Our picture of the week shows two batfish. These reef-associated fish live in pairs, jointly rearing their young and defending their territory against their fellow batfish. The picture taken by Thomas Heckmann is part of the special exhibition “Life under Water 2010” showing until 6th June at the Senckenberg Natural History Museum Görlitz. The exhibition presents the winning photos in the German International Underwater Photography Championship “Kamera Louis Boutan”, a biannual competition organised by the German Sport Diving Federation. Thomas Heckmann’s picture won the category “overall winner”. The exhibition presents the winning pictures, fascinating professional shots of creatures in all types of waters and regions of the world. After the exhibition in Görlitz it will go on tour through Germany being shown at museums, cultural centres and fairs. Visit the museum’s website here...

The Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Scientific Community, known as the Leibniz Association, is the umbrella organisation for 86 institutions conducting research or providing scientific infrastructure. Some 6,500 scientists and scholars work in the humanities and social sciences, economics, spatial and life sciences as well as in mathematics, the natural and engineering sciences and in environmental research. Altogether, ca. 14,000 people are employed at Leibniz Institutes, which have an annual budget of more than a billion euro.

Characteristic of the Leibniz Association is the enormous diversity of themes addressed by the institutes as well as its decentralised organisational structure: by far the majority of institutes are scientifically and organisationally independent. They conduct strategic, theme-based research and constantly strive for academic excellence and social relevance.

In this way, the Leibniz Association makes direct reference to its eponym, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, who was the epitome of a great universal scholar. It is in this spirit that the non-university research institutes and the service facilities adopt an interdisciplinary approach. They provide scientific services and the relevant infrastructure and cooperate with universities, institutions belonging to other science organisations and commercial enterprise.

In a word:
Theoria cum praxi: science for the benefit and good of humankind.

You will find further information about the Leibniz Association under About us.

Visit Institutions for an overview of all the institutions in the Leibniz Association.