Snippets of the Network

A warm welcome, lively discussions, and a diverse program: numerous new members and alumni from all program lines took advantage of the opportunity to get to know each other personally, learn more about what the network has to offer, and make new contacts at the Get Together of the Elite Network of Bavaria.

Around 300 guests followed the invitation of the Max Weber Program to the festive New Year’s reception at the LMU in Munich. The evening focused on the presentation of the new mission statement and the introduction of the annual theme “Imagination”.

How do you move from PhD to your next career step? At RNAmed’s Topic Day in Munich, students met industry leaders, joined the Heinrich Wieland Prize Symposium, and trained application, networking and interview skills in a hands-on workshop.

With the support of the Elite Network of Bavaria, Lukas Nagy, a student in the Elite Graduate Program “Advanced Optical Technologies”, had the opportunity to combine a fascinating research internship with the cultural experience of a remarkable country.

A fitting con­clu­sion to an ex­cep­tional jour­ney: At a cere­moni­al event in Er­langen, the grad­uates of the Elite Net­work of Ba­varia were for­mally hon­ored. Minis­ter of State Blume per­sonal­ly ex­tend­ed his con­gratu­la­tions.

A team of stu­dents from Mu­nich de­veloped InkSight – a tat­too-based bio­sen­sor. The team was awarded the prize for Best Diag­nos­tics pro­ject at the iGEM Grand Jam­boree for this inno­va­tive, cell-based diag­nostic sys­tem.

Under the umbrella of the Elite Network of Bavaria, the Free State of Bavaria is establishing four new Elite Graduate Programs. They will start in 2026 at the University of Bayreuth, JMU, FAU, and TU Munich.

In this series of work­shops, stu­dents from the Elite Grad­uate Pro­gram “Standards of Deci­si­on-Making Across Cul­tures” dis­cuss with ex­perts from vari­ous pro­fes­sional fields how they can apply their aca­demic knowledge in their future ca­reers.

Students of the Elite Graduate Program “Software Engineering” visited the industry partner QPLIX in Munich to discuss their project ideas with experts.

As part of the “Alumni öffnen Türen” se­ries, MWP alum­nus Dr. Lud­wig Lenzgeiger of­fered fasci­nating in­sights into Ba­varian poli­tics dur­ing a visit to the State Chan­cel­lery. To­gether with Maja So­phie Klimaschewski, our schol­arship hold­ers en­joyed an even­ing full of insid­er knowledge and inspir­ing ex­change.