Part 1 - The Institute Libraries - Institute for Advanced Study

professional concerns from the tiwe Veblen was in GBttingen. h pre-
paring the statement in the Bulletin on the prospective work of br. byer,
employed as Efnsteinws assistant with the title of Associate, Prufessar
Veblen, who net Dr. Hayer when he visited Einstein a t Csputh fn July,
1932, wrote that the rathematician Sould conduct an advznced lrvethematical
seminar" in Fine &TI.. And that is what hzppened; Dr. 'kyer separated
himself fsm br. Einstein immediately ~fter his erri~l in the United
States; and his mthenstical colleagues gave him full opportunity to do
so In spite of the basis on which he had been appointed. As Dr. Frank
was to put it, Mayer secured "an independent positianw in the fnsritute.
Thus Professor Einstein was left without a regular assistant
in a;athemtics, which was part of his arrangement with h. Flexner and
an absolute necessity to his work, reghrded this as e real bndicap,
which he overcame In part by working' intensively with one or tuo of the
. younger mathematical physicists, But he lost time and peace of mind by
changing assistants frequently. His desire was to have an assistant vho
would stay with him for a period of years. As Dr. Frank wrote, it was
difficult to find an able mathematicfan who uou1.d be willfng to devote
himself to assist Einstein. Any such able mathemtfcian would prefer to
work zn hfs own problems, Professor Veblen toak the position that sin*
Dr. 13ayer k3 beer. employed to assist the physicist, he was entitled to
no other assistant, It would probably have been difficult to limit Dr.
Hayergs activities tp those for which he was appointed; certainly Profes-
sor Veblen and his colleagues seem never to have insisted upon thet, but
in fact facilitated hfs departure fra them.
In 1936-1937 Dr. Einstein worked vith Dr. P'eter Berpnn, a