The Max Planck Institute for Brain Research is a fundamental research and scientific training institution focused on understanding the brain. The human brain is a formidably complex machine, composed of about one hundred billion neurons and trillions of connections, or synapses between them. Out of such a system, as if magically, arise perception, behavior and thought. The brain is often described as the "most complex machine in the known universe". Research at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research focuses on the operation of brain circuits. It is currently carried out in three scientific departments (Helmstaedter, Schuman and Laurent), four Max Planck Research Groups (Barker, Ito, Gjorgjieva, and Stempel) and a Max Planck Fellow Group (Acker-Palmer) located in our new Institute building (Riedberg), as well as in the Emeritus Department of Wolf Singer located in the old Institute building (Niederrad). Neuroscience is an archetype of interdisciplinary science: a typical project may require a good level of understanding of electronics, molecular biology, optics, computer science and informatics, expertise with matrix algebra or image processing. Neuroscience is indeed a science of systems and increasingly defined not by its tools but by questions. Today already, a typical study in the neuroscience of circuits may combine approaches such optics and molecular biology, electrophysiological recordings, analysis of terabyte-sized datasets and large numerical simulations. Our institutes thus offers an interdisciplinary environment for graduate and postgraduate education, such that every student should become an expert in some areas and knowledgeable in most others. Our institute provides a training with both breadth and depth components, in an environment where interactions between labs, faculty, scientists are the norm and where science is generally multidisciplinary. In this regard, the positioning of our new institute building at the nexus of the natural science