Nobel Prizewinning brain scientist steps down over Epstein ties

"My past association with Jeffrey Epstein was a serious error in judgment, which I deeply regret. I apologize for compromising the trust of my friends, students, and colleagues."

"Axel's resignation came after the Columbia University student newspaper, the Columbia Spectator, reported earlier this month that Axel and his wife were invited to Epstein's island in 2011—three years after the financier's conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor—but that the scientist did not go."

"Axel and Epstein, who died in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges, had a long, public friendship, with the scientist praising Epstein in a 2007 New York Magazine article."

Richard Axel, a 2004 Nobel Prize winner in Physiology or Medicine for his work on olfactory perception, resigned as co-director of Columbia University's Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute. His resignation followed reports of his long-standing association with Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex offender who died in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges. Axel acknowledged his past friendship with Epstein as a serious error in judgment and apologized for compromising the trust of colleagues and students. He also stepped down from his position as an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The Columbia Spectator reported that Axel and his wife were invited to Epstein's island in 2011, three years after Epstein's conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor.

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