News

Magdalena Małecka, Deutsche Bank Member (2020–21) in the School of Social Science, has been awarded a Consolidator Grant by the European Research Council for a project titled “Encoded Knowledge: Epistemology of Computer Technology in Modern Economics.” Małecka's time at the Institute, which included visits to the Shelby White and Leon Levy Archives Center, was formative for her project.

Sofía Torallas Tovar, a renowned papyrologist, has joined IAS as long-term Distinguished Visiting Professor in the School of Historical Studies. A prolific scholar of the ancient Mediterranean, Torallas Tovar's work encompasses Greek and Coptic magical texts, funerary practices and culture, patristic literature, the Coptic Bible, and Philo and Alexandrian Judaism.

Ellie M. Hisama, Edward T. Cone Member in Music Studies in the School of Historical Studies, has been presented with an honorary membership of the American Musicological Society (AMS). Considered to be the Society's highest honor, such memberships are presented to scholars who have made "extraordinary contributions to the Society and to the study and teaching of music."

On November 11, 2024, Avi Wigderson, Herbert H. Maass Professor in the School of Mathematics, was officially presented with an honorary doctorate from the Weizmann Institute of Science. Wigderson was recognized for "his pioneering contributions to mathematics and computer science, which have opened new horizons in both fields, and at the interface between them."

A number of past and present IAS scholars, including Akshay Venkatesh, Robert and Luisa Fernholz Professor in the School of Mathematics, and Ellen Eischen, von Neumann Fellow in the School, have been appointed to the 2025 Class of American Mathematical Society (AMS) Fellows. 

Drawing on her perspective as a historian of medieval religion and society and her specialization in medieval France, Anne Elisabeth Lester, Visitor in the School of Historical Studies, recounts the devastating fire that engulfed Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris in April 2019, and the subsequent efforts to rebuild it, for the American Historical Association's newsmagazine Perspectives on History.

Wendy Brown, UPS Foundation Professor in the School of Social Science, has been announced as the recipient of Södertörn University’s honorary doctorate for 2025. The citation praises Brown for providing "scholars and students in the humanities and social sciences with an invaluable resource for understanding current events and formulating alternatives."

Frank and Peggy Taplin Member George N. Wong, Visitor Lia Medeiros, and Professor James Stone, all from the Institute's School of Natural Sciences, have developed an innovative technique to search for black hole light echoes. Their novel method, which will make it easier for the mass and the spin of black holes to be measured, represents a major step forward, since it operates independently of many of the other ways in which scientists have probed these parameters in the past.

Pauline Yu, Director's Visitor (2014), Trustee of the Institute for Advanced Study, and prominent scholar of Chinese literature, was officially presented with a 2022 National Humanities Medal by President Joe Biden in a private ceremony held at the White House on Monday, October 21, 2024.

The Institute for Advanced Study has made two new appointments to its Board of Trustees: Paul DiMaggio, a Professor of Sociology at New York University, and Anoop Prasad, Managing Director and member of the Executive Committee of D. E. Shaw & Co. Their appointments were unanimously adopted by the Board on October 26, 2024.

John J. Hopfield, Visiting Professor (2010–13) in the School of Natural Sciences, was named a recipient of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics “for foundational discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks.” He remains active within the Institute’s Simons Center for Systems Biology, which concentrates on research at the interface of molecular biology and the physical sciences.

The Institute for Advanced Study commenced its 2024–25 academic year on September 23, 2024, welcoming scholars from around the globe to its storied campus. The 267 visiting scholars, who began arriving earlier in the month, represent 35 nations and more than 130 institutions. Each is selected by the Institute’s permanent Faculty based on the promise of their research, spanning the sciences and humanities.

Two past Members of the Institute's School of Social Science have been named as 2024 MacArthur Fellows: Ruha Benjamin (2016–17) and Jennifer L. Morgan (2014–15). They join the prestigious ranks of "genius grant" recipients, recognized for their groundbreaking work and potential to make significant societal impacts.

Amalie "Emmy" Noether, a renowned mathematician and frequent IAS Visitor (1933–35) while working at Bryn Mawr College, has been posthumously recognized as a "Legacy Honoree" by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (AAA&S). She was nominated by Helmut Hofer, Hermann Weyl Professor in the School of Mathematics, who described her as "a great mathematician and human being."

Didier Fassin, James D. Wolfensohn Professor in the School of Social Science, has received the Huxley Memorial Medal from the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, the highest British distinction in anthropology. He was recognized "for his outstanding contribution and conceptual leadership" in medical anthropology, the anthropology of the state, and humanitarian and critical moral anthropology.

In an opinion piece for The Washington Post, Brian Greene, Member (1992–93) in the Schools of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, argues that scholars should continue exploring string theory, even in the absence of experimental verification.

Geordie Williamson, Distinguished Visiting Professor (2020–21) in the School of Mathematics, has been announced as the recipient of the 2024 Max Planck–Humboldt Research Award. 

Rubina Raja, Member (2019) in the School of Historical Studies, has received one of the Carlsberg Foundation’s Research Prizes for 2024. She was honored, in part, for work conducted at the ancient city of Palmyra, Syria. 

Join the Institute for Advanced Study, one of the world’s leading centers for foundational research, for the 2025–26 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.

In August, 157 participants from 10 countries gathered at the Institute for the initial focus weeks of a workshop on Quantum Information and Physics. The workshop, which will continue through October 31, 2024, considers the relation of quantum complexity to physical systems such as many-body problems in quantum simulators, condensed matter physics, quantum field theory, and quantum gravity.

Alondra Nelson, Harold F. Linder Professor in the School of Social Science, spoke with MIT Science Policy Review about the role of scientists and the broader public in shaping policy. She discussed the various ways in which scientists can participate in policymaking and the importance of and challenges that surround public access to science.

A new study of ancient DNA by a team of international researchers, including Patrick Geary, Professor Emeritus in the Institute for Advanced Study’s School of Historical Studies, provides insight into the development of and social structures within European rural communities following the fall of the Roman Empire. Some of these communities, about the formation of which little was previously known, would eventually become the basis for many modern European countries.

In July, 184 participants from 17 countries travelled to Park City, Utah to attend the latest iteration of Park City Mathematics Institute (PCMI), an annual Institute for Advanced Study outreach program. The attendees explored motivic homotopy theory, which offers mathematicians the opportunity to better understand complex algebraic shapes by using flexible tools from homotopy theory.

Tsung-Dao Lee (李政道), Member (1951–53, 1957–58) and Faculty (1960–62) in the Institute’s School of Mathematics/Natural Sciences, died on August 4. During his time at IAS, Lee was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics alongside his Institute colleague Chen-Ning Yang (楊振寧) for revolutionary work on parity violation which fundamentally changed our understanding of the laws of physics.

From July 8–26, the annual Prospects in Theoretical Physics (PiTP) program, an intensive workshop for advanced graduate students and postdoctoral scholars, took place at IAS. This year, the program brought together 213 participants from over 20 countries to discuss ultra-quantum matter.

The field-shaping work of Caroline Walker Bynum, Professor Emerita in the School of Historical Studies, and her significant impact on historical scholarship well beyond her areas of specialization, has been celebrated in a symposium published in a recent issue of the journal Common Knowledge.

In the journal Sociologica, Professor Emerita Joan Wallach Scott has written an essay on The Interpretation of Cultures, published in 1973, by Clifford Geertz, the first and founding Professor in the School of Social Science (1970–2000, Emeritus 2000–06).

Designed to facilitate work on projects and topics that are beyond the reach of a single scholar, discipline, or institution, the Jonathan M. Nelson Center for Collaborative Research has been launched at IAS, expanding the Institute's capacity for discovery across fields. The Center will provide the funding, space, infrastructure, and expertise for collaborative projects with partners across the globe. 

This June, around 230 physicists and mathematicians gathered at IAS to discuss the latest developments in the field of scattering amplitudes. The roots of the Amplitudes conference, held annually since 2009, can be found in seminal papers by Edward Witten, Professor Emeritus in the School of Natural Sciences, and his collaborators.

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.