Jeffrey Epstein wanted the world to know he was a science patron. Across more than 2,400 federal documents, his relationship with Harvard mathematician Martin Nowak is laid out in press releases, travel itineraries, emails, and an internal activity report.
The $6.5 million Epstein directed to Nowak's research program built a partnership that survived Epstein's 2008 sex-offender conviction and continued for nearly a decade.
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The Program That Epstein Built -- and Branded
In 2003, Jeffrey Epstein donated $6.5 million to Harvard University to establish the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics (PED), a research center focused on the mathematics of evolution, cancer, and language. Martin Nowak, a professor of mathematics and biology, was installed as its director.
Document vol00009-efta00584942-pdf -- a press article found in the federal evidence archive -- captures the framing Epstein preferred: 'Evolution is always in flux but nothing drives it more than money. So when an elusive hedge funder from New York called Jeffrey Epstein arrived at Harvard...'
Epstein did not simply write a check. He co-branded the program's output. Press releases distributed under his name announced PED findings -- on tumor growth, game theory, cancer dynamics -- as if Epstein himself were a scientific authority.
Document vol00009-efta01131064-pdf contains one such release: 'Jeffrey Epstein VI Foundation Funds Groundbreaking Tumor Growth Research -- Recent cancer research from the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics at Harvard University, under the direction of Martin Nowak...'
The PED's own internal record reinforces this picture. Document vol00009-efta00760684-pdf is the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics Activity Report, prepared in January 2010 by Martin Nowak and his co-director Lydia Liu.
The report lists dozens of researchers and publications and identifies Nowak as director -- but it sits inside the Epstein federal evidence archive alongside documents bearing Epstein's name and foundation.
Travel, Emails, and a Decade of Contact
The documentary trail does not stop at the founding grant. Across multiple volumes of the federal archive, emails and travel records show that contact between Epstein's office and Nowak continued well into the 2010s.
Document vol00010-efta01912805-pdf, dated December 27, 2012 -- more than four years after Epstein pleaded guilty to state solicitation charges in Florida -- carries the subject line: 'Travel arrangements for MARTIN NOWAK traveling on 12/27/2012.' The email places Nowak on travel coordinated through Epstein's administrative network.
Document vol00010-efta01912874-pdf, also dated December 27, 2012, is a reply from Jeffrey Epstein himself. It references the same itinerary and the presence of Karyna Shuliak, a figure who appears repeatedly in Epstein's communication logs.
Further emails from 2015, 2016, and 2017 -- documents vol00010-efta02066072-pdf, vol00010-efta02197379-pdf, and vol00011-efta02233533-pdf -- show Nowak as recipient in correspondence routed through Lesley Groff, Epstein's longtime executive assistant. These communications span a period when Harvard had already begun receiving scrutiny for its Epstein ties.
What the 2,400 Documents Reveal About the Pattern
Nowak's case sits inside a broader pattern visible across the federal archive: Epstein used large, targeted donations to secure proximity to credentialed researchers and institutions.
Document vol00009-efta01093110-pdf shows the Jeffrey Epstein Foundation promoting PED research by linking directly to Nowak's publications. Document vol00011-efta02699034-pdf -- titled 'Martin Nowak and the Origin of Life' -- appears in the archive as an application document, suggesting Epstein's office maintained files on Nowak's academic work.
Nowak himself has said he was unaware of the full scope of Epstein's crimes. In a 2019 statement following Epstein's arrest on federal sex trafficking charges, Harvard acknowledged receiving the $6.5 million donation and said it would not return the funds. Nowak subsequently stepped down from PED's directorship.
But the documents quantify what a verbal account cannot: more than 2,400 files in the federal archive bear some connection to this network, and Nowak's name appears across at least 10 distinct documents spanning 2010 to 2017.
The archive does not prove criminal wrongdoing by Nowak. What it does show is the mechanism by which Epstein embedded himself in elite science: a founding gift large enough to name a program, a press apparatus that put his name on its discoveries, and years of maintained contact that outlasted his first criminal case.
Disclaimer: This article is based on documents in the public federal evidence archive. It does not allege criminal wrongdoing by Martin Nowak. Document citations refer to files in the InvArchives DOJ document collection. InvArchives is an independent investigative publication.
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This analysis references publicly released documents from the Epstein case archive. All individuals mentioned are presumed innocent unless convicted in a court of law. Language such as “documents indicate” reflects what appears in source materials, not conclusions of guilt. Readers are encouraged to review the cited source documents directly.