Scientists face fallout for past associations with Epstein

• NEWS

• 25 February 2026

Scientists face fallout for past associations with Epstein

Jack Horner, who was a consultant for the Jurassic Park films, is among the researchers whose work or careers have been affected because of revelations from newly released documents.

Natasha Gilbert0

Natasha Gilbert

Natasha Gilbert is a freelance writer in Washington, DC.

View author publications

Search author on:
PubMed
Google Scholar

[Jeffrey Epstein files and documents showing Jeffrey Epstein, that s seen photographed on a desk.]

Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex offender, cultivated ties with many scientists and other academics.Credit: Davide Bonaldo/Alamy

*Update: More researchers are now facing consequences for their ties to Jeffrey Epstein. Economist Lawrence Summers will leave his academic position at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at the end of the academic year, a Harvard spokesperson said 25 February. He will also resign as co-director of Harvard’s Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government in “connection with the ongoing review by the University of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein that were recently released by the government,” according to the spokesperson. They also confirmed that **Harvard mathematical biologist Martin Nowak** has been placed on leave during an investigation into his association with Epstein. Both developments were **first reported** by The Harvard Crimson. In **a statement to the Crimson**, Summers said that the decision to leave was “difficult”. Nowak did not respond to a request for comment. *

Several scientists who are linked to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in files released last month are now facing consequences.

Palaeontologist John ‘Jack’ Horner, an adviser to the Jurassic Park film series, is no longer employed by Chapman University in Orange, California, university spokesman Robert Hitchcock told Nature today. E-mails in the newly released files show that Horner visited Epstein at one of his properties in 2012, when Horner was at Montana State University in Bozeman. In one e-mail sent in 2012 to Epstein’s assistant, Horner thanked Epstein and “the girls” for his visit.

Hitchcock declined to comment on whether the move was connected to Horner’s involvement with Epstein. But in an earlier statement, Hitchcock said that the university was “looking into the matter” and that it took the e-mails “very seriously”.

In a statement, Horner wrote that he visited Epstein to seek a donation for a research project. He said that he was aware that Epstein had been charged with soliciting a prostitute and had served a sentence, but he was unaware of other allegations or misconduct. He also wrote that he regrets not investigating Epstein’s background and that he used “poor judgement” in pursuing Epstein as a donor.

His statement says that he now regrets his use of the term ‘girls’ to refer to people who were introduced to him as college students during his visit. He now understands “the students may have been victims of Epstein”, Horner wrote. Horner did not respond to a request for comment about his departure from the university, where he taught classes.

Private wealth

Epstein, a wealthy financier, socialized with scientists and invested millions of dollars in research projects. He pled guilty in 2008 to procuring minors for prostitution and solicitation of prostitution and served more than 12 months in jail. He died by suicide in 2019, shortly after being arrested on charges of trafficking minors for sex.

MIT review of Epstein donations finds “significant mistakes of judgment”

Original source

📄 EFTA01892614.pdf

📄 23-085.pdf