The Institute for Advanced Study has appointed astrophysicist Victoria “Vicky” Kaspi, attorney Kevin L. MacMillan and economist and finance executive Peter Orszag to its Board of Trustees.
MacMillan’s appointment was unanimously approved by the board Oct. 25, 2025. Kaspi and Orszag were appointed with unanimous approval May 2.
The three trustees bring experience in science, law, finance, public policy and academia to the Princeton-based institute.
Kaspi is the Lorne Trottier Professor of Astrophysics and director of the Trottier Space Institute at McGill University, where she also holds the Distinguished James McGill Chair.
She uses radio and X-ray telescopes to study pulsars and magnetars. Before joining McGill in 1999, she taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and held a NASA Hubble postdoctoral fellowship.
Kaspi earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from McGill and a doctorate in astrophysics from Princeton University. Her honors include the 2021 Shaw Prize, the 2022 Albert Einstein World Award of Science and the 2016 Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering. She was the first woman to receive the Herzberg Medal.
She is a companion of the Order of Canada and a fellow of the Royal Society and the Royal Society of Canada.
Kaspi has also participated in several IAS seminars and conferences.
MacMillan is a partner at Allegaert Berger & Vogel, which he joined in 2003. His practice includes contracts, mergers and acquisitions, intellectual property and nonprofit law.
He began his legal career at Shearman & Sterling’s London office. MacMillan earned a bachelor’s degree in ecology and evolutionary biology from Princeton University and a law degree from Columbia University.
He serves with the Princeton Mpala Advisory Council, the Peddie School and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
MacMillan’s mother, Trustee Emerita Nancy MacMillan, is the great-niece of founding IAS Trustee Herbert H. Maass. Maass introduced institute founders Louis Bamberger and Caroline Bamberger Fuld to Abraham Flexner, who became its first director.
Orszag is CEO and chairman of Lazard. His career has included senior roles in finance, government, public policy and academia.
Under President Barack Obama, Orszag served as director of the Office of Management and Budget, overseeing the federal budget during the financial crisis and helping develop federal health care reform.
He previously led the Congressional Budget Office, focusing on long-term fiscal policy and rising health care costs.
Orszag earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Princeton University and a doctorate from the London School of Economics.
He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and serves on the board of the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
His father, mathematician and physicist Steven A. Orszag, was a member of the institute’s School of Natural Sciences in 1966-67 and became known for his work in computational fluid dynamics and turbulence theory.
Founded in 1930, the Institute for Advanced Study supports independent research in the sciences and humanities. Its faculty and members have included Albert Einstein, Erwin Panofsky, John von Neumann, Emmy Noether, George Kennan and J. Robert Oppenheimer.
The institute welcomes more than 250 postdoctoral researchers and scholars each year. Its present and former faculty and members include 37 Nobel laureates, 46 Fields Medal recipients and 25 Abel Prize laureates, along with recipients of the Turing Award, the Pulitzer Prize in history and other major academic honors.
