About Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
With around 32,000 students from over 120 nations, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) is one of the largest and most diverse universities in Germany. JGU unites almost all academic disciplines under one roof, including the Mainz University Medical Center, the Mainz Academy of Fine Arts, the Mainz School of Music, and the Faculty of Translation Studies, Linguistics, and Cultural Studies in Germersheim. About 4,400 academics, among them 570 professors, teach and conduct research in over 100 institutes and clinics. With 75 fields of study and more than 270 degree courses, JGU offers an extraordinarily broad range of courses.
As the only German university of its size, nearly all of the institutions of JGU are located on one single campus near the city center, which is also home to five partner institutes involved in top-level non-university research: the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry (MPI-C), the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research (MPI-P), the Helmholtz Institute Mainz (HIM), the Institute of Biotechnology and Drug Research (IBWF), and the Institute of Molecular Biology (IMB). The campus of the University Medical Center is only about a kilometer away and the Mainz Leibniz Association institutions – the Institute of European History (IEG), the Leibniz Institute for Resilience Research (LIR), and the Roman-Germanic Central Museum (RGZM) – are located slightly further away in the inner city. In addition to this, many local businesses also carry out research, making Mainz a uniquely dynamic research hub.
World-Wide Recognition as a Research-Driven University
JGU enjoys global eminence as a research-driven university. Its main core research areas are particle and hadron physics, the materials sciences and translational medicine, while its most outstanding research achievements in the humanities have been attained in fields of American studies and historical cultural studies. JGU's success in Germany's Excellence Strategy program has confirmed its academic status: In 2018, the research network PRISMA+ (Precision Physics, Fundamental Interactions and Structure of Matter) was recognized as a cluster of excellence. With its forerunner PRISMA and the graduate school Materials Science in Mainz (MAINZ) JGU had previously been successful in the Excellence Initiative. Moreover, excellent placings in national and international rankings as well as numerous other honors and awards demonstrate just how successful Mainz-based researchers and academics are.
Another attribute of JGU is its research-oriented teaching – which incorporates research-based topics in the curricula early on. Similar emphasis is placed on promoting and mentoring young research talents. JGU also considers the exchange of knowledge with society as one of its key duties. As an open university, JGU offers the populace a unique portfolio of information dissemination concepts that extend far beyond the scope of standard popular academic formats. Through its system of university governance, JGU makes sure that its members participate in the strategic planning and that outstanding academics get involved.
The University of Mainz was founded in 1477, closed in 1798 when Napoleon's troops occupied the city, and reopened in 1946 as Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. The university is committed to the spirit of its namesake: in its promotion and implementation of innovative ideas as well as the use of knowledge to improve people’s lives and to encourage them to transend boundaries – this is the ambition of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz.
