The Abbe School of Photonics

Our mission: world-class photonics education

Studying photonics in the city where it all began

The School's concept and philosophy have as the main goal of the establishment of one of the world's leading educational centers in optics and photonics in Jena, Germany. ASP was shaped by the tradition and broad teaching and research activity spectrum in the field of light sciences at our University. The School offers outstanding degree qualification opportunities at the undergraduate and graduate levels in the areas of optics and photonics. The School's qualification strategy is completely research-oriented and based on the principles of academic freedom, competitive research conditions and internationalization at all levels of education and research.

The School recognizes its responsibility that many of its graduates will continue a career in research-intensive companies. ASP's training programs, therefore, aim to promote and optimally link the academic career phases of young scientists with job experience in research-intensive companies. All of our competitive career development measures are therefore designed to lay the foundation for successful careers both in academia and industry.

ASP was founded in 2008 in a public-private partnership by the German federal and Thuringian state governments, the University of Jena and the German photonics industry. A key factor of the program is ASP's close collaboration with industrial partners. To sustain our partners' exceptional economic development in the future, the availability of a substantial number of highly qualified employees will be required. ASP graduates are those potential candidates, well-prepared for the German photonics industry.

Jena: a top-ranked German university full of history and tradition

The Friedrich Schiller University Jena, with its ancient Latin name being "alma mater jenensis", is one of the oldest German universities, having been founded in 1558. At that time the classical academic areas of philosophy, theology, law, and medicine were the subjects of research and teaching. During the past centuries, many prominent scholars have been professors at this university. At the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th centuries, Jena became famous during the classic-romantic "miraculous era" when world-renowned poets and philosophers such as Goethe, Schiller, Hegel and Fichte marked its intellectual atmosphere.

In the current Academic Ranking of World Universities, the so-called Shanghai ranking, the Friedrich Schiller University Jena ranks among the 400 best Universities worldwide. In the 2019 ranking, the University of Jena belongs to the 22 best German universities. The Shanghai ranking is issued by the Shanghai Ranking Consultancy and consider the number of publications and citations in scientific trade magazines, in particular in the high-level journals Nature and Science, Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals awarded to researchers and alumni as well the research performance are measured. More than 1,200 universities present themselves the ranking, the best 500 are regularly published since 2003 .