Excellent students who have a bachelor’s degree in Physics have the opportunity to complete a so-called Excellence Track in addition to the JGU Master of Science in Physics.

The aim of the Excellence Track is to equip students with the necessary tools to embark on a successful research path and become strong candidates for a doctorate. To this end, it enables high-achieving, research-oriented students to further develop their scientific knowledge as well as complementary and transferable skills within a structured program.

For further information, please contact the coordinators of the Mainz Physics Academy (xtrack@uni-mainz.de).

Applications for the Excellence Track, which begins in the 2026–2027 winter semester, are currently open and will remain so until October 8, 2026. Applications should be submitted via email to xtrack@uni-mainz.de.

For your application, we need:

a) a resume

b) a copy of the bachelor’s degree certificate, including a transcript of records in German or English

c) a copy of the letter of admission to the master’s degree program in Physics (M.Sc.) at JGU

d) a cover letter with a brief letter of motivation

The Excellence Track in three words

The Excellence Track explained by our professors

Danaheb Navarro Durán

Research interests: Hadronic physics and the quark structure of the pion, such as the study of PDF and DA in a low energy scale. I’m also interested in flavour physics and quark physics at higher energy scale.

Darius Fenner

Research interests: Atomic clocks, metrology, thorium nuclear transition.

Gabriel Marc Hander

Research interests: Quantum field theory, Hadronic physics, Precision physics, Effective field theory.

Jonathan Leisenheimer

Research interests: Quantum field theory, Standard Model, Hadronic physics, Proton structure effects in hydrogen-like atoms.

Shumit Mitra

Research interests: Experimental astroparticle physics and cosmology, detector design for exotic BSM matter, WIMPs, Dark Photons, and ALPs.

Qian Moxian

Research interests: proton mass and charge radius, machine learning, sampling algorithms, effective field theory, and non-equilibrium physics.

Judit Rodriguez

Research interests: Particle Physics, the Standard Model, Beyond the Standard Model (BSM) physics, Cosmology, Quantum Gravity.

Siddhanth Shishodia

Research interests: Amorphous Solid Ice, Lasers, and Soft matter physics.

Das Soumay

Research interests: include astroparticle physics and early-universe cosmology, dark matter, physics beyond the Standard Model, and nuclear astrophysics.

Lorin Armbruster

Research interests: Beyond the Standard Model Phenomenology, Higgs Physics, Higher-dimensional Field Theory

Now doctoral student at Dr. Felix Yu’s group

Aayush Arya

Research interests: Nucleosynthesis, Precision spectroscopy of superheavy elements

Now doctoral student at the Niels Bohr Institute

Cristhian Calderon Cordova

Research interests: Theoretical Particle Physics, Effective Field Theory, Axion-Like Particles

Lukas Cavar

Research interests: Nanoscale microscopy, Topological effects in matter, Philosophical foundations of Physics

Now doctoral student at Prof. Angela Wittmann’s group

Kaustav Dutta

Research interests: Experimental Particle Physics, Neutrino Astronomy, Machine Learning

Now doctoral student at Prof. Sebastian Böser’s group

Maria Fernandez Lozano

Research interests: QFT, cosmology, string theory, flavour physics
Now doctoral student at Prof. Julia Harz’s group

Edward Finkelstein

Research interests: Experimental Particle Physics, Machine Learning, and high-performance scientific computing

Now PhD student at the Machine Learning and Physical Simulation group in Aarhus university

Christopher Gerlach

Research interests: Theoretical High Energy Physics: Cosmology and BSM

Now doctoral student at Prof. Pedro Schwaller’s group

Kitzia Hernandez Curiel

Research interests: Experimental Nuclear and Hadron Physics, Simulation and Data Analysis, Structure and Reactions of Strong Interacting Matter.

Now doctoral student at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) in the group of cryosensors working on beta spectrometry with magnetic microcalorimeters.

Panagiotis Kalamidas

Research interests: Theoretical High Energy Physics
Now doctoral student at Prof. Marc Vanderhaeghen’s group

Kilian Leutner

Research interests: Condensed-matter physics, Spintronics, Skyrmionics, Computational Science, Machine Learning

Now doctoral student at Prof. Mathias Kläui’s group

Immo Reis

Research interests: Nuclear Physics, Nuclear Structure, Neutrino-Nucleus Interactions.

Now doctoral student at Prof. Sonia Bacca’s group

Alena Romanova

Research interests: Quantum Information Theory, Quantum Communication and Computing, Quantum Optics

Now doctoral student at the University of Innsbruck, group of Quantum communication and quantum networks

Josua Scholze

Research interests: Flavour physics, B meson phenomenology
Now doctoral student at Prof. Matthias Neubert’s group

Aakash Warke

Research interests: Experimental Quantum Optics, Quantum Communication using Continuous Variables, Nonlinear generation of quantum entanglement

Starting in October 2025 as a doctoral student in Prof. Dr. Alex Lvovsky group at the University of Oxford, focusing on optical neural networks, supported by a fully funded Clarendon Scholarship.

Nikhil Vijayan

Research interests: Spintronics, Orbitronics, and nanoscale imaging of solid state materials

Now doctoral student in Prof. Mathias Kläui’s group in collaboration with Infineon Technologies in Villach, Austria

Jingyan Xu

Research interests: hyperpolarization techniques for enhanced nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)

Now doctoral student at Dr. Danila Barskiy’s research group (HIM, MAM group)