Information for Graduate Students
The Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence welcomes life sciences and medicine students who would like to conduct research for their bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral degrees. Graduate applicants are strongly encouraged to apply through our International Max Planck Research School (IMPRS-BI) or one of our associated programs (see below).
While Max Planck Institutes do not confer academic degrees, our students are enrolled at one of our local partner universities in Munich – the Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich (LMU) or the Technical University Munich (TUM).
The International Max Planck Research School – Biological Intelligence (IMPRS-BI)
The faculty of the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence is part of the International Max Planck Research School – Biological Intelligence (IMPRS-BI). This enables young scientists accepted into programs at our Institute to pursue doctoral degrees, while also contributing to our groundbreaking research.
Studies of biological intelligence explore the foundations of intelligent behavior and how animals acquire, store, apply and transfer knowledge about their environment. The multidisciplinary approaches used to study biological intelligence bring together neuroscience, behavioral ecology and evolutionary biology. These endeavours span all scales of biological organization, from molecules to organisms and from individual animals to societies and ecosystems.
Our work investigates everything from how animals perceive and interact with their environment, to how behavior develops and varies across species, and how biological intelligence arises and adapts in complex ecological and social contexts.
Therefore, the research of IMPRS-BI students based at our Institute sheds light on the evolution, development and diversity of animal behavior and helps to unravel many important questions, including what distinguishes natural from artificial intelligence.
Associated Graduate Schools
Additionally, our department and research group leaders also recruit PhD students through the following programs:
- IMPRS for Molecules of Life (IMPRS-ML): Based at the neighboring Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry, which also shares training activities and events with IMPRS-BI students.
- IMPRS for Translational Psychiatry (IMPRS-TP): Based at the Max Planck Institute for Psychiatry
- Graduate School for Systemic Neuroscience (GSN-LMU): Based at the Ludwig Maximilians University Munich.
