Nobel Laureate Richard Axel Steps Down From Columbia Institute After Epstein Ties Surface
Richard Axel, the Nobel Prize-winning neuroscientist who has spent more than fifty years at Columbia University, announced Tuesday that he is stepping down from his role as co-director of the Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute following renewed scrutiny of his past relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
The move comes after the late-January release of millions of pages of Department of Justice records detailing Epstein’s connections with powerful figures in academia, finance and philanthropy—relationships that persisted even after his 2008 felony conviction and prison sentence for solicitation of prostitution involving a minor.
Columbia said it had “no evidence that Dr. Axel violated any university policy or law.” Still, the university stated that it agreed it was appropriate for Dr. Axel to step down from his leadership role at the institute. He will continue to teach and conduct research at Columbia.
“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.”
In his own statement, Dr. Axel described his relationship with Epstein as a “serious error in judgment” and apologized for “compromising the trust of my friends, students and colleagues.”
“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.”
Dr. Axel also resigned as an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, one of the most prominent private biomedical research organizations in the United States.
Although he faces no criminal misconduct allegations, the Justice Department files show that Dr. Axel maintained a longstanding personal relationship with Epstein. He was a frequent visitor to Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse and, at times, served as an intermediary between Epstein and Columbia officials involved in admissions and philanthropic development.
The relationship stretched back decades. According to a 2007 profile in New York magazine, the two had known each other since the 1980s, when Epstein began supporting scientific research he believed promising. In that article, Dr. Axel praised Epstein’s intellectual abilities.
“He has the ability to make connections that other minds can’t make,” Dr. Axel is quoted as saying. “He is extremely smart and probing.”
Travel records included in the newly released documents show that Dr. Axel and his wife were scheduled to visit Epstein’s private island in late December 2011. Columbia said the trip ultimately did not take place. An email dated Dec. 29, 2011, from Epstein’s assistant suggests scheduling concerns led to the cancellation.
“I spoke to Dr. Axel, and he says to come on Sat. and depart on Monday is just too tight, so he will pass this time,” the assistant wrote. “BUT requests another invite at some point.”
The documents also list Dr. Axel and his wife as confirmed guests at a dinner in the early 2010s alongside Mortimer B. Zuckerman. In 2012, Zuckerman, then owner of The Daily News, pledged $200 million to establish the Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute on Columbia’s Manhattanville campus. Dr. Axel became one of its three founding co-directors.
Emails from 2016 show Dr. Axel personally assisting in admissions-related matters connected to Epstein’s associates. He arranged to meet Alice de Rothschild, the daughter of a billionaire European banker, following her campus tour and connected her family with a Columbia official responsible for major gift development.
“I have spoken with Columbia admissions, and she is good but not strongest candidate,” Dr. Axel wrote to Epstein in November 2016. “I am pushing.”
Alice de Rothschild was rejected in February 2017 and later enrolled at New York University, where she studied biology.
“Alice de Rothschild’s university admissions in the United States, as well as her rejections, are entirely due to her grades,” the Rothschild family said in a statement earlier this month to The New York Times. “Alice cannot be held responsible for Jeffrey Epstein’s unilateral actions.”
The Justice Department files also include a transcript of a conversation between Epstein and a man identified only as Richard, who is described as conducting research on the olfactory system—the same area of study that earned Dr. Axel the Nobel Prize. In the exchange, the two discuss science and Epstein’s efforts to secure a pardon from Charlie Crist, who was then nearing the end of his term as Florida’s governor.
The transcript includes jokes about Epstein’s status as a registered sex offender. Epstein remarks that some women have told him they find his criminal designation “exciting,” and Richard replies with an off-color anecdote involving a 20-year-old prostitute and a much older man.
Dr. Axel, 79, has been a professor at Columbia for 53 years and runs a large laboratory employing more than a dozen researchers and assistants. In 2004, he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Linda B. Buck “for their discoveries of odorant receptors and the organization of the olfactory system,” according to the Nobel committee.
His resignation marks another instance of how the newly disclosed federal records continue to reverberate through elite academic institutions, reshaping reputations and leadership roles years after Epstein’s 2008 conviction.
Moumita Basuroychowdhury is a Contributing Reporter at The National Digest. After earning an economics degree at Cornell University, she moved to NYC to pursue her MFA in creative writing. She enjoys reporting on science, business and culture news. You can reach her at moumita.b@thenationaldigest.com.