If you are interested in joining our lab, please contact Matthias Rillig or any of the other people in the lab. General info for different categories appears below. The general area of research is in plant, soil and fungal ecology, as well as global environmental change. You can learn more about the projects going on by following the respective links from the main page.

Postdoctoral associates

Openings for specific positions will be posted on the web pages as they become available. If you are interested in joining the lab, please send an email. We are always interested in people with a solid ecological background, with an interest in plants, soils and fungi, and very good quantitative skills.

There are numerous opportunities for funding such research stays. These include, for example fellowships from the Humboldt-Foundation. I would be happy to help with the application process. In 2024 the lab hosted 8 Humboldt postdoctoral fellows. The lab has also been successful in securing funding through EU Marie Curie fellowship programs.

Graduate students (doctorate)

Admission is currently possible for the German doctorate degree at any time; students may also elect to study for a PhD, currently offered in Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolution. English is available as the official language of the dissertation. I very much welcome students from abroad and Germany. There are also several options for financing (there is currently no tuition in Berlin), some of which are mentioned in the following.

The State of Berlin has a scholarship program, the Elsa Neumann scholarship. Find info about this here.

Information about the 13 important German agencies (Begabtenförderung) that provide scholarships for doctoral students is available here.

If you are an international student, there are other programs, for example the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service), and there may be programs in your own country of origin.

The lab welcomes candidates supported by the China Scholarship Council. We prefer full scholarships for work in Berlin, but can also accommodate 1-year stays.

General info about the doctorate at the FU Berlin in the Department of Biology, Chemistry, Pharmacy can be found here. 

Graduate students (MSc)

Interested in a Master’s? We participate in the Master’s in ‘Biodiversity, Evolution and Ecology’ and also the general ‘Biology’ MSc. For further information, please consult the web pages here. Please contact us early on about research opportunities.

Bachelorarbeiten/ BSc theses

Wir haben immer Bachelorarbeiten zu vergeben. Bitte rechtzeitig bewerben mithilfe unseres Online-Formulars. Weitere Informationen und den Online-Fragebogen (nur für FU Studierende) findet ihr hier.

Other student researchers (e.g. Erasmus)

Undergraduate students and recent graduates are always welcome to join us; we have a history of involving students and visitors in research. We have also hosted several Erasmus exchange students and Leonardo da Vinci students in our lab; feel free to contact us with your specific interests.