Dresden is a beautiful city of half a million people situated on the river Elbe in the south-east of Germany close to the Czech border about 75 minutes from Prague to the south, two hours from Berlin to the north and three hours to Wroclaw to the east by car.

The city has a thriving hi-tech industry and many research institutes especially in the physical sciences. Besides the MPI-PKS, the university and IFW, there is the MPI-CPFS for research in chemical physics and solid state physics (which hosts its own IMPRS), the Helmholtz Zentrum in nearby Rossendorf which is a centre for high magnetic field studies  among other things and three Fraunhofer institutes in applied physics.

We refer new arrivals to the city to this page for further information about life in the city. MPI-PKS doubles as a conference centre and therefore has a well established visitors programme to help short and long term guests of the institute, including IMPRS students, establish themselves in the city.