The Baltimore-based Research Institute for Advanced Studies (RIAS), not to be confused with the better-known Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, was among the several centers for research in the mathematical and physical sciences established throughout the United States after World War II. In recognition of the critical role that fundamental scientific research played in the outcome of that war. Although not as well known as other similar institutes, such as the IAS mentioned above, or the RAND Corporation, it nevertheless made significant contributions to the sciences of systems and control theory, and various branches of mathematics, during its 18-year existence.