Doctoral Research

The doctoral students at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (Predoctoral Scholars, Predoctoral Fellows and Visiting Predoctoral Fellows) undertake dissertation projects that form an integral part of the main research projects of the Institute. They are affiliated with one of the Departments or Research Groups or with the International Max Planck Research School (IMPRS) of the Institute and undertake their research as part of the research activities of their respective unit. At the same time, and as part of the cross-departmental activities of the Institute, they meet once a month for a joint colloquium. During these meetings, one doctoral student usually presents their work or work samples according to the progress of their dissertation, or the group discusses select texts or films. The meetings are intended to be as informal as possible in order to provide an open and cooperative platform for exchange. The meetings also serve for discussions and updates about life and work as a doctoral student in general and within the Max Planck Society in particular.

In addition to the monthly colloquium, all doctoral students at the MPIWG are invited to join the "Writing Wednesdays" that take place every Wednesday in the IMPRS seminar room (Boltzmannstraße 16, all day).

The central activities of the predoctoral community at the Institute are coordinated by the Academic Coordinator of the IMPRS, Sophie Schwarzmaier, together with the Predoctoral Scholars' Representative of the Institute, Christopher Klauke. If you have any questions about life and work as a doctoral student at the Institute, please feel free to contact them.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

  • Who is the Degree Awarded By?

    In Germany, the universities alone have the right to award doctorate degrees, and it is accordingly not possible to receive a PhD degree from a Max Planck Institute. The Predoctoral Scholars and Fellows of the MPIWG are therefore enrolled at a university in Germany or abroad, but their projects are very often (but not necessarily) supervised by at least one scholar of the MPIWG.

  • How are Predoctoral Scholars and Fellows Financed?

    The doctoral students at the Institute receive financial support during their stay, either through an employment contract (Predoctoral Scholars) or a stipend (Predoctoral Fellows). Others are externally financed—e.g., by their university or by an external grant (Visiting Predoctoral Fellows). Please find more information about opportunities for doctoral students at the MPIWG on our career webpage.

     

  • Do Predoctoral Scholars and Fellows Belong to a Department?

    Al Predoctoral Scholars and (Visiting) Fellows at the MPIWG are affiliated with one of the Departments, Research Groups or the IMPRS of the Institute and undertake their research as part of the activities of their research unit.

  • How Can I Apply to be a Predoctoral Scholar or Fellow?

    If you are interested in a position as Predoctoral Scholar or (Visiting) Fellow at the Institute, please visit the MPIWG career page.

Group Foto of MPIWG Predoctoral Fellows

MPIWG Predoctoral Fellows 2022–23. Source: MPIWG, September 2022

Doctoral Students

Flavio Auer

Visiting Predoctoral Fellow (Mar 2024 - Sep 2025)

Andrea Braun Střelcová

Predoctoral Scholar

Europe’s Research Collaboration with China, 1993-2023: People, Practice and Policy

Simon Brausch

Predoctoral Scholar

Against Reliability: On the Use of Technical Tools for Assessing the Methodological Quality of Clinical Trials

Megan Rhian Briers

Predoctoral Scholar (Oct 2023 - Mar 2027)

Women in British and American astronomical fieldwork in the nineteenth century

Po-Yuan Cheng

Predoctoral Scholar (Sep 2024 - Feb 2028)

Dominic Dold

Predoctoral Scholar

Definition and division in medieval Latin commentaries on Aristotle’s Historia animalium and De partibus animalium

Zeynep Ecem Pulas

Predoctoral Scholar (Sep 2022 - Feb 2026)

“Usual Suspects” in “Unusual Locations”: Infrastructure, Maintenance, and Expertise in the Late Ottoman Empire (1855–1922)

Trym Aleksander Eiterjord

Visiting Predoctoral Fellow (Jul 2020 - Sep 2025)

The Geopolitics of Chinese Arctic Research

Celica Fitz

Visiting Predoctoral Fellow (Apr 2025 - Jul 2025)

Un/sichtbare Strahlen — Visualisierungstechniken von Umweltwissen in der modernen Radiästhesie. Zum Einfluss außerakademischer Wissensformen auf forschende Zeichnungspraktiken und ihre aktuelle Rezeption als Kunst im Anthropozän.

Adriana Fraser

Predoctoral Fellow (Jan 2025 - May 2025)

Making Danger: Biological Weapons Research, Biosafety, and the Management of Microbial Life, 1940-1990

Ying Gao

Visiting Predoctoral Fellow (Dec 2024 - May 2025)

Jelena Große-Bley

Visiting Predoctoral Fellow (Jul 2020 - Sep 2025)

Forging ahead under a Changing Sky: Meteorological Services and Crop Seed Breeding as Climate Change Adaptation in China

Jonathan Haid

Visiting Predoctoral Fellow (Sep 2023 - Aug 2026)

Cellulosenitrat: Eine Materialgeschichte der Geisteswissenschaften, 1849–1951

Alexander Hall

Predoctoral Scholar (Sep 2024 - Apr 2028)

Mingyue Han

Visiting Predoctoral Fellow (Nov 2020 - Sep 2025)

Scientific Journals and the Transparency of Research: From 20th Century to Open Science

Jakob Kaaby Hellstenius

Predoctoral Scholar (Sep 2022 - Feb 2026)

Ignorance in the Age of Text: “Ignorant” Readers and Their Reading in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Britain

Riaz Howey

Predoctoral Scholar (May 2021 - Apr 2025)

Premodern Agricultural Knowledge in New Persian

Clara Marie Kahn

Visiting Predoctoral Fellow (Sep 2023 - Aug 2026)

Beyond Leaves: Cultivating Knowledge in Books of Hours (1470–1520)

Lena Kasten

Visiting Predoctoral Fellow (Sep 2024 - Aug 2027)

Christopher Klauke

Predoctoral Scholar (Sep 2022 - Feb 2026)

The Politics of Music Capturing. Music Information Retrieval and Ethnomusicological Research, 1900–1970

Hannah Kressig

Predoctoral Scholar (Sep 2024 - Feb 2028)

Yingchen Kwok

Predoctoral Fellow (Feb 2025 - Jun 2025)

The Hereditarian Roots of Diversity

Annina Sofia Lattu

Visiting Predoctoral Fellow (Sep 2022 - Sep 2025)

Open Science in University-Industry Research Collaboration in the EU and China

Yishu Mao

Predoctoral Scholar

Taming the Artificial, Ordering the Social: Divergence and Convergence in Emerging AI Governance Regimes in China, Germany/the EU and the US

Mateus Oka

Visiting Predoctoral Fellow (Mar 2025 - Feb 2026)

Of Monkeys and Primatologies: An Anthropological Study of the Encounters Between Practices and Regimes of Knowledge

Annca Pielenhofer

Visiting Predoctoral Fellow (Sep 2024 - Aug 2027)

Omri Polatsek

Visiting Predoctoral Fellow (Sep 2023 - Aug 2026)

Agrochemical Transformations and their Knowledge Resources in Egypt, 1882–1952

Satria Amilius Quaijtaal

Predoctoral Scholar (Sep 2022 - Feb 2026)

Science before Nature: An Epistemology of Perspectives in the Commentaries of Cuneiform Scholarly Traditions

Leonie Rau

Predoctoral Scholar (Oct 2023 - Mar 2027)

Tracing an Epistemic Genre: Premodern Arabic Recipe Collections as Resources of Knowledge

Dwirahmi Suryandari

Visiting Predoctoral Fellow (Sep 2023 - Aug 2026)

Contestation of Knowledge in the Collection and Exhibition of Indigenous Objects by Catholic Mission Museums

Yuan Tao

Visiting Predoctoral Fellow (Mar 2020 - Sep 2025)

The Coimbra Commentaries' Doctrine of Sense Perception

Emily N. K. Tsui

Predoctoral Scholar (Jan 2023 - Dec 2025)

The Strange as Knowledge: Collections of the Anomalous and Marvellous within Late-Imperial Leishu (1600-1900)

Lejie Zeng

Predoctoral Scholar (Sep 2022 - Mar 2026)

Colorful Encounters: Nature, Science, and Dyes between Europe and China, 1880–1950

Xiangyu Zhou

Visiting Predoctoral Fellow (Jan 2024 - Sep 2025)

Comparative Study of Mission-Oriented R&D Organizations

Further Information

More information about gaining a PhD with the Max Planck Society can be found on the Max Planck Society website and PhDNet.

Predoctoral Network at the MPIWG

Welcome to all new Predoctoral Scholars and (Visiting) Fellows and congratulations to those who have recently submitted their dissertation! The predoc meetings are monthly events organized by the Institute’s predoctoral community. The goal is to provide a safe space for informal exchange on all matters related to predocs' lives such as writing and publishing, our working conditions, mental health and so on. All doctoral students, whether they are employees of the MPIWG or (Visiting) Fellows, are welcome to join. Details can be found on the Intranet. The predoctoral community organizes also weekly "Writing Wednesdays" as well as social meet-ups. Contact: Christopher Klauke, Predoctoral Scholars' Representative at cklauke@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de

 

 

More about the Predoctoral Scholars' Representative (Intranet)