Institute for Advanced Study INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDY EINSTEIN DRIVE PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY 08540 (609) 734-8000 www.ias.edu Re port for 2 0 1 5–2 0 1 6 Report for the Academic Year 2015–2016 Cover: On February 11, 2016, Professor Matias Zaldarriaga spoke at the Institute about the detection of gravitational waves, a key prediction of Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity. Opposite page: The globe of Albert Einstein, one of the Institute’s first Professors (1933–55), is housed in the Shelby White and Leon Levy Archives Center on the Institute campus. COVER PHOTO: ANDREA KANE 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 30 School of Social Science 42 Special Programs and Outreach 50 Record of Events 58 79 Acknowledgments 87 Founders, Trustees, and Officers of the Board and of the Corporation 88 Administration 89 Present and Past Directors and Faculty 91 Independent Auditors’ Report DAN KOMODA REPORT OF THE CHAIR The independence and excellence of the Institute for We are also immensely thankful for the service of Trustees Advanced Study rely on the power of philanthropy, and we Carmela Vircillo Franklin and Margaret Levi, whose terms are deeply grateful for the support we are receiving from a as Academic Trustees came to an end, and Spiro Latsis, a growing network of donors. Trustee since 2008, and Marty Leibowitz, our distinguished Carl P. Feinberg, a Friend of the Institute since 2002, former Vice Chair and past President of the Corporation and endowed a Professorship of Theoretical Physics now held by Chair of the Board, who served with remarkable distinction Juan Maldacena in the School of Natural Sciences. The Center for twenty-one years. The Board looks forward to Spiro and for Spain in America, directed by former Member and Visitor Marty’s continuing contributions as Trustees Emeriti. José Luis Colomer, created a John Elliott Membership in the The importance of curiosity-driven basic research cannot School of Historical Studies in honor of the former Institute be overstated: it is a prerequisite of innovation and the first Professor. The Tang Research Foundation, led by former step in societal understanding and change. The Institute Member Xin Luo, endowed the Roger E. Covey Membership invests in a vital combination of immediate impact and in East Asian Studies. Former Institute Trustee Jeff Bezos returns that play out over decades. I offer my heartfelt endowed the Bezos Membership in Astrophysics. And the late appreciation to those who join IAS in providing funding Professor Emerita Patricia Crone made a bequest that created a and resources for researchers who open new paths of inquiry named Membership in the field of Near Eastern Studies. that revolutionize human thought and lead to applications We were thrilled to welcome new Trustees Veena Das, that transform our lives, influencing research, universities, Krieger-Eisenhower Professor of Anthropology at Johns Hopkins programs, fields of study, and future knowledge throughout University; Lorraine Daston, Director of the Max Planck the world. Institute for the History of Science and Visiting Professor in the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago; Charles Simonyi and John Overdeck, Co-Chair of Two Sigma Investments. Chair of the Board REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR This year was particularly auspicious for science and for the We were deeply saddened by the passing of Professor Emerita power of basic research, driven by imagination and original Patricia Crone and Professor Emeritus Morton White in the thought. The Institute celebrated the centennial of Einstein’s School of Historical Studies. Patricia and Morty were foremost general theory of relativity with a conference, General Relativity scholars in their fields who influenced our understanding of at 100, cohosted with Princeton University and supported by a history and humanity. Their character, courage, and ideas are grant from the Schwab Charitable Fund made possible by the greatly missed. generosity of IAS Trustee Eric Schmidt and Wendy Schmidt. Andrew W. Mellon Professor Jonathan Israel in the School of Incredibly, two months earlier, the Laser Interferometer Historical Studies and Professor Peter Goddard in the School of Gravitational-Wave Observatory detected a key prediction of Natural Sciences (as well as my predecessor as Director) retired Einstein’s theory: the existence of gravitational waves created as of June 30, 2016. We are deeply grateful for their original when two black holes collided a billion light-years away, creating research and leadership. We also congratulate Sebastian Currier discernible ripples in spacetime. The detection, a century later, on his last year as Artist-in-Residence. Sebastian curated a was a dramatic reminder of the timescale of basic research and stunning series of concerts and artist talks during his three-year its role as an engine of technological and societal progress. appointment. We are very pleased that Pulitzer Prize–winning Curiosity-driven basic research at the Institute continues to composer David Lang will succeed Sebastian and carry forward be recognized throughout the world and across the sciences and the tradition of a musical presence within the IAS community. humanities: Professor Yve-Alain Bois was awarded the Pierre Like all years at the Institute, 2015–16 was one of break- Daix Prize; IBM von Neumann Professor Jean Bourgain was throughs and discoveries, some of them heralded in the New awarded the Antonio Feltrinelli International Prize for Mathe- York Times and recognized with prizes, others quietly opening matics; Professor Emeritus Glen Bowersock was awarded the new lines of inquiry and deeper exploration. I am immensely Prix Albert Bernard; James D. Wolfensohn Professor Didier grateful to our Trustees, Faculty, Members and Visitors, Fassin received the Gold Medal of the Swedish Society for Friends, Staff, foundations, and other donors for supporting Anthropology and Geography; Professor Tom Spencer was our Faculty and Members in their work to further knowledge awarded the Henri Poincaré Prize; and Charles Simonyi and understanding. Professor Edward Witten received the Albert Einstein World Award of Science and the inaugural American Physical Society’s Robbert Dijkgraaf Medal for Exceptional Achievement in Research. Director and Leon Levy Professor 4 ALL PHOTOS ANDREA KANE ALL PHOTOS Top: Charles Simonyi, Chair of the Board of Trustees, addresses Faculty and Trustees at the Board meeting in May. Below: Robbert Dijkgraaf, Director of the Institute and Leon Levy Professor, gives an Institute talk, “100 Years of General Relativity,” available at www.ias.edu/ideas/100-years-general-relativity. 5 In November, the Institute celebrated the centennial of Einstein’s general theory of relativity with a special two-day conference, General Relativity at 100, which examined the history and influence of relativity and its continuing impact on cutting-edge research, from cosmology and quantum gravity to black holes and mathematical relativity. 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 more than eighty- five 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 of some thirty eminent academics 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 seven 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 six- teen of the seventeen 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 DAN KOMODA DAN 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.