Corina Tarnita


Corina Tarniţă is a Romanian-American mathematician and theoretical biologist known for her work in mathematical biology and complex adaptive systems. She is currently a professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University. Her research examines how living organisms organize themselves into patterns at different scales.

Early life and education

Born in Romania, Tarnita showed an early aptitude for mathematics, encouraged by her mother, a professor of materials science and engineering. She won the Romanian National Mathematical Olympiad three times from 1999 to 2001. Tarnita moved to the United States to pursue higher education, obtaining her B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. in Mathematics from Harvard University. She was a Junior Fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows before joining the Princeton University faculty in 2013.

Research and career

Initially focused on high-dimensional mathematics, Tarnita was inspired by Martin Nowak's work on evolutionary dynamics and shifted to studying mathematical biology. This change led her to complete her Ph.D. under Nowak's supervision, finishing in just three years.
Tarnita's 2010 paper, "The evolution of eusociality," co-authored with Martin A. Nowak and Edward O. Wilson, challenged the long-standing kin selection theory and proposed a new model for the evolution of eusociality, sparking significant debate and reevaluation in the field of evolutionary biology. The response included a rebuttal published in Nature from over a hundred researchers.
Working with Princeton colleagues Robert Pringle and Juan Bonachela, Tarnita developed new theories about the formation of large, regular vegetation patterns, such as fairy circles in the Namib Desert.
Tarnita's research on "loner" behavior in slime molds revealed that this seemingly non-cooperative trait is actually an evolutionarily stable strategy, challenging previous assumptions about social behavior in microorganisms.
In 2024, Tarnita was named a Guggenheim Fellow.

Controversies

Tarniță's name explicitly appears in more than 300 email exchanges with Jeffrey Epstein, according another batch of Epstein files released in January 2026.
In one particular exchange, Tarniță was directly addressing Martin Nowak and Lesley Groff, both known to have had close relationships with the late sex offender. The initial sender was Nowak, and the subject was about two female students from the University of Iași, with the woman apparently explaining the origin of the two women and briefly adding context regarding the university. Iași is the place in which alleged child sex trafficker Morel Bolea, founder of the Kasta Morelly modelling agency and NGO Eurodemos, was operating from 2000 to 2016. Bolea was sued in 2025 by DIICOT for child trafficking. He was also accused in 2022 by USR senator Marius Bodea of alleged child abuse crimes, which were hidden by the city's PNL mayor, Mihai Chirica.

Selected publications

  • Nowak, Martin A.; Tarnita, Corina E.; Wilson, Edward O.. . Nature. 466 : 1057–1062. doi:10.1038/nature09205. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 20740005.
  • Bonachela, J. A.; Pringle, R. M.; Sheffer, E.; Coverdale, T. C.; Guyton, J. A.; Caylor, K. K.; Levin, S. A.; Tarnita, C. E.. "". Science. 347 : 651–655. doi:10.1126/science.1261487. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 25657248.
  • Tarnita, C. E.; Bonachela, J. A.; Sheffer, E.; Guyton, J. A.; Coverdale, T. C.; Long, R. A.; Pringle, R. M.. ". Nature. 541 : 398–401. doi:10.1038/nature20801. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 28102269.