The collaboration between the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) and Technische Universität Braunschweig in research and teaching is one of the region’s great success stories. It began with the founding of the Braunschweig International Graduate School of Metrology (B-IGSM) in 2007. In the 14 years of the joint Graduate School, the scientific cooperation has grown to around 120 joint doctorates and numerous publications and has enabled joint large-scale projects such as the Cluster of Excellence QuantumFrontiers. With a new cooperation agreement, the two institutions are now extending the Graduate School until at least 2028.
How much can be learned from an experiment that cannot be repeated? Metrology is not only the science of measurement, it is at the heart of the scientific method. It deals with standards, measurement norms and the reproducibility of results. At the Braunschweig International Graduate School of Metrology, this core competence of the national metrology institute is combined with the diverse research of the university. Around 50 doctoral students are conducting research in the natural and engineering sciences – from Physics and Electrical Engineering to Mechanical Engineering and the Life Sciences. It is a concept with many advantages.
For the PTB, which as a federal authority does not have the right to award doctorates, the B-IGSM organises the scientific training of PTB employees. On the other hand, the new doctoral students bring new impulses to the institutes of TU Braunschweig, which raise the research performance of the university across all disciplines to a new level of precision. One of these impulses has been consolidated in the DFG-funded research training group NanoMet, which has taken up the challenge of introducing metrological standards in biology. The convincing argument for the application: the cooperation between PTB and TU Braunschweig has already been characterised by joint successes through the existing B-IGSM.
Summer schools and lecture series
In addition to the joint supervision of doctoral students, the B-IGSM regularly organises events. An annual highlight is the B-IGSM Summer School, a week full of lectures, poster sessions and discussions. The symposium for young B-IGSM researchers has featured prominent speakers such as Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry Stefan Hell and Nobel Prize winner in Physics Klaus von Klitzing. Since 2007, the B-IGSM has also supplemented TU Braunschweig’s teaching programme with three English-language lecture series, which are open to doctoral students and students alike. The lectures also offer international doctoral students at the Graduate School the opportunity to gain their own teaching experience, even without any knowledge of German.
Looking to the future, the existing collaboration between the university and the National Metrology Institute can gain even more momentum. Several subject areas are facing acute metrological challenges: On the one hand, quantum technologies such as quantum computers, which are being developed by both institutions, for example in the Cluster of Excellence QuantumFrontiers or in the Quantum Valley Lower Saxony, require metrological standards. On the other hand, with the Innovation Center for Systems Metrology, PTB is launching a new form of metrology in the age of digitalisation and artificial intelligence. This is a field that has a counterpart at TU Braunschweig in the research centres Future City and Engineering for Health.
