The Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research () is a scientific center in the field of

polymer science Polymer science or macromolecular science is a subfield of materials science concerned with polymers, primarily synthetic polymers such as plastics and elastomers. The field of polymer science includes researchers in multiple disciplines inclu ...

located in

Mainz Mainz (; #Names and etymology, see below) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, and with around 223,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 35th-largest city. It lies in ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. The institute was founded in 1983 by Erhard W. Fischer and Gerhard Wegner. Belonging to the Chemistry, Physics and Technology Section, it is one of over 80 institutes in the

Max Planck Society The Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (; abbreviated MPG) is a formally independent non-governmental and non-profit association of German research institutes. Founded in 1911 as the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, it was renamed to the M ...

(''Max-Planck-Gesellschaft'').

Research

Using a basic research approach, its scientists strive to design and characterize innovative applications in the fields of

electronics Electronics is a scientific and engineering discipline that studies and applies the principles of physics to design, create, and operate devices that manipulate electrons and other Electric charge, electrically charged particles. It is a subfield ...

energy technology Energy development is the field of activities focused on obtaining sources of energy from natural resources. These activities include the production of renewable, nuclear, and fossil fuel derived sources of energy, and for the recovery and r ...

medicine Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for patients, managing the Medical diagnosis, diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, ...

and

nanomaterials Nanomaterials describe, in principle, chemical substances or materials of which a single unit is sized (in at least one dimension) between 1 and 100 nm (the usual definition of nanoscale). Nanomaterials research takes a materials science ...

. The institute specializes in new approaches to synthesis, supramolecular architectures, developing new methods, functional materials and components, structure and dynamics and surfaces and interfaces.

Organization

The beginning of 2014 saw a total of 511 people working at the institute, of whom 134 were supported by third-party funding and 79 were privately sponsored. The workforce was made up of 123 scientists, 150 doctoral and diploma students, 41 visiting scientists and 164 technical, administrative and auxiliary staff, altogether from approximately 40 different countries.

Departments

The MPIP consists of six departments each managed by a director: * Molecular Electronics, Paul Blom * Molecular Spectroscopy, Mischa Bonn * Physics of Interfaces, Hans-Jürgen Butt * Biomolecular Mechanics, Frauke Gräter * Physical Chemistry of Polymers, Katharina Landfester * Synthesis of Macromolecules, Tanja Weil

Emeriti and former directors

Emeriti * Kurt Kremer, Director, Polymer Theory * Hans-Wolfgang Spiess, Director, Polymer Spectroscopy (1985-2012) * Gerhard Wegner, Director, Solid State Chemistry (1983-2008) Former Directors * Erhard E. Fischer, Director, Polymer Physics (1983-1997) * Wolfgang Knoll, Director, Material Science (1993-2008)

Independent research groups

* X-Ray Scattering of Soft Matter, Katrin Amann-Winkel * Theoretical Spectroscopy, Daniel Keefer, ERC Starting Grant * Organic Bioelectronics, Ulrike Kraft, Lise Meitner Group * Data-driven Analysis for Soft Matter Systems, Oleksandra Kukharenko

Graduate programs

The International Max Planck Research School for Polymer Materials is a graduate program offering a doctorate degree. The school is run in cooperation with the

Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz The Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz () is a public research university in Mainz, Rhineland Palatinate, Germany. It has been named after the printer Johannes Gutenberg since 1946. it had approximately 32,000 students enrolled in around 100 a ...

. The Max Planck Graduate Center (MPGC) is a virtual department across the MPIP, the

Max Planck Institute for Chemistry The Max Planck Institute for Chemistry (Otto Hahn Institute; ) is a non-university research institute under the auspices of the Max Planck Society (German: Max-Planck-Gesellschaft) in Mainz, Germany. It was created as the Kaiser Wilhelm Instit ...

, and four faculties of the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, created for interdisciplinary projects. It offers a PhD program in these research topics to candidates from all over the world.

References

External links

Portrait of the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research at the Homepage of the Max Planck Society

Homepage of the Max Planck Graduate Center (MPGC)
Polymer Research Chemical research institutes Materials science institutes {{Chem-org-stub