Nobel Laureate Gets Jail Time for Sex Abuse of Teen
Nobel Prize-winning scientist Daniel Gajdusek was ordered Tuesday to serve 1 1/2 years in jail for sexually abusing a 15-year-old boy he brought back from a research trip to Micronesia.
Gajdusek, 73, pleaded guilty to two counts of child abuse in February. He began serving his sentence immediately in the Frederick County Detention Center. Under a plea agreement, the judge suspended all but 18 months of a 30-year sentence.
Gajdusek won the 1976 Nobel Prize in medicine for his work on so-called slow viruses that lie dormant before attacking the body.
Prosecutors said Gajdusek brought home 56 boys from research trips to the Pacific islands beginning in the 1960s. He has said he brought the children to educate them, and they lived with him in his home in Middletown.
Prosecutors alleged that Gajdusek molested four other boys, but no charges were filed. Three have returned to Micronesia, and the fourth is in prison.
Nearly 30 of Gajdusek’s family, friends and colleagues packed the courtroom for the sentencing.
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