News

The field-shaping work of Caroline Walker Bynum, Professor Emerita in the School of Historical Studies, and her significant impact on historical scholarship well beyond her areas of specialization, has been celebrated in a symposium published in a recent issue of the journal Common Knowledge.

Designed to facilitate work on projects and topics that are beyond the reach of a single scholar, discipline, or institution, the Jonathan M. Nelson Center for Collaborative Research has been launched at IAS, expanding the Institute’s capacity for discovery across fields. 

This June, around 230 physicists and mathematicians gathered at IAS to discuss the latest developments in the field of scattering amplitudes. The roots of the Amplitudes conference, held annually since 2009, can be found in seminal papers by Edward Witten, Professor Emeritus in the School of Natural Sciences, and his collaborators.

An exhibition currently on display in the Shelby White and Leon Levy Archives Center celebrates how—from the Institute’s founding in 1930 to today—IAS scholars have brought that which is known into conversation with that which is newly discovered to meet the challenges of the present moment.

Edward Witten, Professor Emeritus in the School of Natural Sciences, has received the Basic Science Lifetime Award in Theoretical Physics from the International Congress of Basic Science, which is presented to scientists who have brought about fundamental change in their disciplines. 

Described as "one of the most distinguished theoretical physicists of our time," IAS Trustee Emeritus Martin Rees has been announced as the winner of the 2024 Wolf Prize in Physics. Also recognized with a 2024 Wolf Prize in Mathematics was Noga Alon, a frequent Visiting Professor in the School of Mathematics. 

Daniela V. Gabor, Roger W. Ferguson, Jr., and Annette L. Nazareth Member in the School of Social Science, argues that the U.K. Labour party will aim to "rebuild the infrastructure that is crumbling after years of Tory underinvestment" by turning to private investment companies. She contends that this "will generate windfalls for investors and leave the rest of us worse off."

At a ceremony held in Berlin last week, Penelope Deutscher, Member in the School of Social Science, was officially presented with a Research Award ("Humboldt-Forschungspreis") by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Deutscher's award will support a project titled "Revocability: A Post-Roe Grammar of Power," which was developed at the Institute.

Irit Dveer Dinur, Elon Lindenstrauss, and Aaron Naber have been appointed to the Institute Faculty, bringing unique expertise in pure mathematics and computer science to the School of Mathematics. They will begin their Institute appointments this summer. Considered one of the top honors in academia, IAS Faculty appointments are reserved for the world’s foremost leaders in their respective fields.

Writing for The Guardian, Didier Fassin, James D. Wolfensohn Professor in the School of Social Science, argues that a "hazardous strategy" by President Emmanuel Macron has facilitated an evolution of the whole political spectrum to the right.