Currently, about 200 graduate students – coming from all over the world – are working in the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Martinsried. The Graduate Program is a network of these PhD’s and tries to promote the interests of all it’s students. It was founded seven years ago and by now it organizes many activities during the year. Whenever possible, the Graduate Program works close together with the IMPRS and the newly founded post-doc association.

To stimulate interaction among the students of the different departments we organize a yearly PhD Retreat at the Ringberg Castle and we have monthly Get Together’s, informal gatherings where a simple meal and drinks are served.

To broaden our scientific view, we organize each year a Seminar Series where we invite renowned speakers from all over the world.

And in order to prepare ourselves for our “life after the PhD”, whether that would be in- or outside of the scientific community, we also regularly invite companies and institutes from different working areas to tell us about their field and the opportunities for us (see Careers for PhDs).

To broaden professional and social competence, we furthermore offer different Soft Skill Workshops.