| Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften e. V. | 
The society's logo features Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom. | | Formation | 1948 | | Budget | €1.4 billion (2006) | | Staff | 13000 | | Website | www.mpg.de | The Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften Eingetragener Verein (abbreviated MPG, Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science in English) is an independent non-profit association of German research institutes funded by the federal and state governments. The nearly 80 research institutes of the Max Planck Society conduct basic research in the interest of the general public in the natural sciences, life sciences, social sciences, and the arts and humanities. They have a total staff of approx. 13,000 permanent employees, including 4,700 scientists, plus around 11,000 non-tenured scientists and guests. Their budget for 2006 was about 1.4 billion euro, with 84% from state and federal funds.[1] The Max Planck Institutes focus on excellence in research, with 32 Nobel Prizes awarded to their scientists, and are generally regarded as the foremost basic research organization in Germany. Other notable networks of publicly funded research institutes in Germany are the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, performing applied research with a focus on industrial collaborations, the Helmholtz-Gesellschaft, a network of the national laboratories in Germany, and the Leibniz-Gemeinschaft, a loose network of institutes performing basic to applied research. [edit] Background and Reputation The Max Planck Society was founded by Otto Hahn in Göttingen after World War II in 1948 as the successor organization to the Prussian Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft, which was established in 1911 as a non-governmental research organization named for the then German emperor and presided by famous scientists like Albert Einstein. The MPG has been named in honor of Max Planck, the German physicist responsible for the theoretical understanding of blackbody radiation and last president of the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft. The Max Planck Society has a world-leading reputation as a science & technology research organization. In 2006, the Times Higher Education Supplement rankings[2] 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 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.[3] [edit] List of presidents of the MPG [edit] Organization  The building of the administrative headquarters of the Max Planck Society in Munich. The Max Planck Society is formally an eingetragener Verein, a registered association with the institute directors as scientific members having equal voting rights.[4] The society has its registered seat in Berlin, while the administrative headquarters are located in Munich. In 2002 the cell biologist Peter Gruss assumed the office of President of the MPG. Funding is provided predominantly from federal and state sources, but also from research and license fees and donations. One of the larger donations from the Duke of Bavaria in 1967 was the castle Schloss Ringberg near Kreuth in Bavaria. The castle passed to the Max Planck Society after the death of the duke in 1973 and is now used for conferences. [edit] Max Planck Institutes and Research Groups The Max Planck Society consists of nearly 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 located all over Germany and in other European countries. The society is currently planning its first non-European centre, with an institute on the Jupiter campus of Florida Atlantic University to focus on bioimaging.[5] The Max Planck Institutes operate independently from, though in close cooperation with, the universities, and focus on innovative research which does not fit into the university structure due to their interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary nature or which 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. Currently, the following institutes and research groups exist: - Max Planck Institute for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden
- Max Planck Institute for Chemistry (Otto Hahn Institute), Mainz
- Max Planck Institute for Coal Research, Mülheim/Ruhr
- Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig
- Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Bonn, formerly Max Planck Project Group Common Goods, Law, Politics and Economics
- Max Planck Institute for Colloids and Interfaces, Golm bei Potsdam
- Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen
- Max Planck Institute for Mathematics, Bonn
- Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences, Leipzig
- Max Planck Institute for Medical Research, Heidelberg
- Max Planck Institute for Experimental Medicine, Göttingen
- Max Planck Institute for Metals Research, Stuttgart
- Max Planck Institute for Meteorology,[1], Hamburg
- Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Bremen
- Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Marburg
- Max Planck Institute for Microstructure Physics, Halle/Saale
- Max Planck Working Groups for Structural Molecular Biology at DESY, Hamburg
- Max Planck Institute for Physics (Werner Heisenberg Institute), München
- Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Garching
- Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics, Heidelberg
- Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Dresden
- Max Planck Institute for the Chemical Physics of Solids, Dresden
- Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Physiology, Seewiesen closing
- Max Planck Institute for Molecular Physiology, Dortmund
- Max Planck Institute for Molecular Plant Physiology, Golm bei Potsdam
- Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, Köln
- Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, Garching and Greifswald
- Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Mainz
- Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, München
- Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen
[edit] International Max Planck Research Schools 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: - International Max Planck Research School for Earth System Modeling [3], Hamburg
- International Max Planck Research School for Neurosciences [4], Göttingen
- International Max Planck Research School for Molecular Biology [5], Göttingen
- International Max Planck Research School for Complex Surfaces in Material Sciences [6], Berlin
- International Max Planck Research School for Advanced Materials, Stuttgart
- International Max Planck Research School for Computer Science [7], Saarbrücken
- International Max Planck Research School for Molecular and Cellular Biology, Freiburg
- International Max Planck Research School for molecular and cellular Life Sciences [8], Munich
- International Max Planck Research School for Molecular Cell Biology and Bioengineering [9], Dresden
- International Max Planck Research School for the Social and Political Constitution of the Economy [10], Cologne
- International Max Planck Research School on Physical Processes in the Solar System and Beyond, Katlenburg-Lindau at the MPI for Solar System Research
- International Max Planck Research School on Gravitational Wave Astronomy, Hannover and Potsdam MPI for Gravitational Physics
- International Max Planck Research School for Analysis, Design and Optimization in Chemical and Biochemical Process Engineering [11], Magdeburg
- International Max Planck Research School for Radio and Infrared Astronomy, Bonn at MPI for Radio Astronomy
- 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 Surface and Interface Engineering in Advanced Materials, Düsseldorf at Max Planck Institute for Iron Research GmbH
- International Max Planck Research School for Elemantary Particle Physics [12], Munich, at the MPI for Physics
- International Max Planck Research School for Environmental, Cellular and Molecular Microbiology, Marburg at the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology
[edit] Former institutes Among others: [edit] Nobel Laureates [edit] Max-Planck-Society (since 1948) - Gerhard Ertl, Nobel prize chemistry 2007
- Theodor W. Hänsch, Nobel prize physics 2005
- Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, Nobel prize medicine 1995
- Paul Crutzen, Nobel prize chemistry 1995
- Erwin Neher, Nobel prize medicine 1991
- Bert Sakmann, Nobel prize medicine 1991
- Robert Huber, Nobel prize chemistry 1988
- Hartmut Michel, Nobel prize chemistry 1988
- Johann Deisenhofer, Nobel prize chemistry 1988
- Ernst Ruska, Nobel prize physics 1986
- Klaus von Klitzing, Nobel prize physics 1985
- Georges Köhler, Nobel prize medicine 1984
- Konrad Lorenz, Nobel prize medicine 1973
- Manfred Eigen, Nobel prize chemistry 1967
- Feodor Lynen, Nobel prize medicine 1964
- Karl Ziegler, Nobel prize chemistry 1963
- Walter Bothe, Nobel prize physics 1954
[edit] Kaiser-Wilhelm-Society (1914-1948) - Otto Hahn, Nobel prize chemistry 1944
- Adolf Butenandt, Nobel prize chemistry 1939
- Richard Kuhn, Nobel prize chemistry 1938
- Peter J. W. Debye, Nobel prize chemistry 1936
- Hans Spemann, Nobel prize medicine 1935
- Werner Heisenberg, Nobel prize physics 1932
- Otto Heinrich Warburg, Nobel prize medicine 1931
- Carl Bosch, Nobel prize chemistry 1931
- James Franck, Nobel prize physics 1925
- Otto Meyerhof, Nobel prize medicine 1922
- Albert Einstein, Nobel prize physics 1921
- Max Planck, Nobel prize physics 1918
- Fritz Haber, Nobel prize chemistry 1918
- Richard Willstätter, Nobel prize chemistry 1915
- Max von Laue, Nobel prize physics 1914
[edit] See also
[edit] References [edit] External links |
