The Institute for Advanced Study Annual Report 1984/85 The Institute for Advanced Study Annual Report for the Fiscal Year Julyl, 1984 -June 30, 1985 HISTtffilCAl STUDIES- SOCIAL SCIENCE UBRARY THE INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDY PRINCETON. NEW JERSEY 08540 The Institute for Advanced Study Olden Lane Princeton, New Jersey 08540 U.S.A. Printed by Princeton University Press Originally designed by Bruce Campbell 9^^ It is fundamental to our purpose, and our Extract from the letter addressed by the express desire, that in the appointments to the Founders to the Institute's Trustees, staff and faculty, as well as in the admission dated June 6, 1930, Newark, New Jersey. of workers and students, no account shall he 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 wliatever to accidents of race, creed or sex. 9^'^Z^ Table of Contents Trustees and Officers 9 Administration 10 The Institute for Advanced Study: Background and Purpose 11 Report of the Chairman 13 Report of the Director 15 Reports of the Schools 21 School of Historical Studies 23 School of Mathematics 35 School of Natural Sciences 45 School of Social Science 59 Record of Events, 1984-85 67 Report of the Treasurer 91 Donors 102 Founders Caroline Bamberger Fuld Louis Bamberger Board of Trustees John F. Akers Ralph E. Hansmann President and New York, Nezu York Chief Executive Officer IBM Corporation Howard C. Kauffmann President Daniel Bell Exxon Corporation Henry Ford 11 Professor of Social Sciences G. Daniel Mostow Harvard University Henry Ford II Professor of Mathematics Thornton F. Bradshaw Yale University Chairman of the Board RCA Martin E. Segal Cliairman Charles L. Brown Martin E. Segal Company CImirman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer Zeph Stewart American Telephone and Andrexv W. Mellon Professor Telegraph Company of the Humanities Harvard University Fletcher L. Byrom Denver, Colorado Donald B. Straus President Gladys K. Delmas Research Institute of the American New York, New York Arbitration Association J. Richardson Dilworth Frank E. Taplin Princeton, Nezv Jersey Princeton, New Jersey George B. Field Michel L. Vaillaud Robert Wheeler Willson Professor President of Applied Astronomy Schlumberger, Ltd. Harvard University James D. Wolfensohn Michael V. Forrestal President Laivyer James D. Wolfensohn, Inc. New York, Nezv York New York, New York Wilfried Gulh Harry Woolf Managing Director Director Deutsche Bank AG The Institute for Advanced Study Federal Republic of Germany Trustees Emeriti Joseph L. Doob Lloyd K. Garrison Sidney D. Drell Howard C. Petersen Norton Simon Board and Corporate Officers J. Richardson Dilworth Ralph E. Hansmann Chairman of the Board Treasurer James D. Wolfensohn Donald C. Jenkins President of the Corporation and Assistant Treasurer Vice-Chairman of the Board Patricia H. Labalme Secretary Administration Harry VVoolf, Director lone A. Milner, Secretary Patricia H. Labalme, Associate Director and Secretary of the Corporation Helen J. Laesker, Secretary Allen I. Rowe, Associate Director for Administration and Finance Marianne Weissenburger, Secretary Mary S. Wisnovsky, Assistant to the Director Grace Rapp, Secretary James Barbour, Manager of Administration Sabina Modzelewski, Comptroller Libraries Elliott Shore, Historical Studies Momota Ganguli, Mathematics and Natural Sciences Pat Sherr, Social Science School of Historical Studies Rose T. Murray, School Administrative Officer School of Mathematics Caroline D. Underwood, School Administrative Officer School of Natural Sciences Page E. Hartwell, School Administrative Officer School of Social Science Peggy A. Clarke, School Administrative Officer The Institute for Advanced Study: Background and Purpose The Institute takes the following premises on the ically to support and assist the Institute's in- nature of learning as fundamental: most important tellectual purposes in every way possible. work is the product of the disciplined and creative Although the Institute is small when meas- individual mind; accordingly, the individual scholar ured in terms of the size of its immediate aca- must he responsible for how he uses the precious demic community or of its operating budget, resources of his own time and energy; the com- its intellectual weight is great and its influence munity of peers in his area of intellectual work is on science and scholarship extraordinary. the ultimate judge of the results. (From Proce- From its earliest years, it has been internation- dures FOR Academic Governance of the ally recognized as one of the world's leading Institltte.) centers of research. Indeed, its successful ex- ample has created numerous imitators both in the United States and abroad. The Institute for Advanced Study, an inde- From the beginning, the Institute has pendent, private institution devoted to the been an international organization, although encouragement, support and patronage of American in location and organizational learning, was founded in 1930 as a commu- form. It has operated throughout its existence nity of scholars where intellectual inquiry on the premise that science and learning tran- could be carried out in the most favorable cir- scend national boundaries and that scholars cumstances. Focused on mathematics and and scientists are members of one common- classical studies at the outset, the Institute to- wealth of the mind. Of the present Faculty, day consists of the School of Historical Stud- many have begun their scientific and schol- ies, the School of Mathematics, the School of arly careers outside the United States. One- Natural Sciences and the School of Social Sci- third of the Visiting Members come from ence. Each School has a small permanent Fac- abroad, mostly from the great centers of ulty, and some 160 fellowships are awarded learning of western Europe and Asia, and, to annually to Visiting Members from other re- a lesser extent, from other regions of the search institutions and universities through- world. out the world. With its devotion to the continuing exami- The objectives of the Institute were de- nation of new and centrally important ques- scribed as follows in the Founders' original tions as they arise at the frontiers of knowl- letter to the first Trustees: "The primary pur- edge, the Institute partakes of the character of pose is the pursuit of advanced learning and both a university and a research institute, exploration in the fields of pure science and while differing in significant ways from both. high scholarship to the utmost degree that the It is unlike a university, for instance, in its facilities of the institution and the ability of small size—its academic membership an- the faculty and students will permit." During nually numbers somewhat under 200—and in the past half-century, these goals have been the fact that it has no formal curriculum, no implemented by a Faculty of exceptional scheduled courses of instruction, no commit- merit; by an annually renewed group of Vis- ment that all branches of learning be repre- iting Members chosen from among the many sented in its Faculty and Members. It is unlike who apply; and by the development of facili- the usual research institute in that it supports ties and a mode of operation designed specif- many separate fields of study, maintains no 12 Background and Purpose laboratories and determines its programs in and no focus excludes those outside it. The terms of individual intellectual imperatives choice and conduct of research are matters rather than the collective aims of research which are decided entirely by each individual teams or the particular interests of potential member of the Institute. donors. The Institute is nonetheless an intellectual For more than five decades the Institute for community and not a mere collection of schol- Advanced Study has made a substantial con- ars. Community is possible because Faculty tribution to the world of higher learning by and Members have some substantial knowl- providing support—intellectual and mate- edge outside their own fields of specializa- rial—to Visiting Members whose develop- tion. The fact that the Visiting Members live ment and growth constitute one of its princi- together in Institute housing, eat in the same pal purposes. More than one third of these dining hall, share the same common room Visiting Members are young men and women and libraries, and carry out their work in an 35 years of age or less whose work at the In- institutional setting where human scale has stitute involves the Faculty in a substantial been carefully maintained is conducive to amount of postdoctoral training. Though common interest, mutual understanding and none of the Visiting Members is a student in friendship. the narrow sense of being a degree candidate, The Faculty and Members of the Institute the communal atmosphere and many oppor- are also a part of the larger community of tunities for discussion with Faculty members Princeton, with its University and its many in- and peers, both within and outside seminar stitutions of research and learning. Although meetings, are propitious to scholarly growth. the Institute has no administrative or organic The Institute devotes special attention to connection with Princeton University, there young people of accomplishment and prom- has always been close collaboration between ise, offering them membership at a stage in the two institutions on matters of common in- their careers when independent work is of the terest. Many Institute seminars are open to in- highest importance to their intellectual devel- terested members of the University's faculty opment. These younger Members then return and graduate school, and University seminars to or join the faculties of universities all over and conferences are frequently attended by the world and share what they have learned Institute Faculty and Members. Without the as a result of their stay at the Institute.