Max Planck

Born in Kiel, Germany, in 1858, Max Planck became one of the most influential physicists of the modern era. After studying in Munich and Berlin, he built his career in theoretical physics and spent many years at the University of Berlin, where his careful, disciplined approach shaped generations of scientists.

Planck is most closely associated with the birth of quantum theory. In trying to explain blackbody radiation, he proposed that energy is emitted and absorbed in discrete units rather than as a smooth, continuous flow. That insight, first introduced in 1900, became a foundation of twentieth-century physics and led to his Nobel Prize in Physics for 1918.

His life stretched across a turbulent period in German history, and he remained a respected figure in science through immense personal and political upheaval. Today, his name lives on not only in the Planck constant, a basic quantity in physics, but also in the Max Planck Society, one of the world’s leading scientific organizations.