The origins of the veterinary clinics date back to 1780. In 1923, it was incorporated into the University of Leipzig where a separate campus was built for the new Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. Today, it is one of five veterinary training centers in Germany. Research focuses on emerging animal diseases and zoonoses in Europe, and their potential impact on agriculture, ecosystems and human health. The faculty is involved in knowledge transfer at the children’s project day “VetDay,” participation in the Children’s University and the studium universale, as well as the Long Night of Sciences.

Physical research in Leipzig dates back to 1557 when a professorship for physics was established. In the 18th century, even Saxon princes traveled from Dresden to witness impressive demonstrations of electrical charges and discharges. In 1835, the University of Leipzig (UL) established “one of the first, if not the first, state physics institutes in Germany” (according to Otto Wiener). In 1905, the largest physics institute building in Germany at the time was inaugurated on Linnéstraße. In the 1920s, the institute was led by Peter Debye (Nobel Prize 1936), Werner Heisenberg (Nobel Prize 1933), and Friedrich Hund. The fundamental principles of quantum mechanics and its applications in solid-state physics, nuclear physics, and chemistry were largely developed in Leipzig. After World War II, Gustav Hertz (Nobel Prize 1925) rebuilt the building and the research operations.

In 1710, the University of Leipzig appointed its first “Professor of Chemistry.” Approximately a century later, the university inaugurated its first chemical laboratory. By the next century, Leipzig had firmly established itself as a distinguished center of research and education, recognized globally for its academic excellence. Wilhelm Ostwald received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1909 for his research at Leipzig, and four alumni from the university — August Arrhenius (1903), Walther Hermann Nernst (1920), as well as Friedrich Bergius and Carl Bosch (1931) — were also awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

The Leipzig Institute of Meteorology (LIM) has a tradition of over 100 years in meteorological and climatological research. Today, it is a recognized international center for meteorological research and teaching in the field of meteorology and climatology. The institute is an integral part of Leipzig University’s Children’s University and has its own blog for children (Mia’s Climate Diary). It is also an important part of the Long Night of Sciences and provides an overview of the currently measured weather from the measuring meadow in front of the institute and the institute tower on the website, and displayed on a screen in the building.

Leipzig University is organized into 14 faculties with more than 100 institutes. The research topics cover a broad spectrum of disciplines in life sciences, social sciences and humanities, and the natural sciences — with particular strength in the fields of global interactions, (bio-)materials, intelligent materials, biotechnology, mathematical sciences, and biodiversity.

The Else-Frenkel-Brunswik Institute (EFBI) at the University of Leipzig, founded in the fall of 2020, is named after the psychoanalyst Else Frenkel-Brunswik, whose research tradition the institute follows. The EFBI focuses on three key areas of research: attitude research, research in conflict areas, and the documentation of anti-democratic networks. Notable studies include the Berlin Monitor and the Leipzig Authoritarianism Studies. The results of the institute’s research are presented and discussed in numerous public events.

The Institute of Communication and Media Studies was founded in 1916 as „Institut für Zeitungskunde”. It is one of the oldest and one of the largest institutes for this research in the German realm. Presenently, its research focus are the change of media and society. It is cooperating with stakeholders and experts from politics and society to turn its expertise in practical actions.

Founded in 1873, the Institute of Art History is one of the few art historical institutes globally that was established in the 19th century. The research and teaching of the professors, lecturers, and numerous teaching assistants from the art history field cover the entire spectrum of the discipline, from the Middle Ages to the present. The institute maintains contact with the public in Leipzig through numerous and close collaborations with the art museums in the city center.

In 1879, Leipzig University professor Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt (1832 – 1920) founded the world’s first Institute of Psychology. Many scholars from around the world attended Wundt’s lectures, participated in his seminars, and took part in experimental research in his laboratory. He wrote numerous highly influential books and provided assessments for 184 doctoral theses. At least 60 of his doctoral students came from abroad, including 18 from the United States. Today, ten university professors work at the Institute of Psychology, and three honorary professors serve as directors at the Leipzig Max Planck Institutes for Cognitive and Brain Sciences and for Evolutionary Anthropology. Their research spans all major fundamental and applied areas of contemporary psychology.

Lectures on political theory at the University of Leipzig have been documented since 1410, but today’s Institute of Political Science is a result and benefit of the period of German reunification. During this period, the relationship between politics and philosophy, history, jurisprudence, and economics was repeatedly renegotiated. In the 19th century, for example, a strong connection to national economics was promoted. With the break from the academic systems of the totalitarian regimes of the 20th century, the founding of the institute in 1993 led to a reorientation of research and teaching under the thematic umbrella of “Democracy - Education - Europe”. The guiding principle here is the factual and problem-oriented analysis of political processes, structures and content in a non-discriminatory space.