Graduate Education

The International Max Planck Research School (IMPRS) LIFE is all about the development of human behavior from infancy to old age. It is a joint international PhD program of the MPI for Human Development, Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin, the University of Michigan, the University of Virginia, and the University of Zurich. LIFE was established in 2002 and was made a permanent IMPRS by the Max Planck Society in 2025 upon positive evaluation. The new funding period started in 2026, with continued involvement of all four sites. more

The International Max Planck Research School (IMPRS) COMP2PSYCH was established in early 2016 and serves as the graduate program of the Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research. In London, the students are based at University College London (UCL); in Berlin, they are based at the MPI for Human Development and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. COMP2PSYCH teaches and trains concepts and methods from computer science and statistics in relation to substantive research questions in psychiatry and lifespan psychology. more

The MPI for Human Development is participating in one of the three existing Max Planck Schools, namely the Max Planck School of Cognition (MPSCog). The school is coordinated by the MPI for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, and has its Berlin hub at the MPI for Human Development's Max Planck Dahlem Campus of Cognition. Ralph Hertwig, Simone Kühn, Ulman Lindenberger, and Iyad Rahwan are faculty members of the school. more