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

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

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.

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.
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

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 and 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.
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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.
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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.
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Videos

News

Positive Interim Evaluation of the Max Planck Schools

June 24, 2021

From December 2020 to April 2021, a panel of experts led by Prof. Karl Max Einhäupl, former chairman of the German Council of Science and Humanities and former CEO of Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, conducted an evaluation of the Max Planck Schools
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Fraunhofer IOF and the Max Planck School of Photonics

June 02, 2021

Quantum communication is a "hot topic". With the help of entangled quantum states, data transmission can be tap-proof and super-fast – whether within small microchips or over distances of kilometers. What still sounds a bit like science fiction to many of us is already being developed by young scientists at the Max Planck School of Photonics in collaboration with Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering (IOF).
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Max Planck Schools expand network of Fellows

May 17, 2021

134 scientists from German universities and research organizations have been appointed as “Fellows of the Max Planck Schools” by the President of the Max Planck Society, Martin Stratmann and the President of the German Rector’s Conference (HRK), Peter-André Alt.
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Digital Learning and Teaching at the Max Planck Schools

May 10, 2021

From the classroom to the screen, from piles of books to educational games, from passive knowledge consumption to proactive knowledge acquisition: At the Max Planck Schools, Students and Fellows are interconnected by virtual campuses that provide ideal conditions to exchange ideas, to acquire and share knowledge or to stay in touch.
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MtL Spring Days

We have had two great days on gather.town with all of our Master and PhD students as well as members of our faculty. Together we enjoyed not only the discussions and meeting possibilities on this excellent platform, but especially appreciated excellent speakers giving us insight into the Matter to Life Science.
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Step up and say "I want to become a professor!"

February 10, 2021

Max Planck School of Cognition
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.
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