IAS History

At a moment when movies are at the forefront of everyone’s minds, the Institute for Advanced Study is delighted to present a 90-second film of its own: a new anthem video showcasing IAS and its mission of enabling foundational discovery. 

Zhengkai Li, a participant in the 2023 Women in Mathematics program, recounts her recent archival investigations into C.S. Wang Chang, the Institute's first woman of color, who joined the School of Mathematics/Natural Sciences in 1945.

The role of reproductions in facilitating the study of the ancient Mediterranean has long been recognized at IAS. Upon his appointment as the Institute’s first professor of Greek epigraphy in 1935, Benjamin D. Meritt petitioned then-Director Abraham...

The life and work of renowned scientist, visionary, and iconoclast Freeman Dyson, who spent most of his career at the Institute for Advanced Study, is the focus of a new book edited by American physicist and historian of science David Kaiser.

"The Shelby White and Leon Levy Archives Center engages in critical work to sustain and highlight the unique histories that distinguish the Institute for Advanced Study. With this work in mind, the Archives Center would like to shine a spotlight on former Member in the School of Mathematics Hideki Yukawa (1907–1981)."

Kurt Gödel, a Member of the Institute Faculty in the School of Mathematics, is the topic of the biography Journey to the Edge of Reason by Stephen Budiansky, published by W. W. Norton.

In conducting research for the book, Budiansky worked closely...

“I think an unaccompanied scholar, particularly a male, probably has the best of all possible worlds at the Institute.” 
—Social Science Member in the 1970s, male, age 50 at the moment of the questionnaire in 1976

Founded in 1930, the Institute for...

Professor Emeritus Freeman Dyson reads from his book Maker of Patterns: An Autobiography through Letters, a collection of personal letters to relatives, written between 1940 and the late 1970s, followed by a conversation with Director and Leon Levy Professor Robbert Dijkgraaf. 

The History Working Group is a Member-led initiative that mobilized in early 2017 in response to President Trump’s executive orders banning travel and immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries. The group produced a series of articles for...

Robbert Dijkgraaf, Director and Leon Levy Professor, gives a talk to incoming scholars on the history and mission of the Institute during Welcome Day on September 25, 2017.