IASInstitute for Advanced Study Report for the Academic Year 2010–2011 t is fundamental in our purpose, and our express I. desire, that in the appointments to the staff and faculty as well as in the admission of workers and students, no account shall be taken, directly or indirectly, of race, religion, or sex. We feel strongly that the spirit characteristic of America at its noblest, above all the pursuit of higher learning, cannot admit of any conditions as to personnel other than those designed to promote the objects for which this institution is established, and particularly with no regard whatever to accidents of race, creed, or sex. Extract from the letter addressed by the Institute’s Founders, Louis Bamberger and Caroline Bamberger Fuld, to the first Board of Trustees, dated June 4, 1930 Newark, New Jersey Cover: Freeman Dyson, Professor Emeritus in the School of Natural Sciences, Bloomberg Hall Photo: Andrea Kane The Institute for Advanced Study exists to encourage and support fundamental research in the sciences and humanities—the original, often speculative, thinking that produces advances in knowledge that change the way we understand the world. THE SCHOOL OF HISTORICAL STUDIES, established in 1949 with the merging of the School of Economics and Politics and the School of Humanistic Studies, is concerned principally with the history of Western European, Near Eastern, and East Asian civilizations. The School actively promotes interdisciplinary research and cross-fertilization of ideas. THE SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS, established in 1933, was the first School at the Institute for Advanced Study. Several central themes in math- ematics of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries owe their major impetus to discoveries that have taken place in the School, which today is an inter- national center for research on mathematics and computer science. The School sponsors, jointly with Princeton University, the Program for Women and Mathematics. THE SCHOOL OF NATURAL SCIENCES, established in 1966, supports research in broad areas of theoretical physics, astronomy, and systems biology. Areas of current interest include elementary particle physics, string theory, quantum theory, and quantum gravity; investigating the origin and compo- sition of the universe; and conducting research at the interface of molecular biology and the physical sciences.The School sponsors Prospects inTheoretical Physics, a program for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars. THE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCE, founded in 1973, takes as its mission the analysis of societies and social change and is devoted to a multi- disciplinary, comparative, and international approach to social research and the examination of historical and contemporary problems. Institute for Advanced Study SPECIAL PROGRAMS include the Program in Interdisciplinary Studies, which explores different ways of viewing the world; the Artist-in-Residence Program; Director’sVisitors; the IAS/Park City Mathematics Institute, which aims to increase awareness of the roles of professionals in all mathematics- based occupations; and the Science Initiative Group, dedicated to building science capacity in the developing world. INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDY 2 IASInstitute for Advanced Study 5 Background and Purpose 6 Report of the Chairman 7 Report of the Director 9 Report of the School of Historical Studies 25 Report of the School of Mathematics 43 Report of the School of Natural Sciences 63 Report of the School of Social Science 71 Report of the Institute Libraries 72 The IAS Community 77 Reports of the Special Programs Contents 88 Acknowledgments 96 Founders,Trustees, and Officers of the Board and of the Corporation 97 Administration TABLE OF CONTENTS 98 Present and Past Directors and Faculty xx Independent Auditors’ Report 3 ANDREA KANE The Institute for Advanced Study is a community of scholars whose purpose is the pursuit of advanced learning and scholarly exploration. Here, scholars converse outside of Fuld Hall during teatime. Background and Purpose he Institute for Advanced Study was founded in 1930 with a major gift from New Jersey businessman and philanthropist Louis Bamberger and his sister Caroline Bamberger Fuld, who wished to use their Tfortunes to make a significant and lasting contribution to society. They sought the advice of educator Abraham Flexner, who developed the concept of the Institute as a community of scholars whose primary purpose would be the pursuit of advanced learning and scholarly exploration. The Institute for Advanced Study has remained committed to its founding principles, and its record of definitive scholarship and scientific achievement is unsurpassed. The Institute fills a unique role in postgraduate education and scientific and scholarly research. As “the university to universities,” in the words of Trustee Vartan Gregorian, the Institute serves all colleges and universities by providing a place where scholars can hone their skills and do their best work, thereby adding substantially to their ability to contribute as both teachers and scholars to the academic institutions where they base their careers. For young scholars just entering the academic world, an opportunity to work at the Institute can set the direction for lifelong research The Institute’s foremost interests and thereby determine professional careers. The Institute provides more objective is the advancement mature scholars with the opportunity to take new directions in their research or to complete a major piece of work away from the many obligations of working of knowledge and the life at a university. At a time when pure research and scholarly activities are deepening of understanding undervalued, the opportunities that the Institute provides have never been more across a broad range of necessary. The Institute’s foremost objective is the advancement of knowledge and the humanities, sciences, the deepening of understanding across a broad range of the humanities, sciences, and social sciences. and social sciences. One of the Institute’s unique strengths is its permanent Faculty of twenty-eight eminent scholars, whose broad interests and extensive ties to the larger academic world are reflected in their own work and also in the guidance and direction they provide to the Institute’s visiting scholars. The Faculty defines the major themes and questions that become the focus of each School’s seminars and other activities, and selects and works closely with visiting Members. Organized in four Schools (Historical Studies, Mathematics, Natural Sciences, and Social Science), the Faculty and Members interact with one anoth- er without any departmental or disciplinary barriers. BACKGROUNDANDPURPOSE Each year the Institute awards fellowships to some 190 visiting Members from about one hundred universities and research institutions throughout the world. The Institute’s more than six thousand former Members hold positions of intellectual and scientific leadership in the United States and abroad. Some twenty-seven Nobel Laureates and thirty-eight out of fifty-two Fields Medalists, as well as many winners of the Wolf and MacArthur prizes, have been affiliated with the Institute.The Institute does not receive income from tuition or fees; resources for operations come from endowment income, grants from private foundations and government agencies, and gifts from corporations and individuals. 5 Report of the Chairman he founding of the Institute for Advanced Study originated in part with a question: “Have you ever dreamed a dream?”Abraham Flexner, an expert on higher education, posed it to Samuel Leidesdorf, an Taccountant and business adviser, and Herbert Maass, an attorney, who had approached Flexner on behalf of philanthropists Louis Bamberger and his sister Caroline Bamberger Fuld. Flexner’s dream of estab- lishing an institution dedicated to the pursuit of curiosity-driven research prompted the Bambergers to donate $5 million to establish the Institute in 1930. The Institute’s role in promoting and cultivating original scholarship in the sciences and humanities has been unparalleled for more than eighty years. Today, it is of the utmost importance to sustain the work of the Institute whose renown and reach draws leading scholars from around the world, providing them with the freedom to pursue their research in an environment dedicated to the advancement of ideas and knowledge. My wife Lisa and I, together with James Simons, aVice Chairman of the Board, and his wife Marilyn, are honored to play a role in contributing to the strong foundation for the Institute’s future with a $100 million unrestricted challenge grant from the Simons Foundation and the Charles and Lisa Simonyi Fund for Arts and Sciences. This donation will serve as the basis for a $200 million campaign to strengthen the Institute’s endowment.The Insti- tute must raise the remaining $100 million from other sources within the next four years, with all donations matched dollar for dollar by the Simons Foundation and the Simonyi Fund. The $200 million campaign will ensure that the Institute is able to continue its essential role in fostering fundamental research that advances our understanding of the world. The main goal of the campaign is to raise new endowment funds that will allow the Institute to keep its draw on the endowment at an acceptable level over the long term. The stability and health of the Institute’s endowment is essential because the institution relies on endowment income for approximately three-quarters of its operating expenses. It