About HELENA

HELENA – an investment in the future: The Graduate School Environmental Health serves as an ideal career springboard through excellent research, training and networks.

Today’s doctoral students are our future leaders – in research, clinical work, industry and management. In order to ensure optimal promotion, Helmholtz Zentrum München – together with Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU) and Technische Universität München (TUM) – opened the first Helmholtz Graduate School of Environmental Health (HELENA) on November 1, 2010.

With its unique focus on Environmental Health, research activities will concentrate on the interaction between individual genetic disposition, environmental factors and individual lifestyle habits, thus illuminating the pathogenesis of common, complex diseases such as diabetes mellitus and chronic lung diseases.

HELENA qualifies a new generation of internationally competitive graduate students in the field of environmental health research. The interdisciplinary education within HELENA prepares the graduate students to fill lead positions in research, management, industry and administration.

• Doctoral work in interdisciplinary research teams at one of the leading centers for health and environment research
• Intensive scientific training in one of the eight thematic fields
• Translational projects with close links between basic and clinical research
• Access to state-of-the-art platforms and training in the latest technologies
• Networking on an international scale, with financial support for attending international conferences and for research stays at other institutions
• Promotion of independence and self-management
• Intensive guidance and mentoring by a personal Thesis Committee
• Design of an individual training program
• Career promotion and training in management, leadership and communication
• Conferral of a doctorate from either Ludwig-Maximians-Universität (LMU) or Technische Universität München (TUM)