The Graduate School BuildMoNa ("Leipzig School of Natural Sciences – Building with Molecules and Nano-objects") at Universität Leipzig, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, focuses on interdisciplinary graduate education through top-level, synergistic research in the areas of physics

Physics

Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...

, chemistry

Chemistry

Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....

 and bioscience

BioScience

BioScience is a peer-reviewed monthly sometimes daily scientific journal that is published by the American Institute of Biological Sciences . The content is written and edited for accessibility to researchers, educators, and students alike...

s. The Graduate School BuildMoNa was founded in November 2007 within the German Excellence Initiative

German Universities Excellence Initiative

The Excellence Initiative of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the German Research Foundation aims to promote cutting-edge research and to create outstanding conditions for young scientists at universities, to deepen cooperation between disciplines and institutions, to...

. The Graduate School BuildMoNa is a class at the Research Academy Leipzig. Up to 100 doctoral candidates are enrolled in BuildMoNa.

Research Concept

The materials research concept is based on a "bottom-up" approach. Progressive building blocks, such as nano-objects, smart molecules, polymeric scaffolds, and active proteins, will be combined – preferentially by self-organization – to create fundamentally new classes of materials that are inspired by active, adaptive living matter, and that are environmentally friendly, highly efficient, low-cost devices serving multifunctional purposes for a steadily more diversified modern society. The paradigm shift from uniform bulk materials towards nanostructured multifunctional materials that emerge from combinations of smart molecules, proteins, and nano-objects is essential for future knowledge transfer from fundamental to applied sciences.

Doctoral Training

Doctoral students with an MSc (or equivalent degree) or an outstanding BSc from around the world have the possibility to receive within three years the degree Dr. rer. nat. from Universität Leipzig. The training consists of research work and a well-structured training program with modules focusing on interdisciplinary knowledge transfer in important fields of materials science including essential related methods. Further multidisciplinary training activities are transferable skills modules, industrial training, research stays abroad and participations in international conferences.

See also

• Graduate School BuildMoNa
• Research Academy Leipzig
• Universität Leipzig (University of Leipzig)
• Top-level research area "Multifunctional materials and processes from molecules and nanodevices"