Dr. Richard Axel, a Nobel Prize-winning scientist, said he is stepping down as co-director of Columbia University’s Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute on the heels of his association with notorious sex predator Jeffrey Epstein drawing public attention.
“My past association with Jeffrey Epstein was a serious error in judgment, which I deeply regret,” Axel, 79, said in a statement on Tuesday.
“I apologize for compromising the trust of my friends, students, and colleagues,” Axel said.
“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 has not been accused of wrongdoing in connection with his friendship with Epstein, who died in August 2019 from suicide, weeks after being arrested on federal child sex trafficking charges.
