IAS Welcomes 272 New and Returning Scholars for 2023–24

With the arrival of a new cohort of scholars to the Institute campus, the 2023–24 academic year is officially underway. The visiting class includes 272 new and returning scholars, working alongside 25 permanent Faculty and 20 Emeriti, each of whom are preeminent in their respective fields. This year, the international community of IAS hails from 47 countries, representing 105 institutions. Visiting scholars range from postdocs to distinguished professors, united across disciplines by a common cause to push the boundaries of knowledge and pursue their own curiosity.

Maria Hsiuya Loh, an internationally recognized expert in the field of early modern Italian art, is the most recent IAS Faculty appointment, having joined the School of Historical Studies in July. Loh has conducted groundbreaking work on originality and repetition, and the emergence of the early modern artist. Her appointment continues a rich tradition of art history at IAS inaugurated by Institute Professors Erwin Panofsky and Millard Meiss.

All scholars are based within one of the Institute’s four Schools—Historical Studies, Mathematics, Natural Sciences, and Social Science. The following four scholars, each of whom you can read more about, represent a unique cross-section of this year’s class:

• Brad Bolman, Founders’ Circle Member in the School of Historical Studies, focuses on the history of knowledge about organisms since the nineteenth century. While at IAS, Bolman is working on a transnational history of mycology and fungal science tentatively titled, “The Decomposition Book.”
   
• Mathematics Member Shiyue Li probes combinatorial aspects of algebraic geometry. As a researcher she enjoys, in her words, “the freedom to wonder about fascinating things in nature, and the connections with other minds from around the world.”

The School of Mathematics will host a special year on the p-adic arithmetic geometry, organized by Professors Bhargav Bhatt and Jacob Lurie. The program will bring together a mix of people interested in various facets of the subject with an eye towards sharing ideas and questions across fields.

• Weishun Zhong, Member in the School of Natural Sciences, uses tools from statistical physics to study the brain and AI. Zhong explains that the applications of his field range far and wide: “from electrons to neurons, from proteins to ecosystems, from financial markets to political voting, statistical physics can be applied to almost any system with many degrees of freedom.”
   
• Social Science Member Lindsey D. Cameron studies algorithmic management, the gig economy, and the future of work. While at IAS, she will be working on several projects in this area, including a multi-national comparative ethnography book project tentatively titled, “The Good Bad Job: How Algorithmic Management Reconfigures Work.”

The 2023–24 theme seminar of the School of Social Science will explore ways to account for the expansion, rise, and influence of “the platform” in global society. In what ways do platforms—such as biomedical technologies—structure, reorganize, and consolidate science, knowledge, and markets? How does the dominance of private platforms produce forms of inequality—including along vectors of race, gender, class, nation, and region—and compel reimaginings of public infrastructure? How do today’s platforms differ from the social infrastructures and architectures of the past?

The theme seminar will be led by Alondra Nelson, Harold F. Linder Professor in the School; Lisa Nakamura, the Gwendolyn Calvert Baker Collegiate Professor at the University of Michigan; and Christian Sandvig, the H. Marshall McLuhan Collegiate Professor of Digital Media at the University of Michigan.

IAS scholars are selected by the permanent Faculty in a highly competitive process for their bold ideas, innovative methods, and deep research questions.

Learn more about our scholars and their research here.

Learn more about how to submit an application for the 2024–25 academic year here.

About the Institute

The Institute for Advanced Study has served the world as one of the leading independent centers for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry since its establishment in 1930, advancing the frontiers of knowledge across the sciences and humanities. From the work of founding IAS faculty such as Albert Einstein and John von Neumann to that of the foremost thinkers of the present, the IAS is dedicated to enabling curiosity-driven exploration and fundamental discovery.

Each year, the Institute welcomes more than 200 of the world’s most promising post-doctoral researchers and scholars who are selected and mentored by a permanent Faculty, each of whom are preeminent leaders in their fields. Among present and past Faculty and Members there have been 35 Nobel Laureates, 44 of the 62 Fields Medalists, and 23 of the 26 Abel Prize Laureates, as well as many MacArthur Fellows and Wolf Prize winners.