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THE HARVARD CRIMSON
NEWS
COMMENCEMENT 2023
HARVARD FACULTY
Sanctions Lifted on Prof. Martin Nowak FAS. Professor Martin A. Nowak, sanctioned in 2021 for his ties to Jeffrey E. Epstein, regained his advising and research privileges. BY RAHEM D. HAMID AND ELIAS J. SCHISGALL CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
M
artin A. Nowak, the Harvard professor sanctioned in 2021 for his association with sex trafficker Jeffrey E. Epstein, had all his advising and research privileges restored in March, a faculty department chair confirmed last week. Professor Scott V. Edwards ’86, who chairs Harvard’s Organismic and Evolutionary Biology Department, said in an interview that he and Mathematics Department chair Michael J. Hopkins had been directed by Dean of Science Christopher W. Stubbs to “welcome Dr. Nowak back to our respective departments.” “I don’t remember the details, but essentially all sanctions have been lifted,” he said. Edwards said he understood Nowak to be subject to “mild check-ins,” but did not know any more specifics. He said he did not know if the decision had been made by Stubbs or Claudine Gay, dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and President-elect. FAS spokesperson Rachael Dane and University spokesperson Jason A. Newton declined to comment for this article. Nowak also declined to comment. In 2020, a University report on Harvard’s relationship with Epstein found close ties between
Epstein and Nowak, a Math and Biology professor, prompting Gay to put Nowak on paid administrative leave. In March 2021, Gay shut down the Nowak-directed Program for Evolutionary Dynamics — which had received substantial financial support from Epstein — and barred Nowak from accepting new advisees or serving as the principal investigator on any new grants or contracts. She said at the time that she would decide whether to lift the sanctions after two years. In addition to Edwards, two other faculty members said they believed the sanctions were lifted this semester. Edwards said Nowak had “very little communication” with others in the OEB department before the sanctions were lifted. “We’re glad to have him back,” he added. According to Harvard’s 2020 report on its ties to Epstein, the sex trafficker donated $6.5 million to Harvard to establish the PED, led by Nowak, in 2003. Following Epstein’s 2008 conviction for soliciting a minor for prostitution, he may have visited the PED office at One Brattle Square more than 40 times through 2018, the report noted. The report revealed that PED maintained an office for Epstein, known as “Jeffrey’s Office,” and gave him unfettered access to the facility, in what Gay later determined to be a violation of Harvard’s policies on campus access. “Epstein was routinely accompanied on these visits by young women, described as being in their 20s, who acted as his assistants,” the report said.
The report does not detail who was present at the meetings, describing them as simply “leading scholars from Harvard and elsewhere in science and math and, occasionally, individuals involved in public life.” A Wall Street Journal investigation last month found that Epstein previously had an unreported meeting with Nowak and renowned linguist Noam Chomsky, along with other Harvard faculty, in March 2015 at the PED office. The Journal later reported that former University President Lawrence H. Summers met repeatedly with Epstein and in 2014, solicited donations from Epstein on behalf of Summers’ wife, Harvard English professor Elisa F. New. Summers, who was in office when the PED was established in 2003, stepped down from the presidency in 2006, prior to Epstein’s first conviction. In a footnote, the report briefly mentions a $110,000 donation that Gratitude America, Ltd., a charity connected to Epstein, made to New’s nonprofit, though adds that the review did not explore this further as this was not a gift to Harvard itself. Of Summers, the report only notes that he established the PED. Harvard Law School professor Lawrence Lessig said in an interview he felt Nowak was “scapegoated” by the report, which he said omitted the involvement of Summers, the “most important actor in the whole story.” Lessig said Summers was crucial in developing Epstein’s ties with the University. Nowak’s “institution had a re-
Sex trafficker Jeffrey E. Epstein may have visited the office of Program for Evolutionary Dynamics’ office in One Brattle Square more than 40 times in 2018. JULIAN J. GIORDANO—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
lationship to Epstein because the administration told him he had to have one and he had to maintain it and he had to support it,” Lessig said. “Martin is recruited to run the center, and it’s made clear from the very beginning Martin’s job
in running the center is to continue to encourage the funding of its chief funder, which was Epstein,” he added. “But for Larry Summers, it’s not even clear any of it would have happened,” Lessig said. A spokesperson for Summers
wrote that his involvement with the PED was entirely during his presidency and prior to Epstein’s arrest, and that Harvard’s gift procedures were followed. rahem.hamid@thecrimson.com elias.schisgall@thecrimson.com
Eight Harvard Affiliates Banned From Entering Russian Territory BY MILES J. HERSZENHORN AND CLAIRE YUAN CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
The Russian government sanctioned Harvard Corporation Senior Fellow Penny S. Pritzker ’81 and seven other Harvard affiliates, the country’s ministry of foreign affairs announced in a Friday press release. In addition to Pritzker, the Russian government sanctioned Corporation member Mariano-Florentino “Tino” Cuéllar ’93, Economics professor Jason Furman ’92, former Harvard Kennedy School Dean Joseph S. Nye, and four members of the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute — Emily Channell-Justice, Volodymyr Dibrova, Lubomyr A. Hajda, and Tymish J. Holowinsky. The eight Harvard affiliates are among nearly 500 American citizens who were blacklisted from entering Russia by the Russian foreign ministry on Friday. Several former senior American government officials were also
sanctioned, including former President Barack Obama and former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie L. Yovanovitch. A press release published in Russian stated that the sanctions were a “countermeasure” to sanctions imposed by the Biden administration on Russia after the country’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year. Furman, who served as an economic adviser to Obama, said he learned of his inclusion on the list when The Crimson reached out to him for comment on Friday. “My Ukrainian-born grandfather would be proud,” Furman wrote in a statement. “I can’t wait to visit Russia again after they have withdrawn from Ukraine and [the] current autocratic regime is no longer in charge,” Furman wrote. “Until then any sanctions on me are irrelevant.” Pritzker and Cuéllar, who are fellows of the University’s highest governing body, declined to comment through Harvard spokesperson Jonathan L. Swain.
Swain also declined to comment on the sanctions on behalf of the University. Dibrova, a researcher at HURI and a Ukrainian language preceptor, also learned he was sanctioned by the Russian government when The Crimson reached out to him for comment. Dibrova wrote in an emailed statement on Friday that he was “both surprised and flattered” to find himself in the “company of such worthy Americans.” “There are several ways to handle this news,” he wrote. “We can joke about it, We can call it an act of insanity. Or we can think about a government for whom a language teacher in a foreign university could be a clear and present danger to their national security.” Serhii Plokhy, a professor of Ukrainian history and the director of HURI, called the sanctions against four of the institute’s staffers a “bizarre action and a bizarre list.” “The names of our Harvard colleagues on it remind us once
again that Russia wages its war in Ukraine not only against the Ukrainian armed forces but also against Ukrainian history, identity and culture, and people who teach and study them,” Plokhy wrote in an email. Channell-Justice, director of the Temerty Contemporary Ukraine Program at HURI, wrote in an email that she is honored to see her name “and the name of the Ukrainian Research Institute recognized at the same level as political leaders like Barack Obama and Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch.” “The Russian Federation has used the tool of personal sanctions to publicly name people whom it considers threatening to the Russian narrative of its genocidal war in Ukraine,” she wrote. Days after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Channell-Justice spoke at a rally in Harvard Yard in support of Ukraine. Holowinsky, executive director of HURI, wrote in an emailed statement that it was not “completely surprising” to find himself
on the sanctions list. “Apparently, the Institute’s mission to support scholarly research focusing on topics concerning Ukrainian history, literature, language, and contemporary society is viewed
as a threat to Russia’s foreign ministry,” Holowinsky wrote. “I have no response to the Russian government,” he added. miles.herszenhorn@thecrimson.com claire.yuan@thecrimson.com
Four members of the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute were sanctioned by the Russian government. JULIAN J. GIORDANO—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
