Welcome to the Max Planck Schools!

If you are looking for a doctoral program with incredible infrastructure and world class supervision, the Max Planck Schools are the place to be. We have leading experts doing cutting edge research in various fields clustering around Cognition, Matter to Life and Photonics.

_{©David Ausserhofer}

Financial Support

Admission to a Max Planck School comes with funding for up to five years. This funding allows students and doctoral candidates to focus entirely on their scientific work and ensures that the Max Planck Schools can attract the best candidates from around the world.

During the first program phase (usually with a Bachelor’s degree), students receive an attractive scholarship and, if applicable, a subsidy for health insurance and material costs. With the successful completion of the first phase and a contract according to the local Wage Agreement for Public Service (TVöD/TV-L, E 13) in the second phase.

Our Fellows

Together with our students, the Fellows of the Max Planck Schools form the foundation of every School. Fellows mentor our young researchers and accompany them throughout their PhD studies.

Find out more about our world class supervisers and their research!

Picture: Meeting of Max Planck Schools students with Nobel Prize winner Stefan Hell at Kick-off-symposium of the Max Planck Schools in September 2019. Stefan Hell is Fellow of the Max Planck Schools of Matter to Life and Photonics.
©David Ausserhofer

The Max Planck Schools bring together international PhD candidates with Germany’s best scientists in three seminal interdisciplinary research fields: Cognition , Matter to Life or Photonics.

Based on a strong network of German Universities and German Research Organizations, the Max Planck Schools offer unique PhD programs with fully financed PhD positions for Bachelor and Master Graduates in an outstanding scientific environment. PhD students benefit from excellent infrastructure, innovative teaching methods and interdisciplinary exchange.

The three Max Planck Schools:

Max Planck School of Cognition

Cognition research covers topics from disciplines as diverse as psychology, physics, computer science, philosophy, biology and medicine. In this rapidly developing research field scientists with access to the methods and approaches of the various disciplines are in high demand.

Max Planck School Matter to Life

What, exactly, is life? Can processes, functions and objects related to life be simulated and recreated in the laboratory? These are the overarching questions addressed in the curriculum and research training of the Max Planck School Matter to Life.

Max Planck School of Photonics

Photonics is the science of light, enabling numerous modern technologies such as non-contact sensors, quantum computers and energy and information carriers. The Max Planck School of Photonics unites research in many subdisciplines to light up the world.

Video of the Max Planck School of Cognition

Video of the Max Planck School Matter to Life

Video of the Max Planck School of Photonics

Women in Photonics - Virtual Panel Discussion

March 10, 2021

There are already many great women in science - but not nearly enough! In photonics in particular, many intelligent young women shy away from a career as a scientist and a PhD. Three of our MPSP PhD candidates have nevertheless dared to step into science and now want to encourage other young women.

Step up and say "I want to become a professor!"

February 10, 2021

Isabel Dziobek, Professor at the Berlin School of Mind and Brain at Humboldt University and Fellow of the Max Plank School of Cognition talks about her passion for science, how important it is to develop self-confidence as a scientist and how this can be supported by targeted leadership programs.

"Meet the brightest minds on the planet"

October 28, 2020

The Max Planck School of Cognition is proud to announce that our speaker and fellow Professor Katrin Amunts, who is also Director of the Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine at the Forschungszentrum Jülich and Professor of Brain Research at University of Düsseldorf in Germany, has been selected as one of the finalists for this year's Falling Walls Conference.