06.08.2009
New: “International Max Planck Research School” in Konstanz

The new “International Max Planck Research School (IMPRS) for Organismal Biology” at the University of Konstanz studies the complex interactions between organisms and their environment as well as among organisms themselves. The Research School has been founded by the University of Konstanz (which has qualified for funding under the German government’s excellence initiative) with the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Seewiesen and Radolfzell and will bring together the outstanding expertise of both research institutions. “We aim to attract highly talented applicants from outside Germany who wish to study for a doctoral degree,” explains ornithologist Professor Martin Wikelski. Professor Wikelski holds the Chair of Physiological Ecology and Animal Migrations at the University of Konstanz and is one of the three directors of the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Seewiesen and Radolfzell.

“We are mainly concerned not with the discrete elements of an organism under strictly laboratory conditions, but with the organism as a whole in all its mutual interacting relationships with the environment,” emphasises Wikelski. The multiple factors influencing the migration of birds on their way to Africa and back is one very good example. Ultimately the researchers hope to revolutionise thinking about such complex interdependencies. 

The new institute is part of the University of Konstanz’ Biology Faculty and will initially work for a period of six years. The first applications should be processed this autumn. Teaching will be in English. Doctoral students will study developmental biology and evolutionary processes in a number of different biology-related disciplines. Invertebrates will be studied alongside fish, birds and mammals.

Explaining the function of the new educational institution for internationally qualified students Professor Gerhart von Graevenitz, the university’s rector, says that the “University of Konstanz gives top priority to systematic support for the development of young up and coming researchers.” There are already more than 55 “International Max Planck Research Schools” in Germany, all of which specialise in interdisciplinary fields of research such as molecular biology, neuroscience, computer science, demography, plasma physics and polymer research.

http://www.orn.mpg.de/IMPRS