Münster Graduate School of Evolution Initiative
Evolution, broadly defined as a gradual development that may lead to a more advanced or complex form, is the most widely applicable scientific concept to understand processes at all scales, from the formation of Earth to human societies. In particular Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution based on heritable variation and selection is now being applied to many disciplines. Modern evolutionary thinking can thus provide a unifying theoretical framework to understand and address urgent problems of humankind, such as climate change, bioinvasions or disease epidemiology. The increasing relevance of cultural evolution and human influences on biological evolution, including its biomedical implications, also demand a reconsideration of evolutionary theory itself. However, evolutionary research and teaching do not yet bridge the gap between disciplines. For example, the humanities could benefit from fruitful feedback from the life sciences, while the life sciences could benefit from the humanities to deepen our understanding of the different meanings of evolution. Importantly, such collaborations also have great potential to advance evolutionary theories.
Evolution is uniquely suited as a topic for an interdisciplinary Graduate School, because it provides a unifying conceptual framework. The Münster Graduate School of Evolution (MGSE) will initially be mainly based on geosciences, biology and medicine. Moreover, mathematics and humanities will contribute to the essential theoretical foundation. Further disciplines can be included in the future. The students of the MGSE will address a broad range of questions, from the evolution of Earth to the evolution of evolutionary theory.
The MGSE will not only sustainably improve the curricula of the disciplines involved, but it will also demonstrate that doctoral training in a multi-disciplinary research landscape can be structured based on a unifying conceptual framework. The MGSE will thereby more generally serve as a role model for a novel approach to doctoral training.
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