Motto | Truth and Beauty |
---|---|
Type | Private |
Established | 1930 |
Founder | Abraham Flexner |
Endowment | $741 million (2014) |
Director | Robbert Dijkgraaf |
Location | Princeton, New Jersey, U.S. |
Campus | Suburban |
Website | ias |
The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States, is an independent, postdoctoral research center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry founded in 1930 by American educator Abraham Flexner, together with philanthropists Louis Bamberger and Caroline Bamberger Fuld.
The IAS is perhaps best known as the academic home of Albert Einstein, Hermann Weyl, John von Neumann and Kurt Gödel, after their immigration to the United States. Although it is close to and collaborates with Princeton University, Rutgers University, and other nearby institutions, it is independent and does not charge tuition or fees.
Flexner's guiding principle in founding the Institute was the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. There are no degree programs or experimental facilities at the Institute. Research is never contracted or directed; it is left to each individual researcher to pursue their own goals. Established during the rise of European fascism, the IAS played a key role in the transfer of intellectual capital from Europe to America and soon acquired a reputation at the pinnacle of academic and scientific life—a reputation it has retained.
It is supported entirely by endowments, grants, and gifts, and is one of the eight American mathematics institutes funded by the National Science Foundation. It is the model for the other eight members of the consortium Some Institutes for Advanced Study.
The institute consists of four schools—Historical Studies, Mathematics, Natural Sciences, and Social Sciences; there is also a program in theoretical biology.