Martin Andreas Nowak (born April 7, 1965[2])[3] is an Austrian-born professor of mathematics and biology at Harvard University.

[4] Nowak was the director of Harvard's resulting Program for Evolutionary Dynamics (PED) from 2003 until 2020, when he was disciplined by being suspended from supervising undergraduate research for two years and having his institute permanently closed down as a punishment for having provided an office, keycard, and passcode, and for allowing Epstein free and unlimited access to PED for over ten years after his conviction for sex crimes.

[5][6][7] Martin Nowak is famous for his extensive contributions to various scientific disciplines, including evolutionary game theory, virology, cancer dynamics, and the evolution of cooperation.

Additionally, Nowak has edited books, including Evolution, Games, and God, which examines the relationship between theology and evolutionary theory.

[9] Nowak was also co-director with Sarah Coakley of the Evolution and Theology of Cooperation project at Harvard University, sponsored by the Templeton Foundation,[12] where he was also a member of their Board of Advisers.

[16] Scientific American reported that Nowak's team received US$6.5 million initially, with nothing released to him after 2007, a couple of hundred thousand dollars remained unspent.

[18][5] In 2021, Harvard decided a proportionate response to the severity of Nowak's failure to follow Harvard policies was to close the institute founded with Epstein's money, to donate the money remaining to a foundation helping victims of sexual assaults, and to impose a two year ban on Nowak supervising undergraduate research, serving as the principal investigator of new grants, and supervising new graduate students or postdoctoral fellows.

[11] He collaborated with John Maynard Smith on genetic redundancy,[36] with Baruch Blumberg on hepatitis B virus,[10] with George Shaw and Andrew McMichael on HIV.

[39] In 1990, Nowak and Robert May proposed a mathematical model which explained the puzzling delay between HIV infection and AIDS in terms of the evolution of different strains of the virus during individual infections, to the point where the genetic diversity of the virus reaches a threshold whereby the immune system can no longer control it.

[50][51][52][53] Nowak maintains that the findings of the paper are conclusive and that the field of social evolution should move beyond inclusive fitness theory.

[56] Nowak's 2006 book Evolutionary Dynamics: Exploring the Equations of Life discusses the evolution of various biological processes.

Reviewing Evolutionary Dynamics in Nature, Sean Nee called it a "unique book" that "should be on the shelf of anyone who has, or thinks they might have, an interest in theoretical biology.

[58] Nowak's book SuperCooperators: The Mathematics of Evolution, Altruism and Human Behaviour (Or, Why We Need Each Other to Succeed), co-authored with Roger Highfield, was published in 2011.

[59][60][61] With Sarah Coakley, Nowak edited the 2013 book Evolution, Games, and God: The Principle of Cooperation, published by Harvard University Press.

The volume features articles from experts in multiple fields who explore the interplay between theology and evolutionary theory as pertaining to cooperation and altruism.