Talk:Martin Nowak

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Apparent copyright violation[edit]

I've removed what appears to be a direct copy of this page, which clearly displays a copyright notice and is not credited as a source. A quick look at the Wayback Machine shows the external webpage existed before the text was added to this article, so it appears that some improper copying has taken place here. The material can be re-added if it is appropriately reworded or fully quoted and given proper attribution. Franamax (talk) 18:48, 23 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

This material actually came into the article from Nowak's biography on the PED website, which is credited as a source. I strongly suspect thirteen.org (of which I hadn't heard) got it from Martin's CV. Although formulaicly the Harvard CV asserts copyright this is definitely fair use. NBeale (talk) 05:48, 24 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]
NBeale, I am not interested in this article enough to sort it out completely, but it sounds like you are copying verbatim material from some PED site which has also been copied verbatim by thirteen.org. That suggests your copying is not in violation of the copyrights of thirteen.org. However, it sounds like your copying is plagiarism in the sense that it does not show by use of quotation marks which passages are verbatim copies of some source. It could be fair use to quote that much, but you have to put the passages in quotes or it is plagiarism. (Note/apology: I could perhaps be a bit off-base here, because I have not traced out where the specific language came from.) doncram (talk) 09:59, 24 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Really this is not a problem. I know Martin well, and I'm quite sure he does not object. But to make people happy I have also done a few tidies. NBeale (talk) 13:09, 26 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

EO Wilson paper[edit]

I've put in a reference to this very important paper which has just come out as the cover paper in Nature. I know and collaborate with Martin, but I do think this is (a) important and (b) NPoV. NBeale (talk) 09:06, 26 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I have included a note and refs to the criticisms of this paper.vHF 152.88.168.51 (talk) 13:04, 14 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Supercooperators[edit]

I've added a section on Supercooperators because any book that gets a substantial review in Nature is IMHO notable enough for this. Also Milinski says something quite important about the NTW paper. However I am a friend of Martin's and if people feel this is insufficiently NPOV please amend. There is lots more to be said about Supercooperators and if someone else were to make an article about the book it wouldn't be a bad idea. NBeale (talk) 07:11, 20 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

List of doctoral students[edit]

Do we really need so many names in the "list of doctoral students" section, especially when most of these people are not really notable scientists (yet) with their own Wikipedia entries? I would propose deleting most names except those who are notable enough to have their own Wikipedia entries. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ashujo (talk • contribs) 18:11, 7 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

External links modified[edit]

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External links modified[edit]

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On leave from Harvard[edit]

Martin Nowak is on leave because of previous contacts with Jeffrey Epstein, according to the Harvard Crimson. It's too early for edits and the story will likely evolve in the next few weeks, but we should keep an eye out for it.--Raxu360 (talk) 17:51, 1 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

BLP and Epstein[edit]

Article says: "Nowak played a role in substantiating Epstein's false claims to MIT administrators that he had given tens of millions of dollars to Harvard", with a link to Wired.

Wired says only that Nowak "helped" Epstein tell that story to MIT, based on a linked Harvard report (and an earlier MIT report it does not link to) and does not specify what help MIT says Nowak provided. In particular, Wired says nothing to indicate that Nowak lied to or misled anyone at MIT about amounts of money Harvard derived from Epstein, or otherwise acted badly. There is no other reference to Nowak in the Wired piece, which is about Epstein.

The article at the moment insinuates in Wikivoice that Nowak was a party to Epstein's misrepresentations to MIT, which seems like a blatant BLP violation if Wired is all there is to go by. 73.89.25.252 (talk) 23:05, 2 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The MIT report does not refer to Nowak as far as my searches of the PDF ("Nowa", "Nova", "Martin") can tell.
http://factfindingjan2020.mit.edu/files/MIT-report.pdf?200117
Nor do the appearances of "MIT" in the Harvard report involve Nowak. https://ogc.harvard.edu/files/ogc/files/report_concerning_jeffrey_e._epsteins_connections_to_harvard_university.pdf 73.89.25.252 (talk) 23:16, 2 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I've removed the sentence due to the above findings in the reports. 73.89.25.252 (talk) 23:28, 2 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Just to nail this down, from the Harvard report one can infer the underlying facts.

  • Epstein donated 9.6 million dollars, including the money that established Nowak's institute, and further introduced two donors to Harvard who gave another 9.5 million (7.5 of it to Nowak's program).
  • "The Harvard Crimson and other sources reported at the time that Epstein’s 6.5 million gift was part of a 30M pledge from Epstein" but no record of such a pledge was found by Harvard.
  • Epstein introduced a big donor, Leon and Deborah Black and their foundation, to the research by Nowak and another professor, leading to the above millions in donations to Nowak's institute, but the Blacks continued to donate up to a total of 20 million dollars to various parts of Harvard "over the past decade" according to their representative (p.14). The report is dated May 2020 and the first donation from the Blacks engineered by Epstein was in late 2011.
  • "At the publicist’s request, and with Professor Nowak’s approval, the Program’s website added links to two websites maintained by Epstein’s foundations. The website for one of those websites, ... falsely stated (and continues to falsely state) that Epstein’s foundation “established the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics at Harvard University with a $35 million gift to the university.” (p.21)
  • "Epstein plainly sought to use Harvard’s web domain to improve his image. Professor Nowak’s decision to accede to Epstein’s request that PED create a page on the PED/Harvard website featuring Epstein’s photograph and links to Epstein’s own website permitted Epstein to use Harvard’s web domain for self-promotion. It also enabled Epstein to spread false information about the level of his giving to Harvard."

So, Epstein directly and through his friends gave 18-30 million to Harvard depending on how you count, used the webpage links from the Harvard program he had established to draw attention to his claim to have given 35 million, and may have used that in his contact with MIT. Eventually with the help of the same friends, Epstein gave 8 million dollars to MIT, and at a faster rate than the donations to Harvard ( see https epstein-ranking dot xyz, Wikipedia does not allow a direct link). It's not clear here whether Epstein was deceptive at all in presenting himself as potentially a donor of tens of millions of dollars to MIT, and Nowak's role is in putting links on a site, not "substantiating Epstein's false claims to MIT administrators".

Wired's version, that Nowak helped Epstein spread a false story, is also stretching the truth. Reporter privilege is that people rarely dig to check the details so any equivocal insinuation will do. 73.89.25.252 (talk) 00:30, 3 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

To seal the deal, if you go through all occurrences of "Harvard" in the MIT report, they describe several people getting the impression of huge gifts from Epstein to Harvard ("25M center" and "30M+"), but based on media reports, their own Google searches, and conversations with people who are clearly not Nowak (e.g. "tech billionaires", a professor at Harvard Law School, and a Linkedin executive). The number on Epstein's site linked from Nowak's institute was 35 million. The MIT report neither mentions that figure nor has any indication that the institute's webpage was part of the information chain from Epstein to anyone at MIT. 73.89.25.252 (talk) 03:57, 3 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Finally, in case it becomes relevant here or at WP:RSNP, the paragraph in Wired (formerly) cited in the article reads as follows: When Ito and other MIT administrators first heard from Epstein, they believed that he had given tens of millions of dollars to Harvard. According to the new report, Epstein spread that false story with the help of PED director Martin Nowak. (Nowak is on paid leave while the university reviews whether he violated its standards of conduct.). Article URL: https://www.wired.com/story/for-jeffrey-epstein-mit-was-just-a-safety-school/ . 73.89.25.252 (talk) 04:25, 3 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Lead Paragraph Citations[edit]

  • IMO article lead includes career discipline information well developed in the article body with apparently appropriate citations.
  • However article lead sentences omit citations possibly leading casual readers to form Wikipedia:BLPRS concerns.
  • I suggest repeating citations within the article lead improves the article's credibility.
  • Does Wikipedia policy or other consensus apply in such a case?

Conrad T. Pino (talk) 09:52, 7 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Removal of Epstein content[edit]

I have made some edits to get this article in a better state and plan to continue working on it. However, examining the article's history, I have noticed that over the past few months, a series of anonymous IPs have gradually removed content relating to the disciplinary actions against Nowak due to his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. This is a WP:NPOV violation as these events were extensively covered in reliable sources. I will restore this content. Astaire (talk) 09:37, 8 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

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