Ethan Zuckerman, a prominent professor at the MIT Media Lab, has announced his resignation in protest after it was revealed that the lab's director accepted money from the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. Zuckerman, who directs the Center for Civic Media at the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based laboratory, told the Boston Globe he was leaving upon discovering the institution's ties to Epstein, who died by suicide in jail earlier this month after being arrested on federal sex trafficking and conspiracy charges.
Zuckerman said he is working with his students and staff to move his work out of the Media Lab, possibly to another part of MIT or elsewhere. He plans to leave the lab by the end of the academic year in May 2020. In a note to past winners of the lab's annual disobedience award, which last year recognised the #MeToo movement, Zuckerman wrote that he was 'heartbroken'.
The lab's director, Joi Ito, admitted in a statement earlier this month that he first met Epstein in 2013, five years after Epstein pleaded guilty and was imprisoned for soliciting a minor for prostitution. Ito invited Epstein to the lab, visited his residences, accepted money from his foundations, and allowed him to invest in his tech startup funds. In a public apology, Ito said he was never involved in or aware of Epstein's alleged crimes but took full responsibility for his error in judgment.
Epstein, who referred to himself as a 'science philanthropist', reportedly donated up to $20m a year to scientists. The Boston Globe reported that Epstein's foundation and not-for-profit gave MIT at least $200,000. Zuckerman wrote on Medium: 'The work my group does focuses on social justice and on the inclusion of marginalized individuals and points of view. It's hard to do that work with a straight face in a place that violated its own values so clearly in working with Epstein and in disguising that relationship.'
