How to apply for a PhD or Postdoc Position
The University of Göttingen is a very open-minded community. Our Institute of Organic and Biomolecular
Chemistry has a high international reputation and occupies a leading position in the national ranking. About 80 papers are published every year,
and the technical equipment (including high-field NMR and FT-ICR-MS) is matching all the needs for even most demanding tasks. The members of my group came from more than 22 nations (up to 18 nations together!), and
further highly motivated chemists with a strong interest in microbial chemistry are encouraged to join us as postdoc or PhD students (for a master study, very special requirements are needed!). Lab space is (nearly) always
free, however, there are three further preconditions: A. You should be interested in the chemistry of microbial metabolites and willing to join one of our analytical or biosynthetical
B. PhD students cannot be accepted
anymore, due to my future retirement in 2011. PhD sandwich projects, however, may be possible within the remaining time. C
. You should be able to acquire the money for your daily life expenses by one of the following ways: 1. You are having a sufficiently high qualification to successfully apply for a DAAD grant (German Academic
Exchange Service), an AvH (Alexander von Humboldt) or any other grant. Please contact the German embassy in your country for the details. You will need a strong support of your home University 2. You take part in a
so-called sandwich program (between your country and Germany). Your home institution is funding you for a certain time that you can do a special investigation as part of your PhD in Göttingen. Contact your supervisor and find
out if such a program exists, and ask for the details. 3. You are speeking the German language fluently enough that you can get a payed supervisor position in our student courses. 4. You have enough
private money to pay the expenses on your own. You will need monthly at least 600 US$ (Euro) and need to transfer the money to a German bank account for one year in advance. Also a support for at least a second year is needed.
A further support e.g. by an university emploament is only possible, if you’ll speak fluently (!) German after this time. The procedure to get a visa and to transfer the money is complex under these conditions, you need to
contact me in time.
How to further proceed ?
If you match one of these requirements, contact me by e-mail. Please keep in mind that anonymous messages (“Dear Sir, please see the attachment”) or requests for synthetic themes will not be answered. You will get an aswer within
not more than 4 weeks. If I agree to accept you, you will need to send copies of your academic certificates (scan your documents with 300 dpi black&white as compressed TIF or PDF files and send them by e-mail), your CV, and
two reference letters (also by e-mail; needed for a grant application anyway). For a sandwich PhD in Germany you need to contact me for further details. If you want to apply for a grant, you need to write a
proposal of about 5-8 pages length. The example at the end of this page may be used as a guide, which you should strongly modify (you are not the only one using it!). You are encouraged to read recent articles in the
Journal of Natural Products, Phytochemistry, the Journal of Antibiotics
etc. to get a feeling for the actual themes. The links to my own publications (see this homepage) may also be helpful, but are usually not up to date. In parallel, ask at the German embassy for the DAAD or AvH
application papers, if needed. Please ask for the submission deadlines which are different in the individual countries. It will be too late to start writing 4 weeks before the deadline! I will finally send an official
invitation letter which is requested for your visa and your grant application. I will not
write an invitation without having the details listed above. Submit my invitation letter, your proposal, certificates etc. to the granting organisation. All further topics will be discussed individually. If you have special questions, you could also contact one of my previous guests (see this homepage).
Please contact also
Prof. H. Laatsch
Institute of Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry
Tammannstrasse 2
D-37077 Göttingen, Germany
Skeleton for a research proposal
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