Göttingen Graduate School for Neurosciences and Molecular Biosciences: Official opening with scientific symposium and ceremony

The Göttingen Graduate School for Neurosciences and Molecular Biosciences (GGNB) was officially opened with a scientific symposium and a ceremony on the 21st of November 2008. The organisers expressed delight at the huge response to the opening event: numerous students completing their Doctorates under the roof of GGNB used the opportunity to exchange ideas with fellow students and to find out about the work of other Doctorate students. “This has shown how much networking has already progressed as a result of the Graduate School” emphasised Dr. Steffen Burkhardt, one of the two scientific coordinators of GGNB.




The speakers at the ceremony (from left to right): Dr. Ingrid Ohlert from the German Research Association, Lord Mayor Wolfgang Meyer, President of the University Prof. Dr. Kurt von Figura, Minister Lutz Stratmann, chair of the board of trustees of the foundation, Dr. Wilhelm Krull and GGNB-spokesman Prof. Dr. Reinhard Jahn.



The task of the Graduate School supported by funds from the Excellence Initiative is the optimisation of research and training conditions for Doctorate students and promotion of the development of a new generation of junior scientists by offering intensive supervision and a range of courses. Göttingen Graduate School for Neurosciences and Molecular Biosciences is supported by six Faculties of the Georgia Augusta, three Max-Planck-Institutes and the German Primate Centre. The Graduate School currently combines twelve Doctorate programmes with a common scientific and methodical focus. Guidance and supervision of the currently approximately 340 Doctorate students is provided by internationally renowned scientists. The approximately 170 lecturers include amongst others a Nobel laureate, seven Leibniz laureates and three scientists who have been awarded the German Innovation Award.

The GGNB symposium was opened by Prof. Dr. Reinhard Jahn, speaker of the Graduate School and director at the Max-Planck-Institute for Biophysical Chemistry. The English-language celebratory lecture on the function of intra-cellular chloride channels – with surprising insights into common diseases – was held by Prof. Dr. Thomas Jentsch. The physicist and medic, recipient of numerous awards, works at the Max-Delbrück-Centre for Molecular Medicine and at the Leibniz-Institute for Molecular Pharmacology (Berlin). More than 60 GGNB-Doctorate students were represented in a poster exhibition of current results of their research projects.

University President Prof. Dr. Kurt von Figura spoke prior to the ceremony. This was followed by words of welcome from Lutz Stratmann, Minister of Lower Saxony for Science and Culture and Wolfgang Meyer, lord mayor of the city of Göttingen. Afterwards Dr. Wilhelm Krull as chair of the foundation board of the Georg-August-University Göttingen foundation under public law addressed the guests. Further speakers were Dr. Ingrid Ohlert from the German Research Association as well as GGNB spokesman Reinhard Jahn.