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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 Photonics, Matter to Life and Cognition. Apply until December 1st 2020 in your area of interest!

A Passion for Science

Concentrating scientific excellence, thereby offering a doctoral training programme that is competitive with the international elite: this is what the new Max Planck Schools stand for.

News and Events

Explore recent news of the three Max Planck Schools, interviews, as well as reports from research and important information on events.

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

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.