We felt like we were in uncharted territory: no mathematicians we knew had ever received grants of this magnitude before. Normally, mathematicians receive relatively small individual grants from the National Science Foundation. This sounded a bit scary . . . We turned to the Institute for Advanced Study as the place to foster innovation. As they say, the rest is history.
Mathematical language is becoming more and more pervasive. This
phenomenon ranges from the mundane (imprints on T-shirts or mugs)
to the more scientific (its use in reporting or in disciplines
outside of mathematics) and even includes art in its...
Can one predict the future arrangements of planets over
extremely large time periods? For centuries this issue has
triggered dreams of curious people, and hot debates by specialists
including Newton, Lagrange, Poincare, Kolmogorov, Laskar,
and...
In Voevodsky’s experience, the work of a mathematician is 5%
creative insight and 95% self-verification. Moreover, the more
original the insight, the more one has to pay for it later in
self-verification work. The Univalent Foundations project...
In November, the Association of Members of the Institute for
Advanced Study (AMIAS) sponsored two lectures by Jennifer Chayes,
Member (1994–95, 97) in the School of Mathematics, and Quentin
Skinner, Member in the Schools of Historical Studies (1974...
In 1981, Freeman Dyson addressed a typically distinguished group
of scholars gathered at the Institute for a colloquium, but
speaking on a decidedly atypical subject: “Unfashionable
Pursuits.”
The problems which we face as guardians of scientific...
In 2012–13, the Institute’s School of Mathematics hosted a
special year devoted to the topic “Univalent Foundations of
Mathematics,” organized by Steve Awodey, Professor at Carnegie
Mellon University, Thierry Coquand, Professor at the University
of...
The following text is excerpted from the introduction to the
book Homotopy Type Theory: Univalent Foundations of
Mathematics, written jointly by the participants of the special
year on univalent foundations, which may be obtained at http:/...
Since spring, and even before that, I have participated in a
great collaborative effort to write a book on homotopy type theory.
It is finally finished and ready for public consumption. You can
get the book freely at http://homotopytypetheory.org...
The story of the “data explosion” is by now a familiar one:
throughout science, engineering, commerce, and government, we are
collecting and storing data at an ever-increasing rate. We can
hardly read the news or turn on a computer without...
