A Community of Scholars: Impressions of the Institute for Advanced Study (60th Anniversary Edition)
Institute for Advanced Study
Language: English
Pages: 126
ISBN: 0691151369
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
This beautifully illustrated anthology celebrates eighty years of history and intellectual inquiry at the Institute for Advanced Study, one of the world's leading centers for theoretical research. Featuring essays by current and former faculty and members along with photographs by Serge J-F. Levy, the book captures the spirit of curiosity, freedom, and comradeship that is a hallmark of this unique community of scholars.
Founded in 1930 in Princeton, New Jersey, the institute encourages and supports fundamental research in the sciences and humanities--the original, often speculative thinking that can transform how we understand our world. Albert Einstein was among the first in a long line of brilliant thinkers to be affiliated with the institute. They include Kurt Gödel, George Kennan, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Erwin Panofsky, Homer A. Thompson, John von Neumann, and Hermann Weyl. This volume offers an intimate portrait in words and images of a storied institution that might best be described as a true academic village. The personal reflections collected here--written by leading figures from across the disciplines--bring this exceptional academic institution and its history vibrantly to life.
Institute’s formidable reputation. In 2007, later, after I had recovered.) Few things have touched me as when I was invited to be artist-in-residence, I expected— deeply as this dignified act of kindness. And nothing better and discovered—an inspiring intellectual and creative represents the luminous spirit of an institution characterized environment. I was delighted also to find a warm and by extraordinary intellect—and generous feeling. 68 Shaping Time 69 70 71 72 73 74
March 2010 page 23 Persian Reading Group, home of Patricia Crone of the School of Historical Studies, Fall 2009: Mohammad-Reza Shafii-Kadkani (left) with Crone (center) page 29 Crossroads Nursery School Tree Decorating, Common Room, Fuld Hall, December 2009 page 30 Institute Pond, Winter 2010 page 26 Member Housing, Fall 2009 page 31 Martin Pessah of the School of Natural Sciences, Member Housing, Winter 2010 index of photographs 103 page 32 Matthias Schwarz of the University of Leipzig
page 63 Peter Goldreich of the School of Natural Sciences, Lecture, Wolfensohn Hall, October 2009 page 70 Juan Maldacena of the School of Natural Sciences, Bloomberg Hall Office, Spring 2010 page 64 Matias Zaldarriaga of the School of Natural Sciences, Astrophysics Library, Bloomberg Hall, Spring 2010 page 71 Helmut Hofer of the School of Mathematics, South Lawn, Winter 2010 page 65 Institute Pond, Fall 2009 106 index of photographs page 72 Children’s Holiday Party, Dining Hall, December
faculty to carry out pure my enthusiasm to the director, Robert Oppenheimer, the research on a long-term basis without the distraction of sophisticated cosmopolitan, who politely demurred, hinting teaching or administrative duties. At a time when universi- at the derivative nature of Princeton architecture. ties were mainly devoted to the education of their students, I spent one and a half years on that first visit which, professorial duties could be heavy and often inimical to through
faculty and graduate students. The math- geometry and physics blossom in a remarkable way and ematical community essentially doubled in size. the IAS has been at the center of this renaissance, led by Although the Institute never had formal graduate stu- Edward Witten and his colleagues. I have kept in touch dents of its own, over the years many faculty members with these exciting new developments, and I am sure that supervised students from the university, an arrangement Hermann Weyl is