By Sheeva Azma

This article mentions aspects of Jeffrey Epstein’s life that may not be suitable for all audiences.

Legal proceedings are still underway to settle Jeffrey Epstein’s estate. He named at least three scientists in his trust.

I recently read that Jeffrey Epstein named scientists in his trust. So, I got to work figuring out what exactly that entailed, despite being a science writer with very little knowledge about probate matters — though I did learn a few things writing this article.

First, I found two documents that talk about Jeffrey Epstein’s assets — his last will and testament and a document called the 1953 Trust.

I wasn’t sure why those two documents existed independently of each other, so I googled it, which told me that Jeffrey Epstein’s will is a “pour-over” will (this Dallas lawyer had a good explanation of it all, in my opinion) says to transfer his assets and property into the 1953 Trust. The people tasked with doing that are Rich Kahn and Darren Indyke, who we see in the Epstein files. Rich Kahn, in particular, deals with a lot of financial things, like sending people money from Epstein, in the Epstein files.

The money and assets left to Epstein’s friends by him will not be paid out until the estate pays its debts — including to survivors of Epstein’s abuse. “It is unlikely that Epstein was able to fully fund his trust prior to his death,” wrote the Dallas lawyers with the good explainer of it all.

Who knows why Epstein went the extra mile to publicly acknowledge his friendship with these scientists in this trust, written two days before he died in federal custody for sex trafficking, awaiting a trial.

Epstein’s beneficiaries give some insight into the people whose friendships he valued most, for whatever reason.

The New York Times explains that the 1953 Trust gave most of Epstein’s assets to his girlfriend at the time, Karyna Shuliak, whose dental school education Epstein helped fund. Some of his properties, which were directed to go to Shuliak, have been sold by now.

Epstein also left $5 million to Martin Nowak, who led the Epstein-funded Program for Evolutionary Dynamics at Harvard, where Jeffrey Epstein had an office and visited over 40 times between 2010 and 2018. My independent analysis of the Epstein files shows that his visit to the Epstein ranch is documented in multiple Epstein email discussions as a sort of ‘digital paper trail’ — I talk about that both here and here. (To my knowledge, nobody has asked Nowak, Ed Boyden, Joi Ito, or others about their emails to Epstein that indicate that these scientists visited Epstein’s New Mexico property.)

We would be remiss in our discussion of scientist friends of Epstein named in his trust if we did not mention Boris Nikolic, who is named as a successor trustee on page 25 of the trust document. With 14,587 Epstein mentions, Nikolic was a Harvard-trained immunologist at the Gates Foundation, where he was Bill Gates’ chief science advisor. He then resigned from the Gates Foundation to work as a biotech venture capitalist. Melanie Walker, a survivor of Epstein’s who has been romantically linked to Bill Gates, introduced Nikolic and Epstein in 2009, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Nikolic has 14,587 Epstein files mentions, which is the most, by far, of any scientist I have found in the Epstein files (full list at the top of this blog, being continually updated as I find more info).

Silicon Sallie, an investigative journalist who maintains The Official Epstein AI Library, has found that in 2021, an official document from the FBI in the Epstein files states that Boris Nikolic was “investing in a known US-based Artificial Intelligence company. This US AI company is interested in pursuing funding from US DARPA […] and other US Government funding sources. Nikolic was designated a executor of Jeffrey Epstein’s estate.

Hmm, which AI company is that, I wonder? Seems like all of them are trying to land defense contracts these days.

Together, Nowak and Nikolic round out the top 6 of scientists with Epstein files mentions, according to my research. That’s … pretty bad. However, there’s another name in the top 6 scientists with Epstein mentions that is also named in Epstein’s trust.

Barnaby Marsh is named as a successor to Nikolic, should Nikolic be “unwilling or unable to serve” as a trustee of the trust. He’s right above Martin Nowak (yes, I fixed that typo of Nowak’s first and last name being switched around after I took this screenshot). Barnaby Marsh, an evolutionary biologist who still works in philanthropy, has 4,749 mentions in the Epstein files.

Whether or not Nikolic, Nowak, and Marsh get anything, they played a big enough role in Epstein’s life that he felt he owed them something after his death. What role that was remains unclear.

By the way, there are several redactions in the 1953 Trust that make it unclear who exactly is named. It seems possible that other scientists could be named, but it’s unclear to me who such people might be.

Science has an Epstein problem

Epstein affiliation among scientists is not good for science culture, but you can’t understand what you don’t know! That’s why we have been unpacking the science in the Epstein files since February 2026. Check out our Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, our blog, and our Substack, for more.