‘I apologize for compromising the trust of my friends, students, and colleagues,’ Dr. Richard Axel said.
The head of Columbia University’s brain institute is resigning after newly released emails show he maintained a friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Dr. Richard Axel said in a Feb. 24 statement he is stepping down from his position as co-director of the Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute at Columbia University, and resigning from his role as investigator at Columbia’s Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
“My past association with Jeffrey Epstein was a serious error in judgment, which I deeply regret,” Axel, 79, said. “I apologize for compromising the trust of my friends, students, and colleagues. I recognize the problems this has caused, and I will work to restore this trust. What has emerged about Epstein’s appalling conduct, the harm that he has caused to so many people, makes my association with him all the more painful and inexcusable.”
Axel won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2004, along with another scientist, for identifying genes in DNA that encode the odorant receptors in noses, according to the Nobel Foundation.
He has been a professor at Columbia for 53 years. He said he will continue to work for the brain institute and remains devoted to the university.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Jan. 30 released millions of documents related to Epstein, primarily emails between Epstein and others, including Axel.
Columbia said in a statement that it appreciates Axel’s work over the years and that he will still be a researcher and professor.
“The University has seen no evidence that Dr. Axel violated any University policy or the law,” it said. “However, Dr. Axel made clear that in light of this past association, and the continued fallout from the release of DOJ files, he felt it appropriate to relinquish his position as co-director. The University agrees with this decision, while at the same time recognizing his extraordinary contributions to the University and his dedication to his colleagues, to his students, and to science.”
Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to state charges: one count of soliciting prostitution and one count of soliciting prostitution from a minor. He was sentenced to 18 months in jail and released in 2009. On July 6, 2019, Epstein was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges and died by suicide the following month while awaiting trial.
The documents released by the DOJ showed that Epstein invited Axel and Axel’s wife to his island, Little St. James, and that tickets were purchased for the couple to fly to St. Thomas, also in the U.S. Virgin Islands. A spokesperson for the university told The Epoch Times in an email that Axel and his wife never went to Epstein’s island.
Other missives showed Axel met and corresponded with Epstein over the years, including in 2017.
Epstein wrote to Axel on April 3, 2019, “Dinner?”
“Cannot tonight. Just discharged my son from hospital. Multiple seizures,” Axel wrote. “Remember our conversation. I would like to see you. Weekend or next week.”
