Field of Focus 2: Structure and Pattern Formation in the Material World
This Field of Focus links synthetic chemistry with the physics of complex systems, pure mathematics with theoretical physics, and numerical mathematics with chemistry and physics. It provides the infrastructure required to link the numerous common research interests of the three strong scientific-mathematical disciplines across subject boundaries and aims at understanding common structures on all scales in the material world.
As part of an international collaborative network, the Faculty of Physics and Astronomy will concentrate on the three main subject areas fundamental particles and their interaction, astrophysics and cosmology, and complex quantum systems, but has also ties to biophysics, environmental physics, and physical information technology. In the 2nd funding phase, the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science will continue to integrate its basic and applied subject areas and to intensify its internal, national and international networking.
The Faculty of Chemistry and Geosciences has won international recognition through its fundamental research on catalysis and material research, and the study of molecular structures and functions including their numerical modelling. This research affects related disciplines and creates cross-links to the life sciences and medicine. Physics, chemistry and mathematics have initiated collaborations to establish material sciences as a common subject in Heidelberg.
Institutions established within the Excellence Initiative
Heidelberg Graduate School of Fundamental Physics
Heidelberg Graduate School MathComp
Heidelberg Collaboratory for Image Processing (HCI)
MAThematics Center Heidelberg (MATCH)
Heidelberg Center for the Environment (HCE)
Faculties, institutes and centres
Physics and astronomy
Faculty of Physics and Astronomy
Heidelberg Center for Quantum Dynamics
Collaborative Research Centre „The Milky Way System“
Transregional Collaborative Research Centre „The Dark Universe“
Chemistry: catalysis and organic electronics
Department of Inorganic Chemistry (Ger)
Institute of Organic Chemistry
Institute for Physical Chemistry (Ger)
Collaborative Research Centre „Molecular Catalysts: Structure and Functional Design“
Catalysis Research Laboratory (CaRLa)
Mathematics and Scientific Computing
Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science (Ger)
Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing
Geo- und Umweltwissenschaften
