David Nirenberg

David Nirenberg, IAS Director and Leon Levy Professor, has been named an inaugural Distinguished Visitor in the Arts and Humanities at Johns Hopkins University. Joining artist-architect Maya Lin as a Visitor for 2026–27, Nirenberg will bring his influential work on ideas, religion, and history to the JHU campus through talks, seminars, and small-group conversations.

From Einstein and Gödel’s cherished walks to today’s “peripatetic cogitation,” the Institute’s winding paths and quiet Woods remain an essential part of how ideas take shape at IAS. In this article, scholars from all four Schools share how walking—alone and together—creates space for reflection, conversation, and discovery.

Designed to facilitate work on projects and topics that are beyond the reach of a single scholar, discipline, or institution, the Jonathan M. Nelson Center for Collaborative Research has been launched at IAS, expanding the Institute's capacity for discovery across fields. The Center will provide the funding, space, infrastructure, and expertise for collaborative projects with partners across the globe. 

IAS Director and Leon Levy Professor David Nirenberg, School of Social Science Visitor Michèle Lamont (1997), and IAS Academic Trustee Eve Marder have been elected to the American Philosophical Society (APS), one of the oldest learned societies in the U.S.

James H. Simons, former IAS Member (1972) and Board Vice Chair, widely recognized as a prize-winning mathematician, singular hedge fund manager, and a visionary philanthropist—with an indefatigable curiosity for science and discovery—died on Friday, May 10. He was 86.