Heidelberg - City of Scholarship

As the oldest university in Germany, founded in 1386, the Ruprecht-Karl University has had a great international charisma for centuries. The university attracted to Heidelberg eminent individuals from all over the world, who from here made history. In the second half of the sixteenth century, a flourishing of the spirit of late humanism and Calvinism enlivened the university, which became known as a center for undogmatic thought.

Heidelberg's leading role in cancer research is also a tradition: the Surgeon and Professor of MedicineVinzenz Czerny's 1903 "Institute for experimental cancer research" - the forerunner of today's German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) - drew patients from all over Europe to Heidelberg. Simultaneously the natural sciences, with the collaborative work of Robert Wilhelm Bunsen, Gustav Robert Kirchhoff, and Hermann von Helmholz, were experiencing a glorious hour.

Today the University of Heidelberg is intellectually vigorous and more international than ever. In comparative studies of world-wide universities it is consistently ranked excellent. Currently, 20 percent of the students and 10 percent of the teaching staff come from outside Germany. During the past year, the international Masters and Bachelors courses of studies were introduced, thereby both furthering and simplifying international exchanges. In 2008, Heidelberg was named one of nine "Elite Universities" in the Republic of Germany, and in addition was successful in initiating a program of post-graduate studies and establishing an excellence-cluster.

The university continues to shape the economic and intellectural life of the city. The European Laboratory for Molecular Biology (EMBL), the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), four Max Planck Institutes, and the Academy of Sciences, are major research institutions of international significance and renown. From their ranks was chosen this year the ninth Heidelberger Nobel Prize winner: Professor Harald zur Hausen, who from 1983 until his official retirement in 2003 was on the Executive Board of the German Cancer Research Center, received the prize for the discovery that viruses are the cause of ovarian cancer.

In September of this year, the fruitful collaboration in Heidelberg between researchers and business employers was given honourable mention in a great bidding for development funds initiated by the Federal Ministry of Economy, and received an award of 80 million Euro. The metropolitan Rhine-Neckar region (comprising Mannheim, Ludwigshafen and Heidelberg) was named Germany's number one innovations site; both of the submitted cluster groups (networks of closely cooperating enterprises) are among the five winners in the Federal Republic. Over 100 partners from the fields of science, economics and politics participate in the Biotechnology Cluster. Actively engaged in the network "organic electronics" are, among others, the Universities of Heidelberg and Mannheim, as well as the local large-scale enterprises of BASF, Freudenberg, Heidelberg Printing Presses, Merck, Roche, and SAP.

Yet the encouragement of innovative, independent thought is not only reserved for the spheres of university and economy. Numerous possiblities also exist for children, for example Explo Heidelberg, an extracurricular place of learning in which children and young people take part in experiments and projects that explore the basic phenomena of the natural sciences. One more attractive example is also the newly opened "Museum at the Ginkgo", an extension of the Carl Bosch Museum in the former garage house of the Villa Bosch. Here in a playful manner the Museum Director Gerda Tschira introduces preschool and elementary school children to a variety of chemical processes.

“Up to 6,000 course and conference participants will gather at the EMBL Advanced Training Centre annually and make it the prime hub for the international life sciences elite,” says Iain Mattaj, EMBL Director General.

With its auditorium for an audience of 450 people and a large display area for the presentation of scientific posters the EMBL Advanced Training Centre offers unique conditions for scientific conferences and events. For the education of young scientists, the centre offers cutting-edge facilities like teaching laboratories and computer training rooms.

The architecture of the building is inspired by the structure of the double helix, the carrier of genetic information, DNA. With a total space of around 17,000 square metres, the building offers an excellent infrastructure for courses and conferences and convenient rooms and facilities for public events, teacher training and visitors. About 80 staff members from administration and scientific management use the office space.

Further information www.embl-heidelberg.de