Optical Sciences

Humboldt University Berlin

Overview

The Optical Sciences from Humboldt University Berlin offers an excellent education in this vibrant and exciting field. We seek outstanding students with a bachelor's degree in physics or closely related field who wish to contribute to state-of-the-art optics research and development.  

Quick Facts:

• The MSc in Optical Sciences program is exclusively taught in English and prepares the students for a challenging career in the optics & photonics industry or for the pursuit of a doctoral degree. This is facilitated through several temporally overlapping stages with increasing degrees of specialization.
• First, Optical Sciences represent a dynamic area of research which, time and again, provides astonishing discoveries and fascinating fundamental insights, many of them of particularly aesthetic value; these include the discovery of energy quanta and Max Planck's black-body radiation formula, Albert Einstein's explanation of the photoelectric effect, the invention of the laser (Nobel prize 1964 for Charles H. Townes, Nikolai Basov, and Alexander Prochorov), and fundamental tests of quantum mechanics (Nobel prize 2012 for Serge Haroche and David Wineland). At the same time, Optical Sciences deliver the scientific and technological prerequisites for numerous developments in the natural and engineering sciences as exemplified by Frits Zernike's phase-contrast microscopy, the principle of holography (Nobel prize 1971 for Dennis Gabor), the technique of optical frequency combs (Nobel prize 2005 for John L Hall and Theodor Hänsch), fiber optical systems (Nobel prize 2009 for Charles K. Kao), super-resolution fluorescence microscopy (Nobel prize 2014 for Eric Betzig, Stefan Hell, and William Moerner), and optical trapping techniques (Nobel 2017 prize for Arthur Ashkin). Conversely, Optical Sciences greatly benefit from the corresponding progress in the areas of optical materials, devices, and instruments such as the development of liquid crystals, CCD sensors, and blue LEDs.