Ushering in the Institutes next hundred years

We define the current era by the present scientific structure of the institute, the arrival of its five incumbent Department Directors and their collective leadership of the Institute. As with any study of recent science, a dearth of archival sources limits our abilities to assess the present institute historically but direct access to the active researchers allows us considerable insight into their current activities. Therefore, we will focus on recent research endeavors at the five departments, offering a description, in lay language, of one or two projects representative of each department s thrust, but we will also point out, whenever feasible, the connections between current research and that of previous eras, which in some cases extend back to the very beginnings of the Institute. 

The five Departments and their directors, ordered chronologically by their year of appointment, are  

Each of the following five sections of this chapter covers one of the departments. 

In addition to the scientific Departments, the Institute also comprises specialized workshops (electronic, mechanical and woodwork) as well as an information 

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