Kiel University

Kiel University, known in German as Christian-Albrechts-Universitaet zu Kiel and abbreviated CAU, is a public research university in the city of Kiel in northern Germany. It was founded in 1665 by Christian Albert, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, as the Academia Holsatorum Chiloniensis. Until 1866 it was the northernmost university in Germany and, at the same time, the second largest university of Denmark; after the Danish-German war the city came under Prussian administration. Today it is the largest and only comprehensive university in the state of Schleswig-Holstein, organised into eight faculties and offering more than 190 degree programmes. Its research strengths include marine science, through its long cooperation with the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, and medicine, through a Cluster of Excellence on chronic inflammation. Faculty, alumni and researchers have won 12 Nobel Prizes, and the university has been part of the German Universities Excellence Initiative since 2006.