[Math] Research-only permanent positions worldwide

advicecareersoft-question

Most academic jobs involve some amount of teaching. Post-docs generally do not, but they are only short-term positions.

Question: in which countries can one obtain a research-only permanent position in mathematics? Please provide a link to a relevant website if possible.

Please mention only one country per answer, and since there is obviously no best answer, this is a community-wiki question.

Best Answer

In the US, you could try to follow in the footsteps of Gödel and land a job at the Institute for Advanced Study.

But do keep in mind what Richard Feynman thought about such research positions without teaching duties:

When I was at Princeton in the 1940s I could see what happened to those great minds at the Institute for Advanced Study, who had been specially selected for their tremendous brains and were now given this opportunity to sit in this lovely house by the woods there, with no classes to teach, with no obligations whatsoever. These poor bastards could now sit and think clearly all by themselves, OK? So they don't get any ideas for a while: They have every opportunity to do something, and they are not getting any ideas. I believe that in a situation like this a kind of guilt or depression worms inside of you, and you begin to worry about not getting any ideas. And nothing happens. Still no ideas come.

Nothing happens because there's not enough real activity and challenge: You're not in contact with the experimental guys. You don't have to think how to answer questions from the students. Nothing!

From: "Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman! – Adventures of a Curious Character"