Institute for Advanced Study

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The Institute for Advanced Study is a private institution in Princeton Township, New Jersey, designed to foster pure cutting-edge research by scientists in a variety of fields without the complications of teaching or funding, or the agendas of sponsorship. It is perhaps best known as the academic home of Albert Einstein after his immigration to the United States.

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The School

The Institute consists of a School of Historical Studies, a School of Mathematics, a School of Natural Sciences, a School of Social Science, and a newly created program in Theoretical Biology. There is a small permanent faculty for each school, supplemented by the Visiting Members who are selected for fellowships each year. One might discern a certain ideology behind such an unusual collection of disciplines, although it is probably more accurate to say that the Institute has been distinguished more by the strong personalities that have passed through it over the years than any particular "mission statement."

There are no degree programs or experimental facilities at the Institute, and research is funded by endowments, grants and gifts -- it does not support itself with tuition or fees. It is not part of any educational system, however the proximity of Princeton University (three miles between its science departments and the main Institute complex) means that informal ties are close and a large number of collaborations have arisen over the years.

Research is never contracted or directed; it is left to each individual researcher to pursue their own goals.

History

The institute was founded in 1930 by Louis Bamberger and Caroline Bamberger Fuld with the proceeds from their Newark department store. The founding of the institute was fraught with brushes against near-disaster; the Bamberger siblings pulled their money out of the stock market just before the Stock Market Crash of 1929, and their original intent was to express their gratitude to the state of New Jersey through the founding of a dental school. It was the intervention of their friend Dr. Abraham Flexner that convinced them to put their money in the service of more abstract research.