Professor Uzi Leibner, a past fellow of the IIAS and a key member of the "Variety and Variability: Mapping the Cultural and Social Diversity of the Southern Levant in the Hellenistic Period" research group, is leading a new archaeological excavation at the Ophel, offering a fascinating glimpse into Jerusalem's rich history.

The prestigious 2024 Shaw Prize in Mathematical Sciences will be awarded in Hong Kong on November 12. Among the recipients is Peter Sarnak, General Director of the Advanced School in Mathematics at IIAS, recognized for his groundbreaking work on the arithmetic theory of thin groups and the affine sieve.

Dennis Gaitsgory, along with a team of mathematicians, has proved the geometric Langlands conjecture, a major milestone in modern mathematics. This achievement, which spans over 800 pages in five papers, resolves a crucial part of the Langlands program, a framework connecting number theory, geometry, and function fields.

We are delighted to share the news that Irit Dveer Dinur and Elon Lindenstrauss have been appointed as permanent faculty members at IAS Princeton. 

Dinur and Lindenstrauss have a long-standing association with the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies, where their potential was recognized early on with the Michael Bruno Memorial Award. Dinur received the Bruno Award in 2007, and Lindenstrauss in 2008. Both scholars have also taught, organized, and led several Advanced School in Mathematics at IIAS, enriching the IIAS academic community with their expertise and leadership.

The IIAS is proud to announce that Noga Alon has been honored with the prestigious 2024 Wolf Prize in Mathematics. Alon shares the Wolf Prize with Adi Shamir of the Weizmann Institute of Science for their pioneering contributions to mathematical cryptography, combinatorics, and the theory of computer science.

Brown widow spiders, scientifically known as *Latrodectus geometricus*, are swarming Israel. Recent research reveals that 86% of these spiders carry a strain of Rhabdochlamydia, a bacterium related to Chlamydia. However, it's important to note that bites from these spiders do not transmit Chlamydia.

Jan Grabowski, a Polish-Canadian professor of history at the University of Ottawa and IIAS Fellow for the 2024 academic year, recently appeared on Israeli national television. During an interview on the program "The World Today" with Yoav Zehavi, Grabowski discussed the rise of the extreme right in Poland, the implications of recent European election results, and the severe threats he has faced due to his controversial stance on the Polish people's involvement in the Holocaust.

Jan Grabowski, a fellow at IIAS during the 2024 academic year, is publishing an important essay for the forthcoming issue of The Jewish Quarterly (JQ257 - August 2024): "Whitewash: Poland and the Jews," addresses the ongoing challenges Poland faces in acknowledging its role in the Holocaust.

The IIAS is proud to extend heartfelt congratulations to Daniel R. Schwartz from the Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, on receiving the prestigious Landau Prize for 2024 in the field of Jewish History.

Schwartz's association with the IIAS is longstanding. He began his journey with the IIAS as a fellow, contributing significantly to the "From Hellenistic Judaism to Christian Hellenism" research group in 2001, and later served on the Board of Directors.

Eric Ford, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State and a past fellow of IIAS, has developed a new method for detecting low-mass, potentially Earth-like planets around stars beyond our solar system.

Using advanced spectrographs to observe the subtle "wobble"—stellar spectrum variations—of stars caused by orbiting planets, he seeks to identify potential Earth-like planets with the aid of AI processing.