Elusive financier Jeffrey E. Epstein donated $30 million this year to Harvard for the founding of a mathematical biology and
www.thecrimson.com
Epstein’s collection of high-profile friends also includes newly-recruited professor Martin A. Nowak, who will run Harvard’s mathematical biology and evolutionary dynamics program.
Like Kosslyn, Rosovsky and
Dershowitz, Nowak praises Epstein’s numerous relationships within the scientific community.
“I am amazed by the connections he has in the scientific world,” Nowak says. “
He knows an amazing number of scientists. He knows everyone you can imagine.”
Epstein’s relationships within the academy are remarkable since the tycoon, who has amassed his fortune by managing the wealth of billionaires
from his private Caribbean island, does not hold a bachelor’s degree.
Yet, friends and beneficiaries say they do not see Epstein merely as a man with deep pockets, but as an intellectual equal.
Dershowitz says Epstein is “brilliant” and Kosslyn calls Epstein “one of the brightest people I’ve ever known.”