Aleksandr Bierig awarded fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Study

Published: September 8, 2026

Aleksandr Bierig, an assistant professor in the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, has been awarded a fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in the School of Historical Studies for the 2026/27 academic year.

The membership provides dedicated time for research and fosters the free exchange of ideas among an international community of scholars.

At IAS, Bierig will work on his book project, Surplus Energies: Coal and the Production of Space in Britain, 1700–1850. The book examines a range of sites – from household fireplaces and infrastructural connections to monumental constructions – linked to the construction of the London Coal Exchange, the world's first market for fossil fuel.

“My research tries to offer a new perspective on our long and complex entanglement with fossil fuels by looking at how these sources of unprecedented energy affected the ways we construct and think about architecture, planning and the built environment," says Bierig, who received the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellowship for Assistant Professors at IAS. "My first years teaching at Daniels, particularly with students in my undergraduate course, 'Fossil Space,' have pushed me to clarify and develop my ideas in unexpected ways.”

An independent centre for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry, IAS welcomes more than 250 scholars from around the world each year to advance fundamental discoveries in history, mathematics, the natural and social sciences as part of an interdisciplinary and collaborative environment.

Past IAS faculty members include Albert Einstein, Erwin Panofsky, John von Neumann, Hetty Goldman, George Kennan and J. Robert Oppenheimer.