The Institute Letter Fall 2024

Through the eyes of Maureen C. Miller, Elizabeth and J. Richardson Dilworth Member (2021) in the School of Historical Studies, explore the groundbreaking scholarly work of Professor Emerita Caroline Walker Bynum, who transformed medieval religious objects from mere background elements into central, influential players in understanding Christian devotion.

With the press of a button, your favorite meal can be delivered to your door using GrubHub, and you can hail a ride across town with Uber. Lindsey D. Cameron, Member (2023–24) in the School of Social Science, investigates the human impact of this ever-growing gig-economy. 

Should materials existing outside the Institute’s immediate space be incorporated into its archival collection? A challenge of precisely this nature arose earlier this year, when the Shelby White and Leon Levy Archives Center acquired documents received and collected by Friedrich Adolf Paneth (1887–1958), an Austrian-born chemist with no direct IAS affiliation but who had close contact with IAS scholars.

Discover “Broadcasting Fidelity: German Radio and the Rise of Early Electronic Music,” a new book by Myles Jackson, Albers-Schönberg Professor in the History of Science in the School of Historical Studies, which delves into the origin, invention, and impact of a unique electronic instrument: the trautonium.

In a groundbreaking study, Pravesh Kothari, Visiting Professor (2024) in the School of Mathematics, and Peter Manohar, Member (2024–26) in the School, have transformed theoretical computer scientists’ knowledge of locally correctable codes (LCCs), showing that such codes must grow exponentially as the amount of original data increases.

In August 2024, the Institute’s Historical Studies - Social Science Library (HS-SS) received a gift that sparked a host of new connections to be made between old and new titles in the library’s holdings: a copy of Old English Studies and its Scandinavian Practitioners: Nationalism, Aesthetics, and Spirituality in the Nordic Countries, 1733–2023, sent by its author Robert E. Bjork, Member (2004–05) in the School of Historical Studies.

From unraveling the mysteries of high-dimensional expanders to exploring the intricate nuances of topology, three new appointments to the Institute's School of Mathematics promise to push the boundaries of fundamental knowledge and inspire groundbreaking discoveries in theoretical computer science, dynamical systems, and geometric analysis.

Scholars from the School of Natural Sciences are leading investigations into the sources of gravitational wave signals, the unexpectedly high frequency of detections, and—extending beyond these direct questions—establishing innovative and unexpected connections between gravitational wave research and particle collider physics. These contributions are pushing the boundaries of knowledge in this field.

Learn how Peter Sarnak, Professor Emeritus in the School of Mathematics, emerged as a pivotal "connector," bridging pure mathematics and computer science through his work on Ramanujan graphs, and revealing how seemingly esoteric mathematical investigations can yield unexpected and transformative insights.

Building on analogs with plasma physics, John N. Bahcall Fellow Chris Hamilton (2021–26), visiting graduate student Shaunak Modak (2023–26), and Professor Emeritus Scott Tremaine have developed a new theoretical framework for understanding galactic disks.