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Eric Maskin and Nathan Seiberg Elected to National Academy of Sciences

Eric S. Maskin, Albert O. Hirschman Professor in the School of Social Science and Nathan Seiberg, Professor in the School of Natural Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study, have been elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences for their excellence in original scientific research.   Membership in the NAS is one of the highest honors given to a scientist or engineer in the United States. Professors Maskin and Seiberg will be inducted into the Academy next April during its 146th annual meeting in Washington, D.C.  Among the 72 new members and 18 foreign associates are five former Members and Visitors to the Institute, including two from the School of Mathematics, two from the School of Natural Sciences and one from the School of Social Science.

Institute Faculty Member, Trustees Elected to American Academy of Arts & Sciences

Joan Wallach Scott, Harold F. Linder Professor in the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study, has been named a Fellow in the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.   Joining her in the 2008 class of Fellows are Institute Trustees James H. Simons, President and Founder of Renaissance Technologies and former Member in the School of Mathematics, and Charles Simonyi, President and Chief Executive Officer of Intentional Software Corp.  Among the 190 new Fellows and 22 Foreign Honorary Members are 13 former Members and Visitors to the Institute, including five from the School of Mathematics, three each from the School of Social Science and the School of Natural Sciences, and two from the School of Historical Studies. A broad-based membership, comprised of scholars and practitioners from mathematics, physics, biological sciences, social sciences, humanities and the arts, public affairs and business, gives the Academy a unique capacity to conduct a wide range of interdisciplinary studies and public policy research.  Fellows and Foreign Honorary Members are nominated and elected to the Academy by current members.  The 2008 class will be inducted on October 11 at ceremonies held at the Academy's headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Institute Supports Science Curriculum Innovation in Princeton Regional Schools

Institute Director Peter Goddard participated in a ceremony on April 14 at Princeton High School to mark formally the Institute's pledge of $100,000 to the Princeton Education Foundation to support innovations in the science curriculum at Princeton Regional Schools.  Dr. Goddard cut the ribbon in the hallway of the new biology wing, where a plaque was unveiled that reads, "In grateful recognition of a donation from the Institute for Advanced Study." 

"The Institute for Advanced Study is delighted to have the opportunity to support the outstanding educational work of the Princeton High School. We are proud to be associated with the biology floor of the High School, and with the opportunities for students to learn about exciting scientific developments that are changing our understanding of the basic processes of life and will be impacting our lives in the decades to come," said Dr. Goddard. 

Nima Arkani-Hamed Wins 2008 Sackler Prize

Nima Arkani-Hamed, Professor in the School of Natural Sciences, has been named the recipient of the 2008 Raymond and Beverly Sackler International Prize in Physics, presented by Tel Aviv University.  This year's research field was Beyond the Standard Model in the LHC Era. 

The Raymond and Beverly Sackler International Prize in the Physical Sciences, awarded at Tel-Aviv University, has been established through the generosity of Dr. Raymond and Mrs. Beverly Sackler.  It is awarded alternatively in the fields of Physics and Chemistry to an outstanding scientist who is not older than forty-two.  The prize is intended to encourage dedication to science, originality, and excellence by awarding outstanding young scientists. 

Arkani-Hamed was cited for his "novel, deep and highly influential contributions to new paradigms for physics beyond the Standard Model at the TeV energy scale, especially the ideas of large extra dimensions and of the large hierarchy of strengths of fundamental forces in Nature, including gravity; supersymmetry model-building; theories of flavor and of neutrino masses; and models of the cosmological constant." 

Arkani-Hamed, who joined the Faculty at the Institute in January 2008, will be honored at the Tel Aviv University's Board of Governors' annual meeting in May.  The Sackler Prize in Physics was first awarded in 2000, when School of Natural Sciences Professor Juan Maldacena was one of two recipients in the research field of Theoretical High Energy Physics. 

Roger W. Ferguson, Jr. Named President and CEO of TIAA-CREF

Institute Trustee Roger W. Ferguson, Jr., has been named President and CEO of TIAA-CREF, the leading retirement system for people who work in the academic, research, medical, and cultural fields, effective April 14.  Ferguson had been Chairman of Swiss Re America Holding Corporation and, previously, Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board.  He succeeds the retiring Herbert M. Allison, Jr.  Ferguson has also been appointed President of the Harvard University Board of Overseers, the school's second-highest governing body, for the academic year 2008-09.  This will mark the final year of his six-year term as overseer at the university.  Ferguson has served on the Institute's Board of Trustees since 2004.

New Faculty Books

		Galactic Dynamics: Second Edition (Princeton University Press, 2008) by James Binney and SCOTT TREMAINE, Richard Black Professor in the School of Natural Sciences,  is a major revision of the 1987 original, which has become one of the most widely used advanced textbooks on the structure and dynamics of galaxies and other stellar systems, and one of the most cited references in astrophysics.
		Pindar Press has just published the first volume of the collected works of IRVING LAVIN, Professor Emeritus in the School of Historical Studies.  Visible Spirit: the Art of Gianlorenzo Bernini (2007), brings his far-reaching publications together to provide a valuable resource to scholars and students and to underscore fundamental themes in the history of art: historicism, the art of commemoration, the relationship between style and meaning, the intelligence of artists -- themes that define the role of the visual arts in human communication.
		In The Politics of the Veil (Princeton University Press, 2007) JOAN WALLACH SCOTT, Harold F. Linder Professor in the School of Social Science, examines the 2004 ban by the French government of "conspicuous signs" of religious affiliation in public schools.  Though it applies to everyone, the ban is primarily aimed at Muslim girls wearing headscarves.  Scott argues that the law is symptomatic of France's failure to integrate its former colonial subjects as full citizens.
		In Mosaics as History: The Near East from Late Antiquity to Islam (Harvard University Press, 2006) GLEN W. BOWERSOCK, Professor Emeritus in the School of Historical Studies, considers the mosaics that have been uncovered in the Near East during the past century as a critical part of the documentation of the region's ancient culture, finding in them historical evidence, illustrations of literary and mythological tradition, religious icons, monuments to civic pride, and a complex fusion of cultures and religions that speak across time.
		In Wonderful Blood: Theology and Practice in Late Medieval Northern Germany and Beyond (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006), CAROLINE WALKER BYNUM, Professor of Medieval History in the School of Historical Studies, explores how and why Christ's blood as both object and symbol was central to late medieval art, literature, and religious life.
		In The Diary of a Manchu Soldier in Seventeenth-Century China (RoutledgeCurzon, 2006), NICOLA DI COSMO, Luce Foundation Professor in East Asian Studies, provides an annotated translation of the only known military diary in pre-modern Chinese history. The diary of Dzengseo, a young Manchu officer who recounts the events of the War of the Three Feudatories (1673-1682), offers a rare window into the overall organization of the Qing army, and new data in key areas of military history such as combat, armament, logistics, rank relations, and military culture.
		A Many-Colored Glass: Reflections on the Place of Life in the Universe (University of Virginia Press, 2007) by FREEMAN J. DYSON, Professor Emeritus in the School of Natural Sciences, addresses the human and ethical consequences of biotechnology; the place of life in the universe; and the implications of biology for philosophy and religion.
		Inspired by S. S. Chern:  A Memorial Volume in Honor of A Great Mathematician (World Scientific Press, 2007) edited by PHILLIP A. GRIFFITHS, Professor in the School of Mathematics, contains contributions by former colleagues, students, and friends of S. S. Chern (1911-2004), one of the leading differential geometers of the twentieth century and a former Member in the School of Mathematics (1943-46, 1954-55, 1964-65).
		A second, revised and enlarged edition of Athènes hellénistique.  Histoire de la cité d'Alexandre le Grand à Marc Antoine (Les Belles Lettres, 2006) by CHRISTIAN HABICHT, Professor Emeritus in the School of Historical Studies, has been published. The Hellenistic Monarchies.  Selected Papers (The University of Michigan Press, 2006) by  Habicht, translated by Peregrine Stevenson, makes use of the latest epigraphical evidence from newly found inscriptions to produce a volume of new, newly translated, and republished selections that document the elements of government among the major Hellenistic monarchies.
		Enlightenment Contested. Philosophy, Modernity and the Emancipation of Man, 1670-1752 (Oxford University Press, 2006) by JONATHAN ISRAEL, Professor in the School of Historical Studies, continues the major revisionist study he began in Radical Enlightenment:  Philosophy and the Making of Modernity 1650-1750 (Oxford University Press, 2001), offering a groundbreaking new perspective on the nature and development of the most important currents in modern thought.
		In the third revised edition of his biography Clausewitz and the State (Princeton University Press, 2007), PETER PARET, Professor Emeritus in the School of Historical Studies, adds new documentation and expands his interpretation of the life and work of one of the critical thinkers on issues of war and peace in the modern world.
		Motivic Homotopy Theory (Springer-Verlag, 2007) is based on lectures given on motivic homotopy theory at the Sophus Lie Centre in Nordfjordeid, Norway, in August 2002. Co-author VLADIMIR VOEVODSKY, Professor in the School of Mathematics, is one of the founders of the theory and received the Fields Medal for his work. Lecture Notes on Motivic Cohomology (American Mathematical Society, 2006) is drawn from one-hour lectures given by Voevodsky during the course he gave on motivic cohomology at the Institute in 1999-2000.

 

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