Part 1 - The Institute Libraries - Institute for Advanced Study

Dr. kfschetz reemnded the appointment of all the prominent hrican
and European modern gearnetem. 6
Oswald Veblen was an icpsessive figure in his field. Eie bad
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ccme to Princeton as a preceptor in 1905, and worked with Dean Henry
Burchard Pine and Dr. Luther F. Eisenhart through the years to build the
Deparment of Hathaxatics to its present eminence. During the year 1923-
1924 he served as President of the kerican Narhem~tical S~ciety. Re was
asked 5y Dr. Simon Flexner, then a Trustee of the Rockefeller Foundation
as well 2s Director of Laboratoxies for the Rockefeller Institute, to
give him arguments for th inauguration of National Research Council
fellowships in mathematics like those already being given in physics and
chemistry, which were the indirect result of an earlier suggestion mde
by him. Dr. Veblen had emplied, writing of the interdependence of the
sciences and mathematics , and even ascribing to certain mithemtical
researches heuristic effects whfch led Albert Einstein to develop the
general theory of relativity .' The fellowships In mathemf ice w en
promptly begun, financed as were the others by the Rockefeller Foundation,
and akinistered by a single Board with those in the natural scienees at
Veblenws request, on the ground that -it vfll have the effect of stiwlat-
ing interest on the part of rmthematicians in problem of physica ~ n d
chemistry. This sort of broadening of the interests of the mathematicians \
in this country is very desirable at the present be said-
In 1924 Dr. Veblen showed his crun statesmanship in prcmrting
mathamtical xesearch by urging Dr. Siron Flexner and Dr. Vernon Kellogg
of the National Academy of Science to support the foundation of an insti-
tute devoted exclusively to mathematical research, In this his plea was