The Max Planck Medal is the highest award of the

German Physical Society The German Physical Society (German: , DPG) is the oldest organisation of physicists. As of 2022, the DPG's worldwide membership is cited as 52,220, making it one of the largest national physics societies in the world. The DPG's membership peaked ...

, the world's largest organization of physicists, for extraordinary achievements in

theoretical physics Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain, and predict List of natural phenomena, natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental p ...

. The prize has been awarded annually since 1929, with few exceptions, and usually to a single person. The winner is awarded with a gold medal and hand-written parchment. In 1943 it was not possible to manufacture the gold medal because the

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

foundry was hit by a bomb. The board of directors of the German Physical Society decided to manufacture the medals in a substitute metal and to deliver the gold medals later. The highest award of the German Physical Society for outstanding results in experimental physics is the Stern–Gerlach Medal.

List of recipients

*2025 Reinhard F. Werner *2024 Erwin Frey *2023 Rashid A. Sunyaev *2022 Annette Zippelius *2021

Alexander Markovich Polyakov Alexander Markovich Polyakov (; born 27 September 1945) is a Russian theoretical physicist, formerly at the Landau Institute in Moscow and, since 1989, at Princeton University, where he is the Joseph Henry Professor of Physics Emeritus. Importa ...

*2020 Andrzej Buras *2019 Detlef Lohse *2018 Juan Ignacio Cirac *2017

Herbert Spohn Herbert Spohn (born 1 November 1946) is a German mathematician and mathematical physicist working in kinetic equations, dynamics of stochastic particle systems, hydrodynamic limit, kinetics of growth processes, disordered systems, open quantum sy ...

*2016 Herbert Wagner *2015

Viatcheslav Mukhanov Viatcheslav Fyodorovich Mukhanov (; born October 2, 1956) is a Soviet/Russian born German theoretical physicist and cosmologist. He is best known for the theory of Quantum Origin of the Universe Structure. Working in 1980-1981 with Gennady Chib ...

*2014

David Ruelle David Pierre Ruelle (; born 20 August 1935) is a Belgian and naturalized French mathematical physicist. He has worked on statistical physics and dynamical systems. With Floris Takens, Ruelle coined the term ''strange attractor'', and devel ...

*2013

Werner Nahm Werner Nahm (; born 21 March 1949) is a German theoretical physicist. He has made contributions to mathematical physics and fundamental theoretical physics. Life and work Werner Nahm attended Gymnasium Philippinum Weilburg. After high sch ...

*2012 Martin Zirnbauer *2011

Giorgio Parisi Giorgio Parisi (born 4 August 1948) is an Italian theoretical physicist, whose research has focused on quantum field theory, statistical mechanics In physics, statistical mechanics is a mathematical framework that applies statistical methods ...

*2010 Dieter Vollhardt *2009 Robert Graham *2008

Detlev Buchholz Detlev Buchholz (born 31 May 1944) is a German theoretical physicist. He investigates quantum field theory, especially in the axiomatic framework of algebraic quantum field theory. Biography Buchholz studied physics in Hannover and Hamburg wher ...

*2007

Joel Lebowitz Joel Louis Lebowitz (born May 10, 1930) is a mathematical physicist known for his contributions to statistical physics, statistical mechanics, and many other fields of mathematics and physics. He is a founding editor of the Journal of Statis ...

*2006

Wolfgang Götze Wolfgang Götze (born 11 July 1937 – 20 October 2021) was a German theoretical physicist. He began his physics education at Humboldt University of Berlin and the Free University of Berlin, after which he obtained his doctorate at the Technic ...

*2005

Peter Zoller Peter Zoller (born 16 September 1952) is a theoretical physicist from Austria. He is professor at the University of Innsbruck and works on quantum optics and quantum information and is best known for his pioneering research on quantum computing ...

*2004

Klaus Hepp Klaus Hepp (born 11 December 1936) is a German-born Swiss theoretical physicist working mainly in quantum field theory. Hepp studied mathematics and physics at Westfälischen Wilhelms-Universität in Münster and at the Eidgenössischen Technis ...

*2003

Martin Gutzwiller Martin Charles Gutzwiller (12 October 1925 – 3 March 2014) was a Swiss-American physicist, known for his work on field theory, quantum chaos, and complex systems. He spent most of his career at IBM Research, and was also an adjunct prof ...

*2002

Jürgen Ehlers Jürgen Ehlers (; 29 December 1929 – 20 May 2008) was a German physicist who contributed to the understanding of Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity. From graduate and postgraduate work in Pascual Jordan's relativity research group ...

*2001

Jürg Fröhlich Jürg Martin Fröhlich (born 4 July 1946 in Schaffhausen) is a Swiss mathematician and theoretical physicist. He is best known for introducing rigorous techniques for the analysis of statistical mechanics models, in particular continuous symmetr ...

*2000

Martin Lüscher Martin Lüscher (born August 3, 1949, in Bern) is a Swiss theoretical physicist, who works primarily on numerical quantum chromodynamics ( lattice field theory). Lüscher studied at the University of Bern and the University of Hamburg, where he e ...

*1999 Pierre Hohenberg *1998

Raymond Stora Raymond Félix Stora (18 September 1930 – 20 July 2015) was a French theoretical physicist. He was a researcher at Service de Physique Théorique at CEA Saclay, then a research director at the French National Centre for Scientific Research ...

*1997 Gerald E. Brown *1996

Ludvig Faddeev Ludvig Dmitrievich Faddeev (also ''Ludwig Dmitriyevich''; ; 23 March 1934 – 26 February 2017) was a Soviet Union, Soviet and Russian Mathematical physics, mathematical physicist. He is known for the discovery of the Faddeev equations in the qu ...

*1995

Siegfried Grossmann Siegfried Grossmann (born 28 February 1930) is a German theoretical physicist who has been awarded the Max Planck Medal, the major prize for achievements in theoretical physics. Biography He was born near Königsberg in Prussia (now Kaliningra ...

*1994 Hans-Jürgen Borchers *1993

Kurt Binder Kurt Binder (10 February 1944 – 27 September 2022) was an Austrian theoretical physicist. Biography He received his Ph.D. in 1969 at the Technical University of Vienna, and his habilitation degree 1973 at the Technical University of Munich. ...

*1992

Elliott H. Lieb Elliott Hershel Lieb (born July 31, 1932) is an American mathematical physicist. He is a professor of mathematics and physics at Princeton University. Lieb's works pertain to quantum and classical many-body problem, atomic structure, the sta ...

*1991 Wolfhart Zimmermann *1990

Hermann Haken Hermann Haken (12 July 1927 – 14 August 2024) was a German physicist and professor emeritus in theoretical physics at the University of Stuttgart. He is known as the founder of synergetics and one of the "fathers" of quantum-mechanical lase ...

*1989 Bruno Zumino *1988

Valentine Bargmann Valentine "Valya" Bargmann (April 6, 1908 – July 20, 1989) was a German-American mathematician and theoretical physicist. Biography Born in Berlin, Germany, to a German Jewish The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the y ...

*1987 Julius Wess *1986

Franz Wegner Franz Joachim Wegner (born 15 June 1940) is emeritus professor for theoretical physics at the University of Heidelberg. Education Franz Wegner attained a doctorate in 1968 with thesis advisor Wilhelm Brenig at the Technical University Munich wit ...

*1985

Yoichiro Nambu was a Japanese-American physicist and professor at the University of Chicago. Known for his groundbreaking contributions to theoretical physics, Nambu was the originator of the theory of spontaneous symmetry breaking, a concept that revoluti ...

*1984

Res Jost Res Jost (10 January 1918 – 3 October 1990) was a Swiss theoretical physicist, who worked mainly in constructive quantum field theory. Biography Res Jost was born on January 10, 1918, in Bern. He is the son of the physics teacher Wilhelm ...

*1983

Nicholas Kemmer Nicholas Kemmer (7 December 1911 – 21 October 1998) was a Russian-born nuclear physics, nuclear physicist working in Britain, who played an integral and leading edge role in United Kingdom's British nuclear weapons, nuclear programme, and was ...

*1982 Hans-Arwed Weidenmüller *1981 Kurt Symanzik *1980 ''not awarded'' *1979 Markus Fierz *1978

Paul Peter Ewald Paul Peter Ewald, FRS (January23, 1888August22, 1985) was a German crystallographer and physicist, a pioneer of X-ray diffraction methods. Education Ewald received his early education in the classics at the Gymnasium in Berlin and Potsdam, wh ...

*1977 Walter Thirring *1976

Ernst Stueckelberg Ernst Carl Gerlach Stueckelberg (baptised as Johann Melchior Ernst Karl Gerlach Stückelberg, full name after 1911: Baron Ernst Carl Gerlach Stueckelberg von Breidenbach zu Breidenstein und Melsbach; 1 February 1905 – 4 September 1984) was a S ...

*1975

Gregor Wentzel Gregor Wentzel (17 February 1898 – 12 August 1978) was a German physicist known for development of quantum mechanics. Wentzel, Hendrik Kramers, and Léon Brillouin developed the Wentzel–Kramers–Brillouin approximation in 1926. In his early y ...

*1974

Léon Van Hove Léon Charles Prudent Van Hove (10 February 1924 – 2 September 1990) was a Belgian physicist and a Director General of CERN. He developed a scientific career spanning mathematics, solid state physics, elementary particle and nuclear physics to ...

*1973

Nikolay Bogolyubov Nikolay Nikolayevich (Mykola Mykolayovych) Bogolyubov (; ; 21 August 1909 – 13 February 1992) was a Soviet, Ukrainian and Russian mathematician and theoretical physicist known for a significant contribution to quantum field theory, classi ...

*1972

Herbert Fröhlich Herbert Fröhlich (9 December 1905 – 23 January 1991) FRS was a German-born British physicist. Personal life Fröhlich was born on 9 December 1905 in Rexingen, Baden-Württemberg. He was the son of Fanny Frida (née Schwarz) and Jakob Juli ...

*1971 ''not awarded'' *1970

Rudolf Haag Rudolf Haag (17 August 1922 – 5 January 2016) was a German theoretical physicist, who mainly dealt with fundamental questions of quantum field theory. He was one of the founders of the modern formulation of quantum field theory and he identifie ...

*1969

Freeman Dyson Freeman John Dyson (15 December 1923 – 28 February 2020) was a British-American theoretical physics, theoretical physicist and mathematician known for his works in quantum field theory, astrophysics, random matrix, random matrices, math ...

*1968

Walter Heitler Walter Heinrich Heitler (; 2 January 1904 – 15 November 1981) was a German physicist who made contributions to quantum electrodynamics and quantum field theory. He brought chemistry under quantum mechanics through his theory of valence bondi ...

*1967

Harry Lehmann Harry Lehmann (21 March 1924 in Güstrow22 November 1998 in Hamburg) was a German physicist. Known for his work on correlation functions in quantum field theory. Biography Lehmann studied physics at Rostock and the Humboldt-Universität zu Berl ...

*1966 Gerhart Lüders *1965 ''not awarded'' *1964

Samuel Goudsmit Samuel Abraham Goudsmit (July 11, 1902 – December 4, 1978) was a Dutch-American physicist famous for jointly proposing the concept of electron spin with George Eugene Uhlenbeck in 1925. Life and career Goudsmit was born in The Hague, Ne ...

and

George Uhlenbeck George Eugene Uhlenbeck (December 6, 1900 – October 31, 1988) was a Dutch-American theoretical physicist, known for his significant contributions to quantum mechanics and statistical mechanics. He co-developed the concept of electron spin, alo ...

*1963

Rudolf Peierls Sir Rudolf Ernst Peierls, (; ; 5 June 1907 – 19 September 1995) was a German-born British physicist who played a major role in Tube Alloys, Britain's nuclear weapon programme, as well as the subsequent Manhattan Project, the combined Allied ...

*1962

Ralph Kronig Ralph Kronig (10 March 1904 – 16 November 1995) was a German physicist. He is noted for the discovery of particle spin and for his theory of X-ray absorption spectroscopy. His theories include the Kronig–Penney model, the Coster–Kronig tr ...

*1961

Eugene Wigner Eugene Paul Wigner (, ; November 17, 1902 – January 1, 1995) was a Hungarian-American theoretical physicist who also contributed to mathematical physics. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1963 "for his contributions to the theory of th ...

*1960

Lev Landau Lev Davidovich Landau (; 22 January 1908 – 1 April 1968) was a Soviet physicist who made fundamental contributions to many areas of theoretical physics. He was considered as one of the last scientists who were universally well-versed and ma ...

*1959

Oskar Klein Oskar Benjamin Klein (; 15 September 1894 – 5 February 1977) was a Swedish theoretical physics, theoretical physicist. Oskar Klein is known for his work on Kaluza–Klein theory, which is partially named after him. Biography Klein was born ...

*1958

Wolfgang Pauli Wolfgang Ernst Pauli ( ; ; 25 April 1900 – 15 December 1958) was an Austrian theoretical physicist and a pioneer of quantum mechanics. In 1945, after having been nominated by Albert Einstein, Pauli received the Nobel Prize in Physics "for the ...

*1957

Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker Carl Friedrich Freiherr von Weizsäcker (; 28 June 1912 – 28 April 2007) was a German physicist and philosopher. He was the longest-living member of the team which performed nuclear research in Nazi Germany during the Second World War, un ...

*1956

Victor Weisskopf Victor Frederick "Viki" Weisskopf (also spelled Viktor; September 19, 1908 – April 22, 2002) was an Austrian-born American theoretical physicist. He did postdoctoral work with Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrödinger, Wolfgang Pauli, and Niels Boh ...

*1955

Hans Bethe Hans Albrecht Eduard Bethe (; ; July 2, 1906 – March 6, 2005) was a German-American physicist who made major contributions to nuclear physics, astrophysics, quantum electrodynamics and solid-state physics, and received the Nobel Prize in Physi ...

*1954

Enrico Fermi Enrico Fermi (; 29 September 1901 – 28 November 1954) was an Italian and naturalized American physicist, renowned for being the creator of the world's first artificial nuclear reactor, the Chicago Pile-1, and a member of the Manhattan Project ...

*1953

Walther Bothe Walther Wilhelm Georg Bothe (; 8 January 1891 – 8 February 1957) was a German physicist who shared the 1954 Nobel Prize in Physics with Max Born "for the coincidence method and his discoveries made therewith". He served in the military durin ...

*1952

Paul Dirac Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac ( ; 8 August 1902 – 20 October 1984) was an English mathematician and Theoretical physics, theoretical physicist who is considered to be one of the founders of quantum mechanics. Dirac laid the foundations for bot ...

*1951

James Franck James Franck (; 26 August 1882 – 21 May 1964) was a German-American physicist who received the 1925 Nobel Prize in Physics with Gustav Hertz "for their discovery of the laws governing the impact of an electron upon an atom". He completed hi ...

and

Gustav Hertz Gustav Ludwig Hertz (; 22 July 1887 – 30 October 1975) was a German atomic physicist who shared the 1925 Nobel Prize in Physics with James Franck "for their discovery of the laws governing the impact of an electron upon an atom". Biography ...

*1950

Peter Debye Peter Joseph William Debye ( ; born Petrus Josephus Wilhelmus Debije, ; March 24, 1884 – November 2, 1966) was a Dutch-American physicist and physical chemist, and Nobel laureate in Chemistry. Biography Early life Born in Maastricht, Neth ...

*1949

Lise Meitner Elise Lise Meitner ( ; ; 7 November 1878 – 27 October 1968) was an Austrian-Swedish nuclear physicist who was instrumental in the discovery of nuclear fission. After completing her doctoral research in 1906, Meitner became the second woman ...

and

Otto Hahn Otto Hahn (; 8 March 1879 – 28 July 1968) was a German chemist who was a pioneer in the field of radiochemistry. He is referred to as the father of nuclear chemistry and discoverer of nuclear fission, the science behind nuclear reactors and ...

*1948

Max Born Max Born (; 11 December 1882 – 5 January 1970) was a German-British theoretical physicist who was instrumental in the development of quantum mechanics. He also made contributions to solid-state physics and optics, and supervised the work of a ...

*1945–1947 ''not awarded'' *1944

Walther Kossel Walther Ludwig Julius Kossel (; 4 January 1888 – 22 May 1956) was a German chemist and physicist known for his theory of the chemical bond (ionic bond/octet rule), Sommerfeld–Kossel displacement law of atomic spectra, the Kossel–Stranski ...

*1943

Friedrich Hund Friedrich Hermann Hund (4 February 1896 – 31 March 1997) was a German physicist from Karlsruhe known for his work on atoms and molecules. He is known for the Hund's rules to predict the electron configuration of chemical elements. His work on H ...

*1942

Pascual Jordan Ernst Pascual Jordan (; 18 October 1902 – 31 July 1980) was a German theoretical and mathematical physicist who made significant contributions to quantum mechanics and quantum field theory. He contributed much to the mathematical form of matri ...

*1939–1941 ''not awarded'' *1938

Louis de Broglie Louis Victor Pierre Raymond, 7th Duc de Broglie (15 August 1892 – 19 March 1987) was a French theoretical physicist and aristocrat known for his contributions to quantum theory. In his 1924 PhD thesis, he postulated the wave nature of elec ...

*1937

Erwin Schrödinger Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger ( ; ; 12 August 1887 – 4 January 1961), sometimes written as or , was an Austrian-Irish theoretical physicist who developed fundamental results in quantum field theory, quantum theory. In particul ...

*1934–1936 ''not awarded'' *1933

Werner Heisenberg Werner Karl Heisenberg (; ; 5 December 1901 – 1 February 1976) was a German theoretical physicist, one of the main pioneers of the theory of quantum mechanics and a principal scientist in the German nuclear program during World War II. He pub ...

*1932

Max von Laue Max Theodor Felix von Laue (; 9 October 1879 – 24 April 1960) was a German physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1914 "for his discovery of the X-ray diffraction, diffraction of X-rays by crystals". In addition to his scientifi ...

*1931

Arnold Sommerfeld Arnold Johannes Wilhelm Sommerfeld (; 5 December 1868 – 26 April 1951) was a German Theoretical physics, theoretical physicist who pioneered developments in Atomic physics, atomic and Quantum mechanics, quantum physics, and also educated and ...

*1930

Niels Bohr Niels Henrik David Bohr (, ; ; 7 October 1885 – 18 November 1962) was a Danish theoretical physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and old quantum theory, quantum theory, for which he received the No ...

*1929

Max Planck Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck (; ; 23 April 1858 – 4 October 1947) was a German Theoretical physics, theoretical physicist whose discovery of energy quantum, quanta won him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918. Planck made many substantial con ...

and

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein (14 March 187918 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who is best known for developing the theory of relativity. Einstein also made important contributions to quantum mechanics. His mass–energy equivalence f ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Planck Medal Awards of the German Physical Society Awards established in 1929 1929 establishments in Germany

List of recipients

See also

References

External links