Technical University of Munich (TUM)
Technische Universität München (TUM)

Germany

The Technical University of Munich (TUM) is one of Europe’s leading research universities. Its unparalleled range of disciplines covers engineering and natural sciences, life sciences and medicine, management and social sciences – a combination found nowhere else in Germany.

Interdisciplinary solutions to future challenges

TUM draws on this unique breadth in fostering an interdisciplinary approach to research and teaching. TUM focuses on the following strategic areas for tomorrow’s society: energy & natural resources, environment & climate, health & nutrition, mobility & infrastructure, information & communication. At the same time, the university addresses the crucial societal aspects of new technologies.
www.tum.de

Excellence in research

TUM has an excellent track record in research, both in basic science and in application-oriented technologies. It is one of Germany's top-ranked universities and places among the top five technical universities in Europe. Consistently strong results in international university rankings, awards at the EU level, and statistics on third-party research funding all substantiate TUM’s success.
www.tum.de/rankings

Promoting talent diversity

TUM focuses on promoting the diversity of individual talents on all levels, from first-semester students to world-renowned scientists. Its outstanding course offering is strongly oriented toward research and, at the same time, tightly coupled to practical experience. TUM gives its students room to live out their passion for science: Students work on developments such as space elevators, robots, and gas turbines in autonomous research groups that carry on for generations.

In Europe, only Cambridge and Oxford surpass TUM when it comes to producing high-quality graduates – according to the 2015 “Global Employability University Ranking.” This outstanding performance is partly attributable to individual support measures including mentoring and career advice.
www.tum.de/studies

Awakening the entrepreneurial spirit

Ever since 1870, when Carl von Linde invented his refrigeration machine at TUM and founded the company that went on to become Linde AG, technology transfer has been one of TUM’s central aims. TUM cultivates intensive exchanges with a number of companies oriented toward common interests – through a wide variety of cooperation programs, targeted research projects, and jointly run laboratories.

Furthermore, the university inspires and empowers its students and researchers to think and act entrepreneurially. It also systematically supports patent applications and spin-offs. Since 1990, TUM has been the launch pad for over 800 companies.
www.tum.de/entrepreneurship

A global university

TUM is an international university with a high proportion of foreign students and researchers as well as more than 150 partner universities around the globe. With the founding of TUM Asia in 2012 in Singapore, it became the first German university to establish an overseas campus. TUM also has offices in Brussels, Cairo, Mumbai, Beijing, San Francisco, and São Paulo. By 2020, most of its Master’s programs will be conducted in English – today's international language of science.
www.tum.de/global

Driving the advance of science in Germany

TUM is an entrepreneurial university. Instead of relying solely on the German state, it takes responsibility for its own success, confronts international competition, and develops new ideas in the area of science management. TUM has been driving reforms in Germany's science system for the past 20 years. For instance, its tenure track system, unique in Germany, offers young professors who meet the highest performance standards a clear path to attractive career prospects.
www.tum.de/tenure-track

Recipient of top awards

TUM was awarded the title of “University of Excellence” in 2006 and 2012 in recognition of its innovative, dynamic culture. Far from resting on its laurels, though, TUM remains entreprenturial – constantly striving to reach new heights.
www.exzellenz.tum.de

1 July 2017 - 30 June 2018

Region: Global
Subject/journal group: All

The table to the right includes counts of all research outputs for Technical University of Munich (TUM) published between 1 July 2017 - 30 June 2018 which are tracked by the Nature Index.

Hover over the donut graph to view the FC output for each subject. Below, the same research outputs are grouped by subject. Click on the subject to drill-down into a list of articles organized by journal, and then by title.

Note: Articles may be assigned to more than one subject area.

AC	FC
444	130.64

Outputs by subject (FC)

Subject	AC	FC
Chemistry	137	60.62
Life Sciences	153	30.60
Physical Sciences	191	55.30
Earth & Environmental Sciences	19	4.84

Highlight of the month

Floored by molecular Archimedean tiling

It’s a bit too small to cover the floor of the laboratory, but chemists in Europe have used self-assembling molecules to create a nanoscale version of an Archimedean tiling pattern.

Archimedean tilings are semi-regular patterns in which tiles of different shapes tessellate to form the pattern. A team, including chemists at the Technical University of Munich, has now created a supramolecular version of the (3.4.6.4) Archimedean tiling, which consists of hexagonal, square and triangular tiles.

The team created the pattern from a small organic molecule, ethynyl-iodophenanthrene, selected because it was not quite symmetric. One aspect of its dissymmetry was that one end of the molecule featured an iodine group, while the other had an alkyl group. Another aspect was a slight curve in its backbone.

When placed onto a smooth silver surface and heated, the organic molecules arrange themselves into pairs, held in place by chemical bonds formed with the silver atoms below. Influenced by the curved backbone, the bonded pairs tessellate across the silver surface in the (3.4.6.4) Archimedean pattern.

The research provides new insights into the way molecule self-assemble into complex hierarchical structures.

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