The Institute for Advanced Study was founded in 1930 in Princeton, New Jersey, by the educator Abraham Flexner, its first director, funded by a five million dollar gift from the department-store philanthropists Louis Bamberger and his sister Caroline Bamberger Fuld. It is independent of Princeton University, has no students and no fixed curriculum, and appoints faculty and short-term members to pursue theoretical research free of teaching duties, an arrangement Flexner defended in a 1939 essay he titled The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge. Albert Einstein was one of its first faculty members, appointed in 1933 and remaining until his death in 1955; Kurt Godel and John von Neumann were also early faculty, and a 1945 paper written there by von Neumann described the stored-program computer architecture used by nearly every computer since.
Facts
Founded Year FounderAbraham Flexner, funded by Louis Bamberger and Caroline Bamberger Fuld 1 SeatPrinceton, New Jersey, United States 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Has Member
Faculty member from 1933 until his death in 1955.
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