PhD at MDC
Next application period: 15th October 2009 to 1st January 2010
There are currently four PhD programmes within the Helmholtz Graduate School 'Molecular Cell Biology':
• International PhD Programme 'Molecular Cell Biology'
• International Helmholtz Research School 'Molecular Neurobiology' (MolNeuro)
• International Helmholtz Research School 'Translational Cardiovascular & Metabolic Medicine' (TransCard)
• MDC - NYU PhD Exchange Program in Systems Biology
The Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) has established the Helmholtz Graduate School ‘Molecular Cell Biology’ (HGS-MCB) to offer a unified interdisciplinary platform for structured PhD training at the MDC or its partners. We work in collaboration with our partners the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU), the Freie Universität Berlin (FU), and the Leibniz Institute for Molecular Pharmacology (FMP). There are currently about 200 international PhD students in the Helmholtz Graduate School selected on competitive basis.
The MDC is a leading research institution in the field of Molecular Medicine with around 400 publications in top international journals every year, including contributions to Science, Nature, Cell etc. It has more than 50 research groups, an exceptional research base and state-of-the-art facilities, a long-standing cooperation between basic researchers, clinical scientists and the partner universities, and can thus provide excellent training of future scientists in molecular cell biology.
The MDC covers a broad range of research areas including: Cardiovascular & Metabolic Diseases; Cancer; Bioinformatics & Systems Biology and Function and Dysfunction of the Nervous System.
Training and courses offered by the Graduate School:
Lectures:
The Helmholtz Graduate School provides interdisciplinary training in Molecular Cell Biology, including a series of PhD lectures presented by the PhD faculty and world experts, who give an overview of their research, techniques and latest findings. This is supplemented by neuroscience and cardiovascular focused lecture series provided by the MolNeuro and TransCard Research Schools.
The Helmholtz Graduate School also offers weekly and bi-weekly seminar series, summer schools, symposia and more.
Supervision:
All PhD students are supervised by an individual PhD Project Committee, which consists of PhD faculty and external experts. Students are expected to give an annual report to the committee about their proposed PhD project and work progress.
PhD-Retreat:
Once a year PhD students of the MDC and FMP organize a PhD Retreat for their colleagues and faculty to help students to get to know each other’s projects and to facilitate interaction and collaboration. The retreats usually take place at locations on the outskirts of Berlin.
Travel and Collaboration Fund:
All PhD students are encouraged to apply for funds for conferences and external courses or for a stay outside their host lab to learn new techniques or work on a sub-project for up to 6 month. Oral and poster presentations (incl. at the yearly PhD Retreat) are considered essential parts of students’ soft skills training.
Soft Skills courses:
The Helmholtz Graduate School provides courses in scientific writing, presentation, time management, grant writing and other topics.
University interface:
Since most students will have work-place at the MDC in Berlin-Buch the Helmholtz Graduate School assists students in the admission, enrolment and submission process at the partner universities and organization of the PhD examination
