School of Natural Sciences

Chen Ning Yang (杨振宁), Faculty (1955–66) and Member (1949–54) in the Institute for Advanced Study’s School of Mathematics/Natural Sciences, passed away on October 18, 2025 at the age of 103. At the Institute, he produced a body of work which redefined how scientists conceptualize the fundamental forces and symmetries of the universe. 

Lauren K. Williams, von Neumann Fellow (2017) in the Schools of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, has been named a 2025 MacArthur Fellow. The award recognizes Williams’s influential and wide-ranging research that bridges algebraic combinatorics, geometry, and physics. 

When massive objects like black holes move through the universe, they create gravitational waves—ripples in the very fabric of spacetime. This summer, IAS became a hub for exploring this rapidly evolving field as the 2025 Prospects in Theoretical Physics (PiTP) program welcomed 85 attendees for an intensive workshop focused on gravitational wave physics and astrophysics.

Although memory is subjective and colored by experience, a team of researchers, led by Weishun Zhong, Eric and Wendy Schmidt Member in Biology in the School of Natural Sciences, and Misha Tsodyks, C. V. Starr Professor in the School, have discovered that our brains share a universal mathematical structure for memory organization. Their findings bridge the disciplines of physics and neuroscience, revealing potential applications ranging from AI to memory disorder treatment.

John Richard Bond, Member (2018) and Visitor (2012) in the School of Natural Sciences, received the Shaw Prize in Astronomy alongside George Efstathiou, Visitor (1986) in the School, for their pioneering research in cosmology, while Kenji Fukaya, Member (2002) in the School of Mathematics, was awarded the Shaw Prize in Mathematical Sciences for his field-shaping work on symplectic geometry.

A small team led by Sihao Cheng, Martin A. and Helen Chooljian Member in the School of Natural Sciences, has discovered an extraordinary trans-Neptunian object (TNO) at the edge of our solar system. The TNO is potentially large enough to qualify as a dwarf planet, the same category as the much more well-known Pluto. The discovery has significant implications for our understanding of the Kuiper Belt and hypotheses that surround the existence of Planet Nine.