Ancient fatty molecules, once believed to be traces of some of the first animals to live on Earth, may have been produced by algae instead.
Academic rigor, journalistic flair
Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry
The Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry is dedicated to the study of global cycles of essential elements on Earth, their interactions among the biosphere, atmosphere, geosphere and the oceans, and their interrelation with the physical climate system.
The institute was founded in 1997 by the Max Planck Society as the third Max Planck Institute in Jena. In 2003, the institute moved into its new building on the Beutenberg Campus. The Science Campus is home to several academic and for-profit research institutions and offers together with the Friedrich-Schiller University Jena excellent potential for local scientific collaborations.
Biogeochemical research is highly interdisciplinary and international. Scientists from all over the world are attracted to our institute and our research is often conducted in remote and exotic locations worldwide.
Funding As a member of the German Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science, the institute is jointly funded by the German government and the State of Thuringia. More than 25% of the overall institute’s funding has been successfully acquired from competitive third-party grants in recent years.
Personnel At the beginning of 2020, the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry hosted almost 250 staff, including >80 scientists and aprox. 50 PhD students, the latter organized in our international IMPRS gBGC graduate school. Around 50% of our scientists and PhD students are of foreign nationality, originating from more than 25 different countries.
