Faculty 1

 

The Faculty of Mathematics, Computer Science and Natural Sciences is the largest faculty of the RWTH Aachen University. The faculty is made up of five departments: mathematics, computer science, biology, chemistry and physics. Chairs for the fields of mathematics, physics and chemistry had already been proposed when the foundation stone of the university was laid in 1865. The faculty today looks back at 150 years of progress. Several Nobel laureates have ties to the faculty. Just recently, for example, the faculty made it to the top of the list among “Germany’s best universities” in the “Handesblatt Junge Karriere” ranking.

Today, the faculty is made up of more than 120 professors, 530 other staff members and about 6,000 students. All departments offer taught undergraduate and graduate programs, including teacher’s education training, as well as some specialized programs of an interdisciplinary or international focus. Doctoral studies and thesis work are an important part of the departmental activities.

The departments closely cooperate with one another and other units of the university, such as the engineering sciences. A close collaboration exists with the Forschungszentrum Jülich (Research Center Jülich), with which a strategic partnership is in place.

One emphasis of the award-winning institutional strategy of RWTH is strengthening the natural sciences. Junior professorships were established in new, innovative not yet existing fields of the faculty. Start-up funding has been provided for new, interdisciplinary, promising, yet unpredictable research ideas; students have been involved in research projects.

The German Wool Institute, Fraunhofer-Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology and the Helmholtz-Institute for Biomedical Technology are all affiliated with the faculty.

The buildings of the departments spread from the central area in the center of town out to the Melaten Campus, close to the university hospital.