News Briefs Archive

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Opportunity Equation Initiative Launched

The Institute for Advanced Study and Carnegie Corporation of New York together have established the Opportunity Equation initiative, which promotes equity and excellence in mathematics and science education for all students by engaging national and local decision makers and thought leaders to:

o Establish common mathematics and science standards that are fewer, clearer and higher, coupled with high-quality assessments

o Improve math and science teaching —and methods to recruit, prepare, support and manage the nation’s teaching talent

o Redesign schools and systems to deliver math and science learning more effectively

The initiative was created to carry out the recommendations in the Carnegie Corporation of New York-Institute for Advanced Study Commission on Mathematics and Science Education report entitled The Opportunity Equation: Transforming Mathematics and Science Education for Citizenship and the Global Economy.
 


Bombieri Shares 2010 King Faisal Prize

The 2010 King Faisal International Prize in Science (Mathematics) is shared by Enrico Bombieri, IBM von Neumann Professor in the School of Mathematics at the Institute for Advanced Study, and Australian Terence Chi-Shen Tao, former visitor in the School of Mathematics and James and Carol Collins Chair of Mathematics at the University of California. The King Faisal Foundation selected Bombieri for his pioneering contributions to various branches of mathematics, highlighting work that expresses originality, power, and clarity of exposition, addressing fundamental and difficult problems in number theory, algebraic geometry, complex analysis, and minimal surfaces. Tao was selected for his highly original solutions of very difficult and important problems and for his technical brilliance in the use of the necessary mathematical machinery. The Prizes are awarded annually and presented during a ceremony in Riyadh under the auspices of the King of Saudi Arabia. The Science prize rotates annually among several fields.


Derek Bermel Receives Grammy Nomination

Artist-in-Residence Derek Bermel was nominated for a Grammy Award for his recording Voices for Solo Clarinet and Orchestra in the category of Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with Orchestra). The awards were presented at the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles on January 31.


Science Initiative Group Introduces Blog

The Science Initiative Group (SIG) has introduced a blog on its website. Research and Editorial Consultant Alan H. Anderson and Executive Director Arlen K. Hastings are posting regular reports of their travels in Africa with the Regional Initiative in Science and Education (RISE).  You may access the blog at http://sites.ias.edu/sig/blog.


WWFM Features Music from the Institute

Local classical radio station WWFM is now broadcasting a new series called Music from the Institute for Advanced Study, co-hosted by Institute Artist-in-Residence Derek Bermel.  On March 27 at 8 p.m., the program will feature jazz pianists Vijay Iyer and Craig Taborn, who performed in Wolfensohn Hall on March 19 and 20. Described in the Village Voice as "the most commanding pianist and composer to emerge in recent years," Iyer is a largely self-taught musician grounded in the American jazz lexicon who draws from a range of Western and non-Western traditions. Taborn has moved from early collaborations with James Carter to work in a wide variety of settings, from acoustic trios to electronic and techno music. According to All About Jazz, "In whatever setting he appears, Taborn leaves an indelible mark."

The series, which features music from past Artist-in-Residence performances and current concerts in the Edward T. Cone Concert Series, airs between 8 and 10 p.m. on the last Saturday of each month and will continue in April and May.  The program is available live online at http://www.wwfm.org/ or at one of four locations on the dial: WWFM, 89.1 FM in Trenton/Princeton; WWNJ, 91.1 FM in Toms River; WWCJ, 89.1 FM in Cape May (HD); and WWPJ, 89.5 FM in Pen Argyl, PA (HD).

For more information about the Artist-in-Residence program at the Institute, please click here.


World Premieres by Bermel and Moravec

A new piece by composer and musician Derek Bermel, Artist-in-Residence at the Institute, premiered on Sunday, August 1, at Tanglewood in the Berkshires. Swing Song, composed for Sir James Galway on the occasion of the flutist’s seventieth birthday, was conducted by Leonard Slatkin and featured Galway and the flutists of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Tanglewood Music Center, and the Boston University Tanglewood Institute. The Letter, a new opera by Paul Moravec, former Artist-in-Residence (2007–08), with a libretto by Terry Teachout, had its premiere on July 25 at the Santa Fe Opera. Moravec, who most recently served as Artistic Consultant (2008–09), composed the music during his time at the Institute. To read more about Bermel and Moravec, see the Spring 2009 issue of the Institute Letter.


Science Features Article by Stephen Adler

Science, the magazine of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, features an article in the July 17, 2009, issue by Stephen Adler, Professor in the School of Natural Sciences, and Angelo Bassi of the University of Trieste. "Is Quantum Theory Exact?" explores the many puzzles quantum theory has generated. In it, the authors suggest that future experiments may tell us if quantum theory is exact or approximate. The complete article is available here.


Medieval Institute Honors Caroline Walker Bynum with Gründler Prize

The Medieval Institute has presented the 2009 Otto Gründler Book Prize to Caroline Walker Bynum, Professor in the School of Historical Studies for her book, Wonderful Blood: Theology and Practice in Late Medieval Northern Germany and Beyond (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007). According to the award citation, "the topic is sweeping, the thought sophisticated, and the writing elegant." She received the award at the 44th International Congress on Medieval Studies, held on May 8 in Kalamazoo, Michigan.


Receive Income for Life while Supporting the Institute

Interested individuals can support the Institute by funding a Charitable Gift Annuity. In this popular charitable giving arrangement, a donor, making a gift of a minimum of $10,000 to the Institute, will receive fixed payments for the life(ves) of one or two individuals. Donors can establish annuities for themselves and/or a spouse, for their parents, or to support a relative or a friend. Donors can elect to have payments start now, or at a date of their choosing. The person receiving the payments must be at least 60 years old when the payments start.

Annuity rates range from 5.0% to 9.5%, depending on the annuitants' ages. A portion of each payment is tax-exempt. Rates will be even higher if the gift is made now and the payments are deferred. There is no limit as to the number of separate annuities that can be established by each donor.  Other benefits include an immediate charitable income tax deduction and capital gains tax deferral if the annuity is funded with appreciated assets such as stock.

To explore how a charitable gift annuity might work for you, please contact Catie Newcombe, Senior Development Officer, at 609-951-4542 or .  If you wish to calculate the payments yourself, access the Planned Giving Gift Calculator under "Support the Institute" on the Institute's website. All calculations are confidential unless you indicate that you wish to be contacted.


Avi Wigderson and Colleagues Honored with 2009 Gödel Prize

The 2009 Gödel Prize for outstanding papers in theoretical computer science will be awarded to Avi Wigderson, Herbert A. Maass Professor in the School of Mathematics, and former Visitors Omer Reingold (1999-2003) and Salil Vadhan (2000-01).  The recipients were selected for their development of a new type of graph product that improves the design of robust computer networks and resolved open questions on error correction and derandomization. The papers cited are "Entropy Waves, the Zig-Zag Graph Product, and New Constant Degree Expanders" by all three (conceived and written at IAS) and a subsequent paper, "Undirected Connectivity in Log-Space," by Reingold.  The prize is named for Kurt Gödel, who was a Member (1933-34, 1935, 1938, 1940-53) of the Institute and subsequently served on the Faculty (1953-78).  The Gödel Prize is awarded jointly by the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science and the Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Algorithms and Computation Theory and will be presented at the ACM Symposium on the Theory of Computing, held from May 31 to June 2, in Bethesda, Maryland.