The University of Greifswald’s Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences was founded on 28 July 1951. The Faculty was established during the higher education reforms in the GDR, when mathematics and the natural sciences were separated from the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. The aim was to specifically strengthen the natural sciences in order to foster the country’s industrial and economic development. However, the Faculty’s roots go back much further: biology, mathematics and physics have been taught in Greifswald since the University was founded in 1456.
A look back at its history reveals the Faculty’s innovative spirit: as early as 1969, a mainframe computer, the ‘Odra 1013’, was used to analyse data from the Hiddensee Bird Observatory – an early precursor to modern data science. With the expansion of the Beitz-Platz Campus that started in the 1950s, the Hanseatic town gained a modern centre for research and teaching. Bringing several institutes together at a single location significantly improved working conditions and paved the way for the development of distinctive fields of research.
Today, the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences unites the subject areas of chemistry, biology, data science, geography and geology, mathematics and computer science, pharmacy, physics, and psychology. Particular focus is placed on environmental, climate and peatland research, as well as plasma physics. Interdisciplinary collaboration – with external partner institutions in the Science Net Greifswald, as well as with national and international universities and research institutions – forms the basis for excellent research and scientific findings. As part of major joint research projects, in particular the two Collaborative Research Centres/Transregional projects CONCENTRATE and WETSCAPES 2.0, researchers are tackling key challenges of today.
The Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences also covers a wide range of subjects in its teaching offers. In the winter semester of 2025/26, more than 3,500 students were enrolled across 40 degree courses. 82 professors and around 700 members of staff conduct research, teach, and work at the faculty. The Faculty trains teachers, scientists, psychologists and pharmacists – professions that are indispensable to science, education, business, the healthcare system, and society.
Bettina Martin, Minister of Science, praised the faculty as a centre of research excellence and dedicated teaching: “The Faculty supports the University through its research strength, its innovative capability, and its significance for the education of future generations. It combines fundamental research with social responsibility. It enhances the University’s international profile and helps ensure that Greifswald is acknowledged as a location for science far beyond the boundaries of the surrounding region.”
In his welcoming address, the Dean of the Faculty, Prof. Dr. Matthias Eschrig, highlighted the University’s particular strength when it comes to the collaboration between different disciplines. Scientific progress emerges where different perspectives engage in discourse with one another: “No single discipline holds the key to the future on its own. It is the major issues of our time, in particular, that remind us that progress emerges from the interaction of different perspectives.”
For Prof. Dr. Katharina Riedel, Rector of the University of Greifswald, the Faculty’s successful development is, above all, a story of continuous renewal: “Over the past 75 years, the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences has repeatedly demonstrated that it is able to adapt without relinquishing its academic foundations. It has explored new fields, established new collaborations and trained new generations of researchers. It is this very ability to renew itself by drawing on its own strengths that we will continue to need in the future.”
Further information
Website of the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences
Contact at the University of Greifswald
Prof. Dr. Matthias Eschrig
Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences
Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Straße 15a, 17489 Greifswald
Tel.: +49 3834 420 4000
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75 years of the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at the University of Greifswald
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