News

An exhibition currently on display in the Shelby White and Leon Levy Archives Center celebrates how—from the Institute’s founding in 1930 to today—IAS scholars have brought that which is known into conversation with that which is newly discovered to meet the challenges of the present moment.

Edward Witten, Professor Emeritus in the School of Natural Sciences, has received the Basic Science Lifetime Award in Theoretical Physics from the International Congress of Basic Science, which is presented to scientists who have brought about fundamental change in their disciplines. 

Described as "one of the most distinguished theoretical physicists of our time," IAS Trustee Emeritus Martin Rees has been announced as the winner of the 2024 Wolf Prize in Physics. Also recognized with a 2024 Wolf Prize in Mathematics was Noga Alon, a frequent Visiting Professor in the School of Mathematics. 

At a ceremony held in Berlin last week, Penelope Deutscher, Member in the School of Social Science, was officially presented with a Research Award ("Humboldt-Forschungspreis") by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Deutscher's award will support a project titled "Revocability: A Post-Roe Grammar of Power," which was developed at the Institute.

Daniela V. Gabor, Roger W. Ferguson, Jr., and Annette L. Nazareth Member in the School of Social Science, argues that the U.K. Labour party will aim to "rebuild the infrastructure that is crumbling after years of Tory underinvestment" by turning to private investment companies. She contends that this "will generate windfalls for investors and leave the rest of us worse off."

Writing for The Guardian, Didier Fassin, James D. Wolfensohn Professor in the School of Social Science, argues that a "hazardous strategy" by President Emmanuel Macron has facilitated an evolution of the whole political spectrum to the right.

"As gig work grows ever more prevalent, critics have voiced major issues with these jobs, from their lack of labor protections to income instability and more. But if gig work is so bad, why do so many people do it?" In a piece for the Harvard Business Review, Lindsey D. Cameron, Member in the School of Social Science, reflects on the seven years that she spent conducting a wide-ranging study of the ins and outs of ride-hail work.

Scott Tremaine, Professor Emeritus in the School of Natural Sciences, has received an honorary doctorate from the University of Waterloo in recognition of numerous seminal contributions to the field of astrophysics, notably "establishing the theory that supermassive black holes are at the core of galaxies."

Sara Seager, Long-Term Member (1999–2002) in the School of Natural Sciences, has been announced as one of the winners of the 2024 Kavli Prize in Astrophysics. Seager was presented with the award for "ground-breaking work" on the discovery and characterization of exoplanets and their atmospheres.

From May 19–24, the Institute welcomed 40 students, educators, and researchers from across the globe for its annual Women+ and Mathematics (W+AM) program. As well as providing a glimpse into the Langlands program, this year's lectures discussed examples and applications of Deligne-Lusztig theory.

The 2024 Shaw Prize in Mathematical Sciences has been awarded to Peter Sarnak, Gopal Prasad Professor in the School of Mathematics, for his "development of the arithmetic theory of thin groups and the affine sieve, by bringing together number theory, analysis, combinatorics, dynamics, geometry, and spectral theory."

IAS Director and Leon Levy Professor David Nirenberg, School of Social Science Visitor Michèle Lamont (1997), and IAS Academic Trustee Eve Marder have been elected to the American Philosophical Society (APS), one of the oldest learned societies in the U.S.

Past Members from the School of Social Science have edited a special issue of Public Culture titled "Science and the State." The papers arise from the 2020–21 theme seminar of the same name, led by Alondra Nelson, Harold F. Linder Professor in the School, and Visiting Professor Charis Thompson.

Uddipan Banik, Member in the School of Natural Sciences, has received the Dirk Brouwer Memorial Prize for his Ph.D. thesis, titled "Pushing the Frontiers of Non-Equilibrium Dynamics of Collisionless and Weakly Collisional Self-Gravitating Systems." 

In the School of Mathematics, Robert & Luisa Fernholz Professor Akshay Venkatesh and IBM von Neumann Professor Camillo De Lellis have been elected as Members of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (AAA&S).

The 2024 IAS Public Policy Lecture saw Margrethe Vestager, the Executive Vice President of the European Commission for A Europe Fit for the Digital Age, discuss lessons that can be drawn from the life and legacy of past Director J. Robert Oppenheimer (1947–66) in the age of large digital platforms and artificial intelligence.

Julia Ticona, Member in the School of Social Science, has been awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) for the research project, “Imagining AI in organized labor: Struggles over the value of cultural work,” which she co-directs with Caitlin Petre of Rutgers University.

Nine past scholars across three IAS Schools—Natural Sciences, Historical Studies, and Social Science—have received 2024 Guggenheim Fellowships, one of the most remarkable honors for mid-career researchers, artists, and writers. 

A two-week “marathon” workshop on S-matrix theory, organized by scholars from the School of Natural Sciences, brought together more than 40 cosmologists, particle theorists, and mathematicians from around the world to discuss future directions in the field. 

Lindsey D. Cameron, Member in the School of Social Science, has written for the Harvard Business Review about her research into the global gig economy. Alongside co-author Kalie M. Mayberry, she argues that traditional approaches to labor issues have been ineffective in supporting gig workers because, in the gig economy, customer and worker interests "don’t align."

Two incoming Members in the School of Natural Sciences have received 2024 Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowships from NASA: Alexander Dittmann (2024–28) and Yue Hu (2024–27). 

This article from ACSR Discovery profiles computational work by James Stone, Professor in the School of Natural Sciences, and his colleagues, which has revealed details about how matter falling into black holes and the energy released from them impacts the evolution of the universe.

The Institute’s Krateros Project is launching a new, exploratory effort to further unlock the text of ancient Greek inscriptions by applying optical character recognition technology to its 30,000-strong collection of epigraphic squeezes.

The rising prominence of artificial intelligence continues to blur the lines between human and machine. An exhibition currently on display at the Institute reveals that, since its founding, IAS has been a key space for the testing and contesting of these boundaries.

In a recent op-ed, Joan Scott, Professor Emerita in the School of Social Science, explains how the recent and widely-celebrated French constitutional amendment securing women's access to abortion falls short of full equality.

This Spring, the Institute's Arts lineup includes free, public programs with world renowned concert pianists, a three-time Grammy Award winning mezzo soprano, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and a star Principal Dancer and current Artistic Director of the San Francisco Ballet.

Peter Sarnak, Gopal Prasad Professor in the School of Mathematics, spoke with Quanta about the impact of research into elliptic curves using statistical techniques and artificial intelligence. Understanding such curves has been dubbed "a high-stakes endeavor that has been central to math." 

Karl H. Palmquist, Martin A. and Helen Chooljian Member in Biology in the School of Natural Sciences, received the award for designing innovative new methods for studying the mechanical forces by which cells in developing chicken skin organize themselves.

Past scholars in the Schools of Mathematics and Natural Sciences are among the recipients of the 2024 Sloan Research Fellowships, a landmark honor for early-career scholars. 

IAS Director and Leon Levy Professor David Nirenberg has been announced as the recipient of the University of Tübingen’s 2024 Leopold Lucas Prize. Nirenberg is to be recognized for his research into the relationship between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in the Middle Ages and the present day.

The Association for Asian Studies has announced Kriti Kapila, Member in the School of Social Science, as one of three winners of the 2024 Bernard S. Cohn Prize for first books on South Asia. Kapila was recognized for her title Nullius, an anthropological account of the troubled status of ownership in India.

Miguel Walsh, von Neumann Fellow in the School of Mathematics, has been announced as one of two recipients of the 2024 Young Mathematician IMSA Prize. The award recognizes scholars from Latin America and the Caribbean region who have made "remarkable contributions to mathematics."

"Leading contributions to computational astrophysics" made by James Stone, Professor in the School of Natural Sciences, are set to be recognized with an award from the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). 

Past IAS Member and Visitor Neta Bahcall has been announced as the 2024 winner of the American Astronomical Society's prestigious Henry Norris Russell Lectureship. Neta's receipt of this award makes her and her late husband John N. Bahcall, past Professor in the School of Natural Sciences, the first astronomy couple to each receive this honor.

At the 2024 Joint Mathematics Meetings, six former scholars from the School of Mathematics were presented with awards by the American Mathematical Society. The work for which the scholars were praised encompasses diverse fields of mathematics, including the theory of tensor categories, p-adic group representations, and the Conway knot.

As the turn of the year approaches, we are delighted to share an image from this year’s IAS holiday card. The card features photographs of the linden tree that graces our campus, alongside a message from Director and Leon Levy Professor David Nirenberg.

This December, over 200 scholars from across the globe descended on the Institute for Advanced Study for a three-day Qubit workshop focused on applying ideas and concepts from quantum information theory to the study of spacetime.

Didier Fassin, James D. Wolfensohn Professor in the School of Social Science, has been awarded an honorary doctorate from the Free University of Brussels. The university, by awarding the insignia of doctorate honoris causa, honors recipients who have served their fields (whether it be in science, arts, or politics) with distinction and excellence. 

Wang Hui, Elizabeth and J. Richardson Dilworth Fellow in the School of Historical Studies, has been included in Prospect Magazine's annual list of Top Thinkers. His work is described as an "indispensable reference point for those seeking to understand China as it is today and where it might be going."

Scholars from the School of Natural Sciences brought together astrophysicists from across the world for a workshop focused on improving understanding of observations from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). The organizers also hosted an observing night for the IAS community, featuring a specially constructed radio telescope.

Bhargav Bhatt, Fernholz Joint Professor in the IAS School of Mathematics and Princeton University, was lauded by the Infosys Prize committee for his "groundbreaking contributions" to arithmetic geometry and commutative algebra.

The TUM School of Social Sciences and Technology at the Technical University of Munich has awarded Alondra Nelson, Harold F. Linder Professor in the School of Social Science, its inaugural Friedrich Schiedel Prize for Social Sciences and Technology, recognizing outstanding scholars and change makers in the field of social sciences.

Edward Witten, Professor Emeritus in the School of Natural Sciences, has been awarded a Benjamin Lee Professorship by the Asia Pacific Center for Theoretical Physics (APCTP). The professorship was named for prominent South Korean physicist Benjamin Whisoh Lee, a frequent IAS Member.

Misha Tsodyks, C.V. Starr Professor in the School of Natural Sciences, has been recognized by the Society of Neuroscience for "publishing many ground-breaking papers that overturned the dominant thinking of the time."

April 2022 saw Hollywood come to the Institute as filming for Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer biopic took place on campus. This article, featuring comments from Members and Visitors across all four IAS Schools, provides insight into what it was like to share the campus with the production team and highlights our community's reactions to the film.

Alondra Nelson, Harold F. Linder Professor in the School of Social Science, has been named the U.S. representative to the United Nations High-Level Advisory Body on Artificial Intelligence, which aims to foster a globally inclusive approach to AI governance.

Michael Magee, current von Neumann Fellow in the School of Mathematics, has won a Philip Leverhulme Prize for mathematical research, specifically his work on spectral geometry.

On November 15, Alondra Nelson, Harold F. Linder Professor in the School of Social Science, will be presented with a Public Service Award from the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) for "her leadership on both AI regulation and advancing equity in STEM fields."

Peter Sarnak, Gopal Prasad Professor in the School of Mathematics, has received an honorary doctorate from Stockholm University for his work in number theory and mathematical analysis, which is "famous for great depth and tremendous breadth."

The 2023 iteration of Park City Mathematics Institute (PCMI), an annual Institute outreach program held in Park City, Utah, took place between July 16–August 5. The choice of research topic, quantum computation, was motivated by the substantial current activity, both theoretical and practical, in this field.

Six of the 2024 Breakthrough Prize winners––John Lawrence Cardy, Simon Brendle, Roland Bauerschmidt, Mikhail M. Ivanov, Marko Simonović, and Oliver Philcox––have past affiliations with the Institute's Schools of Mathematics and Natural Sciences.

TIME has named Alondra Nelson, Harold F. Linder Professor in the Institute's School of Social Science, to the first-ever TIME100 AI list, which highlights 100 individuals advancing major conversations about how AI is reshaping the world.

Join the Institute for Advanced Study, one of the world’s leading centers for curiosity-driven research, for the 2024–25 academic year. Accepted scholars, drawn from around the world, will be able to pursue their own research within one of the four IAS Schools: Historical Studies, Mathematics, Natural Sciences, and Social Science. Funding is available.

This July, 18 aspiring and early-career science journalists from all over the U.S., as well as Canada, the UK, Germany, Portugal, Nigeria, and the Philippines converged on campus for an intensive workshop led by past IAS Director's Visitors Natalie Wolchover and Siobhan Roberts. 

With the launch of chatbots such as ChatGPT and Bard, artificial intelligence (AI) has never been more prominently placed in the popular imagination. At IAS, the technology has been the subject of interdisciplinary discussion for some time. This article, featuring comments from scholars across all four IAS Schools, demonstrates the breadth of debate.

All four of this year’s winners of the Dirac Medal––Jeffrey Harvey, Igor Klebanov, Stephen Shenker, and Leonard Susskind––are past Members in the School of Natural Sciences.

Prospects in Theoretical Physics (PiTP), an intensive two-week summer program for advanced graduate students and postdoctoral scholars, took place from July 10–21 this year, the first meeting since COVID-19 struck in 2020.

Svitlana Mayboroda, past von Neumann Fellow in the School of Mathematics (2018, 2021), has been honored with a Blavatnik National Award for Young Scientists for developing an elegant new mathematical theory to understand electronic waves.

Alondra Nelson, Harold F. Linder Professor in the School of Social Science, has won a 2023 Champions of Freedom Award from the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) for her work safeguarding privacy, open government, and democratic values. 

Richard Lauren Kagan, past Member in the School of Historical Studies (1976–77, 2006), and Geoffrey Parker have penned a profile of Sir John Huxtable Elliott, Professor in the School of Historical Studies from 1973–90.

Sabine Schmidtke, Professor in the School of Historical Studies, has been elected to the British Academy.

Professor Emeritus Edward Witten, renowned physicist in the School of Natural Sciences, has been awarded the Hamburg Prize for Theoretical Physics. He is recognized “for his groundbreaking contributions to a unified mathematical description of fundamental forces of nature.”

Rubina Raja, past Member in the School of Historical Studies (2019), was praised by the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung award committee for her cross-disciplinary work, located at the interface between classical archaeology and religious studies.

Regarded by Hermann Weyl as “the greatest [woman mathematician] that history has known”, Emmy Noether, past Visitor in the School of Mathematics (1933–35), was a pioneer in the field of abstract algebra. This June, the Institute is hosting a conference celebrating her contributions, which is accompanied by a display of archival materials in Fuld Hall.

Alondra Nelson, Harold F. Linder Professor in the School of Social Science, has been honored with the SAGE-CASBS Award.

The 2023 Women and Mathematics Program took place from May 21–26, bringing together 31 students, educators, and researchers from universities around the world to participate in a series of lectures, problem sessions, research seminars, and special talks around the theme "Patterns in Integers."

Past Faculty Shing-Tung Yau (1980–84) and Vladimir Drinfeld, past Member (1990, 1996–97, 1998) and recent Visiting Professor (2019–20), have been awarded the 2023 Shaw Prize in Mathematical Sciences.

On May 19, 2023, the IAS community came together to celebrate Founders Day, an annual event that honors sibling philanthropists Louis Bamberger and Caroline Bamberger Fuld, whose gift secured the foundation and endowment of IAS.

Angelos Chaniotis, Professor in the School of Historical Studies, has been elected to the American Philosophical Society (APS), one of the oldest learned societies in the United States, composed of top scholars in a wide variety of disciplines. 

Christina Dunbar-Hester, current Member in the School of Social Science, argues that people’s health and mobility should take precedence over goods movement in the quest for cleaner air in California.

Karen Uhlenbeck, current Distinguished Visiting Professor in the School of Mathematics, has been elected to the Royal Society for her “substantial contribution to the advancement of science.”

IAS archivist Caitlin Rizzo outlines research conducted into Thayyoor K. Radha, one of the earliest women of color at the Institute. Although her history has been difficult to trace, Radha's career was marked by incredible success. The new research demonstrates how even some of the least-known Members play a critical part of the intellectual ecosystem of the Institute. 

Akshay Venkatesh, Robert & Luisa Fernholz Professor in the School of Mathematics, has been elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest honors in recognition of advancements in original research. 

Christopher Bonura, current Member in the School of Historical Studies, is one of 36 artists and scholars to be awarded a Rome Prize for 2023–24 by the American Academy in Rome (AAR).

Toni Mikael Annala, current Member in the School of Mathematics, has received the 2023 CMS Blair Spearman Doctoral Prize from the Canadian Mathematical Society (CMS).

Alondra Nelson, Harold F. Linder Professor in the School of Social Science, has received an honorary doctorate from Northeastern University, in recognition of her work as a “groundbreaking advocate for scientific discovery and technology innovation that focuses on ethics, racial and gender equity, and access.”

Eight scholars across all four Schools—Mathematics, Natural Sciences, Historical Studies, and Social Science—have been elected as members of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, an honor that recognizes accomplishments and leadership in academia, the arts, industry, public policy, and research. 

Seven scholars across all four Schools—Mathematics, Natural Sciences, Historical Studies, and Social Science—have won 2023 Guggenheim Fellowships, one of the most remarkable honors for mid-career researchers, artists, and writers. 

Jennifer Lee, current Member in the School of Social Science, has been selected by the American Academy of Political and Social Science (AAPSS) as one of six 2023 fellows. 

Lia Medeiros, current Member in the School of Natural Sciences, has been named an Einstein Fellow of the NASA Hubble Fellowship Program (NHFP). 

A new workshop for up-and-coming science journalists will be hosted on the Institute campus from July 10–15, 2023. The workshop will provide emerging writers with a chance to network with IAS scientists and hone their journalistic skills. 

“Exceptionally prolific mathematician” Luis Caffarelli, past Faculty (1986–96) and Member (2009) in the Institute’s School of Math, has been awarded the 2023 Abel Prize for his field-shaping work on nonlinear partial differential equations.

Alondra Nelson, Harold F. Linder Professor in the School of Social Science, will serve as a distinguished senior fellow at the Center for American Progress (CAP). According the CAP announcement, “Dr. Nelson will work with CAP to explore and drive forward policy around the interconnections between science, data, economies, equity and justice, and democracy...

Eight scholars in the Schools of Mathematics and Natural Sciences are among the recipients of the 2023 Sloan Research Fellowships, a landmark honor for early-career scholars. 

Ingrid Daubechies, past Member in the School of Mathematics (1999), has won the 2023 Wolf Prize “for work in wavelet theory and applied harmonic analysis.” 

Harold F. Linder Professor Alondra Nelson announced that she will leave the White House on Friday, February 10th and return to her role in the School of Social Science.

Anna Wienhard, current Member in the School of Mathematics, has received the Hector Science Award 2022 from the Hector Foundation, which honors outstanding scientists from German universities and research institutions. 

The American Astronomical Society (AAS) has announced its awards and prizes for 2023. This includes three former scholars in the School of Natural Sciences, who were given a Buchalter Cosmology Prize.

Professor Emerita Caroline Walker Bynum has received the 2022 Distinguished Scholar Award from the American Catholic Historical Association (ACHA) “for a lifetime of excellence in research and scholarship in the field of medieval history.” 

Past Members in the School of Mathematics Peter B. Kronheimer (1987–89) and Tomasz Mrowka (2003–04) have received the 2023 Leroy P. Steele Prize for Seminal Contribution to Research.

A new exhibition, available to view in the Institute's Mathematics – Natural Sciences Library and Shelby White and Leon Levy Archives Center, takes a critical look at the notion that mathematics is a single, true, "universal language". The displays probe what it takes to construct meaning in mathematical discourse, while highlighting groundbreaking work by IAS scholars such as Shiing-Shen Chern, Robert Langlands, and Edward Witten.

This year, UPS Foundation Professor Wendy Brown will lead the Institute’s School of Social Science theme seminar on the politics of climate crisis. In her own words, Brown describes the theme seminar as an investigation of the emergent politics that...

Joan Wallach Scott, Professor Emerita in the School of Social Science, has been awarded an honorary doctorate from Université Paris 8.

Didier Fassin, James D. Wolfensohn Professor in the School of Social Science, has been elected to the American Philosophical Society (APS), which recognizes extraordinary accomplishments across a variety of fields. 

Myles Jackson, Albers-Schönberg Professor in the History of Science, School of Historical Studies, has been elected to the German National Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech), which advises on issues related to technical sciences and technology policies in Germany.

Rashid Sunyaev, Distinguished Visiting Professor in the School of Natural Sciences, has been awarded the Max Planck Medal, the highest prize in theoretical physics granted by the German Physical Society (DPG), in recognition of “numerous and...

The 2022–23 Edward T. Cone Concert Series, curated by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang, concludes with a multi-year look at how composers and performers use different definitions of VIRTUOSITY to push themselves forward.  

Monica Kim (Member, 2015–16) and Reuben Jonathan Miller (Member, 2016–17) in the School of Social Science, as well as June Huh (Veblen Fellow, 2014–17; Visiting Professor, 2017–20) in the School of Mathematics, have joined the 2022 class of MacArthur Fellows. The world-renowned fellowship celebrates the artistic and scientific accomplishments of individuals across a variety of fields, enabling their future pursuits.

Lia Medeiros, current Member in the School of Natural Sciences, has received a special commendation from the judges at Nature Awards.

Didier Fassin, James D. Wolfensohn Professor in the School of Social Science, has been appointed as a professor at the Collège de France, as of October 1, 2022.

The 2023 New Horizons in Mathematics Prize, a renowned award which honors the work of early-career mathematicians, went to past Veblen Research Instructor Ana Caraiani (2013–16), recent von Neumann Fellow Ronen Eldan (2021–22), and current Member James Maynard.

The Institute for Advanced Study extends well wishes to former Mathematics/Natural Sciences Faculty member Chen Ning Yang on his 100th birthday. During Yang’s time at IAS, he and his collaborator, fellow Faculty member Tsung Dao Lee, were awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physics. He has a left tremendous legacy in our community today.

On September 19, 2022, Director and Leon Levy Professor David Nirenberg delivered remarks as 281 new and returning scholars arrived on campus, from postdoctoral fellows at the beginning of their research careers to distinguished senior academics, in order to celebrate the formal start of the 2022–23 academic year.

By Angelos Chaniotis, Professor in the School of Historical Studies:

"The Greek government’s intention to transform the country’s five most important museums – the National Archaeological Museum and the Byzantine and Christian Museum in Athens, the...

Three IAS Members in the School of Mathematics and Natural Sciences have received the 2022 ICTP Dirac Medal “for groundbreaking and mathematically rigorous contributions to the understanding of the statistical mechanics of classical and quantum physical systems.”

“We can see the unseen. An astonishing deep-field image of crashing galaxies and bygone nebulae. A glimpse at what the death of our own sun might look like. Baby stars being born perched on cosmic cliffs. The first photographs of the JWST are breathtaking, and they will dramatically change how we understand the universe."

Bhargav Bhatt, Fernholz Joint Professor in the School of Mathematics, has received the Frederic Esser Nemmers Prize in Mathematics. He is cited for his “revolutionary contributions to algebraic geometry in mixed characteristic through a new synthesis of ideas in topology, algebra and arithmetic.”

Past and current scholars in the School of Mathematics and Natural Sciences have won four of the prestigious prizes granted by the International Mathematical Union (IMU), including the 2022 Fields, Abacus, and Chern Medals, and the Gauss Prize. 

Peter Hewitt Christensen, past Member (2022) in the School of Historical Studies, has been named Ani and Mark Gabrellian Director of the University of Rochester’s Humanities Center, succeeding Joan Shelley Rubin. 

Five past Members in the School of Natural Sciences and the School of Mathematics have been selected as 2022 Simons Investigators, enabling them to undertake a long-term study of fundamental questions in their fields.