Karlsruhe Institute of Technology - KIT

With more than 9,000 employees and an annual budget of about EUR 785 million, KIT is one of the biggest research and education institutions worldwide and has the potential of reaching a top position in selected research areas on an international level. The objective is to turn KIT into an institution of top research, excellent scientific education, and a prominent location of academic life, life-long learning, comprehensive advanced training, unrestricted exchange of know-how, and sustainable innovation culture.

KIT offers German and foreign students the possibility to complete their studies entirely in English. Additionally, the International Department provides fee-based courses at graduate, postgraduate and doctoral level.

50 years after the foundation of Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe and 181 years after the foundation of Universität Karlsruhe, both institutions were successful in the Excellence Initiative of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Federal States 2006. Our concept for the future envisaged the unique merger of both institutions into Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).

From the historical perspective, this pioneer achievement is only logical, as both institutions look back on a long tradition of research and education with many parallels in terms of contents and organization. At the time of their foundation, both institutions were of pioneer character.

KIT is one of the leading universities in the Engineering and Natural Sciences in Europe, ranking sixth overall in citation impact. KIT is a member of the TU9 German Institutes of Technology.

Famous graduates

• Karl Benz (1844–1929), the inventor of the automobile
• Wolfgang Gaede (1878–1945), who founded vacuum technology
• Fritz Haber (1868–1934), who developed the high-pressure synthesis of ammonia in 1909 and won a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1918
• Heinrich Rudolf Hertz (1857–1894) discovered electromagnetic waves
• Otto Lehmann (1855–1922), the founder of liquid crystal research
• Wilhelm Nusselt (1882–1957), the co-founder of technical thermodynamics
• Ferdinand Redtenbacher (1809–1863), founder of mechanical engineering in Germany
• Hermann Staudinger (1881–1965), who won in 1953 the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discoveries in the field of macromolecular chemistry
• Edward Teller (1908–2003), who is known as the originator of the hydrogen bomb
• Karl Heun (1859–1929), numerical Integration and solutions to differential equations.
• Leopold Ružička (1887 –1976), winner of the 1939 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
• Georg von Hevesy (1886 –1966), winner of the 1943 Nobel Prize for his key role in the development of radioactive tracers to study chemical processes such as in the metabolism of animals.

Faculties

• Mathematics
• Physics
• Chemistry and Biology
• Humanities and Social sciences
• Architecture
• Civil engineering, Geology, and Ecological Sciences
• Mechanical Engineering
• Chemical and Process Engineering
• Electrical engineering and Information Technology
• Computer Science
• Economics and Management