Cluster News

10/06/2026 The ORIGINS Cluster of Excellence warmly congratulates its member Francis Halzen on being awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics. The Nobel Committee recognised the Belgian-American physicist for his pioneering contributions to the discovery of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos and his groundbreaking work in the field of neutrino astronomy

09/16/2026 For the eighth time, the Excellence Cluster ORIGINS is conferring the ORIGINS PhD Awards. The awards recognise two outstanding dissertations from the Cluster’s research areas. Interdisciplinary work that connects several ORIGINS research areas is particularly welcome. The application deadline is 30 November 2026.

How did life emerge?

This is precisely the focus of the Excellence Cluster ORIGINS, which investigates the development of the Universe from the Big Bang to the emergence of life. The interdisciplinary research network has been funded within the framework of the Excellence Strategy of the German Federation and the Länder since January 2019 and builds on the research achievements of the Excellence Cluster Universe (2006-2018), which has attracted worldwide attention.

ORIGINS uniquely combines the disciplines of astrophysics, biophysics and particle physics to search for the connection between planet formation and the formation of the first prebiotic molecules. Among other things, the scientists want to show that life is the product of a natural process, a logical outcome of the evolution of the Universe - which can be understood based on the laws of physics and chemistry and the initial conditions created by the Big Bang.

The Ludwigs-Maximillians-Universität (LMU), the Technical University of Munich (TUM), five Max Planck Institutes, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and the Leibniz Computing Centre (LRZ) are involved in the Excellence Cluster ORIGINS.

Cluster News

Further News

Legal informations

Participating Universities and Partner Institutions of the Excellence Cluster Origins

Excellence Cluster Origins