Max Planck

Max Planck
Max Planck
	Planck in 1938
Born	Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck; 23 April 1858; Kiel, Duchy of Holstein, German Confederation
Died	4 October 1947 (aged 89); Göttingen, British zone, Allied-occupied Germany
Resting place	Stadtfriedhof, Göttingen
Alma mater	University of Munich (Dr. phil.); University of Berlin (Dr. habil.);
Known for	Planck units (1899); Planck constant (1900); Planck's law (1900); Planck postulate (1900); Founding old quantum theory (1900); See list;
Spouses	; Marie Merck (m. 1887; died 1909) Marga von Hösslin (m. 1911)
Children	5, including Erwin
Awards	Nobel Prize in Physics (1918); ForMemRS (1926); Lorentz Medal (1927); Copley Medal (1929); Max Planck Medal (1929); Goethe Prize (1945);
	Scientific career
Fields	Thermodynamics; Quantum physics;
Institutions	University of Munich ; (1880–1885); University of Kiel ; (1885–1889); University of Berlin ; (1889–1926);
Theses	Über den zweiten Hauptsatz der mechanischen Wärmetheorie (1879); Über Gleichgewichtszustände isotroper Körper in verschiedenen Temperaturen (1880);
Doctoral advisor	Alexander von Brill
Other academic advisors	Hermann von Helmholtz; Philipp von Jolly; Gustav Kirchhoff; Karl Weierstrass;
Doctoral students	See list Hans von Euler-Chelpin (1895) ; Max Abraham (1897) ; Max von Laue (1903) ; Moritz Schlick (1904) ; Kurd von Mosengeil (1906) ; Walther Meissner (1907) ; Wolfgang Köhler (1909) ; Walter H. Schottky (1912) ; Walther Bothe (1914) ; Erich Kretschmann (1914) ; Hartmut Kallmann (1920) ; Erich Schumann (1922) ;
Other notable students	See list Richard Becker ; George Ellery Hale ; Gustav Ludwig Hertz ; Elizabeth Laird ; Lise Meitner ; Ernest Merritt ; Eugene Wigner ; Ernst Zermelo ;
Signature

Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck (German: [maks ˈplaŋk] ^ⓘ; 23 April 1858 – 4 October 1947) was a German theoretical physicist whose discovery of energy quanta won him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918.^[4]

Planck made many substantial contributions to theoretical physics, but his fame as a physicist rests primarily on his role as the originator of quantum theory and one of the founders of modern physics,^[5]^[6] which revolutionized understanding of atomic and subatomic processes. He is known for the Planck constant, which is of foundational importance for quantum physics, and which he used to derive a set of units, today called Planck units, expressed only in terms of physical constants.

Planck was twice president of the German scientific institution Kaiser Wilhelm Society. In 1948, it was renamed the Max Planck Society (Max-Planck-Gesellschaft) and nowadays includes 83 institutions representing a wide range of scientific directions.

^ Born, M. (1948). "Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck. 1858–1947". Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society. 6 (17): 161–188. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1948.0024.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f "Max Planck - The Mathematics Genealogy Project". genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu. Retrieved 31 May 2025.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ "Max Planck - Physics Tree". academictree.org. Retrieved 15 July 2025.
^ The Nobel Prize in Physics 1918 Archived 5 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine. Nobelprize.org. Retrieved on 5 July 2011.
^ Fraenkel, Abraham (2016). Recollections of a Jewish Mathematician in Germany. Basel, Switzerland: Birkhäuser. p. 96. ISBN 978-3-319-30845-6.
^ "Max Planck: Unveiling the Father of Quantum Theory". 13 February 2024.

[frs-1] Born, M. (1948). "Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck. 1858–1947". Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society. 6 (17): 161–188. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1948.0024.

[MGP-2] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f "Max Planck - The Mathematics Genealogy Project". genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu. Retrieved 31 May 2025.

[PhysicsTree-3] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ "Max Planck - Physics Tree". academictree.org. Retrieved 15 July 2025.

[4] The Nobel Prize in Physics 1918 Archived 5 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine. Nobelprize.org. Retrieved on 5 July 2011.

[5] Fraenkel, Abraham (2016). Recollections of a Jewish Mathematician in Germany. Basel, Switzerland: Birkhäuser. p. 96. ISBN 978-3-319-30845-6.

[6] "Max Planck: Unveiling the Father of Quantum Theory". 13 February 2024.

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