Vera Gluscevic, IBM Einstein Fellow in the Institute for Advanced Study’s School of Natural Sciences (2025–26), explains that every galaxy sits in a vast halo of dark matter—often far more massive than what we can see. She describes how dark matter’s early-universe clumps became the seeds of cosmic structure, forming the galaxies we know today.
Institute Instances is a collection of 1–2 minute video snapshots of scholars, administrators, and visitors to the Institute for Advanced Study answering a question (or two) about their work at IAS. Viewed individually, these clips allow audiences to get to know the people who are, in the words of founding IAS Director Abraham Flexner, "pushing beyond the present limits of human knowledge" through advancements in science and the humanities. Taken together, these "instances" of Institute life are designed to show how everyone can play a role in actualizing discovery, and to celebrate a community devoted to excellence in scholarship.