Press Releases

Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Awards 2008 History Prize to Jonathan Israel

Margaret Sullivan — Mon, 12 May 2008 12:44:02

Princeton, N.J., May 12, 2008 - The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences has announced that Jonathan Israel, Professor of Modern European History in the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study, has been selected to receive the 2008 Dr. A.H. Heineken Prize in History. Professor Israel was chosen for "his vitally new perspective on the history of the Enlightenment."

Jonathan Israel

Israel's work is concerned with European and European colonial history from the Renaissance to the eighteenth century, with particular emphasis on the history of ideas, the Dutch Golden Age (1590-1713), including the Dutch global trade system, seventeenth-century Dutch Jewry and Spinoza, the "Glorious Revolution" of 1688-91 in Britain, and Spanish imperial strategy especially in Mexico, the Caribbean and the Low Countries.

According to the prize committee, "Some scholars believe the Enlightenment began with eighteenth-century French philosophers such as Voltaire and Rousseau, whereas others trace its origins to England and to Newton and Locke. But these theories have been altered by the work of British historian Jonathan Israel, who emphasizes the significance of what went before: the early, radical phase of the Enlightenment, dominated by the ideas of the philosopher Spinoza (1632-1677)."

Professor Israel's books include Enlightenment Contested. Philosophy, Modernity and the Emancipation of Man, 1670-1752 (2006); Radical Enlightenment: Philosophy and the Making of Modernity, 1650 -1750 (2001); European Jewry in the Age of Mercantilism, 1550-1750 (1985); and The Dutch Republic. Its Rise, Greatness and Fall, 1477-1806 (1995).

The Dr. A.H. Heineken Prize for History was established in 1990. It was initially intended for European history alone, but in 2006 eligibility was extended to all areas of the discipline. The Heineken Prizes are presented every other year during a meeting of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. This year the meeting will be held on October 2 in Amsterdam.

Previous winners of the Heineken Prize for History include Joel Mokyr, Jacques Le Goff, Heinz Schilling, Jan de Vries, Mona Ozouf, Heiko A. Oberman, Peter R.L. Brown, Herman van der Wee and Peter Gay.

About the Institute for Advanced Study

The Institute for Advanced Study is one of the world's leading centers for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. The Institute exists to encourage and support fundamental scholarship - the original, often speculative, thinking that produces advances in knowledge that change the way we understand the world. Work at the Institute takes place in four Schools: Historical Studies, Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Social Science. It provides for the mentoring of younger scholars by a permanent Faculty of twenty-seven, and it offers all who work there the freedom to undertake research that will make significant contributions in any of the broad range of fields in the sciences and humanities studied at the Institute.

The Institute, founded in 1930, is a private, independent academic institution located in Princeton, New Jersey. Its more than 5,000 former Members hold positions of intellectual and scientific leadership in the United States and abroad. Some twenty-two Nobel Laureates, and thirty-four out of forty-eight Fields Medalists, have been Institute Faculty, Members or Visitors. Many winners of the Wolf or MacArthur prizes have also been affiliated with the Institute.

Jonathan Israel Discusses the Islamic World and the Radical Enlightenment

Margaret Sullivan — Mon, 12 May 2008 11:59:04

PRINCETON, N.J. - May 12, 2008 - Jonathan Israel, Professor in the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study, will present a lecture titled The Islamic World and the Radical Enlightenment: Toleration, Freethinking and Personal Liberty on Wednesday, May 21, at 4:30 p.m. in Wolfensohn Hall on the Institute's campus.

Jonathan Israel

In this lecture, Israel will address topics that arose from a recent innovative colloquium, Islamic Freethinking and Western Radicalism, held at the Institute in April. He will discuss the Radical Enlightenment, that part of the Western Enlightenment, which from around 1660 onwards, pushed for full freedom of thought, religious freedom and personal liberty together with democracy and the principle of equality. This part of the Enlightenment, what might be broadly termed the Democratic Enlightenment, has come to be much more intensively studied and better understood in recent years than it was before the 1990s. One of its characteristic features is its use of the medieval Islamic freethinkers and their ideas, and its interpretation of the special features of Islamic society and politics, to illustrate and broaden its own arguments for transforming the Western World.

This lecture is presented with support provided by the Dr. S.T. Lee Fund for Historical Studies.

Israel joined the Faculty at the Institute in 2001. He received his undergraduate education at Queens' College, Cambridge. His postgraduate work was conducted at St. Antony's College, Oxford, and the Colegio de Mexico in Mexico City. He was awarded a Ph.D. in 1972 by St. Antony's College, and from 1973 to 1975, he was an Assistant Lecturer and a Lecturer at the University of Hull. At the University College, London, he was Lecturer in Early Modern European History from 1974 to 1981, Reader in Modern History from 1981 to 1985 and Professor of Dutch History and Institutions from 1985 to 2000.

Israel was named a Fellow of the British Academy in 1992, a Corresponding Fellow of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences in 1994, and an Honorary Professor at the University of Amsterdam in 2003. He holds honorary doctorates from the universities of Antwerp and Rotterdam. The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences recently honored him with the 2008 Dr. A.H. Heineken Prize in History by for "his vitally new perspective on the history of the Enlightenment."

His recent work focuses on the impact of radical thought -- especially Spinoza, Bayle, Diderot and the eighteenth century French materialists -- on the Enlightenment and emergence of modern ideas of democracy, equality, toleration, freedom of the press and individual freedom.

For further information about this event, which is free and open to the public, please call (609) 734-8175, or visit the Public Events page on the Institute website, www.ias.edu.

Nobel Laureate Eric Maskin Discusses Mechanism Design

Margaret Sullivan — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 15:48:44

PRINCETON, N.J. - April 17, 2008 - Eric S. Maskin, Albert O. Hirschman Professor in the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study, and recipient of the 2007 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics, will present a lecture titled Mechanism Design: How to Implement Social Goals on Friday, May 2, at 6:00 p.m. in Wolfensohn Hall on the Institute's campus.

Eric S. Maskin

Professor Maskin shared the Nobel Prize with Leonid Hurwicz and Roger Myerson for his work in Mechanism Design Theory. This is the study of how, given an economic or social goal, we can design a procedure or institution (that is, a mechanism) for achieving that goal. In this lecture, he will give an introduction to mechanism design using several simple examples. The lecture is nontechnical and suitable for a general audience.

Professor Maskin joined the Faculty at the Institute in 2000. He received his A.B. in 1972, his A.M. in 1974 and his Ph.D. in 1976, all from Harvard University. A Research Fellow at Jesus College, Cambridge in 1976-77, Maskin taught at M.I.T. from 1977 to 1984. In 1985, he moved to Harvard University, and was named Louis Berkman Professor of Economics in 1997.

A Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Econometric Society, Maskin is also a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy and an Honorary Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge. He is a past President of the Econometric Society and was named Honorary Professor at Wuhan and Tsinghua Universities. He has served as Editor of The Quarterly Journal of Economics and Economics Letters. His work in economic theory has had a deep influence on many areas of economics, political science and law.

For further information about this event, which is free and open to the public, please call (609) 734-8175, or visit the Public Events page on the Institute website, www.ias.edu.

Institute for Advanced Study Convenes Annual Program for Women and Mathematics

Margaret Sullivan — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 12:59:16

Mathematicians to Study Knots, Surfaces, the Curve Complex and Foliations

Example of a foliation

Princeton, N.J., April 15, 2008 - Sixty-four women mathematicians from throughout the United States will gather at the Institute for Advanced Study this May for the Program for Women and Mathematics. The 11-day residential program, sponsored by the Institute and Princeton University, will be held from May 12 to May 23, marking its 15^th year on the Institute campus.

Designed to encourage women to pursue careers in mathematics by providing opportunities for learning and research, and mentoring and peer relations, the program is being organized by Sun-Yung Alice Chang and Ingrid Daubechies of Princeton University; Antonella Grassi of the University of Pennsylvania; Tanya Khovanova of MIT; Chuu-Lian Terng of the University of California, Irvine; and Karen Uhlenbeck of The University of Texas at Austin.

The research topic for 2008 is Knots, Surfaces, the Curve Complex, Foliations and All That. Three-dimensional manifolds are special not only because we are most inherently three-dimensional ourselves, but also because many of the tools that have been developed for the mathematical study of higher-dimensional manifolds do not apply. Some problems, such as the Poincaré conjecture, are harder to solve in a smaller number of dimensions such as three or four. Knot theory, a part of low-dimensional topology, is beautiful, intriguing -- it is not easy to see that two knots are the same -- and useful, as it now has applications in biology (protein folding) and pharmaceuticals.

The first week of the program will be devoted to surfaces and orbifolds, including the geometry of the hyperbolic plane and basic properties of surfaces. The second week will focus on knots and their complements in the three-sphere, examining various classes of knots, particularly two-bridge knots. Symmetries of knots and how to tell when two knots are the same will be discussed. There will be an emphasis on properties of the complement, and students will have the opportunity to use the program SnapPea, which is designed to create and study hyperbolic 3-manifolds.

Participants will include undergraduate and graduate students as well as postdoctoral scholars and senior researchers. A variety of activities, both formal and informal, will be offered to encourage interaction among participants. In addition to undergraduate and graduate level lecture courses, there are research seminars, problem and review sessions, colloquia and Women-in-Science seminars. A day of activities on the Princeton University campus, including lectures and a dinner, is planned for Friday, May 16.

Faculty members for the program include Genevieve Walsh of Tufts University for the Beginning Lecture Course, and Rachel Roberts of Washington University, St. Louis and Jennifer Schultens of the University of California, Davis, for the Advanced Lecture Course.

In addition to the organizers, those serving on the Program Committee are Katherine Bold of Princeton University; Nancy Hingston of The College of New Jersey; Rhonda Hughes and Lisa Traynor of Bryn Mawr College; Robert MacPherson of the Institute's School of Mathematiacs; Cynthia Diane Rudin of the NYU Center for Neural Science; and Janet Talvacchia of Swarthmore College.

Support for the program has been provided by the National Science Foundation and The Starr Foundation.

For information, visit http://www.math.ias.edu/womensprogram.

Peter Sarnak Discusses Solutions to Equations in Integers

Christine Ferrara — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 19:03:04

PRINCETON, N.J. - March 12, 2008 - Peter Sarnak, Professor in the School of Mathematics at the Institute for Advanced Study, will discuss how, through the works of Fermat, Gauss, and Lagrange, we have come to understand which positive integers can be represented as sums of two, three, or four squares in his talk, Solutions to Equations in Integers. The lecture will take place on Wednesday, March 26 at 4:30 p.m. in Wolfensohn Hall on the Institute's campus.
   Professor Sarnak will provide insights into Hilbert's 11th problem, from 1900, and its complete solution, which relies on recent advances in number theory and related fields over the years. He will explain some of these developments, as well as certain far-reaching conjectures that the problem has inspired.
    Professor Sarnak, who joined the Faculty of the Institute in July 2007, has made major contributions to number theory and to questions in analysis motivated by number theory. His interest in mathematics is wide-ranging, and his current research focuses on the theory of zeta functions and automorphic forms with applications to number theory, combinatorics and mathematical physics. He is also an outstanding mentor, working closely with younger mathematicians and inspiring enormous enthusiasm for his subject.
   He received his undergraduate education at the University of Witwatersrand and was awarded a Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1980. He was a Member in the School of Mathematics at the Institute from 1999 to 2002 and again from 2005 to 2007. In the course of his career, he has served on the faculty of the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences of New York University, Stanford University and Princeton University, where he has been the Eugene Higgins Professor of Mathematics since 2002.
   The American Mathematical Society awarded Professor Sarnak the Levi L. Conant Prize in 2003 and the Frank Nelson Cole Prize in 2005. In 2002, he was named a Member of the National Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of The Royal Society of London.
    For further information about this event, which is free and open to the public, please call (609) 734-8175, or visit the Public Events page on the Institute website, www.ias.edu.

Cellist Graham Walker to Perform at Institute for Advanced Study

Margaret Sullivan — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 12:56:01

PRINCETON, N.J., February 28, 2007 - Following his successful 2005 visit to Princeton, British cellist Graham Walker returns to perform on Friday, April 4 at 8:00 p.m. in Wolfensohn Hall at the Institute for Advanced Study. The performance will feature the music of Bach, Rachmaninov, Shostakovich, Fauré and Saint-Saëns. Walker will be accompanied by pianist Geoffrey Burleson, a member of the Richardson Chamber Players.

Graham Walker, photo by Sarah Houghton Walker

Walker has a flourishing career as a solo and chamber musician, playing at numerous festivals and other venues throughout Europe and the United States. He has recorded variously as a cellist, singer and conductor for EMI, Chandos, Nimbus, Quillisma and, most recently, for Naxos.

Walker received his early musical education as a chorister at St John's College School, Cambridge, and was subsequently awarded a top music scholarship to Harrow School. In 1995, within the space of six weeks, he performed Elgar's Cello and Schumann's Piano Concerti, and earned a choral scholarship which allowed him to return to St John's as an undergraduate in 1996. In that year he won the UNICEF Young Conductors' Platform. At Cambridge, Walker combined daily choral commitments (including tours throughout the world) with studying Mathematics for his B.A., and performed extensively on the cello, piano and organ.

Burleson has performed to wide acclaim throughout Europe and North America. A graduate of the Peabody Conservatory and the New England Conservatory, he won the Silver Medal in the International Piano Recording Competition.

This performance is made possible by the generous support of Annette Merle-Smith.

The concert is open to the public and tickets are free, but they should be reserved in advance. To request tickets or for further information about this event, please call (609) 951-4458.

Danielle Allen Discusses Politics, Propaganda and the Use and Abuse of Sound-Bites

Margaret Sullivan — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 13:43:12

PRINCETON, N.J. - February 11, 2008 - In an election year, the public is inundated with political advertising in print and on the radio and television. Commentators opine about who should be elected and why. Everyone is an expert, and sound-bites are ubiquitous. Danielle Allen, UPS Foundation Professor in the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study, will provide insights into this phenomenon in her talk, What to Do with Sound-Bites: On Politics and Propaganda in the 21st Century. The lecture will take place on Wednesday, February 27 at 4:30 p.m. in Wolfensohn Hall on the Institute's campus.

Danielle Allen

With the onslaught of sound-bites comes popular discussion about the degradation of political conversation. But is a sound-bite really such a bad thing? In the Western context, Homer was the first purveyor of them and Aristotle offered the first theory of them, but he called them maxims. Professor Allen's lecture will explore why sound-bites are a necessary and valuable part of political conversation, consider the ways in which they are also dangerous, and analyze the particular challenges to political discourse presented by the new media of the 21st century. She will explain that, at the end of the day, it is listeners, not speakers, who have the most work to do to deal responsibly with sound-bites.

Professor Allen, who joined the Faculty of the Institute in July 2007, received her undergraduate education in Classics at Princeton University. She was awarded an M.Phil. and Ph.D. in Classics from Cambridge University and went on to Harvard University, where she received her M.A. and Ph.D. in political science. She came to the Institute from the University of Chicago, where she served most recently as Dean of the Division of Humanities and Professor of Classical Languages and Literatures, Political Science and the Committee on Social Thought.

Widely known for her work on justice and citizenship in ancient Athens and its application to modern America, Professor Allen is the author of The World of Prometheus: The Politics of Punishing in Democratic Athens (Princeton University Press, 2000) and Talking to Strangers: Anxieties of Citizenship Since Brown vs. the Board of Education (University of Chicago Press, 2004). In 2002, she was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship for her ability to combine "the classicist's careful attention to texts and language with the political theorist's sophisticated and informed engagement."

Her current projects include a book on the Declaration of Independence, equality and the rule of law and a book on the relation between particular sociologies of change and political ethics.

For further information about this event, which is free and open to the public, please call (609) 734-8175, or visit the Public Events page on the Institute website, www.ias.edu.

Institute for Advanced Study Faculty and Members win Wolf and Crafoord Prizes

Margaret Sullivan — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 13:13:07

Princeton, N.J., February 6, 2008 - Three members of the Faculty of the Institute for Advanced Study, two former Members and a former Visitor have been honored with major prizes. Pierre Deligne, Professor Emeritus in the School of Mathematics at the Institute; Phillip A. Griffiths, Professor in the School of Mathematics and former Institute Director (1991-2003); and David B. Mumford, former Member in the School of Mathematics (1962-63, 1981-82) and currently University Professor at Brown University, have been chosen to receive the 2008 Wolf Prize in Mathematics.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced that it will present the 2008 Crafoord Prize in Astronomy and Mathematics to Edward Witten, Charles Simonyi Professor in the School of Natural Sciences at the Institute; former joint Member in the School of Natural Sciences and the School of Mathematics Maxim Kontsevich (1992-93) of Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques in France; and former Visitor in the School of Natural Sciences Rashid Sunyaev (2005 and 2006), of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow.

Peter Goddard, Director of the Institute, commented, "We are delighted to see the seminal work in mathematics and astrophysics being done by our Faculty, Members and Visitors receiving further international recognition by the award of these important prizes. The Institute is very proud of the achievements of these mathematicians and physicists, which have had profound impact on the development of their subjects over recent decades."

The Wolf Prize committee selected Professor Deligne for his work on mixed Hodge theory, the Weil conjectures and the Riemann-Hilbert correspondence and for his contributions to arithmetic. Professor Griffiths will be honored for his work on variations of Hodge structures, the theory of periods of abelian integrals and for his contributions to complex differential geometry. Mumford was chosen for his work on algebraic surfaces, on geometric invariant theory and for laying the foundations of the modern algebraic theory of moduli of curves and theta functions. The prizes will be presented by the President of Israel in the Chagall Hall of the Knesset in Jerusalem on May 25.

This year's Crafoord Prize rewards mathematical discoveries that are significant for the fundamental laws of nature and research on black holes and the early Universe. Half the prize will be shared by Professors Witten and Kontsevich for "their important contributions to mathematics inspired by modern theoretical physics." The other half goes to Professor Sunyaev for "his decisive contributions to high energy astrophysics and cosmology."

The Crafoord Prize promotes international basic research in disciplines that complement those for which the Nobel Prizes are awarded. These include astronomy and mathematics, geosciences and biosciences (with a particular emphasis on ecology). There is also an occasional prize awarded in polyarthritis (also know as rheumatoid arthritis, the disease from which the prize founder suffered) when a special committee recognizes major advances in the field. The Crafoord Prize award will be presented in Stockholm on April 23, in the presence of Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf.

About the Institute for Advanced Study

Edward T. Cone Concert Series Continues at Institute for Advanced Study in February and March

Margaret Sullivan — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 11:45:00

PRINCETON, N.J. - January 3, 2008 - The Institute for Advanced Study has announced the spring schedule for its 2007-08 season, the inaugural Edward T. Cone Concert Series, organized by Artist-in-Residence Paul Moravec, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer. The series, Tradition Redefined, explores the wide variety of aesthetic perspectives in art music, especially of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Enso String Quartet
Photo by David Mehr

On February 8 and 9 at 8:00 p.m. in Wolfensohn Hall on the Institute campus, the Enso String Quartet (Maureen Nelson and John Marcus on violin, Melissa Reardon on viola and Richard Belcher on cello) will perform the music of Franz Joseph Haydn, Hugo Wolf, Maurice Ravel, and IAS Artist-in-Residence Paul Moravec.

In a concert talk at 4 p.m. on February 8 in the Dilworth Room, Terry Teachout, music and drama critic at Commentary magazine and the Wall Street Journal, will present "Confessions of a Critic."

The recorder collective Quartet New Generation will perform on March 7 and 8 at 8 p.m. in Wolfensohn Hall. The Berlin-based group performs on upwards of 20 different recorders of varying sizes and shapes during the course of a typical performance. The concert will feature the world premiere of Mortal Flesh, a work by Paul Moravec, along with the music of Bach, Bruckner, Petros Ovsepyan, Gordon Beeferman, Thomas Tompkins, John Dowland, Samuel Scheidt and Chiel Meijering.

A Concert Talk, "The High Male Voice: Castrato, Countertenor, and Male Alto," will be presented by legendary countertenor Russell Oberlin on Friday, March 7 at 4 p.m. in the Dilworth Room. No tickets are needed for this event. In 2004, Oberlin's performance career was the subject of a Canadian film, Russell Oberlin: America's Legendary Countertenor. He was a pioneer in the early music revival in America, and those attending the talk will hear some of his classic recordings from the 50s and 60s. This presentation, which will have a question-and-answer period, may touch on subjects including Oberlin's performance career, his role as a founding member of the New York Pro Musica Antiqua, and his work with such musical giants as Leonard Bernstein, Glenn Gould, and Robert Shaw.

Concert tickets are free but must be reserved in advance; no tickets are necessary for the talks. For ticket information, or for further information about the Institute for Advanced Study's Artist-in-Residence Program, call (609) 734-8228 or visit www.ias.edu/air.

Quartet New Generation
Photo by David Pape

As of October 2007, the series carries the name of the late Edward T. Cone, who was a distinguished composer and musical scholar with long-standing ties to the Institute. The Artist-in-Residence program organizes and presents a concert series each year that bring outstanding musical artists to the Institute campus to perform free-of-charge for the Institute community and the general public. These concerts are now known as the Edward T. Cone Concert Series.

About Edward T. Cone

Noted composer, teacher, pianist and author Edward T. Cone earned his undergraduate and MFA degrees at Princeton University, and was on the faculty of the Princeton music department for more than 50 years. A Founding Friend of the Friends of the Institute for Advanced Study, he had a close and long-standing relationship with this institution. During his lifetime, he was a tireless supporter of the arts and humanities at the Institute and elsewhere.

About the Artist-in-Residence Program

The Artist-in-Residence program was established at the Institute for Advanced Study in 1994 to create a musical presence within the Institute community and to have in residence a person whose work could be experienced and appreciated by scholars from all disciplines. Pianist Robert Taub was the first Artist-in-Residence from 1994 to 2001, followed by composer Jon Magnussen, who served as Artist-in-Residence from 2000 to 2007.

Artist-in-Residence Paul Moravec, whose term began in July 2007, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Music in 2004 for Tempest Fantasy, a thirty-minute "musical meditation" on Shakespeare's play scored for clarinet, violin, cello and piano. He is University Professor at Adelphi University and is currently working on new works for Santa Fe Opera and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.

About the Institute for Advanced Study

Founded in 1930, the Institute is a private, independent academic institution located in Princeton, New Jersey. Its more than 5,000 former Members hold positions of intellectual and scientific leadership in the United States and abroad. Some twenty-two Nobel Laureates, and thirty-four out of forty-eight Fields Medalists, have been Institute Faculty, Members or Visitors. Many winners of the Wolf or MacArthur prizes have also been affiliated with the Institute.

Arnold J. Levine Discusses Tracking Influenza Virus Epidemics

Christine Ferrara — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 21:35:34

PRINCETON, N.J. – November 27, 2007 – Arnold J. Levine, Professor in the School of Natural Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study, will address influenza epidemics and the related research conducted by The Simons Center for Systems Biology in his talk, Tracking Influenza Virus Epidemics over the Past Century: Can We Predict Next Year's Epidemic? The lecture will take place on Wednesday, December 5 at 4:30 p.m. in Wolfensohn Hall on the Institute’s campus.
    Influenza viruses are unusual because we can become infected by a similar virus almost every year during our lifetime and occasionally there are worldwide pandemics that can cause many fatalities. Why does our usually excellent immune system fail us? How does this come about?
        The influenza virus contains eight chromosomes that are each made of an RNA molecule. It is an unusual virus in that it may replicate in many animals (such as birds, horses, pigs, camels and whales) and humans. Influenza viruses have three properties that permit them to change very rapidly: 1. As the RNA chromosomes are replicated during an infection, the mutation rate, or error rate, is very high, changing the virus very often. This is called genetic drift. 2. When two different influenza viruses replicate in the same cell, the eight chromosomes reassort into new progeny viruses creating many new combinations of the two parents. This is called genetic shift. 3. Viruses that replicate for a long time in birds can reassort with human viruses, making hybrids that have never been in humans before (inter-species genetic shift) and this has given rise to three pandemics over the twentieth century. Thus, the rapid evolutionary changes (drift) and the reassortment of chromosomes during an epidemic (shift) combine with natural selection for viruses never experienced by the immune system of humans in the population, and a new virus is successful in its replication almost every year.
        The group at The Simons Center for Systems Biology at the Institute has examined the changing sequences of each of the eight chromosomes of influenza virus over the past ninety years and through three pandemics. The group has found certain RNA sequence contexts that preferentially occur in human viruses and others found only in birds. The 1918 epidemic occurred when a bird virus jumped into the human population. The descendants of the 1918 virus have slowly drifted into a human RNA viral sequence over the past ninety years. Surprisingly, this genetic drift has occurred in a non-random fashion. By studying recent epidemics in New York and New Zealand, we have been able to follow genetic shifts of chromosomes. Contrary to present ideas in the field, this also occurs in a non-random fashion. In experiments in cell culture it has been shown that this non-random pattern occurs because of the manner in which the virus packages its eight chromosomes.
        Because drift and shifts occur in a directed fashion, there is some hope of understanding the rules guiding the evolution of this virus, and of being able to predict next year’s virus, and possibly the bird virus that could jump to a human and start a pandemic. Progress has been made in these areas.
    Professor Levine leads The Simons Center for Systems Biology at the Institute, which concentrates on research at the interface of molecular biology and the physical sciences -- on genetics and genomics, polymorphisms and molecular aspects of evolution, signal transduction pathways and networks, stress responses, and pharmacogenomics in cancer biology. His research centers on the causes of cancer. In 1979, he and others discovered the p53 tumor suppressor protein, a molecule that inhibits tumor development.
    As chair of the National Institutes of Health Commission on AIDS Research and the National Academies Cancer Policy Board, Professor Levine has helped determine national research priorities.
    For further information about this event, which is free and open to the public, please call (609) 734-8175, or visit the Public Events page on the Institute website, www.ias.edu.

Institute to Host American Opera Projects Presentation of Heart of Darkness

Margaret Sullivan — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 15:59:31

PRINCETON, N.J., October 22, 2007 - Heart of Darkness, Tarik O'Regan's opera-in-progress, will receive a semi-staged workshop performance on Friday, November 9 at 8:00 p.m. in Wolfensohn Hall at the Institute for Advanced Study. Presented by the American Opera Projects (AOP) and based on the novella by Joseph Conrad, the opera's libretto is by British artist Tom Phillips. The event, which marks the first performance of the piece in its entirety, will begin with a brief presentation by Phillips on his scenic design, featuring visuals and taped music, followed by a concert version of the opera, without intermission.

Phillips, currently in residence at the Institute as a Director's Visitor, is known not only for his paintings, which can be seen in the collections of most major museums, but also for his own musical compositions, theater and experimental television work. O'Regan, whose CD Voices was released to much acclaim in Europe and North America, has been singled out by The Observer (London) as "one of the most original and eloquent of young composers- tonal but cutting-edge" and by The Times (London), which noted, "O'Regan's gift for lyric flight seems boundless. You might have to reach back to Vaughan Williams's Serenade to Music, or even Tallis, to find another British vocal work so exultant."

Heart of Darkness, an opera in one act for eight singers and thirteen instruments, will be performed with singers and piano accompaniment, led by AOP Artistic Director Steven Osgood. Singers scheduled to perform include Robert Hoyt (Orlando Opera, Toledo Opera) and Michael Zegarski (New York City Opera, Opera Theater of St. Louis).

This performance is made possible by the generous support of Annette Merle-Smith.

The performance is open to the public and tickets are free, but they should be reserved in advance. To request tickets or for further information about this event, please call (609) 951-4458.

Eric S. Maskin Awarded Nobel Prize in Economics [You may view Maskin's Nobel Lecture and read ...

David Hernandez — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 16:14:01

Princeton, N.J., October 15, 2007 – Eric S. Maskin, Albert O. Hirschman Professor in the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study, has been awarded the 2007 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.

Dr. Maskin, whose work in economic theory has had a deep influence on many areas of economics, political science, and law, is recognized by The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for “having laid the foundation of mechanism design theory.” According to the citation, the theory has among other things helped economists identify efficient trading mechanisms, regulation schemes and voting procedures. Dr. Maskin is sharing the Prize with Leonid Hurwicz of the University of Minnesota and Roger B. Myerson of the University of Chicago.

“It is a thrill of a lifetime to have received such a recognition,” stated Dr. Maskin. “It is particularly thrilling to share it with two such distinguished colleagues. Leo Hurwicz is the father of mechanism design theory and has inspired much of my work, and Roger Myerson is an old friend and collaborator and a tremendous economist.”

Peter Goddard, Director of the Institute, commented, “We are delighted that Eric’s fundamental contributions to mechanism design and other significant areas of economic theory have been recognized with the Nobel Prize. The impact of his research continues to be felt in many areas of development, finance, and politics and we are proud that the Institute is able to support his influential work now and for years to come.”

Mechanism design theory, initiated by Hurwicz and further developed by Maskin and Myerson, plays a central role in many areas of economics and parts of political science today. It takes into account information about individual preferences and available production technologies usually dispersed among many actors who may use their private information to further their own interests.
A leading economist whose work has been drawn on extensively by researchers in industrial organization, finance, development, and other fields in economics and political science, Maskin works in many areas of economic theory, including mechanism design, game theory and social choice theory. Much of his current research focuses on the theory of coalition formation, comparing different voting systems, the theory of repeated games, and the pros and cons of intellectual property rights.

Maskin joined the Faculty at the Institute in 2000. He received his A.B. in 1972, his A.M. in 1974 and his Ph.D. in 1976, all from Harvard University. He was a Research Fellow at Jesus College, Cambridge in 1976-77 and taught at M.I.T. from 1977 to 1984. In 1985 he moved to Harvard University, where he was named Louis Berkman Professor of Economics in 1997.

Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Econometric Society, Maskin is also a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy and an Honorary Fellow of St. John’s College, Cambridge. He is a past President of the Econometric Society and was named Monash Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Monash University and Honorary Professor at Wuhan University. He has served as Editor of The Quarterly Journal of Economics and Economics Letters.

To view a video of Maskin's Nobel Prize Lecture in Stockholm, please click here.

About the Institute for Advanced Study

The Institute for Advanced Study is one of the world’s leading centers for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. The Institute exists to encourage and support fundamental scholarship – the original, often speculative, thinking that produces advances in knowledge that change the way we understand the world. Work at the Institute takes place in four Schools: Historical Studies, Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Social Science. It provides for the mentoring of younger scholars by a permanent Faculty of twenty-seven, and it offers all who work there the freedom to undertake research that will make significant contributions in any of the broad range of fields in the sciences and humanities studied at the Institute.

Charles Simonyi Discusses Trip to International Space Station

Christine Ferrara — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 19:07:02

PRINCETON, N.J., September 21, 2007 - Space flight is still a very rare and exotic experience that has only recently been open to "tourists," officially known as spaceflight participants. Dr. Charles Simonyi, Trustee of the Institute for Advanced Study and President and CEO of Intentional Software Corporation, was the fifth of these and the 450th person in space. On Thursday, October 25 at
4:30 p.m., he will present "Space Tourist," a public lecture on his experience that will be held in Wolfensohn Hall on the Institute's campus.
   Under a contract with Space Adventures and the Russian Space Agency, Dr. Simonyi traveled in a Russian-built Soyuz spacecraft to visit the International Space Station (ISS), and returned on another Soyuz, landing in central Kazakhstan after a 14-day stay in space. Parts of the Soyuz system date back to the beginning of the Space Age 50 years ago with the launch of Sputnik 1 on October 4, 1957.
   In his talk, Dr. Simonyi will describe the six-month training process and the flight itself from the point of view of a knowledgeable civilian, with particular emphasis on the issues of system reliability, traditions, and health aspects. The lecture will be followed by a question-and-answer period.
   A Trustee of the Institute since 1997 and President of the Corporation since 2003, Dr. Simonyi will become Chairman of the Institute's Board of Trustees in October 2008. The Hungarian-born Dr. Simonyi earned a B.S. in engineering and mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1972, and his Ph.D. in computer science from Stanford University in 1977. He worked at the renowned Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) from 1972 until 1980, where he did most of the design and the critical implementation work on Bravo, the first WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) editor, and led the team that built it. In 1981, Dr. Simonyi joined Microsoft to start the development of microcomputer application programs, and was responsible for hiring and managing teams who developed such well-known programs as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Multiplan and others. For this work, he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering and the Hungarian Academy of Science. He left Microsoft in 2002 to start the Intentional Software Corporation, which aims to improve software productivity.
   Dr. Simonyi's involvement with the Institute began in 1996, and over the years, he has supported a range of academic activities, including endowing the Charles Simonyi Professorship in Theoretical Physics in the Institute's School of Natural Sciences, currently held by Edward Witten. Dr. Simonyi has also provided substantial funding for the Institute's School of Mathematics, helping to ensure the School's financial independence to select the very best Members, many from abroad. Simonyi Hall, which houses the School of Mathematics, was dedicated in May 2000 in recognition of Dr. Simonyi's participation in the life of the Institute community and his commitment to the work that takes place here.
   In 2005, the Institute received an unrestricted cash gift of $25 million from the Charles Simonyi Fund for Arts and Sciences, which was the largest donation since the founding of the Institute. The gift was named The Karoly Simonyi Memorial Endowment Fund, in honor of Dr. Simonyi's late father, an esteemed professor of electrical engineering.
   For further information about "Space Tourist," which is free and open to the public, please call (609) 734-8175, or visit the Public Events page on the Institute website, www.ias.edu.

Nicola Di Cosmo Discusses New Dimensions of Early Chinese Historiography

Margaret Sullivan — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 15:07:28

PRINCETON, N.J. - September 11, 2007 - The Chinese historical tradition is an extremely rich reservoir of ethnographic and political knowledge of foreign (non-Han) peoples, but fundamental questions about its nuances, influences and characteristics have not been fully explored. Nicola Di Cosmo, Luce Foundation Professor in the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study, will provide insights on this fertile area of research in his talk, The History of Others: Foreign Peoples in Early Chinese Historiography. The lecture will take place on Wednesday, October 17 at 4:30 p.m. in Wolfensohn Hall on the Institute's campus.

Page one from "Monograph on the Xiongnu" in
Sima Qian's The Grand Historian's Records

Most are familiar with the ancient characterization of Herodotus as a fabulist and a liar. Indeed, controversies about the truthfulness of historical accounts, but in particular of the history of others, began almost as soon as the first histories were produced. The Chinese historical tradition can be traced back to the first historian Sima Qian and to his magnum opus, The Grand Historian's Records, yet the question of alien history in Chinese sources has barely begun to be discussed and has certainly not entered the lively debates on "barbarian" histories in Greco-Roman historiography. Professor Di Cosmo's lecture will provide an overview of the production and characteristics of alien history in the Chinese tradition, while acknowledging and attempting to gauge the cultural influence of these accounts among the alien people themselves, as "consumers" of histories they did not produce, but were used politically and in other ways. These reflections may also serve as a fist step towards a comparative discussion, across the historiographic traditions of literate civilizations, about the fundamental issues of who wrote alien histories, why and for whom.

Nicola Di Cosmo works on the history of the relations between China and Inner Asia from prehistory to the modern period. He specializes in the cultural, political and military history of China's northern frontiers and in the traditions of Inner Asian peoples, in particular ancient nomads, Mongols and Manchus. His current projects include the study of the historiography of Inner Asian peoples and cultural contact in ancient China, the political and economic history of the early Manchu state, and questions of historical method in the study of Chinese dynasties of foreign origin. Recent publications include Ancient China and Its Enemies: The Rise of Nomadic Powers in East Asian History (2002); Manchu-Mongol Relations on the Eve of the Qing Conquest (2003); and The Diary of a Manchu Soldier in Seventeenth-Century China (2006).

For further information about this event, which is free and open to the public, please call (609) 734-8175, or visit the Public Events page on the Institute website, www.ias.edu.

Institute Concert Series Continues November 30-December 1

Margaret Sullivan — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 15:21:00

MORAVEC INTRODUCES INAUGURAL EDWARD T. CONE CONCERT SERIES

PRINCETON, N.J. - September 24, 2007 - The Institute for Advanced Study has announced the schedule for its 2007-08 season, the inaugural Edward T. Cone Concert Series, curated by the new Artist-in-Residence, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Paul Moravec. The series, Tradition Redefined, will explore the wide variety of aesthetic perspectives in art music, especially of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Edward T. Cone

Beginning with the October 2007 concerts, the series will permanently carry the name of the late Edward T. Cone, who was a distinguished composer and musical scholar with long-standing ties to the Institute. Each year, the Artist-in-Residence program organizes and presents concerts that bring outstanding musical artists to the Institute campus to perform free-of-charge for the Institute community and the general public. These concerts will now be known as the Edward T. Cone Concert Series.

Commenting on the naming of the series, Institute Director Peter Goddard said, "It is a great pleasure and honor for the Institute to be able to name the Artist-in-Residence concert series for Edward T. Cone. Ed was a great and generous Friend of the Institute, a remarkable composer, and an important musical scholar. He taught generations of Princeton students, most of whom never became professional musicians or scholars of music themselves, but who gained a deeper and a permanent appreciation of music. Now his name will be permanently attached to a series of concerts that continues in the tradition of presenting great music in the academic context of the Institute. We are grateful to the Edward T. Cone Foundation for its generous support."

David Krakauer/Photo by Jean Marc Lubrano

Opening this year's season will be Beyond Crossover, featuring internationally acclaimed clarinetist David Krakauer with Marija Stroke, Will Holshouser and Nicki Parrott, on October 5 and 6 at 8:00 p.m. in Wolfensohn Hall on the Institute campus. Krakauer is known for his mastery of myriad styles, including classical chamber music, Eastern European Jewish klezmer music and avant-garde improvisation.

In a related concert talk, Mark Slobin, Professor of Music at Wesleyan University, will present "Jewish Music and the Electric Eclectic," at 4 p.m. on October 5 in the West Building Lecture Hall.

On November 30 and December 1, violinist Maria Bachmann, performing with pianist Simon Mulligan, will present The Red Violin at 8 p.m. in Wolfensohn Hall. The concert will feature the music of Moravec, John Corigliano, George Gershwin, Maurice Ravel and the rarely heard Violin Sonata no. 3 by George Enesco, all from Bachmann's recent CD called The Red Violin.

Maria Bachmann/Photo by Robin Holland

Moravec will present a concert talk, "A Composer's World Today," at 4 p.m. on November 30 in the West Building Lecture Hall, reflecting on his own ways of approaching the matter of
"tradition redefined."

On February 8 and 9, 2008, the Enso String Quartet will perform, and the season will conclude with the recorder collective Quartet New Generation on March 7 and 8.

About Edward T. Cone

Noted composer, teacher, pianist and author Edward T. Cone earned his undergraduate and MFA degrees at Princeton University and was affiliated with its music department for more than 50 years. A Founding Friend of the Friends of the Institute for Advanced Study, he had a close and long-standing relationship with this institution. During his lifetime, he was a tireless supporter of the arts and humanities at the Institute and elsewhere.

About the Artist-in-Residence Program

Current Artist-in-Residence Paul Moravec was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Music in 2004 for Tempest Fantasy, a thirty-minute "musical meditation" on Shakespeare's play scored for clarinet, violin, cello and piano. He has composed more than ninety orchestral, chamber, choral, lyric, film and electro-acoustic compositions and is University Professor at Adelphi University.

About the Institute for Advanced Study

Founded in 1930, the Institute is a private, independent academic institution located in Princeton, New Jersey. Its more than 5,000 former Members hold positions of intellectual and scientific leadership in the United States and abroad. Some twenty-one Nobel Laureates, and thirty-four out of forty-eight Fields Medalists, have been Institute Faculty, Members or Visitors. Many winners of the Wolf or MacArthur prizes have also been affiliated with the Institute.

Atle Selberg 1917-2007

Margaret Sullivan — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 18:23:54

PRINCETON, N.J., August 9, 2007 -- Renowned Norwegian mathematician Atle Selberg, Professor Emeritus in the School of Mathematics at the Institute for Advanced Study, died on the evening of August 6 at his home in Princeton, NJ. He was 90.

Throughout a career spanning more than six decades, Professor Selberg made significant contributions to modular forms, Riemann and other zeta functions, analytic number theory, sieve methods, discrete groups, and trace formula. The impact of his work is evident from the many mathematical terms that bear his name: The Selberg Trace Formula, The Selberg Sieve, The Selberg Integral, The Selberg Class, The Rankin-Selberg L-Function, The Selberg Eigenvalue Conjecture, and The Selberg Zeta Function.

"Atle's passing marks a great loss, both to the Institute and to the larger scientific community," commented Peter Goddard, Director of the Institute. "His far-reaching contributions have left a profound imprint on the world of mathematics, and we have lost not only a mathematical giant, but a dear friend."

Peter Sarnak, Professor in the School of Mathematics, noted, "The 20th century was blessed with a number of very talented mathematicians, and of those, there are a few who I would say had a golden touch. In any topic about which they thought in depth, they saw further and uncovered much more -- seemingly effortlessly -- than the generations before them. Their work set the stage for many future developments. Atle was one such mathematician; he was a mathematician's mathematician."

Widely regarded as one of the world's greatest analytic number theorists, Selberg first came to the Institute for Advanced Study from Norway in 1947 at the invitation of Carl Ludwig Siegel, who noted that, at 31 years of age, Selberg "already had earned his place in the history of science in the 20th century." After a year at the Institute, Selberg took a post as Associate Professor at Syracuse University, returning to the Institute in 1949 as a permanent Member. In 1951, he was appointed Professor in the Institute's School of Mathematics, and he was named Professor Emeritus in 1987.

During the 1940s, his work centered around the theory of the Riemann Zeta Function and related problems concerning the distribution of prime numbers. The celebrated Riemann Hypothesis states that all the "non-trivial" zeros of The Riemann Zeta Function lie on the line in the complex plane consisting of numbers of the form ½ + it, where t real is a real number. This central problem remains unsolved to this day. Developing fundamental, new techniques, Selberg showed that a positive proportion of these infinitely many zeros lie on this line. These ideas led him to his powerful and novel sieving methods and in 1948 to his celebrated Selberg Formula and to the elementary proof of the Prime Number Theorem. The last took the mathematical community by surprise as such a proof had been sought since the formulation of the problem by Legendre and Gauss some 150 years before. For these works, Selberg was awarded the prestigious Fields Medal in 1950.

In the early 1950s, Selberg turned his attention to the spectral theory of automorphic forms. His 1956 paper in the Journal of the Indian Mathematical Society introduced, among other things, what is known today as The Selberg Trace Formula. According to the Professor Sarnak, "This is one of the most influential mathematical papers of the 20th century. It lays the foundations and many of the tools on which the modern theory of automorphic forms, with its many spectacular applications, rests." His work in automorphic forms led him in 1960 to the discovery of an unexpected phenomenon of the rigidity of lattices in higher rank Lie groups. This phenomenon was developed much further by a number of mathematicians and it is a central theme in modern geometry and group theory. Selberg continued to lecture, elaborate, and develop new aspects of the many topics that he pioneered until well into his 80s.

In 1987, nearly one hundred mathematicians from all over the world convened in Oslo, Norway, for a symposium in honor of Selberg's 70th birthday. In the preface to the collection of the 29 papers presented at the symposium and published by Academic Press in 1989, fellow mathematician Karl Egil Aubert extolled Selberg's "many-sided achievements [that] place him squarely as one of the truly great mathematicians of the 20th century."

In his more than five decades at the Institute, Selberg maintained an understated view on his highly significant accomplishments in the field. In 1990, he noted, "I think the things I have done...although sometimes there were technical details, and sometimes even a lot of calculation, in some of my early work...the basic ideas were rather simple always, and could be explained in rather simple terms...in some ways, I probably have a rather simplistic mind, so that these are the only kind of ideas I can work with. I don't think that other people have had grave difficulties understanding my work."

Enrico Bombieri, IBM von Neumann Professor in the School of Mathematics at the Institute, has described the hallmark of Selberg's style as "simplicity and elegance of method, [and] powerful results. He had an uncanny ability to see immediately what was at the core of an issue. This ability was by no means restricted to scientific matters."

In celebration of Selberg's 90^th birthday in June 2007, the Institute invited his close colleagues and friends to salute his lifetime of achievement. Amongst those who spoke at this event was School of Mathematics Member Nils Baas, who conveyed the congratulations of the Norwegian government and proposed a toast to "Atle Selberg - a great Norwegian." Selberg himself spoke animatedly and at length at the event, and noted of the Institute's early days, "The whole complement of people in the Institute was very small. By and large, everybody knew everybody. Even I knew everybody."

Selberg, who was born on June 14, 1917, in Langesund, Norway, was the youngest of nine children of Anna Kristina Selberg, a teacher, and Ole Michael Selberg, an educator and mathematician. His siblings became teachers and academics, including brothers Henrik and Sigmund, mathematicians who were both members of the Norwegian Academy of Sciences and Letters; Henrik was a Member at the Institute for Advanced Study in 1963-64. Selberg's childhood and youth were spent in Norway, in Voss, Bergen, and Gjøvik. At the age of 13, he began to study mathematics using his father's extensive library, where he discovered Leibnitz's series for π/4 = 1 - 1/3 + 1/5 - 1/7..., later describing it as "such a very strange and beautiful relationship that I determined I would read that book in order to find out how this formula came about."

In 1934, Selberg came upon a copy of the collected works of Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan, which an older brother had brought home with him from school. When he attended the Ramanujan Centenary Conference at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in 1988, Selberg acknowledged this as a transformative moment in his life. At age 17, Selberg wrote his first article, "On Some Arithmetical Identities." The next year, he began his education at the University of Oslo, where he submitted the paper for review to one of his professors. A year later, the article was published.

By the time Selberg obtained his Ph.D. in 1943, also at the University of Oslo, he had published eleven more articles, the later ones focusing on Riemann's Zeta Function. His paper on The Selberg Integral dates from this period and it is his only paper in Norwegian; it took more than thirty years to be recognized for its importance. He defended his dissertation in November of 1943, shortly before the German occupying forces closed down the University for the duration of the war. He had been appointed a research fellow at the University of Oslo in 1942, the year before he received his doctorate. Selberg remained in this post until 1947, when he married Hedvig Liebermann of Tirgu Mures, Transylvania, and moved to the United States. During the Second World War he worked in isolation due to the occupation of Norway by the Nazis, but after the war, his accomplishments in the theory of the Riemann Zeta Function became known.

In addition to the 1950 Fields Medal, Selberg's contributions to the field of mathematics have been widely recognized, including an honorary doctorate from the University of Trondheim (1972) and the Wolf Prize in Mathematics (1986), which is bestowed annually for outstanding achievements in agriculture, chemistry, mathematics, medicine, physics, and the arts. He was inducted into the Royal Norwegian Academy of Sciences and Letters, the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Indian National Science Academy, and was named an honorary member of the London Mathematical Society. In 1987, Selberg was named a Knight Commander with Star of the Royal Order of Saint Olav.

The publication of the collected papers of Atle Selberg in two volumes (1989, 1991, Springer) was warmly welcomed by the mathematical community for Selberg's profound influence on mathematics, especially analytic number theory. The publication made available his papers up to 1947, which had previously appeared mostly in Norwegian series or journals of limited distribution.

Selberg's first wife, Hedvig, worked at the Institute for Advanced Study in the 1950s in the group headed by John von Neumann, and later at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory until the 1980s; she died in 1995. He is survived by his second wife Betty Compton Selberg of Princeton; his two children from his first marriage, daughter Ingrid Maria Selberg and son-in-law Mustapha Matura of London, and son Lars Atle Selberg and daughter-in-law Julia Selberg of Middlefield, Connecticut; his two stepdaughters Heidi Faith of Mountain View, California, and Cindy Faith of Roland Park, Maryland; and his grandchildren Cayal Mathura, Maya Kristina Mathura, Atle Michael Selberg, and Katharine Rowley Selberg.

Details about a memorial will be made available at a later date.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to:

Galapagos Conservancy
407 N. Washington Street, Suite 105
Falls Church, VA 22046
Tel: 703-538-6833
www.galapagos.org

Theoretical Physicist Nima Arkani-Hamed Appointed to the Faculty of the Institute for Advanced Study

Margaret Sullivan — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 15:08:04

Princeton, N.J, July 18, 2007 - Particle physicist Nima Arkani-Hamed will join the Faculty at the Institute for Advanced Study, effective January 1, 2008. Dr. Arkani-Hamed comes to the Institute's School of Natural Sciences from Harvard University, where he is currently Professor of Physics.

One of the leading particle physics phenomenologists of his generation, Dr. Arkani-Hamed's work is concerned with the relation between theory and experiment. His research has shown how the extreme weakness of gravity, relative to other forces of nature, might be explained by the existence of extra dimensions of space, and how the structure of comparatively low-energy physics is constrained within the context of string theory. He has taken a lead in proposing new physical theories that can be tested at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in Switzerland, which is scheduled to start up in May 2008. Dr. Arkani-Hamed has been a frequent Visitor in the Institute's School of Natural Sciences in recent years.

Peter Goddard, Director of the Institute, stated, "We are delighted that Dr. Arkani-Hamed has agreed to join our Faculty. He combines a brilliant imagination with a deep grasp of the technical aspects of modern theories, continually challenging conventional assumptions. He will play a leading role in the coming years as theory confronts experiment at the LHC."

"We are very excited about Dr. Arkani-Hamed's appointment," commented School of Natural Sciences Professor Nathan Seiberg. "His deep understanding of physics and his remarkable creativity will further strengthen the School of Natural Sciences."

"The IAS has always provided an ideal atmosphere for conducting fundamental research, and so I am thrilled to be joining the School of Natural Sciences as we enter a very exciting time for physics," said Dr. Arkani-Hamed.

Dr. Arkani-Hamed earned his undergraduate degree in Mathematics and Physics at the University of Toronto in 1993. In 1997, he obtained a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of California, Berkeley, and did postdoctoral work at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. Dr. Arkani-Hamed joined the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley, as Assistant Professor of Physics in 1999, and was named Associate Professor in 2001. After spending a year as Visiting Professor of Physics at Harvard University, he joined their faculty in 2002 as Professor of Physics.

He is the recipient of a Phi Beta Kappa teaching award from Harvard (2005), the Gribov Medal of the European Physical Society (2003), and a number of fellowships, including a Packard Fellowship and a Sloan Fellowship, both awarded in 2000.

About the Institute for Advanced Study

The Institute, founded in 1930, is a private, independent academic institution located in Princeton, New Jersey. Its more than 5,000 former Members hold positions of intellectual and scientific leadership throughout the academic world. Some twenty-one Nobel Laureates and thirty-four out of forty-eight Fields Medalists have been Institute Faculty, Members or Visitors. Many winners of the Wolf or MacArthur prizes have also been affiliated with the Institute.

Mathematician Peter Sarnak Joins the Faculty of the Institute for Advanced Study

Margaret Sullivan — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 14:30:59

Princeton, N.J, July 16, 2007 - Peter Sarnak has been appointed to the Faculty of the School of Mathematics of the Institute for Advanced Study, effective July 1, 2007. Dr. Sarnak is the Eugene Higgins Professor of Mathematics at Princeton University, and he will continue to hold this appointment in conjunction with his professorship at the Institute.

Dr. Sarnak, born in South Africa, has made major contributions to number theory, and to questions in mathematics related to number theory. He has had a wide and profound influence on many areas of mathematics. His research focuses on the theory of zeta functions and automorphic forms with applications to number theory, combinatorics, and mathematical physics. Dr. Sarnak was a Member in the School of Mathematics at the Institute from 1999 to 2002, and also from 2005 to 2007.

"Peter Sarnak combines distinction as one of the world's leading number theorists with outstanding talents as a mentor of younger mathematicians," commented Peter Goddard, Director of the Institute. "He inspires enormous enthusiasm for his subject and fosters interactions across disciplinary boundaries."

Enrico Bombieri, IBM von Neumann Professor in the School of Mathematics at the Institute, stated, "Peter Sarnak is a mathematician with an extraordinary range of interests. His presence will be a fundamental factor in achieving full coverage of all aspects of mathematics in our School."

Regarding his appointment, Dr. Sarnak said, "I am delighted to join the Institute for Advanced Study and to participate in its primary missions of scholarship, research and mentoring. To step into the unique intellectual environment that has defined the Institute since its beginnings is a challenge and an opportunity that I am grateful to embrace."

After earning an undergraduate degree from the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg in 1974, Dr. Sarnak obtained his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1980. He joined the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences of New York University in 1980 as an Assistant Professor, becoming Associate Professor in 1983. In 1987, he returned to Stanford University as Professor of Mathematics. Dr. Sarnak joined the Princeton University faculty in 1991 and was the Henry Burchard Fine Professor of Mathematics from 1995 to 1996, when he became Chair of the Department of Mathematics. From 2001 to 2005, he was a Professor at the Courant Institute at New York University, during which time he was named to his current position as Eugene Higgins Professor of Mathematics at Princeton.

Dr. Sarnak's work has been recognized by a number of awards and distinctions, including the Frank Nelson Cole Prize of the American Mathematical Society (2005), the Levi L. Conant Prize (2003), the Ostrowski Prize (2001), SIAM's Polya Prize (1998), and in 1985, he received a National Science Foundation (NSF) Presidential Young Investigator Award. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and is a Fellow of The Royal Society of London.

About the Institute for Advanced Study

The Institute, founded in 1930, is a private, independent academic institution located in Princeton, New Jersey. Its more than 5,000 former Members hold positions of intellectual and scientific leadership throughout the academic world. Some twenty-one Nobel Laureates and thirty-four out of forty-eight Fields Medalists have been Institute Faculty, Members or Visitors. Many winners of the Wolf or MacArthur prizes have also been affiliated with the Institute.

Mathematician Andrew Wiles Appointed to the Board of the Institute for Advanced Study

Margaret Sullivan — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 12:44:00

June 20, 2007, Princeton, N.J.- The Institute for Advanced Study has appointed Dr. Andrew J. Wiles, Eugene Higgins Professor of Mathematics and Chair of the Department of Mathematics at Princeton University, to its Board of Trustees, effective May 5, 2007. A world-renowned mathematician, Dr. Wiles is perhaps best known for his proof of Fermat's Last Theorem, for which he was honored by the International Mathematical Union in 1998.

Denise Applewhite, courtesy Princeton University Office of Communications

At the May 2007 Board meeting, the Institute also accepted the resignation of two Trustees whose terms had ended - Dr. James Arthur, who has served as Academic Trustee for the School of Mathematics since 1997, and Dr. Ronaldo Schmitz, who joined the Board in 1992. Dr. Schmitz was elected Trustee Emeritus effective May 5, 2007.

The British-born Dr. Wiles earned his undergraduate degree at Merton College, Oxford, in 1974, and obtained his Ph.D. at Clare College, Cambridge, in 1980. He was a Member in the School of Mathematics at the Institute three times, in 1981-82, 1991-92, and 1995-2004, and will serve as the Academic Trustee for the School.

Prior to his 1982 appointment to the faculty at Princeton University, Dr. Wiles was a Junior Research fellow at Clare College and a Benjamin Pierce Assistant Professor at Harvard University. After being awarded a Guggenheim fellowship, he spent a year at the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifique and the École Normale Supérieure, Paris, in 1985-86. He also spent two years at Oxford University as a Royal Society Research Professor beginning in 1988.

Dr. Wiles, whose research concerns number theory, has received numerous awards during his career, including the Wolf Prize (1995-96); the National Academy of Science Award in Mathematics (1996); the Royal Medal of the Royal Society of London (1996); the Frank Nelson Cole Prize in Number Theory from the American Mathematical Society (1997), and the Shaw Prize in Mathematical Sciences (2005). He was named a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1989, and was elected a foreign member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1996 and the French Academy of Sciences in 1998, and in 2001 was named a London Mathematical Society Honorary Member.

Dr. James Arthur, one of the world's foremost researchers in automorphic forms and Lie group representations, has been a frequent Member in the School through the years, beginning in 1976-77 and most recently in 2000-02. As an Academic Trustee, Dr. Arthur has been an extraordinarily effective advocate on behalf of the School of Mathematics as well as mathematics in the academic world and in society as a whole.

During his 15 years of service on the Board, Dr. Ronaldo Schmitz has been instrumental in promoting the international character and high standing of the Institute and has acted as a strong supporter of the Institute's role in the advancement of cutting-edge research. A former member of the Board of Managing Directors of Deutsche Bank AG, Dr. Schmitz played a vital role in establishing the Institute's Albert O. Hirschman Chair in Economics to commemorate the achievements of Professor Hirschman, who has served on the Faculty of the School of Social Science since 1974, becoming Professor Emeritus in 1985.

About the Institute for Advanced Study

The Institute, founded in 1930, is a private, independent academic institution located in Princeton, New Jersey. Its more than 5,000 former Members hold positions of intellectual and scientific leadership in the United States and abroad. Some twenty-one Nobel Laureates, and thirty-four out of forty-eight Fields Medalists, have been Institute Faculty, Members or Visitors. Many winners of the Wolf or MacArthur prizes have also been affiliated with the Institute.

Institute for Advanced Study Hosts Summer Program in Theoretical Physics

Margaret Sullivan — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 18:30:03

June 18, 2007, Princeton, N.J. - Prospects in Theoretical Physics, an intensive two-week summer program geared specifically to graduate students and postdoctoral scholars considering a career in theoretical physics, will take place at the Institute for Advanced Study from July 16 to 27. First held at the Institute in 2002, Prospects in Theoretical Physics has, in past years, covered topics ranging from the Large Hadron Collider to string theory.

Lecturers from the 2006
Prospects in Theoretical Physics program.

The program builds upon the strong relationship between the research groups at the Institute and Princeton University. Representatives from both institutions are among the program's organizers and lecturers.

The theme of this year's program is The Standard Model and Beyond. It will focus on particle physics phenomenology with special emphasis on model building. The goal will be to help young physicists prepare for the physics that will emerge from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), scheduled to release the first data in 2008. "We are pleased to participate in the physics community's effort to train the young scientists who will lead the research in the new exciting era that lies ahead," states Chiara Nappi, Professor of Physics at Princeton University, one of the program organizers.

This year's organizers and Program Directors are Michael Dine of the University of California at Santa Cruz and Nathan Seiberg of the Institute for Advanced Study.

In addition to the organizers, lecturers will include:

Nima Arkani-Hamed (Harvard University)
Stephen D. Ellis (University of Washington)
Igor Klebanov (Princeton University)
Paul Langacker (Institute for Advanced Study)
Markus A. Luty (University of Maryland)
Juan Maldacena (Institute for Advanced Study)
Aneesh V. Manohar (University of California, San Diego)
Konstantin Matchev (University of Florida)
Yosef Nir (Weizmann Institute of Science)
Michael E. Peskin (SLAC, Stanford University)
Scott Thomas (Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey)
Edward Witten (Institute for Advanced Study).

Prospects in Theoretical Physics 2007 is hosted by the Institute's School of Natural Sciences and receives funding from The Concordia Foundation.

For further information about the program, please call (609) 734-8389 or visit www.ias.edu/pitp.