Abraham Flexner

Marina von Neumann Whitman, Trustee Emerita of the Institute for Advanced Study and pioneering economist who broke barriers in academia, government, and corporate leadership, died on May 20, 2025. As the daughter of John von Neumann, one of the Institute's founding Faculty members (1933–55) in the School of Mathematics, Whitman had a lifelong connection to IAS.

"This past September, 281 new and returning scholars and Faculty gathered for a new term welcome at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton."

On May 20, 2022, IAS celebrated Founders Day in recognition of  Louis Bamberger and Caroline Bamberger Fuld, the brother and sister who founded and endowed IAS on May 20, 1930. The event was held on campus, beginning with a toast led by Director and Leon Levy Professor David Nirenberg.

On May 6, 2022, the IAS Bamberger Medal was presented to Shelby White, IAS Trustee Emerita and Founder of the Leon Levy Foundation, at a celebration on the Institute’s campus in Princeton, N.J. Shelby has championed the Institute throughout the four decades since her late husband Leon Levy’s appointment to the Board of Trustees in 1988.

"In June, 1948, when I graduated from Princeton High School, I already had a job, as a night watchman at the Institute for Advanced Study, on the far side of town. All kinds of people assumed that the Institute was part of Princeton University, which it wasn’t and isn’t."

"The Institute for Advanced Study doesn’t have any students or classes. There’s no regular daily agenda full of meetings and conferences. The scholars here don’t even have to research any specific topic. They could spend their whole day walking the grounds or sitting by the lake."

There are scholars in the streets of the Institute for Advanced Study. These roads serve as an important reminder of the historic scholars that paved a way for the groundbreaking research that happens today on the Institute campus.

Bret Stephens of the New York Times celebrates Founding Director Abraham Flexner's seminal essay The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge, citing recent NASA missions including New Horizons, OSIRIS-REx, and InSight as examples of the kind of curiosity...