Yale University has said that a prominent computer science professor will no longer teach classes while his conduct is reviewed, following the release of documents showing he emailed the late financier Jeffrey Epstein describing an undergraduate as a "good-looking blonde" while recommending her for a job.
Professor David Gelernter, known for his work in parallel computation, sent the email to Epstein in October 2011, years after Epstein had pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from an underage girl. In the message, Gelernter wrote that he had an "editoress" in mind for a job, a Yale senior whom he described as a "v small good-looking blonde."
Gelernter defended the email in correspondence with the dean of Yale's School of Engineering & Applied Science, Jeffrey Brock, according to the Yale Daily News. He noted that Epstein was "obsessed with girls" and that he was keeping "the potential boss's habits in mind." He added: "She was smart, charming & gorgeous. Ought I to have suppressed that info? Never!"
Yale said in a statement: "The university does not condone the action taken by the professor or his described manner of providing recommendations for his students. The professor's conduct is under review. Until the review is completed, the professor will not teach his class." Students in his computer science class were notified that he would not be teaching on Tuesday.
In a message to students on Tuesday, Gelernter again defended his emails, saying the 2011 email was a "personal, private email, dug out of the dump of Epstein files." He said neither he nor the student knew at the time that Epstein was a convicted sex offender. Gelernter, 70, has been on the Yale faculty since 1982 and was badly injured in 1993 by a mail bomb sent by "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski.
