Our Mission Statement
Our Vision
As a leading entrepreneurial university, we are a site of global knowledge exchange, shaping the future with talent, excellence and responsibility.
Our Mission
We inspire, promote and develop talents in all their diversity to become responsible, broad-minded individuals and empower them to shape the progress of innovation for people, nature and society with the highest scientific standards and technological expertise, with entrepreneurial courage and sensitivity to social and political issues, as well as a lifelong commitment to learning.
Our Core Values
Our core values form the foundation of our relationships with one another and with our cooperation partners:
- Excellence: We encourage curiosity, creativity and unconventional thinking across the disciplines and set the highest standards of performance in research, teaching and innovation.
- Entrepreneurial Mindset: We question the consequences of our actions, direct ourselves toward new challenges and improve our working methods continually. To this end, we commit ourselves to socially reflected innovations and promote their commercial application, as well as to sustainable technology spin-offs at all levels.
- Integrity: We draw our success from an inclusive community of talents from different backgrounds, cultures, ideas and perspectives, acting with respect for others and transparency in accordance with our shared values.
- Collegiality: We respect and inspire one another in a vibrant culture of university community and cultivate the academic, economic and social partnerships that make TUM a site of global knowledge exchange.
- Resilience: We learn from our varied experiences and see in persistent change the opportunity for the sustainable development of science, ecology, economy and society – from this we draw ever new inspiration, motivation and resolve.
Our Guiding Principles
1. Innovation for People, Nature and Society
The Technical University of Munich is committed to the progress of innovation for people, nature and society. With pioneering spirit, creativity and a sense of responsibility, we combine our diverse competencies in the engineering and natural sciences and medicine with those of business, the humanities, as well as the social and political sciences in order to heighten our impact on the sustainable development of society. With the aim of preserving the Earth's ecosystem, we respect the needs of the natural world, use resources conscientiously and attach the highest priority to protecting people and the environment. Out of a sense of responsibility for future generations, the latest research findings flow directly into our cooperation with schools, into the curricula of our degree programs, into continuing education and training programs, and into sustainable technology enterprises with the potential for growth.
2. Highest International Standards
The Technical University of Munich measures its scientific, structural and organizational performance according to the highest international standards and continually raises them. We enhance ourselves with international talents, form alliances with leading teaching and research institutions worldwide and cooperate with promising partner institutions. Our “Emerging Fields Policy” opens new fields in research, innovation, teaching and continuing education that hold potential for international alliances.
3. Global Mindedness and Tolerance
In keeping with the canonical values of an enlightened society, the Technical University of Munich unites its globally oriented network with respect for the self-understanding of people from all cultures and regions of the world. With our international presence and partnerships, we seek to foster better understanding between nations.
4. Talent with Ethical Substance
The Technical University of Munich draws its innovative strength from the diverse interests, talents and world experiences of its students, employees, alumni, and the numerous individuals who broaden the horizon of our activities as cooperation partners, patrons, sponsors and supporters. We support our talents in recognizing their individual potential for professional development and bringing it to fruition. It is our aim to develop professional expertise and the ability to judge, to promote an understanding of other disciplines and teamwork, as well as a strong sense of responsibility. Cognitive agility, cultural sensitivity, global mindedness and social competence are as important to us as professional mastery and entrepreneurial courage. We effectively promote talents at all career levels at the TUM: Junge Akademie, the TUM Graduate School, the TUM Faculty Tenure Track Academy, the TUM Institute for Advanced Study and the TUM Institute for LifeLong Learning.
5. Value Creation through Diversity and Appreciation
The individual talents, manifold experiences and diversity of our TUM family members form the foundation of our mission for the future. Our university community thrives on mutual respect, an open-minded culture, the free exchange of opinions, ideas and experiences and reciprocal appreciation. We actively promote the equality of our members independent of their gender, nationality, religion, worldview, physical ability, age or sexual identity. As a family-friendly university, we invest in the compatibility of family, studies and career. We promote the social and professional competence, flexibility, communication and team competencies of our TUM family members. We are committed to a transparent, motivating and cooperative management style that creates space for participatory involvement and cultivates open communication both within the university and beyond.
6. Learning without Borders
The Technical University of Munich is committed to unifying top-level research with teaching excellence. In keeping with our self-conception as a leading international institution of higher education (TUM Lehrverfassung), we offer our students future-oriented higher education with disciplinary depth, while fostering their creativity, drive and individual talents. Our cross-disciplinary approach to education expands their radius of thought and action and shapes their characters to become citizens of the world with a keen sense of social and political responsibility. To this end, we continually enhance our didactic approaches and employ complementary teaching formats, including classroom instruction, as well as state-of-the-art digital and interactive tools. Relationships of trust between our students and faculty are marked by mutual respect for one another’s perspective and needs. Our cultural, artistic and sports activities foster holistic education and training to broaden the intellectual horizons of our students and staff and to encourage them to think in new ways.
7. Continuing Education – For a Lifetime
In times of accelerated change, we assume social responsibility and, as a lifelong partner in education, we strive to keep our own faculty and alumni, as well as professionals and leaders in industry, politics and society, at the forefront of the latest developments with on-going, research-based continuing education programs offered by the TUM Institute for LifeLong Learning.
8. Entrepreneurial Thinking and Action
The Technical University of Munich is dedicated to the principle of competitive achievement. We contribute the results of basic and applied research to market-oriented innovation processes and promote an “entrepreneurial spirit” in all areas of the university. We encourage our members to found sustainable, growth-oriented and technologically driven enterprises and support them throughout the process from idea to solid market position. Our entrepreneurial activities are geared consistently towards assuming a leadership role in Europe, together with our affiliated institute UnternehmerTUM, through the spin-off of growth-oriented technology start-ups from both our student body and our top-notch scientific research.
9. Cross-Generational Approach
The community of the Technical University of Munich unites the enthusiasm and intellectual curiosity of its students, the creativity and commitment of its teaching staff and employees, the wealth of ideas and radius of activity of its graduates, as well as the life experience of emeriti and alumni in a worldwide network. We prize the expertise, perspective and commitment of our TUM Senior Excellence Faculty, as well as their active contribution to university development as invaluable advisors. In a cross-generational approach, the members of our university community shape progress in research, innovation and teaching.
10. Dialogue with Society and the Public
In awareness of its social, economic and cultural responsibility for our country and its citizens, the Technical University of Munich lives a culture of transparency and open dialogue with the public. It is our aim to prepare our students effectively to shape social change processes with a firm sense of responsibility. We have created the best possible conditions to this end with our expertise in teacher training and educational research, the social sciences, political science and economics. Our interdisciplinary approaches at the TUM School of Social Sciences and Technology, the Hochschule für Politik München and the TUM Institute for LifeLong Learning integrate citizens into development processes for innovation and education. We maintain intensive dialogue with industry, politics and the public – and with our alumni, as ambassadors to the world.
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We show who we are, what will drive us in the future and what makes us tick, through exciting research projects, insights into the future organizational structure and with stories of visionaries, founders and pioneers.
Compliance
The TUM Compliance Office ensures the integrity and transparency of our university. As a central pillar of the TUM Good Governance system, it was established as part of the TUM Board of Management and operates autonomously under the Vice President for Compliance.
News
60 years of neutron research in Garching
The "Atomic Egg" celebrates is 60th birthday
The planning and construction of the research reactor fell into the time of German reconstruction. It took just over one year from the time of the purchase resolution by the Bavarian Council of Ministers (July 6, 1956), to the start of construction work on the reactor (November 6, 1956) and the first produced neutrons on October 31, 1957.
At the time, Bavaria edged ahead of Dresden in the competition to bring the first reactor into operation. Because of its egg-shaped dome, designed by the architect Gerhard Weber, the FRM was soon known simply as the Atomic Egg.
From cabbage farmland to a renowned research center
In the context of the United States’ program “Atoms for Peace,” Professor Heinz Maier-Leibnitz bought the reactor on behalf of the Bavarian state government. Maier-Leibnitz developed the Atomic Egg as a research institute with world-wide recognition that would soon operate on an equal footing with leading American researchers.
From its inception, the Garching Atomic Egg has served basic research in physics and chemistry. The scientists developed technologies and standards that were later adopted at other research reactors: Neutron guides, for example, were invented at the Atomic Egg, as was backscattering spectrometry.
Even the safety standards that the Garching operators developed in lieu of statutory provisions served as a reference for other reactors and later found their way into generally accepted rules.
In addition to basic research, Prof. Maier-Leibnitz cared deeply about educating next-generation nuclear technology and science researchers who were in demand not only in Germany, but around the world.
Maier-Leibnitz’s reputation, and ultimately the Nobel Prize for his student Dr. Rudolph Mößbauer, attracted numerous renowned physicists to Garching as guest professors. The Atomic Egg in the cabbage fields of Garching thus became the germ seed of a scientific campus that, today, is second to none in Europe.
New beginning with a modern, high-performance neutron source
The performance of the atomic egg was increased twice: from initially one megawatt heat to 2.5 megawatts in 1966 and then finally to 4 megawatts in 1968. However, in the 1980s the neutron density was no longer competitive internationally, which is why the scientists began planning a new research neutron source.
The neutron source known as FRM II was designed to deliver a 100-fold higher neutron flux. On July 28, 2000, after approval was granted for FRM II, the Atomic Egg was shut down. It had produced neutrons for 43 years without failure and enabled tens of thousands of projects.
The shell of the Atomic Egg, which is also found in the Garching city crest, is a listed historical structure. Work to gut and dismantle the interior has been in progress since 2014 to make the hall available for science and operation of FRM II in the future.
A photo exhibition showcasing “60 Years of Neutron Research,” including a walk-in wooden model of the Atomic Egg, will be on display in the Museum Reich der Kristalle (Theresienstr. 41 in Munich) from November 6 to December 3, 2017.
Further information:
Press release about the 10th anniversary of the new research-neutron source FRM II (research papers cited therein give a good overview over the diversity of research at the FRM II).