Epstein after his conviction. Harvard University’s Howard Gardner, a cognitive scientist who mentioned his “valued friendship” with Epstein in a 2005 book, tells BuzzFeed News: “I ...

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Meet the Author

Catherine Offord
After undergraduate research with spiders at the University of Oxford and graduate research with ants at Princeton University, Catherine left arthropods and academia to become a science journalist. She has worked in various guises at The Scientist since 2016. As Senior Editor, she wrote articles for the online and print publications, and edited the magazine’s Notebook, Careers, and Bio Business sections. She reports on subjects ranging from cellular and molecular biology to research misconduct and science policy. Find more of her work at her website.
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