"On an ordinary Thursday, in June 1993, on the fifth floor of Arthur K. Watson Hall at Yale, a computer science professor opened mail in his office. David Gelernter believed that what sat on his desk was a stack of letters, one of the packages probably a dissertation from a graduate student. But when he tore open the package, it began smoking. It was an explosive device from Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber."
"Still, Gelernter survived one of the Unabomber's attacks against influential academics leading the digital revolution. At Yale, Gelernter is best known for being the worst-ranked professor in the university's computer science department. Nationally, he's known for being a contrarian in academia and clashing against scientific consensus on climate change. For that role, Gelernter met with Donald Trump in 2017 and was floated as a potential science adviser during his first term."
Students outcry over emails showing David Gelernter's relationship with Jeffrey Epstein prompted a university review. Dozens of emails between 2009 and 2015 show correspondence with the convicted sex offender, according to Department of Justice files. In 2010 Gelernter invited Epstein to New Haven and offered the hospital's heliport for his helicopter to land. Gelernter survived a 1993 Unabomber bombing that damaged four fingers on his right hand and his right eye. At Yale he is noted as the lowest-ranked professor in the computer science department and is known nationally as a contrarian who has clashed with climate consensus and met with Donald Trump.
Read at The Nation
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