MAX PLANCK SCHOOLS DAY 2026

JOIN US FOR AN INSPIRING EVENT IN BERLIN

Together with the three Max Planck Schools – Biomedical Artificial Intelligence, Cognition, Matter to Life, and Photonics – we are looking forward to welcoming the PhD candidates of the sixth cohort this fall. On behalf of Prof. Patrick Cramer, President of the Max Planck Society, and Prof. Walter Rosenthal, President of the German Rectors' Conference, we cordially invite you to attend the annual

MAX PLANCK SCHOOLS DAY

on October 8, 2026

Harnack House Berlin

from 11 a.m. (CEST) onward

This year, our event will focus on (tba). Besides an engaging debate with two experts in the field and interactive workshops, we are excited to have Prof. Gerd Kempermann, Fellow of the Max Planck School of Cognition, talk about his passion for science and how this feeds into the Max Planck Schools. Most of all, we want to once again provide our PhD candidates, Fellows and representatives of our partner organizations a platform to meet and network in person. 

Join us for a lively event at the Harnack House Berlin, celebrate the start of the new academic year,
and take the opportunity to meet and network!

REGISTRATION

REGISTER HERE

PROGRAM

CONFIRMED SPEAKERS

WELCOME AND CLOSING

Walter Rosenthal

President of the German Rectors' Conference

German Rectors' Conference

Walter Rosenthal is a physician and pharmacologist and has been President of Friedrich Schiller University Jena since 2014. Previously, he was Director of what is now the Leibniz Institute for Molecular Pharmacology from 1996 to 2009 and thereafter Chairman of the foundation's board and Scientific Director of the Max Delbrück Center, a research center of the Helmholtz Association, until 2014. He is a member of the Leopoldina, the Senate of the Leibniz Association, as well as Dean of the Max Planck Schools. In 2022, he was named "Higher Education Manager of the Year" by the newspaper "Die Zeit" and the Centre for Higher Education. He is recognized as a specialist in signal transduction (G-Proteins, G-protein-coupled receptors and anchoring proteins). Since May 2023, he is now President of the German Rectors’ Conference, and he will continue as Dean of the Max Planck Schools until December 2023. © HRK/Jürgen Scheere

Ferdi Schüth

Member Max Planck Schools Steering Committee

Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung I Director Heterogeneous Catalysis

Ferdi Schüth was born in 1960, studied chemistry and law at Münster University, Germany, and completed his Ph.D. in Chemistry in 1988. After a post-doc with L. D. Schmidt at the University of Minnesota, he joined the group of K. Unger in Mainz for his habilitation. In 1995 he became full professor at Frankfurt University, and in 1998 moved to Mülheim to become director at the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung. He was vice president of the German Research Foundation (DFG) and until 2020 of the Max Planck Society. His research interests include catalysis, zeolites, porous materials, and energy-related topics.

PASSION FOR SCIENCE LECTURE

Gerd Kempermann

Fellow Max Planck School of Cognition I Research Focus: Adult Neurogenesis

German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases I Adult Neurogenesis Group

Gerd Kempermann, born in Cologne, studied Medicine in Cologne and Freiburg, Germany. From 1995 to 1998 he was postdoctoral fellow with Fred H. Gage at the Salk Institute, where he started his work on how cognitive and physical activity stimulate adult hippocampal neurogenesis. After two years a clinical neurologist in Regensburg, he was research group leader at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch. In 2007 he became Professor at the CRTD – Center for Regenerative Therapies at TU Dresden. Since 2009 he is also speaker of the German Center for Neurodegenerative Disease (DZNE) Dresden. Main topics of his work are the function and activity-dependent regulation of adult hippocampal neurogenesis and the neurobiological foundations of individuality and healthy cognitive aging. He is member of the Leopoldina, the German National Academy of Sciences. © Francisca Gilli

PANEL ON THIS YEAR‘S LEADING THEME (tba)

Leonardo Pettini

PhD candidate Max Planck School of Cognition I Research Focus: Visual Memory

Max Planck School of Cognition

Human cognition relies on the brain's ability to represent visual information during perception, working memory, and long-term memory. A major challenge when studying how these cognitive functions interact is balancing ecological validity with experimental control, but generative AI offers new solutions. We used a diffusion model to develop a stimulus set of naturalistic images that vary along controlled perceptual gradients. This enables us to investigate in a controlled way how the early visual cortex represents naturalistic information during perception and memory maintenance, and how long-term memory affects this process. Our work demonstrates how generative AI can be used to solve experimental bottlenecks and advance naturalistic understanding of human cognition. © Caitlin Kelly

Wolf-Georg Ringe

Director Institute of Law & Economics, University of Hamburg I Research Focus: Law and Finance

University of Hamburg - Faculty of Law

Professor Georg Ringe teaches law and finance at the University of Hamburg and at the University of Oxford. His research explores law, technology, and sustainability in the broader context of corporate law, capital markets, and financial regulation, with an interdisciplinary and comparative focus. He is a Research Member of the European Corporate Governance Institute (Brussels), Vice-President at the European Banking Institute (Frankfurt), and co-editor of the Journal of Financial Regulation. He was a Visiting Professor at Columbia University and Stanford Law School.

Klaus-Robert Müller

Chair Machine Learining Group TU Berlin I Research Focus: Machine Learning

Machine Learning Group TU Berlin

Klaus-Robert Müller received his Diplom in mathematical physics and PhD in theoretical computer science from the University of Karlsruhe. He has been a professor of computer science at Technische Universität Berlin since 2006; at the same time he is directing rsp. co-directing the Berlin Machine Learning Center and the Berlin Big Data Center and most recently BIFOLD . He studied physics in Karlsruhe from 1984 to 1989 and obtained his Ph.D. degree in computer science at Technische Universität Karlsruhe in 1992. After completing a postdoctoral position at GMD FIRST in Berlin, he was a research fellow at the University of Tokyo from 1994 to 1995. In 1995, he founded the Intelligent Data Analysis group at GMD-FIRST (later Fraunhofer FIRST) and directed it until 2008. From 1999 to 2006, he was a professor at the University of Potsdam. From 2012 he has been Distinguished Professor at Korea University in Seoul. In 2020/2021 he spent his sabbatical at Google Brain as a Principal Scientist. © BIFOLD

SCIENCE TALKS - INSIGHTS BY SELECTED PhD CANDIDATES

Bianca Serio

PhD candidate Max Planck School of Cognition I Research Focus: Brain Organization

Max Planck School of Cognition I Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences

Karim Ajmail

PhD candidate Max Planck School Matter to Life I Research Focus: Microscopy-based Cell Sorting

Max Planck School Matter to Life I Max Planck Institute for Medical Research

Biological cells, whilst sharing the exact same DNA, often behave surprisingly heterogeneous. Consequently, single-cell sorting methods such as fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) capable of dissecting these heterogeneities have revolutionised biological research. However, current methods cannot distinguish more complex phenotypes such as spatial organisation or cell-cell-interactions. My work focuses on developing a pipeline, termed LaserTag, capable of sorting single cells based on a complex microscopy-based phenotype. I leverage the power of photoactivatable fluorophore to selectively photoactivate („tag“) single cells of interest. These fluorescently tagged cells are then sorted using FACS to dissect differences of these phenotypes on a molecular level.

Sebastian Hell

PhD candidate Max Planck School of Photonics I Research Focus: Ultrafast Photoionization

Max Planck School of Photonics I Friedrich Schiller University Jena

In quantum physics, what we observe depends on how we measure. Like casting a shadow, the way we illuminate an object determines which aspect becomes visible and which remains hidden. Ionizing D₂ molecules with ultrashort, intense laser pulses, we show that an electron and ion become entangled on ultrashort timescales. Measuring the ion in coincidence then determines what information is available about the electron. If the ion reveals the electron’s path, its typical wave-like behavior vanishes; if this “which-path” information is erased, it reappears. Our results show that ion–electron coincidence spectroscopy can test quantum information concepts on ultrashort timescales.

CONTACT AND FURTHER INFORMATION

For any questions regarding the registration process, please contact our event agency con gressa:

E-Mail: mpsd@con-gressa.de
Phone: +49 30 28 49 3855

For any questions regarding the Max Planck Schools or the Max Planck Schools Day, please contact
the Max Planck Schools Central Coordination Team:

E-Mail: maxplanckschools@gv.mpg.de
Phone: +49 (0)89 2108 1873

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