Since 1930, the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ, has served as one of the world’s leading centers for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. The Institute’s founding values, to which it still holds true today, emphasize excellence, inclusivity, and collaboration. Its Faculty and Members comprise scholars from all over the world who are preeminent and emerging leaders in their fields.
From art history to string theory, from moral anthropology to the long-term fate of the universe, contributions made by IAS scholars continue to shape countless lines of inquiry across the sciences and humanities. With history stretching back to founding Faculty members Albert Einstein and John von Neumann, and influential figures such as Hetty Goldman, Emmy Noether, and J. Robert Oppenheimer, the Institute remains a haven for scholars working together in pursuit of truth and knowledge, regardless of their race, religion, gender, or politics.
Click the link in our bio to learn more about the Institute and to meet the current IAS scholars featured in the video.
Deep beneath the mountains of North Wales, an abandoned slate mine has been unexpectedly transformed into a subterranean sanctuary for King Arthur.
At a recent Interdisciplinary Lunch, Coral Lumbley, Member (2025–26) in the School of Historical Studies, explored this immersive tourist attraction—King Arthur’s Labyrinth—as a fascinating example of "ruderal medievalism." She explained how turning post-industrial rubble into a space of historical storytelling connects modern visitors to early medieval legends and reclaims a sense of pride in the deep history of the Welsh landscape.
Contemplating how myths can be physically built into landscapes naturally sparks great questions, which is the exact goal of the Institute's Interdisciplinary Lunch series. These regular events invite IAS scholars from all Schools to engage in cross-disciplinary conversations, flowing from a short, accessible presentation into lively discussions among the tables.
Because truly excellent food is essential for stimulating this dynamic dialogue, the Institute's Dining Services team always ensures the menu is as inspiring as the talks. Scholars fueled their discussion of Lumbley’s work with a choice of either shrimp tacos with avocado crema and roasted tomato salsa, or a delicious vegetarian entrée of Tennessee fried cauliflower.
#Researchers #ResearchLife #ResearchCenter #CampusLife #CampusSnap #HeritageTourism #KingArthur #CampusDining #HistoryFacts #HistoryNerd #HistoryLesson #HistoryMatters
The Institute recently welcomed back Hong Wang, Member (2019–21) in the School of Mathematics, to deliver the 2026 Emmy Noether lecture series.
Wang explored the mathematics of what happens when complex, multi-dimensional shapes are flattened—or projected—onto lower-dimensional spaces.
To picture this, imagine casting the shadow of a highly intricate, three-dimensional object onto a flat wall. Projection theory asks: how much of the original object's "size" or complexity is preserved in that shadow? Wang discussed how mathematicians find hidden structures within arbitrary sets of data to answer this question, and how they can pinpoint the angles where that dimension is lost. Following her lectures, Wang joined IAS scholars at teatime to continue the discussion.
Supported by the Minerva Research Foundation, the annual Emmy Noether lectures celebrate the legacy of the groundbreaking German mathematician who was a frequent IAS Visitor (1933–35) during her time at Bryn Mawr College. Each year, the lectures present a broadly conceived exposition of a topic of current interest, often in an area related to Noether's work.
Click the link in our bio to watch Wang’s lectures.
#Mathematician #MathematiciansAtWork #Matematicas #MathProfessor #MathTeacher #MathematicsInAction #DoTheMath #MathematicsDay #MathFun #MathematicsEducation #ProjectionTheory
What happens when two incredibly dense, dead stars, known as neutron stars, collide?
In the coming years, next-generation gravitational wave observatories will give us an unprecedented look at these collisions, promising to revolutionize our understanding of physics—but there is a catch.
As Jacob Fields, Member in the School of Natural Sciences, explained in a recent seminar, scholars’ current computational models aren’t quite ready for the influx of data. Interpreting these massive mergers requires extreme precision, and current models contain uncertainties that introduce limitations.
The solution? A massive computational upgrade. Fields highlighted how researchers are developing more efficient techniques and more accurate numerical methods to keep up with new observational capabilities. By pushing the boundaries of supercomputing, astrophysicists are poised to unlock the next big discoveries in the universe.
#GravitationalWaves #Astrophysics #NeutronStars #Astrophysicist #ComputationalMethods #Astro #Astrophysicist #Astronomy #Astronomer #Physics #ScienceCommunication #SciCommunity #SciComm #ScientistsOfInstagram
As the Institute campus looks forward to Founders Day 2026, it is the perfect time to revisit one of the highlights of last year’s programming: a series of ten-minute book talks delivered by IAS Members past and present.
Topics ranged from the history of South Africa’s gold mines and the reception of a Latin novel to the participation of beagles in twentieth-century science—representing a true showcase of the varied and vibrant research that happens at the Institute every day.
Since 1930, IAS has served as a haven for transformative ideas, and Founders Day provides a moment to celebrate the vision of its founders: sibling philanthropists Louis Bamberger and Caroline Bamberger Fuld.
Next month, Institute Faculty, scholars, and staff will step away from their desks and their blackboards, connect across disciplines, and celebrate the remarkable community that continues to make IAS so vital. A brand-new series of book talks will spark even more dialogue!
#Researchers #ResearchLife #ResearchCenter #ScientificResearch #ResearchMind #HigherEducation #HigherEd #CampusLife #CampusSnap #BasicResearch #BookTalk #NewBooks
Did the “sharing economy” deliver on its promise of community and flexibility, or did it just create new forms of exploitation?
Earlier this month, acclaimed economist and sociologist Juliet B. Schor of Boston College delivered a lecture in Wolfensohn Hall that unpacked the realities of labor platforms and algorithmic management. Drawing on a decade of research and her book “After the Gig” (University of California Press, 2020), she explored whether platform work can fulfill its early promises or if it has simply delivered precarity.
From diagnosing the crisis of overwork in the 1990s to providing empirical evidence for the 32-hour, four-day workweek, Schor has spent three decades tracing the evolution of American economic life and imagining better alternatives. She was joined onstage after her talk by Alondra Nelson, Harold F. Linder Professor in the School of Social Science, for a wide-ranging discussion.
This event was part of the Lecture on Public Policy series, curated annually by the Institute’s School of Social Science. Supported by an anonymous gift, the series explores issues of broad public import across politics, social issues, and the sciences.
Click the link in our bio to watch the full lecture.
#PlatformLabor #FutureOfWork #Sociology #GigWork #GigWorker #GigWorkers #GigLife #GigEconomy #SocialScience #SocialResearch #SocialSciences #FourDayWeek
This March 14, celebrate both Pi Day and founding IAS Professor (1933–55) Albert Einstein’s birthday by revisiting a question at the frontier of theoretical physics: how can we resolve the deep conflict between the principles of gravity and quantum mechanics and, more generally, develop a theory of “quantum gravity”?
In a feature from the latest edition of The Institute Letter, follow a throughline from Einstein’s 1935 work on entanglement (EPR) and Einstein–Rosen bridges (ER) to a surprising modern convergence of these ideas in ER=EPR.
The ER=EPR conjecture, proposed by Juan Maldacena, Carl P. Feinberg Professor in the School of Natural Sciences, and Leonard Susskind, Member (1997, 2026) and Visitor (1995) in the School, argues that entanglement and wormholes may be two complementary descriptions of the same underlying physics, within the holographic regime of AdS/CFT.
The article then turns toward understanding quantum gravity in a universe similar to our own, highlighting Leinweber Physics Member (2024–27) Beatrix Muehlmann’s computable, low-dimensional “toy” program for quantum gravity in de Sitter space.
Nearly a century on, Einstein’s presence at IAS remains tangible—not only in his statue on campus, but in the way his questions continue to animate research.
Click the link in our bio to read the full article.
#Spacetime #QuantumMechanics #QuantumPhysics #Quantum #Wormhole #TheoreticalPhysics #QuantumInformation #Physics #Physicist #PhysicsEquations #PhysicsQuestions #PiDay #PiDay2026 #AlbertEinstein
Now available on campus: printed copies of the Fall/Winter 2026 edition of The Institute Letter, the Institute for Advanced Study's flagship print publication. This issue features original cover art by @donghyun_illustration !
Pick up a copy in Fuld Hall or Rubenstein Commons to:
👩💻 Explore how technology fosters both opportunity and inequality.
🔍 Uncover a forgotten mathematician’s groundbreaking yet overlooked contributions.
💭 Examine connections between Einstein's ideas about quantum entanglement and wormholes.
🎁 Reflect on nature’s “free gifts” and their ties to capitalism and environmental justice.
🪐 Discover a trans-Neptunian object offering clues about the existence of a ninth planet.
Click the link in our bio to read the digital edition or download a PDF.
#AcademicExcellence #AcademicSuccess #Research #Researcher #ResearchLife #ResearchProject #ResearchStudy #ScienceCommunication #CoverIllustration #EditorialIllustration
A team of astrophysicists, led by Nadia Zakamska, Member in the School of Natural Sciences, has identified a “mystery object” several times the mass of Jupiter or larger, orbited by a giant metallic wind cloud.
The story began in September 2024, when the All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN) identified a star that suddenly became 40 times dimmer. Such stars “don’t just stop shining for no reason,” Zakamska said.
Zakamska and her team hypothesized that the star was occulted by a passing cloud and set out to study it using the Gemini South telescope. They discovered that the cloud is producing gaseous emission of metals, including iron and calcium.
The cloud is bound by gravity to a “mystery object” that orbits the star. The object could be a brown dwarf or low-mass star.
Click the link in our bio to learn more about the research.
📸 Image credits:
International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/P. Marenfeld & M. Zamani
International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/T. Slovinský
#Astrophysics #Astro #Astrophysicist #Astronomy #Astronomer #Physics #ScienceCommunication #SciCommunity #SciComm #ScientistsOfInstagram
In December, the Institute’s School of Natural Sciences hosted its annual three-day Qubit workshop. This iteration was focused on quantum aspects of black holes and spacetime.
Speakers at the workshop, who represented scholarly institutions from across the globe, explored topics such as black hole evaporation. They considered whether the key to a black hole’s disappearance is the emission of a “baby universe” that extracts the matter that formed the black hole. Others revisited ideas about the universe’s beginning and argued that what an “observer” can measure may shape the story; in some cases, spacetime might not fully emerge.
The workshop was jointly sponsored by the Nelson Center for Collaborative Research at the Institute for Advanced Study, the Princeton Center for Theoretical Science, and the Princeton Gravity Initiative at Princeton University.
Click the link in our bio to watch the YouTube playlist of talks.
#BlackHoles #Spacetime #QuantumMechanics #QuantumPhysics #StephenHawking #BlackHole #Quantum #Wormhole #TheoreticalPhysics #QuantumInformation
This week, snow has blanketed the Institute for Advanced Study, softening familiar paths and inviting a slower walk across campus.
One scholar who braved the chill was Fernando Brancoli (@fbrncl ), Member (2025–26) in the School of Social Science, who captured these photos with his Leica M3, a 35 mm analog camera from the 1950s.
As Brancoli reflects: “I'm drawn to analog photography because it imposes a different rhythm of attention. Film slows the act of seeing, encouraging patience, deliberation, and a closer relationship with light, space, and time.
I'd say this pace resonates with my experience at the Institute so far, where time to think, plan, and engage in intellectual activity in a more patient way feels valued.
Walking through campus with a fully mechanical camera feels like a small gesture of alignment with that tradition.”
#WinterWeather #SnowDay #SnowLife #Snowfall #SnowSnowSnow #Snowing #Snowflakes #CampusArchitecture #WinterVibes #WinterFun #WinterWonderland #NewJerseyIsBeautiful #ScenicNJ
The fields of computer science and game theory have become deeply interconnected in recent decades. Yet both originated in the early twentieth century through the foundational work of IAS scholars, including John von Neumann, Faculty (1933–55) in the School of Mathematics; John Nash, frequent Member in the School; and others.
In a public lecture hosted in Wolfensohn Hall late last year, Columbia University’s Timothy Roughgarden surveyed the evolving relationship between these disciplines, highlighting how concepts from game theory and economics underpin modern computer science applications, from Internet routing to blockchain protocols.
The lecture also explored how the flow of ideas also travels in the other direction, with computer science offering a number of tools to reason about game-theoretic concepts and economic problems in novel ways.
Click the link in our bio to watch the lecture.
#Mathematician #MathematiciansAtWork #Matematicas #MathProfessor #MathTeacher #MathematicsInAction #DoTheMath #MathematicsDay #MathFun #ComputerScience #vonNeumann #GameTheory #CompSci
