A Community of Scholars: Impressions of the Institute for Advanced Study [Course Book ed.] 9781400839797

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A Community of Scholars

A Community of Scholars Impressions of the Institute for Advanced Study

with photographs by Serge J-F. Levy

P r i n c e t o n

U n i v e r si t y

P r e ss  

P r i n c e t o n

a n d

Ox ford

The Institute for Advanced Study gratefully acknowledges generous support for this book from Annette Merle-Smith and the Friends of the Institute for Advanced Study. Text and collective work copyright © 2012 by the Institute for Advanced Study Full-page photographs copyright © 2012 by Serge J-F. Levy Jacket art: Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey, © Peter Bokor. Back jacket photo by Andrea Kane. Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work should be sent to Permissions, Princeton University Press. Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TW press.princeton.edu All Rights Reserved Library of Congress Control Number: 2011931062 British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available This book has been composed in Minion Printed on acid-free paper. ∞ Printed in Canada 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Contents

A Paradise for Scholars?  Peter Goddard  vii The Institute for Advanced Study   ix Eighty Years On  Michael Atiyah   1 Historical Times  Barbara Kowalzig   12 Warmth amid the Cold  Chantal David   24 Unusual Business  Wolf Lepenies   34 Essential Exchanges  Jane F. Fulcher   45 Looking for Leaders  Freeman Dyson   56 Shaping Time  Paul Moravec   67 The Interlocutors  Joan Wallach Scott   77 Night Owls and Early Birds  David H. Weinberg   89 Index of Photographs   101 Biographies  109

A Paradise for Scholars? Peter Goddard

W

hen, nearly eighty years ago on October 11, 1932,

not only mathematics and drift in and out without expla-

the New York Times announced the appointment

nation or ascertainable reason. . . . Inasmuch as our [mem-

of Albert Einstein to the embryonic Institute for Advanced

bers] have all been teachers working under a heavy routine

Study, it reported that the founders’ intention was to estab-

for some years, they are as happy as birds, doing precisely

lish a “scholar’s paradise.” A year later, when the Institute’s

the things which they have wanted to do.”

academic term had begun, the founding director, Abraham

Perhaps curmudgeonly, Frankfurter felt the need to deflate

Flexner, wrote to Felix Frankfurter, one of the Institute’s trust-

Flexner’s “exuberant rhetoric.” “News from P ­ aradise—Not

ees and later a Supreme Court Justice, that what had hap-

my style,” he scrawled across Flexner’s letter. In his reply, he

pened was not exactly what he had planned but was in fact

cautioned Flexner against thinking of the Institute as a “para-

much better than he had planned. “I have frequently used

dise of scholars,” explaining, “the natural history of paradise

the phrase, ‘paradise for scholars,’ without any very distinct

is none too encouraging as a precedent. Apparently it was an

notion of just how a paradise would be created,” he wrote.

excellent place for one person, but it was fatal even for two—

The Institute opened with only a School of Mathemat-

or at least for two when the snake entered, and the snake

ics, housed temporarily in the old Fine Hall of Princeton

seems to be an early and congenial companion of man. . . .

University. But it was a School of Mathematics whose fac-

Let’s try to aim at something human, for we are dealing with

ulty comprised Oswald Veblen, James Alexander, John von

humans and not with angels.”

Neumann, and Hermann Weyl, as well as Einstein. They

While the Institute continues to be described regularly as

were joined by about twenty members and, Flexner com-

an academic paradise, Flexner’s successors have surely been

mented, “They have been turned loose in Fine Hall with-

in no doubt that the Institute’s qualities are human rather

out any regulations whatsoever. . . . Every afternoon tea

than angelic. It is this humanity that is brought out fully in

is served informally and there is, to my astonishment, an

the essays and photographs that constitute this portrait of A

attendance of about sixty. . . . They talk mathematics but

Community of Scholars. The essays convey the insights and

perspectives of scholars who, collectively, have known the

Some fifty years ago, Robert Oppenheimer, then direc-

Institute over seven of its eight decades. The photographs

tor of the Institute, wrote of how the increasing busyness

give a snapshot of one year, 2009–10, in the academic and

and growth in size of universities had had the consequence

social life of the Institute.

that professorships no longer provided “that opportunity

Although the roll of its members has grown from the

for seclusion, and for the most difficult and intensive intel-

two dozen who gathered for tea in Fine Hall in 1933, to

lectual effort, which was once their special hallmark.” He

some seven thousand historians, mathematicians, natural

argued that “places of retreat, which are in effect places for

scientists, and social scientists, whose work collectively has

advance,” like the Institute for Advanced Study, provide

changed the way we understand the world, the essence of

“an opportunity for much more intensive concentration on

the Institute, its mission and character, has not changed. The

study and research than is elsewhere possible.”

community still gathers daily for tea, now in the Fuld Hall

Over the last half-century, both the busyness, which

Common Room, still drifting in and out without explana-

Oppenheimer observed, and the proliferation of institutes for

tion, but the cookies are now complemented by fresh fruit.

advanced study throughout the world, which he predicted,

Each year about two hundred visiting members, drawn

surely have increased beyond what he could have imag-

from more than thirty countries, most accompanied by

ined. Although the research carried on here has changed in

their families, join some twenty-eight permanent profes-

response to advances in knowledge that it has helped to pro-

sors and fifteen professors emeriti to form the resident

duce, the Institute in Princeton still embodies the vision that

Institute community. Nearly all of them live in the academic

Flexner articulated, “a haven where scholars and scientists

village of apartments, originally designed by Marcel Breuer

may regard the world and its phenomena as their laboratory,

in 1957, at the edge of the Institute’s eight hundred acres of

without being carried off in the maelstrom of the immedi-

campus, woodland, and farmland. The youngest have just

ate . . . simple, comfortable, quiet without being monastic or

completed their doctorates; most are on leave from univer-

remote . . . afraid of no issue . . . under no pressure from any

sities around the world, as happy as their predecessors to be

side which might tend to force its scholars to be prejudiced

relieved of heavy teaching and administrative duties, and,

either for or against any particular solution of the problems

as Flexner wrote, completely free to follow their own lines

under study . . . [providing] the facilities, the tranquility, and

of research wherever their curiosity takes them.

the time requisite to fundamental inquiry into the unknown.”

viii a paradise for scholars?

The Institute for Advanced Study

T

he Institute for Advanced Study, founded in Prince-

constructed, was opened in 1939, and contains the Com-

ton, New Jersey, in 1930, is a small, independent insti-

mon Room, the Mathematics–Natural Sciences Library, and

tution whose mission is to foster research into fundamental

the offices of some mathematicians and historians, as well

questions in the sciences and humanities. While it was

as that of the director. To the north of Fuld Hall, a circular

placed by the founding director, Abraham Flexner, close to

drive connects the main campus to housing for members

Princeton University and its world-class library and wider

and their families and to the Crossroads Nursery School,

intellectual community, the Institute has no formal links to

which now occupies part of the building where John von

the university or any institution. Some twenty-six Nobel

Neumann built one of the first computers; Olden Farm, the

Laureates and thirty-eight out of fifty-two Fields Medalists,

official residence of the director; and the homes of many

as well as many winners of the Wolf and MacArthur prizes,

faculty members. To the south of Fuld Hall is a great lawn

have worked at the Institute.

and a horseshoe arrangement of buildings whose backdrop

The Institute is in essence an academic community

is the Institute Woods. To the east are Bloomberg Hall,

comprising some two hundred visiting members, who are

which houses the offices of the natural scientists; Simonyi

drawn each year from more than thirty countries, as well

Hall, where the majority of the mathematicians work; and

as some twenty-eight permanent faculty and fifteen fac-

Wolfensohn Hall, the Institute’s lecture and concert hall. To

ulty emeriti. The work of the Institute takes place in four

the west are the Dining Hall, home to Harry’s Bar and the

schools: Historical Studies, Mathematics, Natural Sciences,

Dilworth Room; the West Building with an outdoor gar-

and Social Science.

den of birch trees and offices for historians and social sci-

The Institute’s campus is set in farmland and woods,

entists; and the Historical Studies–Social Science Library

whose paths were cleared by some of its first faculty and

and its adjacent White-Levy Room, which overlook the

members. The central building, Fuld Hall, the first to be

Institute Pond.

The photographs in this book depict the Institute and the individuals who worked there during the 2009–10 academic year. The Institute’s faculty and board of trustees during 2009–10 are listed below. Director Peter Goddard Faculty Stephen L. Adler Danielle S. Allen Nima Arkani-Hamed Yve-Alain Bois Enrico Bombieri Jean Bourgain Glen W. Bowersock * Caroline Walker Bynum Giles Constable * Patricia Crone Pierre Deligne * Nicola Di Cosmo Freeman J. Dyson * Didier Fassin Peter Goldreich * Oleg Grabar + Phillip A. Griffiths * Christian Habicht * Albert O. Hirschman * Helmut Hofer Piet Hut Jonathan Israel Robert P. Langlands * Irving Lavin * Stanislas Leibler Arnold J. Levine Robert MacPherson Juan Maldacena Avishai Margalit

x the institute for advanced study

Eric S. Maskin Peter Paret * Peter Sarnak Joan Wallach Scott Nathan Seiberg Thomas Spencer Scott Tremaine Vladimir Voevodsky Heinrich von Staden Michael Walzer * Morton White * Avi Wigderson Edward Witten Matias Zaldarriaga Trustees Jeffrey P. Bezos Victoria B. Bjorklund Richard B. Black Curtis Callan Martin A. Chooljian Theodore L. Cross * Mario Draghi Sidney D. Drell * Roger W. Ferguson, Jr. E. Robert Fernholz Peter Goddard Vartan Gregorian Ralph E. Hansmann * John S. Hendricks David A. Hollinger Peter R. Kann Helene L. Kaplan *

Immanuel Kohn * Florian Langenscheidt Spiro J. Latsis Martin L. Leibowitz David K.P. Li * Nancy S. MacMillan David F. Marquardt Hamish Maxwell* Nancy B. Peretsman Martin Rees David M. Rubenstein James J. Schiro Eric E. Schmidt Ronaldo H. Schmitz * Martin E. Segal * William H. Sewell, Jr. Harold T. Shapiro James H. Simons Charles Simonyi, Chairman Peter Svennilson Michel L.Vaillaud * Ladislaus von Hoffmann * Shelby White Marina v.N. Whitman Andrew J. Wiles James D. Wolfensohn,* Chairman Emeritus Brian F. Wruble * Emeritus + deceased January 8, 2011

 xi

xii 

xiii

xiv

xv

xvi

A Community of Scholars

Eighty Years On Michael Atiyah

I

first came to the Institute fifty-five years ago in 1955, hav-

with the Institute enable me to reflect on what it represents,

ing just acquired a wife and a Ph.D. Early memories last

the role it plays in the world, and how it affects both indi-

longest and I have vivid recollections of my first impressions.

viduals and ideas.

The sedate and almost rural calm of Princeton stood up to a

It was a key objective from the start that the Institute

comparison with my alma mater of Cambridge. I conveyed

should be a place for permanent faculty to carry out pure

my enthusiasm to the director, Robert Oppenheimer, the

research on a long-term basis without the distraction of

sophisticated cosmopolitan, who politely demurred, hinting

teaching or administrative duties. At a time when universi-

at the derivative nature of Princeton architecture.

ties were mainly devoted to the education of their students,

I spent one and a half years on that first visit which,

professorial duties could be heavy and often inimical to

through the friends and future collaborators I made, laid

research. The Institute would be a refuge for serious schol-

the foundations for my entire subsequent career. In the

ars, carefully selected from the most creative of their time,

aftermath of World War II, the Institute was a unique intel-

who were to advance knowledge and move forward in the

lectual center where scholars from different countries and

vanguard of the academic profession.

of different vintages were in haste to make up for lost time.

Younger visitors, who would sit at the feet of the great

It is perhaps a subjective illusion that one’s own youth is a

thinkers on the faculty, and perhaps work alongside as

unique golden age with a concentration of talent, but the

assistants, were to provide a second layer. The precise

myth can turn into reality.

details evolved over time so that, by the time I arrived, the

Over the years, I have been a constant recurring visi-

visitor program, particularly in mathematics, had become a

tor, as a member on sabbatical leave, as a short-term visi-

major enterprise. Young postdocs taking their first tentative

tor, and as a faculty member. The Institute has always been

steps in the academic world formed the base of the visi-

home away from home, and we have both just celebrated

tor program. In that mobile postwar era, they came from

our eightieth birthdays. My lengthy and varied connections

all over the world and helped to establish the Institute as a

thoroughly international center. But a second layer of visi-

Weyl, all refugees from Nazi Germany. Abraham Flexner,

tors were there in mid-career, taking sabbatical leave from

the first director, and his key adviser Oswald Veblen ensured

their universities, and they formed a natural link between

that the fledgling establishment got off to a brilliant start.

the green Ph.D.s and the senior permanent faculty.

This was the era of great strides in physics, heavily backed

In this way, the Institute found its natural role as a post-

by beautiful mathematics, an ideal mix for a new institution.

graduate center without the masses of undergraduates that

In recent years, a number of books about the early years

dominate a university. As times have changed, the gap

of the IAS have appeared, shedding a fascinating light on

between universities and research institutes has narrowed.

the process by which it was formed. Its success depended

Many universities are now heavily oriented toward research

on several fortuitous factors. First, the availability, courtesy

and may even contain their own institutes. The IAS can claim

of Adolf Hitler, of Europe’s leading thinkers. Second, the

to have pioneered a role that the universities have followed.

financial crash that severely constrained the competitive

Having been at the Institute at various stages of my career

power of universities, but which the Bambergers escaped.

and in different capacities, I can assess the benefits that

Finally, there was the entrepreneurial skill and vision of

scholars derive from their stays. As a postdoc, part of a large

Flexner and Veblen, who took full advantage of the oppor-

cohort of young and enthusiastic mathematicians, I ben-

tunities and challenges.

efited more from my contemporaries than from the more

Einstein and Weyl both died the year I arrived in Princ-

remote senior faculty. Among the young, there was a heady

eton, and von Neumann succumbed to cancer shortly after.

mixture of new ideas, energy, and camaraderie. Friendships

The great men who had overseen the synergy of mathemat-

were formed and collaborations established that would last

ics and physics in the earlier decade were gone. The two sub-

a lifetime and survive geographical dispersion.

jects drifted apart. Physics pursued new models with shaky

Later, as a faculty member (albeit only a decade later),

mathematical foundations, while mathematicians developed

I saw my role as going beyond my personal research. Run-

exciting ideas that centered on the pure mathematics of

ning seminars and discoursing with the young was my con-

topology and algebraic geometry. So as a young postdoc in

tribution. Now, when returning to the Institute, I feel like

the School of Mathematics I had no contact with the physi-

Rip Van Winkle, a curiosity from a bygone age, there to

cists. The breakup of the mathematicians and physicists who

remind the present generation of their history.

were the founding faculty seemed inevitable and irreversible.

From its inception, the Institute has played a major role

The situation remained the same during my time as a

in mathematical physics, beginning with the early appoint-

faculty member, but ironically, from my point of view,

ments of Albert Einstein, John von Neumann, and Hermann

things changed rapidly after my return to Oxford in 1973.

2  Eighty Years On

The past thirty-five years have seen the interface between

the university’s faculty and graduate students. The math-

geometry and physics blossom in a remarkable way and

ematical community essentially doubled in size.

the IAS has been at the center of this renaissance, led by

Although the Institute never had formal graduate stu-

Edward Witten and his colleagues. I have kept in touch

dents of its own, over the years many faculty members

with these exciting new developments, and I am sure that

supervised students from the university, an arrangement

Hermann Weyl is cheering us on from the next world. In

that has worked to the benefit of both sides. Having able

this area, the Institute has returned to its roots.

and eager young students around can be a great stimulus

When the Institute was first envisaged, the Bambergers’ intention was to locate it near their estate outside

to their elders. Without this safety valve it might have been difficult to hold on indefinitely to all the professors.

Newark. But Flexner argued that Princeton, with its large

The IAS has undoubtedly found a clear role for itself as a

university library, was much more suitable. As we know,

graduate center of exceptional quality. It is not a university,

he eventually won the argument, and it is now difficult

it has no students, it does not cover all fields, especially in

to imagine any other location. The university library is of

experimental sciences, and it remains focused. Its success

course a convenient resource, particularly for scholars in

can best be gauged by the flowering of similar institutes

the humanities, but it is of less importance for mathemati-

all over the world. It is the role model par excellence and

cians and physicists, especially in the age of the Internet.

as such has influenced the world of advanced scholarship

However, the proximity of the university was of immense

and research. It has diversified in a modest way by includ-

benefit to me, and no doubt to many other mathematicians

ing new disciplines that fit its particular format, and it has

for quite different reasons. During my first visit, I regularly

expanded gradually, particularly in terms of its buildings.

attended the advanced graduate courses there and, along

I think Oppenheimer might have approved of the new

with other Institute members, interacted at all levels with

architecture.

Michael Atiyah  3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

Historical Times Barbara Kowalzig

I

used to say to friends that days at the Institute curiously

when hot and humid days were chiefly organized around

had twenty-eight hours, just that little extra bit of time

the social scientists’ mojito hour at sunset.

that most days in normal life seem to lack. Your time as a

But what in my memory stands out and is there to stay is

historian at the IAS is what you make it—and that means

the period in the middle, in the spring. With my first sub-

that everyone’s experience will be different. If you need

stantial book having just appeared after a long and trying

a period of concentrated and undisturbed work to finish

editing process, I was now free finally to move on to a new

your book, you can do that. If you are desperately trying to

project. And I made a conscious decision to do nothing

catch up on a dozen long-overdue articles, you will most

except read. To do what in the normal circus of continu-

likely have written them all by the end of the year. If you are

ous conferences, teaching, administration, and publishing

in the early stages of a new project, you will have the time

deadlines has become a feat in itself: to put obligations to

to explore it from every conceivable angle before (perhaps)

one side and make the time to learn new things, to read

eventually deciding on a distinct path.

outside, and sometimes far outside, my own field. To read

I enjoyed the whole range of these options at different

entire books as opposed to rapaciously going through the

points over the eleven months of my stay as a classicist in

index and hurriedly harvesting material for my own work.

the School of Historical Studies during 2007–08: I remem-

To broaden geographical and conceptual horizons, engage

ber the mysteriously lit autumn fogs hanging over the pond

in theories and ideas I had always kept at bay when they

from which a surprised deer would emerge and gaze at

threatened the safe and comfortable haven of narrow spe-

me stumbling out of the library at sunrise after a night of

cialization; to develop a tolerance for difference. The life-

checking references for a final-final deadline the next day.

blood of the arts and humanities are ideas and imagination,

I also recall the ephemeral sense of achievement, ticking

the ability to put together and see connections between

off articles on the list during the quiet summer months,

things that may not seem related at first sight. A fascination

with, and talent for, lateral thinking quite possibly drives

shared a Nobel Prize in theoretical economics, joined

many researchers into the field in the first place, but it is

the table. With amused patience and admirable stoicism,

not a skill that is just there—in my experience, it needs to

he kept warding off objections to his entire discipline by

be worked with, trained, and cultivated in order to be used

a bunch of unruly and math-resistant historians. The dif-

productively in research. The IAS gives us the time and the

ference in method and approach between economists and

intellectual freedom to do exactly that.

historians was enormous—but also productive. It has cer-

I am a historian of religions in the ancient Mediterranean,

tainly transformed my own project—not in the sense that

that is to say of Greco-Roman antiquity. During my time at

I will start quantifying religious activity in the Mediter-

the IAS, I was developing a new project on the interface of

ranean, but in providing an unexpected set of conceptual

religion and economy in the Mediterranean. I remember

tools for identifying how religious institutions and mythi-

those days as an opportunity to learn about others, to have

cal imagination in the societies of the ancient Mediterra-

the luxury to concentrate, for once, on something other

nean are integral to economic choices and strategies, how

than my own work. And I have found that it was that invest-

they mediate between rationality and morality and provide

ment in exchange with others that has stayed with me since.

a form of regulation of economic activity. There are many

For humanists, the idea of working as part of a group is not

things I learned in these interdisciplinary, transcultural,

immediately obvious or attractive: the forms of thinking are

and cross-historical exchanges. Not least that the way to

too personal, individual, even subjective. But the IAS creates

the mind really is through the stomach: our “economic

a space where working as a group becomes important and

table” grew bigger and bigger, largely nourished by over-

accelerates your progress. Many workshops—formal and

sized cauldrons of delicious pasta all’amatriciana prepared

informal—sprang serendipitously from the shared interests

by Luigi Capogrossi Colognesi, who is not just an eminent

of members from entirely different disciplines.

legal historian of ancient Rome, but turned out to be a very

For example, a group of historians, all like myself work-

hands-on cook of contemporary Roman specialities!

ing at the boundaries of economic and social or cultural

As a European, I have spent most of my career so far in

history from the ancient Mediterranean to contempo-

institutions where the erosion of the ancient world’s cultural

rary China, put together an “economic table.” Over lunch,

capital remains a bit of a mystery, and is an increasing worry.

we discussed key concepts in economic theory revolv-

When I took up a new position in the United States earlier

ing around the interaction of economics and ethics. Eric

this year, a colleague from a different subject spontaneously

Maskin from the School of Social Science, who had just

exclaimed, “Oh, I am so glad that we are still appointing

Barbara Kowalzig  13

classicists!” My subject is clearly in need of redefinition in

institutional and funding levels the humanities may be per-

our contemporary historical context. But at the IAS, I saw

ceived to be in retreat, I could not see any such disciplin-

no sign that interest in classical antiquity had waned among

ary imperialism in research as it was practiced at the IAS.

researchers from other fields. Whether the Greeks and

If anything, I felt a great deal of mutual curiosity, perhaps

Romans provided a language of theorizing and conceptual-

because this was my first chance to get together with sci-

izing the world around them that we still use today, whether

entists on a daily basis. One day Freeman Dyson came up

they privileged certain areas of social interaction that we

to gather views on an article’s attempt at establishing the

still consider worth thinking about, or whether simply out

historicity of the stellar configurations guiding Odysseus’s

of habit—there was an undiluted interest in the ancient

sailing voyages in the Odyssey: whatever the practicability

world, as a foil of comparison and a laboratory for trying out

of such a reconstruction, it did open up perspectives for

ideas, among historians, social scientists, and natural scien-

approaching the interlocking of scientific and mythical

tists alike. What has changed for Classics is that Greek and

knowledge in antiquity. As a result of many such general

Roman antiquity has lost something of its privileged place in

discussions, I started to think that the methodological gap

the hierarchy of cultures. The prestige of its purported time-

between the humanities and sciences might after all not

honored values and forms of thinking has diminished—as

be as yawning as I had thought; that, for example, the way

has the prestige of the past more generally. The perceived

both disciplines organize their systems of knowledge had

uniqueness of Greco-Roman cultures has been replaced,

gone through similar phases, moving from linear forms

it would seem, by an awareness that they are just one in a

of explanation to complex, multidirectional forms of con-

series of interconnected, highly complex Eurasian societies

nectivity. Rather than observing antagonism, I started to

reaching from the Mediterranean all the way to East Asia,

understand how the arts and sciences could be perceived

where many global changes took place simultaneously and

to be in the process of moving closer to one another. While

through sophisticated processes of cultural diffusion. If as

in the humanities there is a tendency to see everything as

classicists we are not able to recognize, exploit, and explain

“constructed,” with “culture” explaining just about every

the particularities and relevance of classical antiquity within

phenomenon, the recent broader turn toward fields such

this broader system of ancient world cultures, it is perhaps

as the cognitive sciences, bioethics, and environmental

we who are at fault—but surely not entirely.

history seems to express a desire jointly to devise new and

On a broader and slightly different level, I perceived

inspiring kinds of questions.

that this is also true of the humanities at large, and of

Perhaps one of the most exciting experiences overall at

their relationship to the so-called hard sciences. While on

the IAS is the somewhat diffuse feel that you get of where

14  Historical Times

research is going in all fields at once, simply because of the

returning to normal life—is part of the year-long ritual, but

way the place selects its members and functions as a soci-

ultimately, one hopes, transformative. Living for a while in

ety unto itself, with the recognition that much new work

a luxurious intellectual bubble and a shared laboratory of

is systematically crossing subject boundaries. It is thus not

ideas is not just a powerful reminder that your own work

an accurate representation of regular academic life with its

is a confluence of many different channels of inspiration; it

many canons, procedures, and disciplinary pigeonholes.

also perhaps generates ideas for a better institutional model

Post-IAS syndrome—I mean the deflated feeling when

for collaborative research in the future.

Barbara Kowalzig  15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

Warmth amid the Cold Chantal David

I

had the privilege of being a member of the Institute dur-

2009–10 was also a year when nature was wilder than

ing the academic year 2009–10 while I was on sabbati-

usual, maybe to mark the anniversary. Under snow, exces-

cal from Concordia University in Montreal. This was the

sive rain, and ice storms, life continued as usual, with or

year of the amazing program in analytic number theory

without electricity, with or without the famous lunches in

organized by Enrico Bombieri and Peter Sarnak. It was also

the cafeteria. I remember fondly candlelight discussions

the eightieth anniversary of the founding of the Institute,

with friends and thinking about mathematics wrapped in a

and the photographer Serge Levy had been invited by Peter

blanket at night; and the fantastic salmon dinner cooked on

Goddard to illustrate “a year at the Institute” to commemo-

the gas stove under dozens of candles by a colleague from

rate this milestone. Every member would come to feel a bit

France who was visiting after the storm in March.

like a movie star under Serge’s camera—though of course

Spending time at the Institute is a mathematician’s

number theorists are already quite used to the limelight as

dream come true, especially when you have the chance to

we are often the subjects of C. J. Mozzochi’s lens.

visit during a year dedicated to your field, when so many

Looking at Serge’s wonderful photographs, I feel that he

experts are in residence in addition to the permanent

really has captured the special atmosphere—getting a bit

members. I had this privilege, and it was a very impor-

lyrical, one might say the “soul”—of the Institute. The decor

tant year in my career. There were inspiring lectures where

has not changed much in eighty years: the lounge with the

the excitement of the audience was palpable, and happy

big leather sofas, where tea is served punctually every after-

hours spent discussing mathematics on the beautiful lawn

noon, the library in Fuld Hall with its high ceilings, dark

at the back of the tea room, enjoying coffee and the famous

wood paneling, and the bust of Einstein, where one can

Institute cookies, or in the cafeteria at the “math table”

actually feel the presence of the ghosts of former Institute

during lunch. And how can one not be inspired when

members when working late at night. Life is very slow at the

thinking about mathematics in a Fields Medalist’s former

Institute, which is part of its charm.

office?

I will also remember meeting Institute members from

In addition to all of Serge’s photographs that can be

other fields, and lively discussions with biologists, physi-

admired in this book, there is one image that will stay with

cists, musicians, historians. . . . There is a strong sense of

me from my year at the Institute: Pierre Deligne, at the wel-

community at the Institute, and it is a very happy feeling to

coming BBQ held under the big tent, sporting his fantastic

be part of this community.

and elaborate balloon hat for the greatest joy of the children running around.

Chantal David  25

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33

Unusual Business Wolf Lepenies

B

usiness as usual is not the motto of institutes for

of sociology at the Free University of Berlin. The name

advanced study. Institutes for advanced study are

“Princeton” had a certain aura for me. But this aura had

privileged places where various disciplines, national tradi-

almost nothing to do with the Institute. “Princeton” was

tions of higher learning and research, and individual schol-

the university, the place—I wrongly thought, as many

arly temperaments regularly meet. If they function well,

still do—where Albert Einstein had worked when it had

they offer unusual opportunities for checking and chang-

become impossible for him to remain in Germany after

ing one’s own mind. In a Cambridge toast book, I once read

the Nazis came to power. It was a place that I associated

that a certain Mr. Smith had proposed, happily enough, “a

with the novels of Francis Scott Fitzgerald. And for me, an

toast to his own state of mind which has changed but upon

NBA fan in the German basketball wilderness, it was the

which he does not want to elaborate further.” Institutes for

home of Bill Bradley, who had played with the Princeton

advanced study, i.e., Institutes for Unusual Business, are the

University Tigers before being recruited by the New York

natural habitat for Mr. and Mrs. Smith—and it would be of

Knicks. I took it as a good omen that Bradley took office as

great advantage to them and to others if they were willing

the Democratic Senator of New Jersey exactly in 1979.

to elaborate on when and why and how their state of mind

When my wife Annette and I arrived in Princeton,

had changed. The Institute for Advanced Study was a place

together with our first two children, ten and eight years old,

where my own state of mind changed.

the heat was almost unbearable. Yet, more important than

In 1979, I was invited for the first time to become a

the heat and humidity was the warmth that soon devel-

member in the School of Social Science of what was then

oped among the members in our immediate vicinity on

still called The Institute for Advanced Study. Some years

Einstein Drive, and especially among the other members of

later, for reasons of historical accuracy, it had to be renamed

the School of Social Science. I have spent decades at many

the somewhat less grandiose Institute for Advanced Study.

institutes for advanced study, but the “Class of 1979–80”

I was then thirty-eight years old, an associate professor

remains outstanding and the remembrance of it a reason

for nostalgia. Being in the company of Svetlana Alpers,

To this day I think that the Institute’s greatest strength

Keith Baker, Tim Clark, Bob Darnton, Geoffrey Hawthorn,

is the quality of its faculty. In 1979, a social scientist could

and Roberto Schwarz—to name but a few and in alphabeti-

not have found a better place in the entire academic world

cal order—was awesome. It was in such company that I

than the School of Social Science. Both the late Clifford

had to survive intellectually. At the Institute, I learned how

Geertz and Albert Hirschman were towering figures in the

important the extra-intellectual context is for achieving

field. To watch the interplay between these two, so differ-

something exciting and convincing.

ent in their intellectual temperaments, so well matched in

The highlight of the School of Social Science was—and

their cognitive brilliance, and so close in their friendship,

still is, I believe—the Thursday Luncheon Seminar. For a

was an unforgettable experience. Later, they were joined by

German academic, it was a most unusual, almost exotic

Michael Walzer, Joan Scott, and Eric Maskin. I came back

experience—and a challenging one for each speaker. If

to the Institute in 1982 as a long-term member, but left the

you came early, you had half an hour to clean your plate,

school prematurely in 1984 to accept an appointment at the

and then you had to deliver your talk, for half an hour, not

newly founded German Institute for Advanced Study in

much more, followed by a period of questions and answers.

Berlin, the Wissenschaftskolleg. Yet, this was not a point of

At 2 p.m. sharp, it was over. If five minutes into your talk

no return. I was invited back to the Institute many times in

the clatter of forks, spoons, and knives could still be heard,

the years to come.

you knew that something was going wrong. If the audience

At the School of Social Science, I found a world of aca-

was not willing to exchange the food on their plates for the

demic excellence, trust, and extensive intellectual possi-

food for thought you were offering, you were in trouble. It

bilities. Only later did I read what Albert Hirschman had

was an atmosphere in which the civility of manners could

written about his belief in what he called possibilism. I

not hide almost ruthless intellectual fights. Pardon was not

did not yet know the word then, but the concept existed

given. The first seminar I attended made me almost quiver.

all around us. I also came to understand what Abraham

How relieved I would be if my own talk, scheduled for Jan-

Flexner meant by saying that the Institute should gather

uary, should go well! It did go well, very well, and I was

together the best minds, minds that teach best by not teach-

simply elated. In the course of time, I learned that polite-

ing at all. The School of Social Science, where nothing was

ness should be welcome everywhere in daily life, except in

being taught, was the place where I learned a great deal.

intellectual debate. You can only learn and make progress

Especially after 1989, the year the Berlin Wall fell, I realized

when colleagues tell you, without mercy, what they think of

how much of what I had learned at the School of Social

your work—and then are willing to offer some help.

Science, on “this side of paradise,” mattered in the outside

Wolf Lepenies  35

world. I am speaking about a kind of economic, anthro-

and American sister institutions, the Institute among them,

pological, and political reasoning that we need today more

the Wissenschaftskolleg took up as one of its tasks help-

than ever before. I am speaking about a social science that

ing with the founding—and funding—of institutes for

does not pretend to predict but is able to think about possi-

advanced study in Central and Eastern Europe, i.e., in

bilities; a social science that does not indulge in the rhetoric

countries of the former communist bloc. That’s how the

of globalization but continues to take heed of local con-

Collegium Budapest, the New Europe College in Bucharest,

texts, a social science that—running very much against the

the Bibliotheca Classica in St. Petersburg, and the Centre

mainstream—preserves a moral awareness in everything it

for Advanced Study Sofia came into being. Today, all over

does. The school has shaped my own scholarly work and at

the world, institutes for advanced study are mushrooming.

the same time it has deeply influenced the way I have tried

In some places, I dare say, so-called institutes for advanced

to help create new institutions—which became one of my

study are being created even before there are proper pro-

main occupations after 1989.

visions for basic studies. I think I am able to judge. After

In 1986, I was elected rector of the Wissenschaftskolleg, a position I held until 2001. In conjunction with European

36  Unusual Business

all, I have conducted unusual business at the Institute for Advanced Study.

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Essential Exchanges Jane F. Fulcher

W

hen I began to think about my new book—a reex-

discussion afterwards that he had been present at such per-

amination of French musical culture and creativity

formances at the Opéra while an adolescent in Occupied

during the Vichy Regime—I knew exactly where I wanted

Paris, and proceeded to describe his experiences. I later

to conceive it. As a musicologist working at the intersection

interviewed him and learned a great deal about how he

of my own field with both history and sociology, I had long

and his family had lived through those years—their need

collaborated with historians and sociologists, all of whom

to take advantage of the cultural opportunities in order to

spoke of the Institute for Advanced Study with enthusi-

better confront their experience, while still remaining criti-

asm and a discernible awe. Soon after I arrived in 2003, as

cal of the Germans and of Vichy and helping their friends

I joined the long lunch table occupied by the members of

and neighbors who faced imminent threats. Other faculty

the School of Historical Studies, I began to meet the faculty,

members offered me important advice as well—I had long

all of whom introduced themselves, taking a genuine inter-

and fruitful discussions about my work with Caroline

est in the projects of the members while sharing their own

Bynum, Jonathan Israel, and the historians of the world,

areas of expertise and offering to work with us in any way

Glen Bowersock and Heinrich von Staden.

that might be helpful.

Professors Bowersock and von Staden were especially

This stimulating and collegial atmosphere of collabora-

helpful as I confronted the problem of analyzing the war-

tion continued to grow, especially when the weekly lun-

time reception of Honegger’s modernist opera, Antigone,

cheon lectures presented by the school’s members began.

which was based on the text that Cocteau had adapted from

I gave a talk about the various ways in which not only

Sophocles’ original. Professor Bowersock made substantial

the Germans but the different factions within Vichy—as

efforts to compare the Greek original with Cocteau’s ver-

well as the intellectual Resistance—manipulated both the

sion. Professor von Staden discussed his insights with me

image and performances of Berlioz in order to serve their

at considerable length. Other members also were generous

own ideological ends. Oleg Grabar interjected during the

with their enthusiasm and helpful advice, including Henry

Louis Gates, Jr., whose own talks inspired me as well as my

research that I had completed there at national meetings of

colleagues and opened up other valuable areas of interest.

the American Historical Association, the American Musi-

When given another opportunity to present a luncheon lecture, this time to the faculty and members of the School

cological Society, and a conference on the Ligue de l’Action Française at the Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris.

of Social Science the next term, I decided to present my

All of these exciting interdisciplinary contacts, both

material on Honegger’s Antigone and its appropriation by

at the Institute and within the scholarly community sur-

different sectors of the Parisian wartime public. I engaged

rounding it, led to a number of publications in which I was

in a long conversation about my work with Joan Scott, the

able to develop specific aspects or issues raised in my book.

sociologist and historian of France, who suggested that I

These included articles in historical, musicological, and

also discuss it with Albert Hirschman, a professor emeritus

interdisciplinary journals and collections. My experience

in her school, who had lived in Vichy France before he was

of interacting with historians and sociologists at the Insti-

able to leave the country.

tute led to another important project: I became the General

Other valuable opportunities to share my work soon fol-

Editor of a new book series that I had proposed to Oxford

lowed—not only within the Institute community but also

University Press, “The New Cultural History of Music.” At

at its neighboring and allied institutions. At Glen Bower-

a time when cultural history was experiencing a significant

sock’s invitation I presented my material on the Honeg-

revival, there was a need for a series that could avail the

ger opera in Occupied Paris to a meeting of the American

growing momentum of research into music by both his-

Philosophical Society. Then, during my second semester at

torians and musicologists, one designed specifically for

the Institute, the Princeton University Department of His-

scholars in these disciplines who study music within its cul-

tory (under the impetus of Theodore Rabb) sponsored an

tural, intellectual, political, and social contexts. It has since

international conference on “Opera and Society,” bringing

become a flourishing series, fostering works that employ

together leading historians and musicologists. Not only did

a new synthesis of theoretical perspectives and method-

I present a paper but so did my colleague at the Institute

ologies, works that draw not only from the “new cultural

that year, the musicologist Ellen Harris, a noted scholar of

history” and the culturally interpretive “new musicology”

Handel at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

of the 1980s, but also from more recent sociological and

That same term I was invited to speak about my current

anthropological approaches. Among the books forthcom-

work at the Institute at a conference on French opera spon-

ing in this collection are two by fellow musicologists who

sored by the Yale University Departments of Music and of

have also been members of the Institute—Emma Dillon,

French. Soon after my year at the Institute, I presented the

who was there the same year as I, and Jason Geary, whom I

46  Essential Exchanges

had encouraged to apply to the Institute and who has since

time between Ann Arbor (where I teach), Paris (where he

completed his book on the Antigone of Felix Mendelssohn.

teaches), and New York City, where the Institute is fortu-

The Institute has indeed been a seminal influence in both

nately nearby. The Institute, for us as for so many others,

my work and career, as it has been for so many: shortly after

represents the ideal academic experience—a stimulating

my stay there I was invited to apply for, and then offered,

and collegial atmosphere with facilities designed to further

a position at the University of Michigan. Other members

scholarly work and to encourage both collaboration and

went on to make equally important career advances, but for

innovation. Through the seminars and intellectual events it

me there was an additional benefit. During my year at the

organizes, as well as through the marvelous concert series

Institute, I came to know a leading French historian who

and other social events, it furthers contact, growth, and

was also a member in the school, Robert Muchembled. We

essential exchanges among scholars working in all fields, at

remained in contact in Paris after our year in Princeton,

all stages of their careers, and indeed throughout the intel-

and four years later we were married. We now divide our

lectual and artistic world.

Jane F. Fulcher  47

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55

Looking for Leaders Freeman Dyson

T

hree facts about our School of Natural Sciences were

called “climate science.” In 1954 von Neumann moved to

clear from the beginning. First, the central purpose of

Washington to become an Atomic Energy Commissioner,

the school was not to be an ivory tower for elderly schol-

and the Institute decided to get rid of the computer. Some

ars but rather a meeting ground where visiting members

of us who were looking forward to the dawning of the com-

from all over the world could learn from one another. Sec-

puter age fought to keep it here and to keep Jule Charney on

ond, the visiting members needed some faculty members

as an intellectual leader.

as leaders, to organize programs and to keep the money

We never had the ghost of a chance. The decision to

coming in from government funding agencies. Third, the

abandon the computer project had already been made.

main focus of our work was particle physics, but we wanted

Our director, Robert Oppenheimer, was not interested

to have some experts in other fields to give our activities

in reviving it, and some of our colleagues on the faculty

more breadth and variety. From these facts a simple conclu-

were openly hostile. The mathematician Oswald Veblen,

sion followed. We needed to look for leaders and get them

one of the founding fathers of the Institute, was a man for

appointed here as professors. As the years went by, we had

whom we had enormous respect. He had helped von Neu-

some failures and some successes.

mann get the computer project started, but was opposed

Our first attempt to bring in a new leader was a dismal

to keeping it alive after von Neumann left. We bowed to

failure. The person we had in mind was Jule Charney, a

the inevitable and gave up the fight. But with the benefit of

brilliant meteorologist who was a visiting member from

hindsight we can now see that the Institute missed a great

1948 to 1956. In those days, the mathematician John von

opportunity to build on the foundations created by von

Neumann, one of the original Institute professors who had

Neumann and Charney. We could have become a world

come with Einstein, was running a computer project in the

center for two new sciences that flourished later in other

building that is now our nursery school. Charney was using

places, computer science and climate science. Both would

von Neumann’s computer to create the new field that is now

have benefited from the intellectual depth that the Institute

could have provided. As it happened, von Neumann died

sun and five to fifty times the brightness. They are younger

of cancer in 1957, Charney moved to MIT, and the young

than our sun and will come to the end of their lives sooner.

crowd of computer experts and meteorologists who worked

They have a simple internal structure so that their evolution

with them here in the 1950s dispersed.

can be calculated accurately. As they grow older, their col-

After computer science and climate science were aban-

ors change in a predictable way. By measuring their bright-

doned, astronomy was the obvious choice of field for a

ness in four colors, Strömgren could determine the mass,

new leader. We invited the Danish astronomer Bengt

the distance, and the age of each star, and his little machine

Strömgren, who was unique among astronomers in hav-

could calculate the orbit of each star backward in time to

ing made major contributions both as a theorist and an

the place where that star was born. When the birthplaces

observer. As a result of his leadership, the intellectual life of

of stars of a given age were plotted on a map of the galaxy,

our school was immediately broadened. Our young visiting

they were found to be concentrated in a spiral pattern. At

members had a choice. They could study the intricacies of

any given time in the past, the spiral pattern showed the

elementary particles or the architecture of the universe, or

places where stars were then being born, just as the bright

everything in between.

spiral arms that we see in the sky today are the places where

One of my vivid memories from the Strömgren years is

stars are now being born. As Strömgren varied the age of

the little machine that he kept in his office in Fuld Hall.

the stars that he examined, the spiral pattern of their birth-

He liked to sit there in the evenings feeding observational

places moved around the galaxy. He was the first person to

input into it and examining theoretical output. The input

see the spiral arms of our galaxy rotating. He measured for

was accurate measurements of the brightnesses of stars in

the first time the pattern speed of the arms, which is differ-

four colors. The output was pictures of the spiral arms of

ent from the speed of the individual stars that constitute

our galaxy at various times in the past. This was Strömgren’s

them. The pattern rotates more rapidly than the stars, just

personal sky survey, which he carried out with the help of

as an ocean wave distant from the shore moves more rap-

some visiting Institute members and $9,800 per year from

idly than the water.

the Office of Naval Research, a modest sum even in those

Unfortunately, in 1967, the Carlsberg Foundation in

days. The little machine was a precursor of the personal

Copenhagen invited Strömgren to return to his native

computers that became available twenty years later.

country with the recognition appropriate to the first citizen

Strömgren chose to look at A stars because they are the-

of Denmark. This was an honor that no loyal Dane could

oretically simple and observationally convenient. A stars

refuse, and so Strömgren departed. Our astronomical

are stars like Sirius, with two to three times the mass of our

activities temporarily collapsed, and it took us four years

Freeman Dyson  57

to find a replacement for Strömgren. We decided on John

Large Space Telescope, which was later named the Hubble.

Bahcall. Bahcall was a risky choice, as he was young and

They made frequent trips to Washington, first to persuade

not yet famous. Strömgren knew him and sent us a glowing

politicians and administrators to build the telescope, and

letter of recommendation. Bahcall turned out to be even

later to persuade them to pay for shuttle missions to repair

better than Strömgren as a leader.

and replace its instruments. They used the telescope them-

Bahcall organized three major projects that kept the

selves to make crucial observations of distant objects. Bah-

astronomical section of our school humming for over thirty

call observed some of the mysterious and remote objects

years, from his appointment as a professor in 1971 to his

known as quasars, and found that each was embedded in a

untimely death in 2005. The first project was the study of

galaxy so faint and distant that only the Hubble could see

neutrinos, particles that are produced in nuclear reactions

it. Bahcall’s pictures gave dramatic proof that quasars really

in the core of the sun and can be observed with detectors

are at the enormous distances indicated by their redshifts.

on the earth. The detectors saw only one third the number

Bahcall’s third project was to organize the participation

of neutrinos that the theory predicted. This disagreement

of the Institute in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, a collabora-

between observation and theory was a famous unsolved

tive effort involving Princeton University and several other

problem. The majority of physicists believed that the dis-

universities. The Sloan Survey is a modernized and enor-

crepancy was due to an error in the theory of the sun, while

mously expanded version of Strömgren’s little A star sur-

Bahcall believed that it was due to an error in the theory of

vey, still measuring accurate brightnesses of objects in four

neutrinos. It took him forty years to prove that the majority

colors, but using a larger telescope devoted full-time to the

was wrong and he was right. The result was a fundamental

survey, along with modern electronic cameras and comput-

revision of the basic ideas of particle physics. The observa-

ers. Whereas Strömgren was able to observe a few thousand

tions proved that there are three kinds of neutrinos with

bright stars in our own galaxy, the Sloan Survey measures

different masses, and each neutrino can change from one

hundreds of millions of objects all over the universe, includ-

kind to another on its way from the sun to the earth.

ing faint galaxies and quasars, and has a budget of about ten

Bahcall’s second major project was undertaken in close

million dollars a year instead of Strömgren’s ten thousand.

collaboration with Lyman Spitzer at Princeton Univer-

Our school is proud of the contribution that we made to this

sity. Spitzer and Bahcall were the leading promoters of the

enterprise, which is still pouring out new discoveries.

58  Looking for Leaders

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66

Shaping Time Paul Moravec

A

s a composer who doubles as a university professor, I

ourselves and our reality through an elegantly ordered aes-

have long had the feeling that the creative artist lives

thetic experience.

uneasily in the world of academia. The artist does not seem

For all its detailed calculation and dispassionate reason-

to occupy an entirely legitimate position even in the context

ing, the process of artistic creation naturally concerns the

of the ongoing debate about C. P. Snow’s “The Two Cultures,”

dimension of human emotion, of feeling. As William Word-

the sciences and the humanities, broadly speaking. Beyond

sworth writes in his “Preface to Lyrical Ballads,” “poetry

being perceived—appropriately—as sui generis, the artist is

. . . takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquil-

also often viewed as a somewhat intellectually suspect out-

lity.” It seems to me further that artistic creation may be

lier. This perception is not mitigated by the fact that artists

regarded as achieving a delicate balance between emotion

can be maddeningly inarticulate about their own work.

and reason, passion and reflection, heart and mind. Music

There have been artists associated with the IAS through-

in particular comprehensively embraces these polarities,

out its history, most notably T. S. Eliot in 1948, but it was

deriving much of its energy and peculiar magic from their

not until 1994 that the Artist-in-Residence program was

reconciliation. In a sense, music does not even recognize

established. I consider this enlightened decision a formal

a clear distinction between these conventionally posited

acknowledgement that the creative artist’s activity is a viable

antinomies. Making music (and listening to it) has a way of

mode of achieving human understanding, a truly intellec-

integrating the various aspects of the human condition—

tual endeavor. What can the artist contribute to an intellec-

the emotional, the rational, the physical, the spiritual, even

tual community of scholars, mathematicians, and scientists

the libidinal—into one harmoniously coherent mode of

(social and natural)? The art of music, for instance, cannot

being. In the world of the musician, there is, as they say, no

really explain or even theorize about anything at all, cer-

thought without feeling, no feeling without thought.

tainly not in the manner in which these other fields do. But

It is a dynamic mode of being that unfolds in time, the

in its mysterious, inimitable way, music can help us to know

natural medium of music. As the sculptor shapes clay or

marble, so the musician shapes time. The musician makes

surprisingly unpretentious community flourishing under

audible time’s texture, duration, and the feeling of what hap-

the congenial aegis of Peter and Helen Goddard. Many of

pens as it goes along. At its most complex, music addresses

my happiest memories of the Institute involve their gener-

the poignant paradox that time is at once the creator and the

ous conviviality and hospitality, principally at Olden Farm.

destroyer of all things. Music cannot explain anything about

My time with the Institute was unusually fruitful for me as

that paradox, but through pleasurably structured sound it

a composer and far from being a marginal influence, the

can help the listener know in the immediate moment how

generosity of spirit pervading the Institute undoubtedly

it feels with all its joy and sorrow, its wonder and tragedy.

contributed much to my creative happiness.

During my two years with the Institute, I was privileged

In trying to describe my affection and admiration for

to present concerts and lectures to remarkably adventurous

the Institute, I must be selective. There is simply too much

and alert listeners. Every public musical performance is a

to say in this short space about, for example, the many

collaboration between the performer and the audience as

warm friendships my wife Wendy and I formed while in

music is received and, in a sense, recreated in the mind of

Princeton, and still cherish today.

the listener. On some level then, a composition is only as

One exemplary memory stands out for me. Shortly before

interesting as the imagination of the individual listening to

my second season with the Institute, I suffered a minor stroke.

it. Walt Whitman said, “To have great poets, there must be

Sometime in the fall, still convalescing but determined to get

great audiences, too.” I consider the Institute community

on with things as much as possible, I attended a gathering at

a great audience indeed. A musician naturally senses the

the dining hall. I deeply appreciated the warmth of the assem-

extent to which an audience is paying attention to—and

bled company as well as the heartfelt inquiries of the Institute

thinking about—a particular performance. Many of the

faculty, members, and employees as to the state of my health.

artists who performed in my IAS concerts have remarked

At some point, I said a few goodbyes and headed for home on

to me on the high quality and degree of attention that its

foot. What I did not know at the time is that an alert member

audiences gave to their performances. Every musician

of the Institute community noticed I had left, got into her car,

wants to perform for someone who really listens.

and, at a discreet distance, followed me all the way home to

Since my childhood in Princeton in the late 60s, I have

make sure I made it safely. (I learned about this only months

been aware of the Institute’s formidable reputation. In 2007,

later, after I had recovered.) Few things have touched me as

when I was invited to be artist-in-residence, I expected—

deeply as this dignified act of kindness. And nothing better

and discovered—an inspiring intellectual and creative

represents the luminous spirit of an institution characterized

environment. I was delighted also to find a warm and

by extraordinary intellect—and generous feeling.

68  Shaping Time

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The Interlocutors Joan Wallach Scott

A

cademic institutions have tended to take their librar-

present with the past, in order at once to grasp the nature of

ies for granted. They are, after all, so much a part

the differences between them and to think critically about

of the landscape that they seem to require little comment

the futures we may want to create.

(except perhaps when they don’t function well enough).

That the Institute would have a library was assumed from

These days, however, as electronic technology revolution-

the beginning. Although the earliest books in the collection

izes the research and reading that used to take place within

were housed in Princeton University’s Fine Hall (where the

buildings dedicated to those activities, the library as a place

faculty had offices as well), they had bookplates indicating

is being called into question. Will it become simply a storage

that they belonged to the IAS. Professor Hermann Weyl

unit for the originals of digitized books, journals, and docu-

was the first Institute librarian, probably as a matter of

ments that are available online to readers sitting in front of a

practicality but also as a way of suggesting the importance

computer terminal anywhere in the world? Will those spaces

of the effort. It is no accident that the original library that

of contemplation and erudition, the best of them designed

is now the Mathematics–Natural Sciences Library is at the

to enhance the pursuit of knowledge through their aesthetic

very heart of Fuld Hall, a structure of beautiful, classical

effects as well as their functional arrangements, be converted

design that recalls the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

to other uses—museums, maybe, or large meeting halls? Will

Professor André Weil thought it too large to be used as a

it matter to future generations if they no longer have these

general reading room and “inconvenient” as well, “because

very particular, shared locations to initiate them into the

of the height of the bookshelves.” But most others seem to

worlds of learning and scholarship? The changed circum-

have enjoyed the easy access it provided from their offices,

stances draw our attention to libraries in new and perplexing

as well as the comfort and expanse of the space.

ways. They also turn our attention to history. History not so

In 1951, trustee Lessing Rosenwald donated to the Insti-

much as a way of indulging in a certain nostalgia (although

tute a collection of some 2,000 first-edition science books

that is perhaps inescapable), but as a way of contrasting the

known as the “Evans Collection” (after Berkeley professor

Herbert Evans who had amassed them). The earliest was a

trustees and faculty debated various proposed solutions.

Latin translation of Euclid’s Elements, published in Venice

One plan called for an underground facility in Fuld Hall, its

in 1482; Newton’s Principia (1687) was also among them.

proponent reasoning that most professors (at least of math

At the ceremony dedicating the collection, trustee Wilm-

and physics) took books to their offices and so needed only

arth Lewis addressed the question of the value of such col-

shelf space and not more reading areas; the historians could

lections. “‘What good are the early editions of scientific

have the existing reading room. The historians replied that

books?’ is a question that is naturally asked, especially by

it was precisely a new reading room they needed, “which

those who believe that the latest edition of a book is always

would contain on its shelves a) a number of reference books

the best.” His answer spoke of the study of the mechanics

in common use by all historians, b) a selected number of

of bookmaking and of traces of authorial intervention. He

special books of reference, collections of documents and

talked about how social historians could, with these vol-

‘established’ general works covering different branches of

umes, trace the life history of a book as it went from printer

history.” But they also argued for an above-ground facility,

to bookseller to purchaser. We can learn, he wrote, “who

and in this they were joined by many of the scientists.

the owners were, where they lived, when and where and

In 1956, a faculty-trustee committee recommended a

for how much they sold their books, and to whom. In this

new library building, and Marcel Breuer (who was at work

way we can show how pedigreed books, particularly in sci-

on the Institute housing complex) was asked to furnish

ence, have been agents of civilization. There must be many

some plans. The matter was unresolved, however, as the fac-

such books in our new library, books that went out from

ulty continued to debate it (worrying, among other things,

Padua and Lyons and Cologne and, passing from hand to

about whether a separate building would destroy the unity

hand, and country to country, shaped the course of West-

of the faculty), and Breuer was eventually dropped for the

ern thought and culture.” The insight these science books

library project. In 1960, Weil noted that “the problem is

offered into their own histories, he continued, provided “a

arousing strong passions; and it has lately become appar-

bridge between scientific and humanistic studies.”

ent that positions have been taken on emotional rather

The expansion of the general collection and the addition

than practical grounds.” One practical proposal at least had

of the Rosenwald Collection stretched the capacity of the

come from Erwin Panofsky, who in 1956 offered a “humble

Fuld Hall library to its limit, and the increasing pressure for

suggestion.” “Could the architect be induced to provide

more acquisitions from the classicists and archaeologists led

the doors not with knobs that have to be turned by hand

librarian Judith Sachs to ask for more space in a 1953 report

but with handles that can be operated with the elbow? In

she wrote to director J. Robert Oppenheimer. In response,

a building mostly employed by people having both hands

78  The Interlocutors

full of books, this paltry detail is not without importance

books (supplemented, as had always been the practice, by

for comfort.”

access to Princeton University’s Firestone and other librar-

By the spring of 1960, the trustees had opted for a new history library, and Oppenheimer (still uncertain about

ies). It is also, as Oppenheimer had envisioned it, luminous and flowing, a pleasure to work in.

whether there would be space in it for mathematics and

A beautiful space, however, is not enough, and the great

physics as well) had some ideas for its placement and

strength of the Institute libraries is the staff that runs them.

design. He contacted the firm of Harrison and Abramovitz

Momota Ganguli presides over the Mathematics–Natural

(architects of Radio City and the United Nations, among

Sciences Library in Fuld Hall, while Marcia Tucker leads

other buildings in New York City), and there followed sev-

the Historical Studies–Social Science Library. Both, work-

eral years of back and forth about the plans. At one point,

ing closely with the expert IT staff, have brought their insti-

Oppenheimer wrote to Harrison that one of his sketches

tutions into the twenty-first century with the latest Internet

was “indeed beautiful” but might clash “perhaps more than

technologies. Yet both have also maintained libraries in

necessary—not so much with our small, plain buildings as

which books figure importantly and in which researchers

with the big ugly one.” He chose a version that maximized

can work without interruption and with tremendous sup-

light, provided a special room for the Rosenwald Collec-

port. Members regularly cite the libraries as “amazing,”

tion, and had open spaces “accessible to one another, flexi-

“truly remarkable,” and with staff possessing “a passion for

ble and uncommitted by bearing walls.” Ground was finally

their work not found in other institutions.”

broken in 1963, a full ten years after Sachs’s first report. It

Perhaps this brief history provides a way for us to think

might be argued that the delay reflects a contentious fac-

about a future in which there will still be libraries where we

ulty, unable to agree on practical matters, and that is surely,

are surrounded by books, even as we download digitized

at least in part, the case. But the long process also testifies to

versions of the things we need to read. As Wilmarth Lewis

the importance of libraries in the lives of scholars, libraries

noted about the Rosenwald Collection, there is something

not just as book depositories, but as physical spaces whose

to be said for having (old) books to study, to read, and to

contours and design matter for the work of scholarly con-

touch. They inspire a certain awe, a palpable sense of con-

templation and reflection.

nection to the past, even as they remind us of our distance

The building that now houses the Historical Studies–

from it. But I think that it is in the sheer multiplicity of

Social Science Library was dedicated in 1965. The result is

the books they contain that libraries matter most. Some

a space with an extensive assortment of reference materi-

of the best photographs in this volume show scholars at

als, a broad range of periodicals, and a smaller collection of

work in the Institute libraries, buried in books, surrounded

Joan Wallach Scott  79

by them. Even when there is only a single individual in

a library computer center in 1992, he insisted that it not

the photograph, the collective nature of the production

intrude into the reading rooms, in order to preserve “the

of knowledge is signified by the books she is consulting.

quality of the library as an unsurpassed haven for readers.”

The shelves behind her reinforce that notion, reminding

A haven, I suggest, not in the sense of an isolated cell, but of

us that learning is a process of engagement with the ideas

a paradoxically silent space full of noisy interlocutors clam-

and interpretations of many others. When Elliott Shore,

oring for our attention. Books, lots of them all in one place,

then Historical Studies–Social Science librarian, proposed

are the not so silent players in the life of the mind.

80  The Interlocutors

81

82

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84

85

86

87

88

Night Owls and Early Birds David H. Weinberg

I

first visited the IAS in 1984, on an impromptu “field trip”

theorists, as well as several members who crossed that bor-

with a couple of other Yale physics majors. We wandered

der in both directions.

through Fuld Hall, browsed some impressively old books in

Laptops and wireless were years in the future; people

the math and science library, had lunch in the dining hall

worked in their offices, and they worked a lot, with John

with Freeman Dyson (a family friend of my classmate’s),

leading the charge. E Building was often still crowded at

and walked around the grounds and the Institute Woods.

1 a.m., and sometimes the night owls would overlap with

Watching from afar as a pair of academics strolled toward

the early birds. Electronic preprints were in their early days,

the pond, we said to ourselves, “Oooh, top scientists,” in

and the astrophysics world still ran mostly on paper. Each

a tone that was half ironic, half admiring. While it was

week, three or four blue-bound IAS astro-preprints would

already my goal to one day be a “top scientist,” I had no

appear in our mailboxes, a reminder of how much our fel-

idea how big a part the IAS would play in my life.

low postdocs were getting done. In case that wasn’t encour-

A few years later, as a Princeton University graduate stu-

agement enough, you could also count on Andy Gould

dent, I cycled over every week or two for a seminar, followed

(one of the five-year members) marching into your office

by Tuesday lunch, the weekly exchange of news, ideas, and

each morning and asking, “What’s new?” hungry to hear

speculations that bonded Princeton’s three astrophysics

your latest result or discuss his most recent idea. The inten-

groups into one community. After postdoctoral stints at

sity was high, sometimes unnerving, but mostly exciting.

Cambridge and Berkeley, I returned to the IAS in 1992 as

Even at the time, the postdoc group seemed extraordinarily

a five-year member, joining a group of a dozen astrophys-

talented and energetic, a hotbed of innovative theory and

ics postdocs. The Hubble Space Telescope had recently

pioneering observational analyses. In retrospect it seems

(finally!) been launched, thanks largely to years of tireless

almost unbelievable; today my IAS cohort includes direc-

lobbying by John Bahcall and Princeton’s Lyman Spitzer.

tors of major institutes and observatories, the Chief Scien-

For the first time the IAS had nearly as many observers as

tist of Australia, and many others who are “just” leading

world figures in their respective research fields, from cos-

seven years later, for the first half of our first sabbatical.

mological surveys to the dynamics of extrasolar planets.

With Bloomberg Hall under construction, the astronomers

My wife, Lisa Florman, was finishing her art history

were in trailers when I arrived (“the highest quality trailers,”

Ph.D. at Columbia. She would join the commuter-train

John said, accurately enough). For the final two months, I

crowds on her teaching days and work in the apartment,

had a beautiful Bloomberg office, its E Building substrate

the Princeton libraries, and the IAS library the rest of the

still vaguely recognizable. I adjusted to the novel status

week. We spent little time in the woods but lots on the tow-

of “senior visitor,” which was easy enough with a friendly

path—of all the places we have lived, Princeton is by far

and talkative postdoc group. Lisa wrestled (on paper) with

the best for running. Many of the astronomy postdocs lived

Clement Greenberg, Leo Steinberg, and Picasso. The fall

around the northwest courtyard of the housing complex,

was shadowed by September 11, and then by the anthrax

so we would wave at our friends through the fishbowl win-

scare. We were deep in the paperwork blizzard of a Chinese

dows and rotate through apartments for dinner parties and

adoption, with multiple notarized documents crisscrossing

games of “Dictionary.” The town of Princeton was still seri-

the country in search of signatures, and when the New Jer-

ously dull, though the opening of Small World Coffee in

sey post offices shut down, we switched to FedEx for the

1993 marked a dramatic improvement, and the first hint of

rest of the year. We worked like crazy, which was exactly

what could today be called a “Princeton scene.”

what we had set out to do, allowing us to slow our pace a bit

Whether it was commuting or anxiety or just filtering

when we got to Paris for the second half of the sabbatical.

the water, Lisa and I skipped out on the astronomy baby

We returned for the fall term of 2006, having arranged

boom: five newborns in the postdoc group within eighteen

a quarter off of our teaching duties at Ohio State. This time

months, two of them to dual-IAS couples. John was like a

Lisa was a member in the School of Historical Studies, and

proud grandfather, bragging to other faculty and putting a

I was a trailing spouse. (In our experience the latter sta-

playpen in an office down the hall so that the babies would

tus is equally good, and in some ways even better.) As we

come to E Building. Crossroads had just started its infant

pulled up to our apartment at the end of a long drive from

day care program, and we would see the babies wheel-

Columbus, we realized it was the same one we had lived

ing around campus in their eight-seat megastroller as we

in during my postdoc years, but the renaming of Einstein

walked to the dining hall or the apartments. Through our

Drive had changed its street address, and it now had a sec-

back windows, we watched them learn to walk, then run.

ond-story apartment above it. The renovated housing was a

Lisa and I moved to faculty positions at Ohio State Uni-

big improvement in every respect, with colorful rugs, new

versity at the end of 1994. Our next visit to the IAS came

furniture, and air conditioning making a brighter and more

90  Night Owls and Early Birds

comfortable place to live. With the arrival of Yve-Alain

now with a second-grader and a Scottish terrier. For sheer

Bois, the art history group had shifted somewhat towards

enjoyment, this was the best of all our times at the IAS. We

modernism and theory, giving Lisa plenty of people to talk

both settled easily into our academic networks, adding new

to. The astrophysics group was now led by Peter Goldreich

member colleagues to many years worth of friends at the

(following John’s far-too-early death in 2005), and the

IAS and the university. Ellie had a great year at Littlebrook

group’s coffee and lunch discussions acquired Peter’s char-

Elementary, and the morning crowd of parents at the IAS

acteristic style, deeply interrogating the physics underlying

bus stop became its own social network, international and

a recent paper or seminar.

interdisciplinary. Even more than school, Ellie loved the

Being at the IAS with a four-year-old was radically

freedom to go out on her own, on bicycle or rollerblades,

different from being there on our own. Ellie loved the

tearing around the housing complex with her friends, or

Crossroads Nursery School, loved getting there by riding

bonding with a neighbor through their shared love of mud

her bicycle or scooter down the curving footpath, loved

puddles. With Haggis, the Scottie, we learned every varia-

having a playground and a kindred-spirit classmate just

tion of every path through the woods, and he thrilled to the

three minutes away, and loved the expanses of green,

abundance of squirrels and to the occasional chase after a

traffic-free space outside her doors. We loved it all with

groundhog, a deer, or a fox. The food was, as always, excep-

her. Our social network grew around friends with kids,

tional—it just keeps getting better—and we faced the daily

and friends-of-friends, at the Institute and the university,

“vegetarian or omnivore” dilemma with fortitude.

a more diverse group than we would have met through

While its success has spawned emulation, the IAS post-

our respective IAS schools alone. We had many conversa-

doc program remains unique (in astrophysics, anyway),

tions, academic and otherwise, with parents pushing kids

presenting its members with an extraordinary degree of

on the playground swings. With our mileage shortened by

independence as they define themselves and find their sci-

aging knees and feet, we started to learn the running paths

entific paths. Each postdoc cohort forms bonds that stretch

through the woods, scenic and pleasant when not mired

over time into a web that spans the discipline decades later.

in mud. We had a delightful and productive fall, and when

For senior members, the impact in the humanities and the

we left at Christmas we felt envious of our colleagues who

sciences is somewhat different. In the humanities, where

were staying on. It was as if we’d been kicked out early from

university teaching loads are high, the IAS is above all a

academic Eden.

haven where one can research and write, and secondarily

Fortunately, the second sabbatical was only three years

a place to share ideas and reflections with colleagues. In

away, and we were back for the full 2009–10 academic year,

the sciences, the IAS is a chance to step back, slightly, from

David H. Weinberg  91

the ceaseless activity that is the enemy of thought, to weigh

time, especially for families. An extended visit feels like a

ideas, set priorities, and perhaps start something genuinely

reward for all those necessary but ungratifying features of

new. Proposal deadlines, referee reports, job recommen-

university academic life. For both of us (and, we know, for

dations, and departmental urgencies do not vanish, but

many others), the IAS is where our most important ideas

distance reduces their force. The IAS has always treated its

were born or where they grew to maturity, and we are grate-

members well, and if anything the care has improved with

ful for that above all.

92  Night Owls and Early Birds

93

94

95

96

97

98

99

100

Index of Photographs

page xi Members at Teatime, outside Fuld Hall, Fall 2009

page xii School of Historical Studies Medieval Table Lunchtime Colloquium, Dilworth Room, Spring 2010: Ian Wei of the School of Social Science (left), Caroline Walker Bynum (center), Sandy Bardsley (right)

page xiii School of Historical Studies Medieval Table Lunchtime Colloquium, Dilworth Room, Winter 2010

page xiv Alexia Schulz of the School of Natural Sciences (right), Member Housing, Fall 20095

page xv Math Seminar, Simonyi Lecture Hall, Winter 2010

page xvi School of Natural Sciences Lunch Table, Dining Hall, Winter 2010

page 4 Martin Pessah (left), Jacob Bekenstein (center), and Scott Tremaine (right) of the School of Natural Sciences, Astrophysics Library, Bloomberg Hall, Winter 2010

page 5 Peter Goddard, Director’s Office, Fuld Hall, Fall 2009

page 6 Photoboard, School of Mathematics, Simonyi Hall, Spring 2010

page 7 School of Mathematics Lunch Table, Dining Hall, Winter 2010

page 11 John Nash, Teatime, Common Room, Fuld Hall, Spring 2010

page 16 School of Historical Studies Lunchtime Colloquium, Dilworth Room, October 2009: John Baines (left), Patricia Crone (right)

page 17 Nicole Rachel Belayche of the School of Historical Studies, Spring 2010 page 8 Math Notes, Spring 2010

page 9 Lam Hui of Columbia University (left) with Matias Zaldarriaga of the School of Natural Sciences, outside Bloomberg Hall, Spring 2010

page 10 Analytic Number Theory Workshop, School of Mathematics, Simonyi Lecture Hall, March 2010: from right, Roger Heath-Brown, Enrico Bombieri, and Antoine Chambert-Loir

102 index of photographs

page 18 Teatime, Common Room, Fuld Hall, Fall 2009: Irving Lavin of the School of Historical Studies (center)

page 19 Teatime, outside Fuld Hall, Spring 2010: Danielle Allen of the School of Social Science (center)

page 20 Easter Egg Hunt, Crossroads Nursery School, March 2010

page 27 Mathematics­–Natural Sciences Library, Fuld Hall, Spring 2010

page 21 View toward the Historical Studies–Social Science Library, Spring 2010

page 28 Women and Mathematics Program, Dilworth Room, May 2010: Tanya Khovanova of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (left) with Cathleen Morawetz of the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences (center) and program participants

page 22 Ian Wei, School of Social Science Lunch Seminar, Dilworth Room, March 2010

page 23 Persian Reading Group, home of Patricia Crone of the School of Historical Studies, Fall 2009: Mohammad-Reza Shafii-Kadkani (left) with Crone (center)

page 29 Crossroads Nursery School Tree Decorating, Common Room, Fuld Hall, December 2009

page 30 Institute Pond, Winter 2010

page 26 Member Housing, Fall 2009 page 31 Martin Pessah of the School of Natural Sciences, Member Housing, Winter 2010

index of photographs  103

page 32 Matthias Schwarz of the University of Leipzig (left) with Peter Albers of the School of Mathematics, Building A, Fuld Hall, Spring 2010

page 33 Halloween, Member Housing, October 2009

page 37 Eric Maskin of the School of Social Science, West Building Office, Winter 2010

page 38 Institute Soccer Field, Spring 2010

page 40 Institute Pond, Spring 2010

page 41 Dewey Seminar on Education, School of Social Science, White-Levy Room, January 2010

page 42 Pietro D’Uva, Member Housing, Winter 2010

page 43 Einstein Drive, looking north toward Olden Farm, Winter 2010

page 39 After Hours Conversations, Harry’s Bar, Winter 2010: Nicola Di Cosmo of the School of Historical Studies (center) page 44 Kevin Clinton of the School of Historical Studies, Squeeze Collection, Building B, Fuld Hall, Fall 2009

104 index of photographs

page 48 School of Historical Studies Lunchtime Colloquium, Dilworth Room, February 2010: Eric Olivier Michaud (left), Jonathan Israel (with microphone), Yve-Alain Bois (center), Marian Gallagher Zelazny, School Administrative Officer (right)

page 49 Piet Hut of the Program in Interdisciplinary Studies, Building D Office, Spring 2010

page 50 Edward T. Cone Concert Series, Wolfensohn Hall, March 2010: Vijay Iyer (left) and Craig Taborn

page 51 View from Member Housing, Winter 2010

page 52 Holiday Party, Olden Farm, December 2009: Helen Goddard (foreground)

page 53 Member Housing, Winter 2010: Derek Bermel, Artist-in-Residence, with Sabine Huebner (left) and Jessica Goldberg (right) of the School of Historical Studies

page 54 Ian Wei of the School of Social Science, Historical Studies-Social Science Library, Spring 2010

page 55 Baby Shower for Danielle Allen of the School of Social Science (center foreground), Dilworth Room, March 2010

page 59 Edward Witten of the School of Natural Sciences, Bloomberg Lecture Hall, Winter 2010

page 60 Bloomberg Lecture Hall, Fall 2009: Zohar Komargodski of the School of Natural Sciences (left) with Jiji Fan of Princeton University

index of photographs  105

page 61 Member Housing, Fall 2009: Gunaretnam Rajagopal (left), Rémi Monasson (center), and Simona Cocco of the School of Natural Sciences

page 66 After Hours Conversations, Harry’s Bar, Fall 2009: from right, Director Peter Goddard with Visiting Artist Tom Phillips and Artist-in-Residence Derek Bermel (left)

page 62 Author Graham Farmelo, Lecture, Dilworth Room, October 2009

page 69 Composer’s Breakfast, Dilworth Room, January 2010: Midori (center) and Derek Bermel, Artist-in-Residence

page 63 Peter Goldreich of the School of Natural Sciences, Lecture, Wolfensohn Hall, October 2009

page 70 Juan Maldacena of the School of Natural Sciences, Bloomberg Hall Office, Spring 2010

page 64 Matias Zaldarriaga of the School of Natural Sciences, Astrophysics Library, Bloomberg Hall, Spring 2010

page 71 Helmut Hofer of the School of Mathematics, South Lawn, Winter 2010

page 65 Institute Pond, Fall 2009

106 index of photographs

page 72 Children’s Holiday Party, Dining Hall, December 2009

page 73 Russell Impagliazzo of the School of Mathematics, Member Housing, Spring 2010

page 74 New Piece (1980) by Tony Smith, South Lawn, Winter 2010

page 75 Holiday Party, Olden Farm, December 2009: Freeman Dyson of the School of Natural Sciences (left) and Robert and Evelyn Geddes, Friends of the Institute

page 76 Nima Arkani-Hamed of the School of Natural Sciences, Lecture, Dilworth Room, April 2010

page 81 Gerda Panofsky, Historical Studies-Social Science Library, November 2009

page 82 Helmut Hofer of the School of Mathematics (left) with Piet Hut of the Program in Interdisciplinary Studies, Institute Woods, Fall 2009

page 83 Freeman Dyson of the School of Natural Sciences, Teatime, Common Room, Fuld Hall, Fall 2009

page 84 Member Welcome Reception, Dilworth Room, Schools of Historical Studies and Social Science, October 2009: Didier Fassin of the School of Social Science (center)

page 85 Frank Pirone, Member Housing, Fall 2009

page 86 Historical Studies-Social Science Library, Fall 2009: Sarah Hutton (left) and Heinrich von Staden of the School of Historical Studies, Julia Clancy-Smith of the School of Social Science (center back)

index of photographs  107

page 87 South Olden Lane, Fall 2009 page 96 Stephen Adler of the School of Natural Sciences, Bloomberg Hall Office, February 2010

page 88 Teatime, Common Room, Fuld Hall, Fall 2009: Nima Arkani-Hamed of the School of Natural Sciences (left), Andrew Wiles of the School of Mathematics (right)

page 93 Crossroads Nursery School Playground, Winter 2010

page 94 David Weinberg of the School of Natural Sciences, Lecture, Dilworth Room, January 2010

page 95 Chef Michel Reymond, Lunchtime, Dining Hall, Spring 2010

108 index of photographs

page 97 Institute Woods, Winter 2010

page 98 School of Natural Sciences Lunch Table, Dining Hall, Winter 2010

page 99 Elke Katrin Markert of the School of Natural Sciences, Common Room, Fuld Hall, December 2009

page 100 Robert MacPherson of the School of Mathematics, Fuld Hall, Spring 2010

Biographies

Michael Atiyah first visited the Institute as a member in 1955 at age twenty-six. He has returned many times as a member or visitor, and has served as a professor in the School of Mathematics from 1969–72. He spent most of his career in Oxford, as a professor, and in Cambridge, as Master of Trinity College and as the first director of the Isaac Newton Institute. He was president of the Royal Society from 1990 to 1995. His work has centered on geometry and mathematical physics, and he is best known for his work on K-theory and the Atiyah-Singer Index Theorem. He was awarded a Fields Medal in 1966. Chantal David is a professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Concordia University in Montreal and was a member in the School of Mathematics in 2009– 10. She works in analytic number theory. Freeman Dyson first arrived at the Institute in 1948, at age twenty-four, a year after J. Robert Oppenheimer had become director. He spent two years as a member, then returned in 1953 as a professor, and since 1994 he has been professor emeritus in the School of Natural ­Sciences. In addition to his early work on number theory, his fundamental contributions to quantum field theory, and his work on solid state physics, astrophysics, and nuclear physics, he has written a number of books for the general reader.

Jane F. Fulcher, a member in the School of Historical ­Studies in 2003–04, is a professor in the Department of Musicology at the University of Michigan. She teaches courses and seminars that focus on nineteenth and particularly twentieth-century music within its larger cultural, social, political, and intellectual contexts. A specialist in French music, she is interested in the relationship between music and cultural theory from a sociological, anthropological, historical, and literary perspective. Peter Goddard, a mathematical physicist, has been director of the Institute for Advanced Study since January 2004. He first came to the Institute as a member in the School of Natural Sciences in 1974, and returned in 1988 as a member in the School of Mathematics. Formerly Master of St. John’s College and professor of theoretical physics in the University of Cambridge, he played a key role in the establishment of the university’s Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences, serving as its first deputy director, and the University of Cambridge Centre for Mathematical Sciences. He is known for his influential contributions in the areas of string theory and quantum field theory. Barbara Kowalzig, a member in 2007–08 and visitor in 2009 in the School of Historical Studies, has recently moved from Royal Holloway, University of London, to New York University. Her work focuses on Greek religion, music, and economic and cultural anthropology in the

ancient world. She has published in various areas of Greek song-culture and ethnomusicology, on drama and ritual, and on the interaction of religion, travel, and trade in the ancient Mediterranean.

currently University Professor at Adelphi University. The recipient of the 2004 Pulitzer Prize in Music, he has composed more than one hundred orchestral, chamber, choral, lyric, film, and operatic compositions.

Wolf Lepenies is professor emeritus of the Wissenschaftskolleg in Berlin, where he served as director from 1986 to 2001. He first came to the Institute as a member in the School of Social Science in 1979, returning for numerous visits throughout the years. A scientific author, biographer, and sociologist, he is known for his writings on the history of science, the history of ideas, and on matters of current politics.

Joan Wallach Scott, professor in the School of Social Science since 1985 and the Harold F. Linder Professor since 2000, first came to the Institute as a member in 1978. Her work challenges the foundations of conventional historical practice, including the nature of historical evidence and historical experience and the role of narrative in the writing of history. It addresses the question of difference in history: its uses, enunciations, implementations, justifications, and transformations in the construction of social and political life.

Serge J-F. Levy, a director’s visitor in 2009–10, began his career as a magazine photographer and now exhibits internationally, including shows at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and at the Leica Gallery in Tokyo. He teaches at the International Center of Photography in New York City, and his work is in the collections of the Museum of the City of New York and the Buhl Foundation. Paul Moravec served as the Institute’s artist-in-residence in 2007–08 and as artistic consultant in 2008­–09, and is

110 Biographies

David H. Weinberg is a professor of astronomy and Distinguished Professor of Mathematical and Physical Sciences at the Ohio State University. He first visited the Institute as a member in the School of Natural Sciences in 1992, and most recently in 2009–10. Weinberg is the Project Scientist of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey-III, and works mainly on the formation of galaxies, large scale structure, and high redshift objects.