Institute for Advanced Study
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BlueBook09cover_8.4_Q6.crw3.qxp 9/9/09 2:43 PM Page 1 Institute for Advanced Study Adler Alexander Alföldi Allen Arkani-Hamed Atiyah Aydelotte Bahcall Beurling Bois Bombieri Borel Bourgain Bowersock Bynum Caffarelli Chaniotis Cherniss Clagett Constable Crone Cutileiro Dashen Deligne Di Cosmo Dyson Earle Einstein Elliott Fassin Flexner Geertz Gilbert Gilliam Goddard Gödel Goldberger Goldman Goldreich Grabar Griffiths Habicht Harish-Chandra Herzfeld Hirschman Hofer Hörmander Hut Israel Kantorowicz Kaysen Kennan Langlands Lavin Lee Leibler Levine Lowe MacPherson Maldacena Margalit Maskin Matlock Meiss Meritt Milnor Mitrany Montgomery Morse Oppenheimer Pais Panofsky Paret Regge Riefler Rosenbluth Sarnak Scott Seiberg Selberg Setton Siegel Spencer Stewart Strömgren Thompson Tremaine Varnedoe Veblen Voevodsky von Neumann von Staden Walzer Warren Weil Weyl White Whitney Wigderson Wilczek Witten Woodward Woolf Yang Yau Zaldarriaga BlueBook09cover_8.4_Q6.crw3.qxp 9/9/09 2:43 PM Page 2 Director School of Social Science Oswald Veblen Past Trustees Tsung-Dao Lee Peter Goddard Danielle Allen John von Neumann Dean Acheson Herbert H. Lehman Didier Fassin Robert B. Warren Marella Agnelli Samuel D. Leidesdorf Past Directors Albert O. Hirschman André Weil John F. Akers Leon Levy (in order of service) Eric S. Maskin Hermann Weyl A. Adrian Albert Wilmarth S. Lewis Abraham Flexner Joan Wallach Scott Hassler Whitney Rand Araskog Harold F. Linder Frank Aydelotte Michael Walzer Frank Wilczek James G. Arthur Herbert H. Maass J. Robert Oppenheimer Ernest Llewellyn Woodward Frank Aydelotte Elizabeth J. McCormack Carl Kaysen Program in Interdisciplinary Chen Ning Yang Bernard Bailyn Robert B. Menschel Harry Woolf Studies Shing-Tung Yau Edgar Bamberger Sidney A. Mitchell Marvin L. Goldberger Piet Hut Louis Bamberger Henry Allen Moe Phillip A. Griffiths Board of Trustees Hyman Bass G. Daniel Mostow Past Faculty Charles Simonyi Daniel Bell Nathan P. Myhrvold Faculty and James W. Alexander Chairman Michael R. Bloomberg Edward J. Nicoll Faculty Emeriti Andrew E. Z. Alföldi James D. Wolfensohn Julian P. Boyd John R. Opel Michael F. Atiyah Chairman Emeritus Thornton F. Bradshaw J. Robert Oppenheimer School of Historical Studies John N. Bahcall Martin L. Leibowitz Charles L. Brown Max Palevsky Yve-Alain Bois Arne K. A. Beurling Vice Chairman and President Fletcher L. Byrom Howard C. Petersen Glen W. Bowersock Armand Borel Richard B. Black Fernando Henrique Cardoso Winfield W. Riefler Caroline Walker Bynum Luis A. Caffarelli Vice Chairman Alexis Carrel Lessing J. Rosenwald Angelos Chaniotis Harold F. Cherniss Jeffrey P. Bezos W. Robert Connor William M. Roth from July 1, 2010 Marshall Clagett Victoria B. Bjorklund John H. D’Arms Malvin A. Ruderman Giles Constable José Cutileiro Curtis Callan Gladys Krieble Delmas Florence R. Sabin Patricia Crone Roger F. Dashen Martin A. Chooljian Anne d’Harnoncourt Michael Schaap Institute for Advanced Study: An Introduction Nicola Di Cosmo Edward M. Earle Mario Draghi J. Richardson Dilworth Ira A. Schur Published by the Institute for Advanced Study Oleg Grabar Albert Einstein Roger W. Ferguson, Jr. Joseph L. Doob William W. Scranton Christian Habicht Text and production by Linda G. Arntzenius John H. Elliott Peter Goddard Lewis W. Douglas Amartya Sen Jonathan Israel Clifford Geertz Vartan Gregorian Jean Bethke Elshtain Carrol M. Shanks Design by Phillip Unetic, UneticDesign.com Irving Lavin Felix Gilbert David A. Hollinger George B. Field Ruth J. Simmons Copyright Institute for Advanced Study , Avishai Margalit © James F. Gilliam Peter R. Kann Abraham Flexner Norton Simon Peter Paret All rights reserved. First edition . Second edition . Kurt Gödel Florian Langenscheidt Michael V. Forrestal Robert M. Solow Heinrich von Staden Hetty Goldman Spiro J. Latsis Felix Frankfurter Paul G. Stern Morton White Harish-Chandra David K.P. Li Julius Friedenwald Walter W. Stewart Photography by Kate Ablutz, ; Adam Ashforth, ; Ernst Herzfeld Nancy S. MacMillan Caroline Bamberger Fuld Zeph Stewart School of Mathematics Bentley Drezner, , ; Christine Ferrara, ; David Lars V. Hörmander David F. Marquardt John F. Fulton Donald B. Straus Enrico Bombieri Ernst H. Kantorowicz Nancy B. Peretsman Peter L. Galison Percy S. Straus Graham, , ; Cliff Moore, , , , ; Alan W. Richards, Jean Bourgain George F. Kennan Martin Rees Perrin C. Galpin Lewis L. Strauss , , , , ; Thomas Uphill, ; Bruce M. White, , , Pierre Deligne Tsung-Dao Lee David M. Rubenstein Lloyd K. Garrison Andrew Strominger Phillip A. Griffiths , , , , , , , , , , , . Elias A. Lowe James J. Schiro Marvin L. Goldberger Frank E. Taplin, Jr. Helmut Hofer Jack F. Matlock, Jr. Eric E. Schmidt Hanna Holborn Gray Oswald Veblen Robert P. Langlands Millard Meiss William H. Sewell, Jr. Edward S. Greenbaum Thomas J. Watson, Jr. Other images courtesy of Bryn Mawr College Library, ; Robert MacPherson Benjamin D. Meritt James H. Simons Phillip A. Griffiths Lewis H. Weed Peter Sarnak Getty Images/Time/Life/Eisenstadt photo, ; David John W. Milnor Peter Svennilson Agnes Gund Elizabeth A. Whitehead Thomas Spencer David Mitrany Shelby White Wilfried Guth Leo Wolman Kennedy, ; Jonathan Mitchell, ; Newark Public Library, Vladimir Voevodsky Deane Montgomery Marina v.N. Whitman John M. Hancock Harry Woolf ; Philip Pearlstein, ; Princeton University, , ; Avi Wigderson Marston Morse Andrew J. Wiles John R. Hardin Gavin Wright Rockefeller University Archives, ; Swarthmore College, ; J. Robert Oppenheimer Brian F. Wruble Toru Hashimoto Charles E. Wyzanski, Jr. School of Natural Sciences Abraham Pais Barklie McKee Henry Mortimer B. Zuckerman all others are from the Institute for Advanced Study. Stephen L. Adler Erwin Panofsky Trustees Emeriti A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr. Nima Arkani-Hamed Tullio E. Regge Theodore L. Cross Harold K. Hochschild Freeman J. Dyson Winfield W. Riefler Sidney D. Drell Alanson B. Houghton Peter Goldreich Marshall N. Rosenbluth Ralph E. Hansmann Amory Houghton, Sr. Institute for Advanced Study Stanislas Leibler Atle Selberg Helene L. Kaplan James R. Houghton Einstein Drive Arnold J. Levine Kenneth M. Setton Immanuel Kohn Shirley M. Hufstedler Juan Maldacena Princeton, New Jersey Carl L. Siegel Hamish Maxwell Jon M. Huntsman, Jr. Nathan Seiberg Walter W. Stewart Ronaldo H. Schmitz Howard C. Kauffmann () - Scott Tremaine Bengt G. D. Strömgren Martin E. Segal Carl Kaysen www.ias.edu Edward Witten Homer A. Thompson Michel L. Vaillaud Marie-Josée Kravis Matias Zaldarriaga Kirk Varnedoe Ladislaus von Hoffmann Thomas S. Lamont July IASBlueBook09_8.4.09_Q6#4E1.crw5.qxp 9/16/09 3:48 PM Page 1 It seemed to me that the time was ripe for the creation in America of an institute in the field of general scholarship and science . not a graduate school, training men in the known and to some extent in the methods of research, but an institute where everyone—Faculty and Members—took for granted what was known and published, and in their individual ways endeavored to advance the frontiers of knowledge. Abraham Flexner Founding Director 1930–39 Memorandum to the Board of Trustees, September 26, 1931 IASBlueBook09_8.4.09_Q6#4E1.crw5.qxp 9/16/09 3:48 PM Page 2 IASBlueBook09_8.4.09_Q6#4E1.crw5.qxp 9/16/09 3:48 PM Page 3 Introduction The work of scientists and scholars is a continuing conversation that spans the ages and the globe. Their efforts have produced a body of knowledge of the physical world and of humanity. In many instances, fundamental work at the frontiers of knowledge has led to discoveries that have prompted technological and cultural advances in science and society. hile practical benefits often result from pure academic research at the A poem, a symphony, a painting, a mathematical most fundamental level, such benefits are not guaranteed and cannot truth, a new scientific fact, all bear in themselves be predicted; nor need they be seen as the ultimate goal. Ventures into all the justification that universities, colleges, unknown territory inevitably involve an element of risk, and scientists and institutes of research need or require . and scholars are rarely motivated by the thought of an end product. Rather, they are moved Abraham Flexner Founding Director 1930–39 by a creative curiosity that is the hallmark of academic inquiry. The Institute for Advanced Study is one of the few institutions in the world where the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake is the ultimate raison d’être. Speculative research, the kind that is fundamental to the advancement of human understanding of the world of nature and of humanity, is not a product that can be made to order. Rather, like artistic creativity, it benefits from a special environment. This was the belief to which Abraham Flexner, the founding Director of the Institute, held passionately, and which continues to inspire the Institute today. The cultivation of ideas in a deliberately contemplative, quiet mode of reflection and intense personal interaction is the Institute’s proven strength. While the image of the scholar working in quiet solitude serves to capture the individual effort and concentrated focus involved in the pursuit of knowledge, this image falls short in representing the Institute’s intellectual community, that special environment created when young researchers and Opposite Rare books from the Lessing J. Rosenwald Room 3 IASBlueBook09_8.4.09_Q6#4E1.crw5.qxp 9/16/09 3:48 PM Page 4 Curiosity n his provocatively titled essay “The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge,” published in Harper’s I Magazine in October 1939, Abraham Flexner argued the