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Pursuit of Genius: Flexner, Einstein, and the Early Faculty at the Institute

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Pursuit of Genius: Flexner, Einstein, and the Early Faculty at the Institute i i i i PURSUIT OF GENIUS i i i i i i i i PURSUIT OF GENIUS Flexner, Einstein,and the Early Faculty at the Institute for Advanced Study Steve Batterson Emory University A K Peters, Ltd. Natick, Massachusetts i i i i i i i i Editorial, Sales, and Customer Service Office A K Peters, Ltd. 5 Commonwealth Road, Suite 2C Natick, MA 01760 www.akpeters.com Copyright ⃝c 2006 by A K Peters, Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or utilized in any form, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy- ing, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Batterson, Steve, 1950– Pursuit of genius : Flexner, Einstein, and the early faculty at the Institute for Advanced Study / Steve Batterson. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 13: 978-1-56881-259-5 (alk. paper) ISBN 10: 1-56881-259-0 (alk. paper) 1. Mathematics–Study and teaching (Higher)–New Jersey–Princeton–History. 2. Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton, N.J.). School of Mathematics–History. 3. Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton, N.J.). School of Mathematics–Faculty. I Title. QA13.5.N383 I583 2006 510.7’0749652--dc22 2005057416 Cover Photographs: Front cover: Clockwise from upper left: Hermann Weyl (1930s, cour- tesy of Nina Weyl), James Alexander (from the Archives of the Institute for Advanced Study), Marston Morse (photo courtesy of the American Mathematical Society), Albert Einstein (1932, The New York Times), John von Neumann (courtesy of Marina von Neumann Whitman), Oswald Veblen (early 1930s, from the Archives of the Institute for Advanced Study). Back cover: Left to right: Abraham Flexner (1923, courtesy of the Rockefeller University Archives), Caroline Bamberger Fuld (1940, courtesy of Collections of The Newark Museum Archives), Louis Bamberger (1939, courtesy of Collections of The Newark Museum Archives). Printed in the United States of America 10 09 08 07 06 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 i i i i i i i i In memory of Deane Montgomery and Armand Borel, two professors from the second generation of IAS mathematics faculty. In our interactions I was inspired by the generosity of Deane’s support and Armand’s scholarship. i i i i i i i i CONTENTS PREFACE ix 1 ABRAHAM FLEXNER, DANIEL COIT GILMAN, AND THE JOHNS HOPKINS TEMPLATE 1 2 THE ROCKEFELLER MODELS 15 3 FUNDING DREAMS 31 4 DECIDING WHERE TO START 55 5 THE FIRST HIRES 81 6 FLEXNER AND VEBLEN BUILD THE SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS 119 7 LAUNCHING THE OTHER SCHOOLS 159 8 COMPETING FOR RESOURCES 189 9 MOUNTING A COUP 215 10 FAST FORWARD 239 SOURCES AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 265 INDEX 293 vii i i i i i i Abraham Flexner, 1923. (Courtesy of the Rockefeller University Archives.) i i i i i i i i PREFACE It was 1980 and I was about to join a remarkable intellectual community. Four years earlier I had received my PhD in mathematics and begun an aca- demic career. Now I was going to the Institute. For other mathematicians the phrase “going to the Institute” said it all. Friends and relatives required addi- tional information. “I am going to a place in Princeton, New Jersey, called the Institute for Advanced Study.” When this evoked a blank look, as it normally did, I might add, “It is where Einstein worked.” Just as Einstein is the icon for scientific genius, the Institute holds a spe- cial symbolism for mathematicians. The Institute for Advanced Study began in 1930 through the vision of Abraham Flexner. Flexner was a figure of con- siderable influence during the first half of the twentieth century. He made his mark in 1910 with a scathing expose´ of the deficiencies in American medical education. Flexner’s revelations called for drastic action. Over a decade-long period he served as the architect of a Rockefeller philanthropic initiative that dramatically upgraded American medical schools. When Flexner retired from the Rockefeller Foundation, it was with the satisfaction that his career had been essential to the modernization of Ameri- can medicine. Still, he had a distinctly different ambition that remained un- fulfilled. As a long-time observer of higher education, Flexner was convinced that the United States should possess an exclusively graduate university with an ideal environment for research. There, a small faculty of geniuses would direct the studies of a few disciples while pursuing their own discoveries. With the power to direct millions of dollars to selected universities and hospitals, Flexner had accumulated a stunning collection of contacts among academic, business, medical, and political leaders. When department store magnate Louis Bamberger and his sister Carrie Fuld began seeking advice on devoting their fortune to the creation of a new medical school, it was in- evitable that their consultations would lead them to Abraham Flexner. Out of these discussions Bamberger and Fuld decided to endow a graduate university with the 63-year-old Flexner as director. ix i i i i i i xPREFACE Flexner was empowered to select the initial personnel and areas of study. He bypassed such intellectual staples as literature, philosophy, and classics. He demurred as well on economics, physics, and other directly applicable sub- jects. Among all conceivable choices, Flexner elected to begin with a School of Mathematics. Mathematics was a curious place to start. With its abstract nature, higher mathematics is a subject that is fundamentally intellectual. Yet, its discoveries are normally inaccessible to the larger intellectual community. Flexner himself possessed no knowledge of mathematics.1 Despite this limitation, he was extraordinarily successful in his first faculty hires. They were the mathematician Oswald Veblen and physicist Albert Einstein. Ein- stein and Veblen were soon joined by John von Neumann and three other stars from the mathematical powerhouses of Princeton, Gottingen,¨ and Har- vard. Suddenly the Institute roster was the strongest of any mathematics department in the world. The graduate study aspect never materialized. From the beginning the faculty identified and hosted scholars who had already received their doctoral degrees. These visitors, who became known as members, typically remained at the Institute for a year. Fifty years later I was a member and marveling at Flexner’s legacy. I unpacked some clothes at my furnished apartment on the edge of the Institute grounds. Walking a few minutes down Einstein Drive I reached my office in the building originally constructed to house von Neumann’s elec- tronic computer project. There were neither classes to teach nor service du- ties to perform. It was an environment totally devoted to the enhancement of research. The School of Mathematics was not only the oldest, but also the largest of the Institute’s four schools. It had about 60 members and seven faculty. Among the faculty were three Fields Medalists and another person who would soon be awarded this so-called Nobel Prize of mathematics. Colloquia and ad hoc seminars were abundant. However, every member had complete liberty to follow any schedule and pursue any topic. When an office became confining, a walk along the magnificent trails through the Institute’s woods offered a stimulating diversion. Lunch was prepared by a first-class European chef, and tea and cookies were available every afternoon at three. The chef was a recent addition to the staff, and we were told that the food had not always been so good. More substantive aspects of the history of this mathematical paradise remained mysterious. Flexner himself once wrote, “In- stitutions like nations are perhaps happiest if they have no history.”2 He did little to violate this principle with the two chapters that dealt with the Insti- i i i i i i i i PREFACE xi tute in his autobiography. “The Institute for Advanced Study” and “Finding Men” provide a rosy account of the founding and the recruitment of faculty. From a factual perspective Flexner’s narrative is largely accurate, but there are significant omissions that leave a distorted picture in portraying the challenges he faced. The internal issues involved in governing the Institute, and Flexner’s reactions, will be developed in this book. The external historical events are well known, even if their relevance to the origins of the Institute for Advanced Study is not. Flexner’s tenure as Institute Director occurred during the 1930s, a decade now inextricably associated with the Great Depression and the ascendance of Adolf Hitler. It must be remembered, however, that these events unfolded in an unprecedented fashion and their magnitude, in the first few years, was difficult to comprehend. Indeed, one chilling aspect of research into the his- tory of this period is the cavalier manner in which the public initially regarded Nazism and the Depression, oblivious that they were witnesses to catastrophic events of the century. Early in 1932 one future Institute professor wrote to Veblen from Gottingen,¨ I am a little bit more at ease concerning the political future of Germany. I now have the impression that Hitler is lacking the courage to take respon- sibility for carrying out his radical ideas and that he is happy if he can stay in the opposition. If National Socialism will be established then probably only in a very much watered down form which will be at most economically dangerous.3 It would take another full year for this professor and his Jewish wife to appre- ciate the hopelessness of their future in Germany. Meanwhile, the economic crisis initially aided Flexner in his recruitment of faculty, but it eventually contributed to his own downfall. It is curious that, although its founding was a seminal event in intellec- tual history, the Institute’s existence is unknown to many scholars.
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