The Institute is home to an intriguing collection of marginalia. Such notes—appearing in books and offprints, on photographs and squeezes, and on notecards—transform what might seem like static artifacts into dynamic records of scholarly engagement. They document the history of how scholars have interpreted, connected, and published ideas throughout time and space, creating a multilayered conversation that can even stretch across millennia.
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...
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.
The Institute for Advanced Study came into being at the most inauspicious of times. Founded in the early years of the Great Depression, it took shape during the buildup to the Second World War and under the growing shadow of authoritarian regimes. Its first Director Abraham Flexner published his manifesto on the “The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge” in October 1939, barely a month after the outbreak of hostilities in Europe. Surely this was a daunting moment to defend “the fearless and irresponsible thinker” and advocate for the free expression of knowledge and curiosity.
In the beginning of the twentieth century, the University of
Göttingen was one of the top research centers for mathematics in
the world. The mathematician David Hilbert was a well-established
professor there, and during the winter semester of 1924...
During a visit to the Institute in the 1970s, the mathematician
John Horton Conway, then of Cambridge, spent the ten most
interesting minutes of his life. Invited to deliver a talk to the
undergraduate math club at Princeton, Conway made his way...
There are two kinds of creation myths: those where life arises out of the mud, and those where life falls from the sky. In this creation myth, computers arose from the mud, and code fell from the sky.
In 1900, David Hilbert published a list of twenty-three open
questions in mathematics, ten of which he presented at the
International Congress of Mathematics in Paris that year. Hilbert
had a good nose for asking mathematical questions as the
ones...
Kurt Gödel’s achievement in modern logic is singular and
monumental—indeed it is more than a monument, it is a landmark
which will remain visible far in space and time.
—John von Neumann
Upon presenting Kurt Gödel (1906-1978) with the Albert
Einstein...
