Report for the academic year 1998 - The Institute Libraries - Institute ...

INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDY:
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
The Institute for Advanced Study was founded in 1930 with a major gift from New
Jersey businessman and philanthropist Louis Bamberger and his sister, Mrs. FeUx
Fuld, who wished to use their fortunes to make a significant and lasting contribution
to society. They sought the advice of educator Abraham Flexner, who developed the
concept of the Institute as a community of scholars whose primary purpose would be
the pursuit of advanced learning and scholarly exploration. The Institute for
Advanced Study has sustained its founding principle for more than sixty-seven years.
This commitment has yielded an unsurpassed record of definitive scholarship.
The Institute fills a unique role in postgraduate education and scientific and schol-
arly research. Called (by Institute Trustee Vartan Gregorian) "the university to universities,"
the Institute serves all colleges and universities by providing a place where
scholars can hone their skills and do their best work, thereby adding substantially to
their ability to contribute as both teachers and scholars to the academic institutions
where they base their careers. For young scholars just entering the academic world,
an opportunity to work at the Institute can set the direction for lifelong research
interests and thereby determine professional careers. The Institute provides more
mature scholars with the opportunity to take a new direction in their research or to
complete a major piece of work away from the many obligations and distractions of
working life at a contemporary university. In our era, a time when pure research and
scholarly activities are undervalued, these opportunities are exceedingly rare.
The Institute's foremost objective is the advancement of knowledge and the deep-
ening of understanding across a broad range of the humanities, sciences, and social
sciences. One of the Institute's unique strengths is its small and distinguished permanent
Faculty, well-established scholars whose broad interests and extensive ties to
the larger academic world are reflected in their own work and also in the guidance
and direction they provide to the Institute's visiting Members. The Faculty defines
the major themes and questions which become the focus of each School's seminars
and other activities, and the Faculty selects and works closely with visiting Members.
Small in number and organized in four Schools (Historical Studies, Mathe-
matics, Natural Sciences, and Social Science), the Faculty and Members can inter-
act with one another without the departmental and disciplinary barriers found in
universities.
Each year the Institute awards fellowships to 160-180 visiting Members from uni-
versities and research institutions throughout the world. The Institute's nearly
5,000 former Members hold positions of intellectual and scientific leadership in the
United States and abroad. More than a dozen Nobel laureates have been Institute
Faculty or Members, and others are winners of the Wolf or Mac Arthur prizes. Twen-
ty-seven out of thirty-six Fields Medalists, the Nobel equivalent tor mathematicians,
have come from the Institute.
The Institute does not receive income from tuition or fees. Resources for operations
come from endowment income, grants from private foundations and government
agencies, and gifts from corporations and individuals.