Faculty & Student Mentions, News
Professor Will Deringer is Selected as a Member of the Institute for Advanced Study
Jul 29, 2026
Will Deringer Awarded Fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Study
Associate Professor of Science, Technology, and Society Will Deringer was awarded a fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in the School of Historical Studies for the 2026-27 academic year. This prestigious membership allows for focused research and the free and open exchange of ideas among an international community of scholars at one of the foremost centers for intellectual inquiry.
During his stay, Will Deringer will work on his project So Random: A Stochastic History of the Last Century
“As a certified millennial, I’ve constantly heard about how everything was ‘totally random,’” Will explained. “The idea of randomness somehow became part of our everyday language and culture. How did it become that way? Randomness was not really a concept that anyone talked about before the twentieth century. I think there is an interesting history to explore here, one that traverses math, statistics, and computing but also politics, culture, and art. I can’t imagine a more exciting place to begin that exploration than the Institute for Advanced Study.”
Each year, IAS welcomes more than 250 of the most promising postdoctoral researchers and distinguished scholars from around the world to advance fundamental discovery as part of an interdisciplinary and collaborative environment. Visiting scholars are selected through a highly competitive process for their bold ideas, innovative methods, and deep research questions by the permanent Faculty—each of whom are preeminent leaders in their fields. Past IAS Faculty include Albert Einstein, Erwin Panofsky, John von Neumann, Hetty Goldman, George Kennan, and J. Robert Oppenheimer.
Located in Princeton, NJ, the Institute for Advanced Study was established in 1930. Today, research at IAS is conducted across four Schools—Historical Studies, Mathematics, Natural Sciences, and Social Science—to push the boundaries of human knowledge.
Among past and present scholars, there have been 37 Nobel Laureates, 49 of the 68 Fields Medalists, and 25 of the 29 Abel Prize Laureates, as well as MacArthur and Guggenheim fellows, winners of the Turing Award and the Wolf, Holberg, Kluge, and Pulitzer Prizes.