Past Events

40 students from across Europe gathered in Jena for the Quantum Ideas Factory 2026, a hands-on hackathon hosted by the Abbe Center of Photonics.

A Truly Transcontinental Exchange

40 Participants from the EU DigiQ consortium gathered in Jena.

The new “Quantum Photonics” trade fair successfully brought together many companies, institutions and experts from research, development and application. A total of around 500 trade visitors attended the event and enjoyed excellent discussions at the exhibition stands.

A joint networking event with the SFB NOA and the IRTG META-ACTIV

The Abbe Center of the Friedrich Schiller University Friedrich Schiller University Jena welcomed a delegation of students from Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for a day of exchange centered on innovation and emerging photonic technologies.

A concerted efforts to write up paper and theses for our PhDs.

More than 70 early-career researchers from around the world came to Jena for the 5th edition of Women in Photonics – a workshop focused on scientific exchange, career development, and connecting with one of Germany’s key research hubs.

Jena's famous and by now traditional "Doctoral Students' Conference for the Discussion of Optical Concepts" - a conference series by doctoral students for doctoral students.

Recap of the IRTG Meta Spring Academy 2025

Three Days Dedicated to Science in Dornburg and Jena

Announcement and Call for Papers for a 3-Day-Conference on Photonic Integrated Circuits: Production, Integration, and Characterization for Photonic Information and Communication, 1-3 December 2025 at the Abbe Center of Photonics in Jena.

The Bundespräsident visited Jena on February 22nd and met students and researchers of the Abbe School of Photonics.

This event offered advice and 1:1 interviews for PhD candidates.

Last week, the Abbe School of Photonics hosted its much-anticipated EMIMEO Summer School, featuring the highlight of the year of this EU Joint Master Program. Alltogether, the School counted more than 70 participants.

Jena's famous and by now traditional "Doctoral Students' Conference for the Discussion of Optical Concepts" - a conference series by doctoral students for doctoral students. This DokDok was scheduled 26th to 30th August 2024.

The Photonics Days 2024, a career and networking event, took place in late September in Jena with a Nobel Prize winner and 180 international participants.

Visit of our Australian partners in Jena

The first conference in the upcoming conference edtion Jena LIGHT, funded and facilitated by the profile line LIGHT of the University of Jena was devoted to the topic "Photonics meets AI". It was held at the Abbe Center of Photonics (ACP) in Jena from September 3 to 6, 2024.

Empowering Nanophotonics with 2D Semiconductors

Six young companies can draw on the expertise of research institutions in Jena as they implement their business ideas.

Our University was present with many different innovative projects and alliances at the Hannover Messe 2024.

The Maker Faire, Germany's largest do-it-yourself (DIY) festival, invited people to Hannover over the weekend to create, experiment, and learn. Numerous projects funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) were present.

Concluding a successful evening where the world of light and nanotechnology was brought to life through hands-on exploration.

On June 17th, Jena gathered for a large Hackathon at the Lichtwerkstatt of the Abbe Center of Photonics.

Jena's famous and by now traditional "Doctoral Students' Conference for the Discussion of Optical Concepts" - a conference series by doctoral students for doctoral students.

In October 2023, the IRTG Meta-Active organized an Autumn School.

Organized by the OPTICA-SPIE Student Chapters, Jena was one local POM hub in this exciting international, hybrid experience.

Meta-Active meeting on its first visit in Canberra

The first online conference on digital education held in the Gather.town twin of the Abbe Center of Photonics powered by digiPHOTON.

In July 2022, the first IRTG summer school took place in Jena

The International Conference of Quantum, Nonlinear & Nanophotonics (ICQNN) 2022 was attached to the IRTG 2675 META-ACTIVE and to the CRC 1375 NOA and was hold 5 to 9 September 2022.

First Meta-Active meeting in Jena

Networking, working together and hiking are only a few words that describe this year's MPSP Autumn School - back in person, of course.

Jena's famous and by now traditional "Doctoral Students' Conference for the Discussion of Optical Concepts" - a conference series by doctoral students for doctoral students.

2-day workshop on the prospectives on 2D materials, organized as a network event funded by the BMBF, hold 13 and 14 October 2021 in Jena.

This workshop was about innovation and business models. It ranged from idea creation at the beginning until testing if the idea could be transformed into a sustainable business model.

Learning, Teaching and Presenting with Digital Media.

The workshop was part of the soft-skill program offered within the Jena Alliance Life in Focus - A Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung project.

The workshop was part of the soft-skill program offered within the Jena Alliance Life in Focus - A Carl Zeiss Foundation Project.

DoKDoK took a 2-years break due to the pandemic - and was finally back in September 21 in an on-site, memorable and very pleasant fashion: the DoKDoK-lite 2021 in Jena!

The workshop was part of the regular Colloquium of the Department of Physics and Astronomy.

The workshop was part of the soft-skill program offered within the Jena Alliance Life in Focus - A Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung project.

The SFB 1375 "NOA - Nonlinear Optics down to Atomic scales" invited all doctoral researchers and friends to its first, one-week spring school at the Normannenhaus in Jena.

The Photonics Days during the pandemic 2020 took place virtually for the first time on September 21 and 22. A virtual event that offered many virtual possibilities!

In this workshop, we addressed the different ways in which interdisciplinary cooperation both creates new ideas and perspectives and sharpens your sense for your own discipline and research.

The Jena Alliance Career Evening „Taking the Next Career Step” explored the transition from doctorate to the business world.

The first online conference in the field of photonics organized by our partner ETH Zurich, even before the onset of the pandemic.

This DokDok edition took place in Eisenach at the great hotel "Alte Fliegerschule".

At the Makeathon, the participants of the Photonics Days 2019 had the chance to become active themselves and develop individual concepts for questions relating to photonics.

The Photonics Academy is an annual event funded by the BMBF and takes place in alternating cities in Germany. This year's Photonics Academy was in Jena, and the focus was on the open innovation approach.

Another splendid DokDok in beautiful Friedrichroda.

This special workshop on optical design was built on the common Zemax software and was offered by Prof. Herbert Gross.

DokDok re-visited Suhl in 2017.

This special edition was synchronized with a German-Australian workshop with several keynote speakers from the Australian cluster of excellence CUDOS.

This special workshop on optical design was built on the common Zemax software and was offered by Prof. Herbert Gross.

A special ASP workshop dedicated to transferrable skills and freeform optics design.

Our DokDok series welcomed Prof. Silvana Botti, newly appointed at our University, for the first time​.

At ASP's Photonics Career Day, Master's degree candidates and doctoral students come into direct contact with our industry partners.

We were proud to welcome some of our most highly distinguished research alumni to share their perspectives on science and industry.

Master's degree and doctoral students of the Abbe School of Photonics met our Industry partners at our Photonics Career Day.

A special ASP workshop dedicated to transferrable skills and the publication capabilities of our doctoral students.

This year, DokDok moved to the Ringberghotel in Suhl, in the middle of the Thuringian forest.

At this workshop, scientific employees of the ZEISS AG answered the questions of the doctoral students of the Abbe School of Photonics.​

At this workshop, Master's and doctoral students had the chance to meet female heads of industry and science, to exchange experiences about the role of women in leading positions.

This special workshop on optical design was built on the common Zemax software and was offered by Prof. Herbert Gross.

This winter school focused on topics like entrepreneurship, proposal-writing, or creativity techniques.

In this workshop, Jun.Prof. Dr. Rachel Grange provided a hands-on overview on multiphoton micro-imaging techniques.

The second DokDok edition – the start of our tradition.

Master's degree and doctoral students of the Abbe School of Photonics met our Industry partners at our Photonics Career Day.

This special workshop on optical design was built on the common Zemax software and was offered by Prof. Herbert Gross.

This Winter school – hosted by the Graduate Research Schools OMiTec, Green Photonics, and Abbe School of Photonics – complemented technical contents with targeted training of essential soft skills.

The exciting start of a success story – DoKDok was born in 2011.

Our ASP doctoral students met our industry partners at our Photonics Career Day.