Institute for Advanced Study

Today

Irving Lavin on the Institute for Advanced Study

Professor Irving Lavin (1927–2019) was an art historian distinguished by his conviction that the study of the history of art was the study of the history of ideas. One of the ideas he found most exciting was that of the Institute for Advanced Study.

Ideas

Founders’ Statement on America and Higher Learning

“We feel strongly that the spirit characteristic of America at its noblest, above all the pursuit of higher learning, cannot admit of any conditions as to personnel other than those designed to promote the objects for which this institution is established, and particularly with no regard whatever to accidents of race, creed, or sex.”

Press Release

Irving Lavin (1927–2019), Iconic Art Historian, Dies at 91

February 06, 2019

Professor Irving Lavin was an art historian distinguished by his charismatic and challenging teaching, rigorous search for the relationship between form and meaning in the visual arts, and the conviction that the study of the history of art was the study of the history of ideas. He was renowned for his tenacious explorations of difficult subjects, and his willingness to see all the facets and possibilities of their solutions.

Ideas

Truth and Beauty: The History of the IAS Seal

By Irving Lavin and Marilyn Aronberg Lavin

While the association of Truth and Beauty with the program of the Institute may seem obvious and natural to us today, it certainly was not when Flexner made the association.

In the Media

Akshay Venkatesh answers a question at the blackboard

At the Center of the Mathematical Universe: Akshay Venkatesh

February 08, 2019

"The most influential ideas are ones that, in a way, are not attributed to the people who came up with them. They are assimilated. It seems like they were always there." Akshay Venkatesh discusses the foundational work of Atle Selberg and Hermann Weyl, the motivating mentorship of Peter Sarnak, and unexpected discoveries with Member Preston Wake in an interview with Bhāvanā Magazine.

In the Media

Nature Magazine: Jean Bourgain (1954–2018)

February 08, 2019

"Bourgain lived and breathed mathematics. He would often show up at the IAS shortly before afternoon tea and work with collaborators until well past midnight.… His collaborators would often wake up to an e-mail from Bourgain sent at 4 a.m., containing the solution to a problem that, the night before, had seemed as if it would take weeks to crack.”

Ideas

Origins of Life

By Piet Hut

Equilibrium thermodynamics explains the nature of human-made engines, but what will explain the nature of living matter?

In the Media

A demonstrator holds a sign that reads "America; 99% Poor, 1% Rich. Look it up!"

A Green New Deal

February 11, 2019

“The principles that animated the New Deal . . . included rights to employment, medical care, housing, education, and social security,” writes Daniel Aldana Cohen, Member in the School of Social Science, coauthor of a piece appearing in The Guardian that outlines five freedoms to guide economic and climate policy reforms.

Ideas