The building currently housing the institute was designed in 1973 by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Frank Gehry.
The institute was co-founded by Tony F. Chan, Mark Green, and Eitan Tadmor; Dima Shlyakhtenko is its current director.
In addition, IPAM supports graduate students, post-doctoral scholars and young academics to encourage their participation in long programs.
Between the long programs, IPAM sponsors independent five-day workshops on a broad range of scientific themes.
The graduate student summer school is dedicated to an important scientific theme involving problems of mathematical interest.