The Max Planck Medal is the highest award of the German Physical Society , 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 *2020 Andrzej Buras *2019 Detlef Lohse *2018 Juan Ignacio Cirac *2017 Herbert Spohn *2016 Herbert Wagner *2015 Viatcheslav Mukhanov *2014 David Ruelle *2013 Werner Nahm *2012 Martin Zirnbauer *2011 Giorgio Parisi *2010 Dieter Vollhardt *2009 Robert Graham *2008 Detlev Buchholz *2007 Joel Lebowitz *2006 Wolfgang Götze *2005 Peter Zoller *2004 Klaus Hepp *2003 Martin Gutzwiller *2002 Jürgen Ehlers *2001 Jürg Fröhlich *2000 Martin Lüscher *1999 Pierre Hohenberg *1998 Raymond Stora *1997 Gerald E. Brown *1996 Ludvig Faddeev *1995 Siegfried Grossmann *1994 Hans-Jürgen Borchers *1993 Kurt Binder *1992 Elliott H. Lieb *1991 Wolfhart Zimmermann *1990 Hermann Haken *1989 Bruno Zumino *1988 Valentine Bargmann *1987 Julius Wess *1986 Franz Wegner *1985 Yoichiro Nambu *1984 Res Jost *1983 Nicholas Kemmer *1982 Hans-Arwed Weidenmüller *1981 Kurt Symanzik *1980 ''not awarded'' *1979 Markus Fierz *1978 Paul Peter Ewald *1977 Walter Thirring *1976 Ernst Stueckelberg *1975 Gregor Wentzel *1974 Léon Van Hove *1973 Nikolay Bogolyubov *1972 Herbert Fröhlich *1971 ''not awarded'' *1970 Rudolf Haag *1969 Freeman Dyson *1968 Walter Heitler *1967 Harry Lehmann *1966 Gerhart Lüders *1965 ''not awarded'' *1964 Samuel Goudsmit and George Uhlenbeck *1963 Rudolf Peierls *1962 Ralph Kronig *1961 Eugene Wigner *1960 Lev Landau *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 *1957 Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker *1956 Victor Weisskopf *1955 Hans Bethe *1954 Enrico Fermi *1953 Walther Bothe *1952 Paul Dirac *1951 James Franck and Gustav Hertz *1950 Peter Debye *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 *1948 Max Born *1945–1947 ''not awarded'' *1944 Walther Kossel *1943 Friedrich Hund *1942 Pascual Jordan *1939–1941 ''not awarded'' *1938 Louis de Broglie *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 *1931 Arnold Sommerfeld *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