J. Robert Oppenheimer

Theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer served as the third Director of the Institute from 1947 until 1966. Prior to his Directorship, Oppenheimer was appointed to the Manhattan Project, and he oversaw the construction of the Los Alamos laboratory, where he gathered the best minds in physics to work on the problem of creating an atomic bomb.

Natural Sciences

The Mozart of Science

Graham Farmelo

The Institute Letter Fall 2008

When Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in January 1933, Albert Einstein had already left the country. He was in the United States and in contact with the founders of his new academic home, the Institute for Advanced Study, which would open in fall...

The Institute Woods: Protection Against the Noise and the Bustle

The Institute Letter Winter 2007

More than seventy-five years ago, Founding Director Abraham Flexner sought to create with the Institute for Advanced Study a haven where “scholars and scientists may regard the world and its phenomena as their laboratory, without being carried off...

T. S. Eliot at IAS

Kelly Devine Thomas

The Institute Letter Spring 2007

In November 1946, Frank Aydelotte (Director, 1939–47) invited the poet T. S. Eliot to come to the Institute for Advanced Study as a Member in the School of Historical Studies and the first unofficial artist in residence at the Institute. By the time...