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The Max Planck Institute for Physics (MPP) in Garching, close to Munich, is one of the world’s leading research institutions for particle physics.

Scientists study the smallest building blocks of matter and how they interact. Today three experimental and four theoretical departments investigate questions in fundamental physics. The physicists develop and test theoretical models as the basis for experiments with the aim of solving the mysteries of the universe. The MPP was founded in 1917, with Albert Einstein as its first director. Its past faculty members include pioneers such as Max von Laue, Peter Debye, Werner Heisenberg, Ludwig Biermann, Carl Friedrich von Weizsacker, Hans-Peter Durr and Julius Wess. The institute, based in Munich since 1955, recently moved to a new building on the Garching science campus.

mpp.mpg.de

The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) is the world’s leading center for curiosity-driven basic research.

Its past faculty members include the most famous scientists in the world, such as Albert Einstein, Robert Oppenheimer, Hermann Weyl, John von Neumann, Wolfgang Pauli and Kurt Gödel. In mathematics, forty-two out of sixty-one Fields Medalists have been affiliated with the Institute, and nine of out sixteen Abel Prizes were awarded to Institute professors or visiting scholars. Thirty-four Nobel Laureates have worked at the IAS. Since 1930, it has served as a model for protecting and promoting independent inquiry, prompting the establishment of similar institutes around the world, and underscoring the importance of academic freedom worldwide. Current philanthropic support and a reliable stream of endowment-generated revenue allow its permanent faculty and visiting researchers to freely determine the course of their study.

ias.edu

The Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences (MiS), based in Leipzig, carries out research in pure and applied mathematics and promotes the mutual exchange of ideas between mathematics and the natural sciences.

History shows that the fundamental problems of physics, chemistry, biology and other sciences have led to important new developments in mathematics, while mathematics has had a profound impact on these fields of knowledge. For example, Fourier's practical work as a surveyor inspired Gauss, one of the greatest mathematicians of all time, to develop his theory of surfaces and differential geometry. This, in turn, forms the basis of Einstein's theory of general relativity and the standard model of particle physics. Heisenberg's formulation of quantum mechanics also accelerated the development of functional analysis, especially the spectral theory of operators. Finally, the Standard Model of particle physics is formulated in the context of gauge field theories based on a profound synthesis of physics, geometry (topology) and analysis.

mis.mpg.de

The University of Amsterdam (UvA) is one of the leading European universities across the full spectrum of the arts, humanities, natural sciences, social sciences and medical sciences.

Its 6,000 staff, 3,000 PhD candidates and 40,000 students work and study together at various locations in Amsterdam. The mission of the Institute of Physics (IoP) at the UvA is to carry out excellent research across a broad range of fields in both experimental and theoretical physics - spanning from fundamental to more applied; to provide inspiring education within the physics and adjacent curricula; and to transfer our knowledge and enthusiasm into society, both in the form of collaboration with industrial partners as well as in terms of boosting interest in physics in general.

https://iop.uva.nl/