Max Planck Institute

The Max Planck Institutes belong to the Max Planck Society, a German public research organization founded in 1948 as successor to the Kaiser Wilhelm Society of 1911. Institutes are spread across Germany, each focused on a field in the natural, life or social sciences or humanities. They are not a single university; doctoral researchers are co-enrolled at a partner university.

Institutes are grouped into biology and medicine; chemistry, physics and technology; and human sciences. International Max Planck Research Schools, run with universities, are the main doctoral path inside laboratories in biochemistry, neurobiology, quantum optics, gravitational physics and related fields.

The Society employs about 20,000 staff, including thousands of doctoral and postdoctoral researchers from many countries. More than two dozen Nobel laureates have been affiliated with Max Planck or Kaiser Wilhelm institutes. There is no undergraduate student body.

Training is doctoral and lab-based, with IMPRS coursework and a thesis committee. Researchers are typically paid employees. Students apply to a named institute and live in that German city.

In the Grad School Navigator directory, Max Planck Institute lists 20 graduate programs across 7 subjects: 1 master's program and 19 doctoral programs, with the widest choice in physics, biology and materials science & engineering.