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Report for the Academic Year 2016–2017

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Report for the Academic Year 2016–2017 Institute for Advanced Study Re port for 2 0 1 6–2 0 1 7 INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDY EINSTEIN DRIVE Report for the Academic Year PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY 08540 (609) 734-8000 www.ias.edu 2016–2017 Cover: The School of Mathematics’s inaugural Summer Collaborators program invited to the Institute campus small groups of mathematicians to further their collaborative research projects. Opposite: A view of the allée leading from Fuld Hall to Olden Farm, the residence of the Institute’s Director since 1940 COVER PHOTO: ANDREA KANE OPPOSITE PHOTO: DAN KOMODA Table of Contents DAN KOMODA DAN Reports of the Chair and the Director 4 The Institute for Advanced Study 6 School of Historical Studies 10 School of Mathematics 22 School of Natural Sciences 32 School of Social Science 42 Special Programs and Outreach 50 Record of Events 60 83 Acknowledgments 91 Founders, Trustees, and Officers of the Board and of the Corporation 92 Administration 93 Present and Past Directors and Faculty 95 Independent Auditors’ Report DAN KOMODA REPORT OF THE CHAIR Basic research, driven by fundamental inquiry, freedom, and and institutions: Trustees, Friends, former Members, founda- curiosity, is crucial for all true understanding and the advance- tions, corporations, government agencies, and philanthropists, ment and integrity of knowledge. Given this, I was extremely who recognize basic research as a vital public good. pleased to see the publication of The Usefulness of Useless The Board was very pleased to welcome new Trustees Jeanette Knowledge by Princeton University Press in March. It features Lerman-Neubauer, trustee of the Neubauer Family Foundation founding Director Abraham Flexner’s classic essay of the same and owner of a boutique communications practice; Christopher title, first published in Harper’s magazine in 1939, and a new A. Cole, founder and Chairman of Ardea Partners; and Manjul companion essay by Robbert Dijkgraaf, current Director and Bhargava, R. Brandon Fradd Professor of Mathematics at Leon Levy Professor. The book conveys the importance of Princeton University. Manjul succeeds Benedict Gross, George basic research as an essential precondition of innovation and Vasmer Leverett Professor of Mathematics at Harvard University, the first step in social and cultural progress, and describes how as Academic Trustee for the School of Mathematics. The Board is it has informed the mission of the Institute for nearly ninety immensely grateful for Dick’s invaluable perspective and guidance. years, leading to transformative ideas in theory and practice. We were also deeply saddened by the death in December of I have heard that some justices or congressmen walk around Trustee Emeritus Sidney Drell, our dear colleague and friend. with a copy of the U.S. Constitution in their pockets. Everyone At this very important moment, when scientific principles who is interested in science philanthropy or public policy and thinking are being sidelined or dismissed, it is essential to affecting science should have a copy of The Usefulness of Useless recognize basic research, and the Institute’s realization of it, as Knowledge in similar proximity. one of the most worthy and powerful causes at the root of all The Institute’s exceptional environment and revelatory societal and technological advancement. Raising funding for long-term ideas and outcomes would not be possible without and awareness of the Institute’s mission and leadership within our benefactors, who contributed more than $25 million to the field of basic research underscores the indispensable pursuit the Institute’s endowment and the IAS Fund, which supports and value of truth, beauty, and knowledge. annual operating costs. The independence inherent in the Charles Simonyi Institute’s mission requires the dedication of many individuals Chair of the Board REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR It was a great privilege to revisit founding Director Abraham We welcomed our new Chief Development Officer and Flexner’s essay “The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge” and Associate Director for Development and Communications, contribute a contemporary argument for what Flexner called Elizabeth Boluch Wood, formerly Vice President for Develop- “the unobstructed pursuit of useless knowledge.” It has been ment at Princeton University, and our new Chief Operating truly heartening to share and to experience the warm reception Officer and Associate Director for Finance and Administration, of its message around the world: that basic research must be a Janine Purcaro, formerly Chief Financial Officer for the fundamental attribute of modern society if we are to make Division of Intercollegiate Athletics at Rutgers University. integral strides in knowledge and understanding. Janine succeeds John Masten to whom the Institute is The influence of the Institute’s research continues to be immensely grateful for his eleven years of dedicated service. recognized across the sciences and humanities: Jonathan Israel Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang also joined was awarded the 2017 Comenius Prize by the Foundation of the the Institute as its newest Artist-in-Residence, succeeding Comenius Museum in the Netherlands; Peter Paret received the Sebastian Currier and producing a wonderful series of concerts 2017 Pritzker Military Museum & Library Literature Award for and special events for the Institute community. Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing; Jean Bourgain was Communicating the importance of curiosity, freedom, acknowledged with the 2017 Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics; and imagination in the advancement of knowledge and Nathan Seiberg was awarded the 2016 Dirac Medal and Prize innovation is critically important, but to see these principles from the International Centre for Theoretical Physics; and Joan in action on the campus of the Institute is thrilling. Every Wallach Scott, who was named a Chevalier de la Légion day IAS researchers boldly follow their own intuition, risk d’Honneur of France, was recognized with the 2016 Talcott failure, and experience astounding successes that are shared Parsons Prize of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences for freely throughout the world and improve society’s perspective her distinguished contributions to the social sciences. and possibilities. I am deeply grateful to our increasing Thomas Spencer transitioned as of July to Professor Emeri- number of supporters who make these endeavors and tus, having served on the Faculty of the School of Mathematics rewards possible. since 1986. We are deeply grateful for Tom’s many contributions Robbert Dijkgraaf and his continued involvement in the IAS community. Director and Leon Levy Professor 4 DAN KOMODA DAN DAN KOMODA DAN To p : Charles Simonyi, Chair of the Board of Trustees, addresses Faculty and Trustees at the Board meeting in October. Below: Robbert Dijkgraaf, Director of the Institute and Leon Levy Professor, gives a talk on The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge at the Princeton Public Library. 5 Sir Jacob Epstein’s bronze bust of Albert Einstein, sculpted from life in 1933, in Fuld Hall The Institute for Advanced Study It was founding Director Abraham Flexner’s belief that if the Institute “eschews the chase for the useful, the minds of its scholars will be liberated, they will be free to take advantage of surprises, and someday an unexpected discovery, apparently leading nowhere, will be found to be an indispensable link in a long and complex chain that may open new worlds in theory and practice.” FROM THE DEVELOPMENT of programmable computers and the uncovering of the deep symmetries of nature to advances in societal understanding and historical practice, long and complex chains of knowledge have developed for nearly ninety years through research originating at the Institute for Advanced Study. Albert Einstein was one of the first in a continuous line of distinguished Institute scientists and scholars who have produced a deeper understanding of the physical world and of humanity. Yet the Institute’s remarkable history does not seem to weigh heavily on current scholars and scientists. Instead, the atmosphere focuses on the present, where every twist and hairpin bend changes our view. What do we know? What do we yet need to understand? How should we try to comprehend it? Work at the Institute takes place across historical studies, mathematics, natural sciences, and social science. Currently, a permanent Faculty each year award fellowships to some two hundred visiting Members, from about one hundred universities and research institutions throughout the world. The Institute’s reach has been multiplied many times over through the more than eight thousand Members who have influenced entire fields of study as well as the work and minds of colleagues and students. Thirty- three Nobel Laureates, forty-one of the fifty-six Fields Medalists, and sixteen of the eighteen Abel Prize Laureates, as well as many winners of the Wolf and MacArthur prizes, have been affiliated with the Institute. At the Institute, everything is designed to encourage scholars to take their research to the next level. This includes creating and sustaining an environment where Members live in an academic village of apartments, originally designed by Marcel Breuer in 1957, at the edge of the Institute’s eight hundred acres of campus, woodland, and farmland. Members eat in the same dining hall, share common rooms and libraries, and carry out their work in an institutional setting where human scale has been carefully maintained to THOMAS CLARKE THOMAS encourage the sharing of ideas, mutual understanding, and friendship. 7 Each year a new intellectual mix is created by the Members, ranging from young postdoctoral fellows to distinguished senior professors, who typically stay a year but may stay up to five years and return for subsequent visits throughout their careers. A period spent as a Member is often a life-changing experience. Young scholars meet the contemporaries who, with them, will be leading figures in their field in the future. Senior Members have the time and freedom to initiate new lines of research. Freed from teaching and administration, Members are afforded opportunities for discussing their work with scholars and scientists from other fields.
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