Max Planck Society

• Adolf von Harnack (1911–1930)
• Max Planck (1930–1937)
• Carl Bosch (1937–1940)
• Albert Vögler (1941–1945)
• Max Planck (16 May 1945 – 31 March 1946)
• Otto Hahn (as President of the KWG 1946 and then as Founder and President of the MPG 1948–1960)
• Adolf Butenandt (1960–1972)
• Reimar Lüst (1972–1984)
• Heinz Staab (1984–1990)
• Hans F. Zacher (1990–1996)
• Hubert Markl (1996–2002)
• Peter Gruss (2002–2014)
• Martin Stratmann (2014–2023)
• Patrick Cramer (2023–present)

See de:Max-Planck-Forschungspreis

The Max Planck Society consists of over 80 research institutes.[18] In addition, the society funds a number of Max Planck Research Groups (MPRG) and International Max Planck Research Schools (IMPRS). The purpose of establishing independent research groups at various universities is to strengthen the required networking between universities and institutes of the Max Planck Society.

The research units are primarily located across Europe with a few in South Korea and the U.S. In 2007, the Society established its first non-European centre, with an institute on the Jupiter campus of Florida Atlantic University focusing on neuroscience.[19][20]

The Max Planck Institutes operate independently from, though in close cooperation with, the universities, and focus on innovative research that does not fit into the university structure due to its interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary nature or that require resources that cannot be met by the state universities.

Internally, Max Planck Institutes are organized into research departments headed by directors such that each MPI has several directors, a position roughly comparable to anything from full professor to department head at a university. Other core members include Junior and Senior Research Fellows.[21]

In addition, there are several associated institutes:[18]

Max Planck Society also has a collaborative center with Princeton University—Max Planck Princeton Research Center for Plasma Physics—located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the U.S.[22] The latest Max Planck Research Center has been established at Harvard University in 2016 as the Max Planck Harvard Research Center for the Archaeoscience of the Ancient Mediterranean.

Together with the Association of Universities and other Education Institutions in Germany, the Max Planck Society established numerous International Max Planck Research Schools (IMPRS) to promote junior scientists:

• Cologne Graduate School of Ageing Research, Cologne[23]
• International Max Planck Research School for Intelligent Systems, at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems located in Tübingen and Stuttgart[24]
• International Max Planck Research School on Adapting Behavior in a Fundamentally Uncertain World (Uncertainty School), at the Max Planck Institutes for Economics, for Human Development, and/or Research on Collective Goods
• International Max Planck Research School for Analysis, Design and Optimization in Chemical and Biochemical Process Engineering, Magdeburg[25]
• International Max Planck Research School for Astronomy and Cosmic Physics, Heidelberg at the MPI for Astronomy
• International Max Planck Research School for Astrophysics, Garching at the MPI for Astrophysics
• International Max Planck Research School for Complex Surfaces in Material Sciences, Berlin[26]
• International Max Planck Research School for Computer Science, Saarbrücken[27]
• International Max Planck Research School for Earth System Modeling, Hamburg[28]
• International Max Planck Research School for Elementary Particle Physics, Munich, at the MPI for Physics[29]
• International Max Planck Research School for Environmental, Cellular and Molecular Microbiology, Marburg at the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology
• International Max Planck Research School for Evolutionary Biology, Plön at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology[30]
• International Max Planck Research School "From Molecules to Organisms", Tübingen at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology[31]
• International Max Planck Research School for Global Biogeochemical Cycles, Jena at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry[32]
• International Max Planck Research School on Gravitational Wave Astronomy, Hannover and Potsdam MPI for Gravitational Physics[33]
• International Max Planck Research School for Heart and Lung Research, Bad Nauheim at the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research[34]
• International Max Planck Research School for Infectious Diseases and Immunity, Berlin at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology[35][36]
• International Max Planck Research School for Language Sciences, Nijmegen[37]
• International Max Planck Research School for Neurosciences, Göttingen[38]
• International Max Planck Research School for Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience, Tübingen[39]
• International Max Planck Research School for Marine Microbiology (MarMic), joint program of the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, the University of Bremen, the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Bremerhaven, and the Jacobs University Bremen[40]
• International Max Planck Research School for Maritime Affairs, Hamburg[41]
• International Max Planck Research School for Molecular and Cellular Biology, Freiburg
• International Max Planck Research School for Molecular and Cellular Life Sciences, Munich[42]
• International Max Planck Research School for Molecular Biology, Göttingen[43]
• International Max Planck Research School for Molecular Cell Biology and Bioengineering, Dresden[44]
• International Max Planck Research School Molecular Biomedicine, program combined with the 'Graduate Programm Cell Dynamics And Disease' at the University of Münster and the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine[45]
• International Max Planck Research School on Multiscale Bio-Systems, Potsdam[46]
• International Max Planck Research School for Organismal Biology, at the University of Konstanz and the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology[47][48]
• International Max Planck Research School on Reactive Structure Analysis for Chemical Reactions (IMPRS RECHARGE), Mülheim an der Ruhr, at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion[49]
• International Max Planck Research School for Science and Technology of Nano-Systems, Halle at Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics
• International Max Planck Research School for Solar System Science[50] at the University of Göttingen[51] hosted by MPI for Solar System Research[52]
• International Max Planck Research School for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Bonn, at the MPI for Radio Astronomy (formerly the International Max Planck Research School for Radio and Infrared Astronomy)[53]
• International Max Planck Research School for the Social and Political Constitution of the Economy, Cologne[54]
• International Max Planck Research School for Surface and Interface Engineering in Advanced Materials, Düsseldorf at Max Planck Institute for Iron Research GmbH
• International Max Planck Research School for Ultrafast Imaging and Structural Dynamics, Hamburg[55]

• Max Planck School of Cognition[56]
• Max Planck School Matter to Life[57]
• Max Planck School of Photonics[58]

• The Max Planck Centre for Attosecond Science (MPC-AS), POSTECH Pohang
• The Max Planck POSTECH Center for Complex Phase Materials, POSTECH Pohang

Among others:

• Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience
• Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology of Behavior – caesar, Bonn
• Max Planck Institute for Aeronomics in Katlenburg-Lindau was renamed to Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in 2004;
• Max Planck Institute for Biology in Tübingen was closed in 2005;
• Max Planck Institute for Cell Biology in Ladenburg b. Heidelberg was closed in 2003;
• Max Planck Institute for Economics in Jena was renamed to the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in 2014;
• Max Planck Institute for Ionospheric Research in Katlenburg-Lindau was renamed to Max Planck Institute for Aeronomics in 1958;
• Max Planck Institute for Metals Research, Stuttgart
• Max Planck Institute of Oceanic Biology in Wilhelmshaven was renamed to Max Planck Institute of Cell Biology in 1968 and moved to Ladenburg 1977;
• Max Planck Institute for Psychological Research in Munich merged into the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in 2004;
• Max Planck Institute for Protein and Leather Research in Regensburg moved to Munich 1957 and was united with the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in 1977;
• Max Planck Institute for Virus Research in Tübingen was renamed as Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in 1985;
• Max Planck Institute for the Study of the Scientific-Technical World in Starnberg (from 1970 until 1981 (closed)) directed by Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker and Jürgen Habermas.
• Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Physiology
• Max Planck Institute of Experimental Endocrinology
• Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Social Law
• Max Planck Institute for Physics and Astrophysics
• Max Planck Research Unit for Enzymology of Protein Folding

In 2008, the European General Court ruled in a case brought by a PhD student against the Max Planck Society that "a researcher preparing a doctoral thesis on the basis of a grant contract concluded with the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften eV, must be regarded as a worker within the meaning of Article 39 EC only if his activities are performed for a certain period of time under the direction of an institute forming part of that association and if, in return for those activities, he receives remuneration".[63]

In 2012, the Max Planck Society was at the centre of a controversy about some PhD students being given employment contracts. Of the 5,300 students who at the time wrote their PhD thesis at the 80 Max Planck Institutes 2,000 had an employment contract. The remaining 3,300 received grants of between 1,000 and 1,365 Euro.[64] According to a 2011 statement by the Max Planck Society "As you embark on a PhD, you are still anything but a proper scientist; it’s during the process itself that you become a proper scientist... a PhD is an apprenticeship in the lab, and as such it is usually not paid like a proper job – and this is, by and large, the practice at all research institutions and universities".[65] The allegation of wage dumping for young scientists was discussed during the passing of the 2012 "Wissenschaftsfreiheitsgesetz" (Scientific Freedom Law) in the German Parliament.[66]

1. Ferenc Krausz, Nobel Prize, physics, 2023
2. Svante Pääbo, Nobel Prize, medicine 2022
3. Benjamin List, Nobel Prize, chemistry 2021
4. Klaus Hasselmann, Nobel Prize, physics 2021
5. Emmanuelle Charpentier, Nobel Prize, chemistry 2020
6. Reinhard Genzel, Nobel Prize, physics 2020
7. Stefan W. Hell, Nobel Prize, chemistry 2014
8. Gerhard Ertl, Nobel Prize, chemistry 2007
9. Theodor W. Hänsch, Nobel Prize, physics 2005
10. Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, Nobel Prize, medicine 1995
11. Paul Crutzen, Nobel Prize, chemistry 1995
12. Erwin Neher, Nobel Prize, medicine 1991
13. Bert Sakmann, Nobel Prize, medicine 1991
14. Robert Huber, Nobel Prize, chemistry 1988
15. Hartmut Michel, Nobel Prize, chemistry 1988
16. Johann Deisenhofer, Nobel Prize, chemistry 1988
17. Ernst Ruska, Nobel Prize, physics 1986
18. Klaus von Klitzing, Nobel Prize, physics 1985
19. Georges Köhler, Nobel Prize, medicine 1984
20. Konrad Lorenz, Nobel Prize, medicine 1973
21. Manfred Eigen, Nobel Prize, chemistry 1967
22. Feodor Lynen, Nobel Prize, medicine 1964
23. Karl Ziegler, Nobel Prize, chemistry 1963
24. Walter Bothe, Nobel Prize, physics 1954

1. Otto Hahn, Nobel Prize, chemistry 1944
2. Adolf Butenandt, Nobel Prize, chemistry 1939
3. Richard Kuhn, Nobel Prize, chemistry 1938
4. Peter J. W. Debye, Nobel Prize, chemistry 1936
5. Hans Spemann, Nobel Prize, medicine 1935
6. Werner Heisenberg, Nobel Prize, physics 1932
7. Otto Heinrich Warburg, Nobel Prize, medicine 1931
8. Carl Bosch, Nobel Prize, chemistry 1931
9. James Franck, Nobel Prize, physics 1925
10. Otto Meyerhof, Nobel Prize, medicine 1922
11. Albert Einstein, Nobel Prize, physics 1921
12. Max Planck, Nobel Prize, physics 1918
13. Fritz Haber, Nobel Prize, chemistry 1918
14. Richard Willstätter, Nobel Prize, chemistry 1915
15. Max von Laue, Nobel Prize, physics 1914