The Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (; MPG) is a formally independent non-governmental and nonprofit association of German research institutes. Founded in 1911 as the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, it was renamed to the Max Planck Society in 1948 in honor of its former president, theoretical physicist Max Planck. The society is funded by the federal and state governments of Germany.
Mission According to its primary goal, the Max Planck Society supports fundamental research in the natural, life and social sciences, the arts and humanities in its 84 (as of January 2024) institutes and research facilities. , the society has a total staff of 24,655 permanent employees, including 6,688 contractually employed scientists, 3,444 doctoral candidates, and 3,203 guest scientists. 44.9% of all employees are female and 57.2% of the scientists are foreign nationals. The society's budget for 2023 was about €2.1 billion.
The Max Planck Society has a world-leading reputation as a science and technology research organization, with 41 Nobel Prizes awarded to their scientists, and is widely regarded as one of the foremost basic research organizations in the world. In 2025, the Nature Index placed the Max Planck Institutes twelfth worldwide in terms of research published in Nature journals. In terms of total research volume (unweighted by citations or impact), the Max Planck Society is only outranked by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Russian Academy of Sciences and Harvard University in the Times Higher Education institutional rankings.The titans: Institutional rankings by output and citations , Times Higher Education, 17 September 2009 The Thomson Reuters-Science Watch website placed the Max Planck Society as the second leading research organization worldwide following Harvard University in terms of the impact of the produced research over science fields.The Most-Cited Institutions Overall, 1999–2009. . Science Watch.
The Max Planck Society and its predecessor Kaiser Wilhelm Society hosted several renowned scientists in their fields, including Otto Hahn, Werner Heisenberg, and Albert Einstein.
The Max Planck Society also hosts the Cornell, Maryland, and Max Planck Pre-Doctoral Research School, an intense week of lectures, informal conversations with guest faculty and fellow students from all over the world, professional development panels with academic and industrial speakers, research poster sessions, and social events.
History
The organization was established in 1911 as the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, or Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft (KWG), a non-governmental research organization named for the then German emperor. The KWG was one of the world's leading research organizations; its board of directors included scientists like Walther Bothe, Peter Debye, Albert Einstein, and Fritz Haber. In 1946, Otto Hahn assumed the position of president of KWG, and in 1948, the society was renamed the Max Planck Society (MPG) after its former president (1930–37) Max Planck, who died in 1947.
The Max Planck Society has a world-leading reputation as a science and technology research organization. In 2006, the Times Higher Education Supplement rankings of non-university research institutions (based on international peer review by academics) placed the Max Planck Society as No.1 in the world for science research, and No.3 in technology research (behind AT&T Corporation and the Argonne National Laboratory in the United States).
The domain mpg.de attracted at least 1.7 million visitors annually by 2008 according to a Compete.com study.
List of presidents of the KWG and the MPG 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)
Max Planck Research Award From 1990 to 2004, the "Max Planck Research Award for International Cooperation" was presented to several researchers from a wide range of disciplines each year.
From 2004 to 2017, the "Max Planck Research Award" was conferred annually to two internationally renowned scientists, one of whom was working in Germany and one in another country. Calls for nominations for the award were invited on an annually rotating basis in specific sub-areas of the natural sciences and engineering, the life sciences, and the human and social sciences. The objective of the Max Planck Society and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in presenting this joint research award was to give added momentum to specialist fields that were either not yet established in Germany or that deserved to be expanded.https://www.mpg.de/mpResearchAward One Award – Two Winners, Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
Since 2018, the award has been succeeded by the "Max Planck-Humboldt Research Award", annually awarded to an internationally renowned mid-career researcher with outstanding future potential from outside Germany but having a strong interest in a research residency in Germany for limited time periods, alternately in the fields of natural and engineering sciences, human sciences, and life sciences, as well as the "Max Planck-Humboldt Medal" awarded to other two finalists.
Max Planck-Humboldt Research Awards and Medals Year Award Name Institution Field2024Max Planck-Humboldt Research AwardGeordie WilliamsonUniversity of SydneyMathematicsMax Planck-Humboldt MedalTorsten HoeflerETH ZurichArtificial Intelligence and High-Performance Computing with applications in Climate SciencesMax Planck-Humboldt MedalLaura WallerUniversity of California, BerkeleyComputational microscopy2023Max Planck-Humboldt Research AwardRotem SorekWeizmann Institute of ScienceBacterial defense mechanisms against virusesMax Planck-Humboldt MedalAmy BuckUniversity of EdinburghInter-species RNA communicationMax Planck-Humboldt MedalKandice TannerNational Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health in BethesdaBiophysics of the metastatic spread of cancer2022Max Planck-Humboldt Research AwardMargaret RobertsUniversity of California, San DiegoCensorship and DisinformationMax Planck-Humboldt MedalVanessa OgleYale UniversitySocial SciencesMax Planck-Humboldt MedalWim DecockUniversities of Louvain-la-Neuve and LiégeSocial Sciences2021Max Planck-Humboldt Research AwardPablo Jarillo-HerreroMITQuantum MaterialsMax Planck-Humboldt MedalAnastassia AlexandrovaUniversity of California, Los AngelesTheoretical ChemistryMax Planck-Humboldt MedalSumit GulwaniMicrosoftAI-assisted Programming2020Max Planck-Humboldt Research AwardRoberto BonasioUniversity of PennsylvaniaLife sciencesMax Planck-Humboldt MedalLuciano MarraffiniRockefeller UniversityLife sciences2019Max Planck-Humboldt Research AwardUfuk AkcigitUniversity of ChicagoMacroeconomicsMax Planck-Humboldt MedalElliot Tucker-DrobUniversity of Texas at AustinPersonality and developmental psychology2018Max Planck-Humboldt Research AwardCatherine HeymansUniversity of EdinburghDark energyMax Planck-Humboldt MedalRobert WoodHarvard UniversitySoft roboticsMax Planck-Humboldt MedalSam PayneUniversity of Texas at AustinTropical geometry
Max Planck Research Award Year Name Institution Field2016Bonnie BasslerPrinceton UniversitySensory perception of organismsMax Planck Institute for Ornithology2015Bryan Stanley TurnerCity University of New YorkReligion and modernity – secularisation, social and religious pluralismHans JoasHumboldt University of Berlin2014Robert J. SchoelkopfYale UniversityQuantum nanoscienceJörg WrachtrupUniversity of Stuttgart2013Chris FieldCarnegie Institution for Science & Stanford UniversityInfluence of climate change on ecosystemsMarkus ReichsteinMax Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry2012Katharina PistorColumbia University Law SchoolRegulating international financial marketsMartin HellwigMax Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods2011Sebastian ThrunStanford UniversityIntelligent systemsBernhard SchölkopfMax Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems2010New York University College of DentistryEvolutionMichael TomaselloMax Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology2009Karl GalinskyUniversity of Texas at AustinHistory of memoryAleida AssmannUniversity of Konstanz2008Robert S. LangerMassachusetts Institute of TechnologyBiomaterialsPeter FratzlMax Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces2007Raymond Joseph DolanUniversity College London & Wellcome Trust Centre for NeuroimagingNeuromodulation and behaviourUniversity of Münster2006Alina PayneHarvard UniversityArt historyHorst BredekampHumboldt University of Berlin2005Christopher CarilliNational Radio Astronomy Observatory, SocorroAstrophysicsChristof WetterichHeidelberg University2004Eugene W. MyersUniversity of California, BerkeleyBioinformaticsMartin VingronMax Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics
Organization
The Max Planck Society is formally an eingetragener Verein, a registered association with the institute directors as scientific members having equal voting rights. The society has its registered seat in Berlin, while the administrative headquarters are located in Munich. Since June 2023, chemist and molecular biologist Patrick Cramer has been the President of the Max Planck Society.
Funding is provided predominantly from federal and state sources, but also from research and license fees and donations. One of the larger donations was the castle Schloss Ringberg near Kreuth in Bavaria, which was pledged by Luitpold Emanuel in Bayern (Duke in Bavaria). It passed to the Society after the duke died in 1973, and is now used for conferences.
Max Planck Institutes and research groups
The Max Planck Society consists of over 80 research institutes. 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.
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.
In addition, there are associated institutes: NameCityCountrySectionErnst Strüngmann InstituteFrankfurt am MainGermanyBiology & Medicine
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. 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.
International Max Planck Research Schools Together with the Association of Universities and other institutions in Germany, the Max Planck Society established numerous International Max Planck Research Schools (IMPRS) to promote junior scientists.