Larry Summers has announced his decision to retire from teaching at Harvard University at the end of the current academic year, bringing to a close nearly five decades of academic service amid continuing scrutiny over his past association with Jeffrey Epstein.
Summers, who previously served as U.S. Treasury Secretary and later as president of Harvard, described the decision as a “difficult choice” after 50 years at the institution, where he first joined as a graduate student.
He expressed gratitude to students and colleagues and said he intends to focus on economic research and global policy commentary following retirement.
The resignation comes roughly three months after Summers stepped aside from teaching duties amid controversy surrounding the release of emails detailing his communications with Epstein.
The correspondence, disclosed through investigations by the United States Department of Justice and the United States Congress, prompted an internal review at Harvard.
While Summers has not been accused of any wrongdoing related to Epstein, he acknowledged in November that he felt “deeply ashamed” about maintaining contact with him and recognised the distress his association caused.
As part of the ongoing review, Jeremy Weinstein, dean of the Kennedy School, accepted Summers’ resignation as co-director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government. A university spokesperson confirmed that Summers will remain on leave and will not conduct classes or supervise students before his retirement becomes official.
The controversy also led Summers to step down from the board of the artificial intelligence company OpenAI.
The scrutiny surrounding Epstein-related contacts has extended to other academic institutions. At Columbia University, Nobel Prize-winning neuroscientist Richard Axel has stepped down as co-director of the Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute following attention to his communications with Epstein.
Meanwhile, Yale University announced that professor David Gelernter has been barred from teaching computer science classes pending a review of his contacts, which reportedly included discussions about involving a Yale student in a potential project.
Epstein died by suicide in a federal detention facility in New York in 2019, weeks after his arrest on charges of sex trafficking minors. Since then, newly released records detailing his network of contacts have continued to generate institutional and professional repercussions.
About the Author
