Prominent Harvard physicist Lisa Randall corresponded with Jeffrey Epstein for years after his 2008 Florida conviction for procuring sex from a minor, according to the newly released Justice Department documents.
The correspondence between Randall, the Frank B. Baird Jr. professor of science at Harvard, and Epstein was first reported by the Harvard Crimson.
Epstein, who hobnobbed with heads of state, academic stars, Hollywood celebrities, and titans of industry, died in custody in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal child sex trafficking charges.
“What does fun consist of? For you?” Randall wrote to Epstein on April 23, 2012, after he had sent her a news story on a conference he organized that included her.
“Interesting people,” Epstein replied.
In a statement Monday, Randall said she was first introduced to Epstein in 2004 by John Brockman, then her literary agent.
“In 2006 I attended a gravity conference in St. Thomas that Epstein sponsored where Stephen Hawking and also Nobel laureates were present,” Randall said. “Epstein was often in touch with the scientific community, some of whom he funded, and he was often at events with scientists at Harvard and elsewhere.”
Randall said she never received any research funding from Epstein.
“I am appalled by the crimes that were revealed and the terrible harm he caused his victims,” Randall said. “I deeply regret maintaining contact.”
Randall, the author of a number of books including “Knocking on Heaven’s Door: How Physics and Scientific Thinking Illuminate the Universe,” is one of several Harvard luminaries whom records show had communications with Epstein, most notably former university President Larry Summers, who has essentially retreated from public life.
In November, Harvard announced it would undertake a new review of anyone related to the university who is mentioned in the recently released Epstein emails.
Asked for comment Wednesday on the status of the review, a spokesperson referred a reporter to the earlier statement.
In another email dated Aug. 2, 2010, Randall asked Epstein if it was true that “you and Krauss are doing an encore,” an apparent reference to theoretical physicist and cosmologist Laurence Krauss.
It wasn’t clear what the “encore” referred to.
“Yes,” Epstein replied, and when Randall asked “Why when and who,” Epstein answered succinctly.
“Fun nov, no one yet,” he replied, prompting the academic to quip, “wow i thought i could outdo your brevity should have known better.”
Following a storm in 2017, Randall asked if Epstein’s private Caribbean island had sustained any damage.
“so how did your island fare in the storm?” she wrote.
Three years earlier, she had mentioned the island in another note.
“Hi there,” Randall wrote to Epstein in November 2014. “Just saying hello as I had a trip to the Caribbean and can see your island. Where are you these days anyway? And how are you?”
And in June 2010 correspondence, Randall asked about Epstein’s health while he was staying in Paris.
“how’s the jet lag?” she wrote. “what do you do in paris if you can’t eat the food?”
Epstein replied, “bathe in aesthetics,” and Randall responded, “seriously you’re a tourist? what are you doing?”
He said he had a Paris apartment and asked Randall, “are there any age minds here that I should meet.”
She responded with a joke about his legal travails.
“Wow haven’t you had enough house arrest?” Randall wrote, referring to the tail end of Epstein’s sentence for his 2008 guilty plea in the Florida case, which was served on house arrest after an earlier stint behind bars with generous work release provisions.
Earlier, in October 2009, Randall had tried to arrange a call with Epstein while he was serving the house arrest portion of his sentence in the Florida case.
“About to head into my car where you probably won’t be able to hear me,” Randall wrote on Oct. 18, 2009. “Tomorrow? Or how late?”
“ok or before 8,” Epstein replied.
Shortly after his house arrest ended in July 2010, Randall asked him about his air conditioning, apparently not knowing that the jet setter had already decamped for Paris.
“Hi - what’s happening?” Randall wrote to him on July 26, 2010. “How’s your air conditioning working?”
“im in paris and it is working fine,” Epstein replied.
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.
Travis Andersen can be reached at travis.andersen@globe.com.