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Graduate Programs

Graduate programs are typically fixed-term, systematically designed programs of study and research for the purpose of mutual research and work performed under the scientific direction of university scholars that ends in a doctoral degree. 

Here you will find an overview of graduate and doctoral study programs of the Faculty of Science.

DFG Ph.D. Research Groups

DFG-1364: Interactions between tectonics, climate and bioshpere in the African-Asian monssonal region

In the second funding period of the GRK 1364 we aim at studying the rich interactions between tectonics, climate, topography, biosphere, and surface processes in the India-Asia Collision Zone and the East African Rift System. Both settings are influenced by the African-Asian Monsoon, which is highly variable on yearly, decadal, millennial, but also on geologic timescales. Both areas constitute premier natural laboratories characterized by ongoing tectonism and the creation of pronounced relief contrasts in the Cenozoic, thus influencing atmospheric circulation, the distribution of rainfall and spatiotemporal changes in erosional and depositional processes.

DFG Ph.D. Research Groups with participation from the Faculty of Science

 

DFG-1539: Visibility and Visualization. Hybrid Forms of Visual Knowledge.

This PhD research group works on forms of visualization in science and the arts. Together with the University of Applied Sciences in Potsdam and the Free University of Berlin, this group researches practices of visualization with regard to the question of constituting knowledge and reflexive structures. The group has traced the changing significance of visual phenomena over recent decades in the connections of the computer sciences, the cognitive sciences and natural sciences, with methods from the humanities and the analysis of artistic practices.

DFG-1558: Nonequilibrium Collective Dynamics in Condensed Matter and Biological Systems

This PhD research group is an interdisciplinary initiative that aims to explore shared characteristics and methods in the description of collective dynamics among interacting units in a state of non-equilibrium. This project anticipates new perspectives on research fields from physics and biology. The research program brings together theoretical projects with a strong experimental character, as well as two experimental groups. Although the group focuses on basic research, it is also motivated by discovering possible applications in medicine or new types of equipment, such as photonic or micro-fluid devices.

DFG-1740: Dynamical Phenomena in Complex Networks: Fundamentals and Applications

A key goal of this interdisciplinary IRTG is to develop a structured PhD program which will enable young researchers to work in network theory as well as across various fields of network applications. It comprises education on modern theoretical concepts and training on network applications, even involving “hands-on” experience with the corresponding experiments.

DFG-1845: Stochastic analysis with applications in biology, nance and physics

This graduate programme funded by the German Research Council (DFG) from resources provided by the Federal Government and the Federal States of Germany is carried by groups of probabilists at HU Berlin, TU Berlin, and the University of Potsdam. Its PhD students will receive a broad training in probability theory and stochastic processes, embedded in an excellent environment for high level research in the main fields of modern probability.

Programs of the Faculty with Participating from University of Potsdam

  • Adaptive Nature Conservation under Climate Change

    The program has been established at Potsdam University and the University of Applied Sciences in Eberswalde to explore and develop sustainable concepts and strategies that will provide for conservation under conditions of rapid environmental change

  • Berlin-Brandenburg School for Regenerative Therapies

    Offers interdisciplinary training and research opportunities in the field of Regenerative Medicine for out-standing doctoral and postdoctoral researchers with a background in the biological, engineering or clinical disciplines.

  • Berlin International Graduate School of Natural Sciences and Engineering

    Is an international Graduate School founded on May 29 2007 at the Technische Universitaet Berlin (TUB). The School is part of the Cluster "Unified Concepts in Catalysis" founded by the TUB and five other Institutions in the Berlin area within the framework of the "Excellence Initiative" of the German Government.

  • Graduate Research Training Program PharMetrX: Pharmacometrics & Computational Disease Modelling

    The PhD program is a joint initiative of Freie Universität Berlin and the University of Potsdam. It is supported in terms of content and funding by the research-oriented pharmaceutical companies AbbVie Deutschland, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma, F. Hoffmann-La Roche, Merck, Novo Nordisk, and SANOFI.

  • Helmholtz Research School for Explorative Simulation in Earth-Sciences

    The graduate research school GeoSim is funded by the Helmholtz association and grants from its home institutions: GFZ Potsdam, Freie Universität Berlin and Universität Potsdam. Earth scientists and mathematicians from these institutions have joined forces to provide training and conduct research in the field of Explorative Simulation in Earth Sciences.

  • IMPRS on Biomimetic Systems

    The IMPRS on Multiscale Bio-Systems is a graduate program, where young talented doctoral students can work on a challenging research project and develop their scientific communicaiton and management skills.

  • IMPRS for Geometric Analysis, Gravitation and String Theory

    The International Max Planck Research School (IMPRS) for Geometric Analysis, Gravitation and String Theory aims to promote research in mathematical physics in an area related in the widest sense to Einstein's theory of general relativity, ranging from pure mathematics (differential geometry and the theory of partial differential equations) to the physics of black holes, gravitational waves and cosmological applications of Einstein's theory and all the way to the most recent efforts to reconcile Einstein's theory with quantum mechanics in the framework of superstring theory and M theory. 

  • IMPRS for Molecular Plant Science

    Our doctoral programme is open to students from all countries. The doctoral research is done under the guidance of our directors, group leaders and senior scientists. We work closely with the University of Potsdam where most of our doctoral students are enrolled during their doctoral studies. The doctoral thesis is submitted and defended at the University, which also confers the doctoral degree.

  • Leibniz Graduate School of Molecular Biophysics

    The FMP started one of the first Leibniz Graduate Schools in Germany in January 2007. The training program of the Leibniz Graduate School aims to improve education in the field of Molecular Biophysics for PhD students who have a degree in biology, chemistry, physics or medicine.

  • Leibniz-Graduiertenschule "Quantitative Spektroskopie in der Astrophysik"

    Spectroscopy, meaning the unbundling of light into its colors, is the fundamental method of analysis in astrophysics. This field was initiated and developed to a significant degree in Potsdam in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Today, spectroscopy allows precision measurements of astrophysical objects, from the determination of chemical frequencies in the sun, to the measurement of magnetic fields for stars, to the calculation of mass for stars and entire galaxies.

  • Research School on "Service-Oriented Systems Engineering" (HPI)

    The HPI Research School is dedicated to the topic of “Service-Oriented Systems Engineering.” The School focuses on the design and implementation of service-based architectures. It therefore deals with a variety of research questions from the areas of software technology, system modeling and analysis, and the adaptability and integration of applications.