MPA – Mainz Physics Academy

Sharing knowledge - promoting development

PRISMA+ is committed to the education and career of young academics at all stages of their academic careers - from advanced Bachelor students to postdocs. Within the Cluster of Excellence, the Mainz Physics Academy (MPA) serves as an umbrella body for all activities regarding education and training, early-career support, and recruiting.

The MPA is based on three pillars

An "Excellence Track" is intended to offer excellent students at various stages of development an individual, additional study program focused on early entry into research projects.

In addition, MPA organises various summer schools and other extra-curricular activities in cooperation with other PRISMA+ institutions such as the Detector Laboratory and the Mainz Institute for Theoretical Physics (MITP).

Finally, MPA sees itself as a platform for the career development of all junior researchers participating in PRISMA+ : a wide range of extra-curricular training courses and workshops as well as accompanying measures for career development round off the MPA portfolio. The aim is to provide young people with the best possible qualifications and conditions for a successful career - whether in science, business or industry.

Under the umbrella of the MPA, calls for proposals for several PhD fellowships are held twice a year.

Promotion of young scientists as a core task

In line with the overarching strategy of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), we consider the active promotion of young researchers to be a central element in achieving scientific excellence. For this reason, the MPA is closely integrated in the university-wide strategy, which considers the promotion of young researchers as one of its core tasks. In 2014, for example, the JGU founded the Gutenberg Council for Young Researchers (GYR) as a central institution to systematically and sustainably promote young scientists and artists. In addition, the Gutenberg Teaching Cuncil (GTC), established in November 2010, reflects the JGU's mission statement and teaching strategy: to regard research and teaching as equally important tasks and to achieve excellent performance in these areas.

Support/advice at the MPA

The MPA coordinators are available to young scientists as easily accessible contact persons for all questions concerning studies and life in Mainz. They also provide trustworthy and low-threshold advice in problematic situations. The door to the MPA Office (Staudingerweg 9, 02-428) is always open to all PRISMA students.