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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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
Cataracts: new model explains origins of the eye condition
Cloudy eyes caused by protein imbalance
The cells in the lens consist of a highly concentrated protein solution that is normally clear. “When the balance of the proteins in the lens is destroyed, they clump together and the lens becomes cloudy,” says Prof. Johannes Buchner of the Chair of Biotechnology at TUM. This results in the condition known as cataracts.
The clouding can have different causes. Because the proteins in the lens are formed in the embryo and are not replaced, damage can accumulate over the years, ultimately causing the lens to cloud over. That is why cataracts occur mainly in older people. But some individuals have a genetic predisposition to the eye condition, in which proteins in the lens mutate. In these cases, cataracts are present at birth or appear during childhood.
Unstable proteins eliminated immediately
The scientists studied strains of mice affected by hereditary cataracts. They worked with the research group surrounding Jochen Graw, an expert in eye lenses who until 2019 was a professor at the Institute of Development Genetics at Helmholtz Zentrum München.
Until now, the prevailing view said that only the defective proteins in the eye were reacting with one another and forming clumps. But Buchner’s team has now shown that, in the mice with “genetic cataracts”, this was not the case. “We discovered that the mutated, unstable proteins in the lens were not there,” says Buchner. “They are eliminated immediately.” Instead the ‘healthy’ proteins clump together. “Our model, based on these new insights, says that the balance between the various proteins, or their ratios to one another, is important. When one of these components is missing, the remaining ones interact and form clumps.”
Important step for cataract treatment
Many studies have been carried out to understand the causes of cataracts. “But never before has there been such a comprehensive investigation of the lenses in mice, comparing wild populations and mutants,” says Buchner. The new insights are an important step in the search for new treatment methods for cataracts. The most common method is surgery, in which artificial lenses are implanted in the eye.
“If you understand exactly what is happening, you can also think about ways that might use medication to disrupt the bad interactions,” says Buchner. “But we have a long way to go – and first we need to show that the proposed model also applies to the lens in the human eye.”
Schmid, P.W.N., Lim, N.C.H., Peters, C. et al.:
Imbalances in the eye lens proteome are linked to cataract formation.
Nat Struct Mol Biol 28, 143–151 (2021).
Small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) measurements for the study were performed by a research team led by Prof. Tobias Madl of the Medical University of Graz.
Technical University of Munich
Corporate Communications Center
- Stefanie Reiffert
- stefanie.reiffert@tum.de
- presse@tum.de
- Teamwebsite
Contacts to this article:
Prof. Dr. Johannes Buchner
Technical University of Munich (TUM)
Department of Chemistry
Tel. +49 89 289 13340
johannes.buchner@tum.de
