If flying on Mr. Epstein's private jet called the Lolita Express down to his private island in the Caribbean called "Pedophile Isle" counts as "elite," then maybe so:

https://slate.com/technology/2019/08/jeffrey-epstein-science...

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/09/what-kind-researcher...

Many young scientists have left the research community after completing their PhD's because they were unable to obtain funding the old-fashioned way, by submitting grant applications that are evaluated through the peer review process, rather than by kowtowing to a sexual predator who was facing charges for the sex-trafficking of minors and was trying to buy his way out of federal prison by "facilitating" donations to Harvard and MIT through his billionaire co-conspirators that include Leon Black, Glenn Dubin, and Les Wexner, in exchange for thank-you notes, as a form of reputation laundering, from co-conspirator and still-president of MIT L. Rafael Reif.