Max Planck Society

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The Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften e. V. (abbreviated MPG, meaning Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science) is an independent German non-profit research organization funded by the federal and state governments.

The Max Planck Society has a world-leading reputation as a science & technology research organization. In 2006, the Times Higher Education Supplement rankings[1] 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).

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft operates 80 research institutes all over Germany (and in some cases in other European countries), which usually bear the name "Max Planck Institute (MPI) of ...". Their task is basic research in the natural sciences as well as in the social sciences and humanities.

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. They focus on excellence in research, with 16 Nobel prizes awarded to their scientists since 1948, and are generally regarded as the foremost basic research organization in Germany.

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. The Max Planck society itself is formally an eingetragener Verein, a legal form of organization similar to a club, with the directors as scientific members having equal voting rights, and currently headed by biologist Peter Gruss. Funding is provided predominantly from federal and state sources, but also from research and license fees and donations.

The Max Planck Society was founded 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. The society's logo features Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom. If its direct predecessor is included, the Max Planck Society has won more Nobel Prizes than any other academic institution in the world.

The institutes have a total staff of approx. 12,300 permanent employees, including 4,200 scientists, plus around 9000 non-tenured scientists and guests. Their budget for 2006 was about 1.4 billion euro, with 84% from state and federal funds.

Apart from the research departments, the society funds a number of Independent Junior Research Groups and several International Max Planck Research Schools (43 at the end of 2005).

Other notable networks of publicly funded research institutes in Germany are the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, performing applied research with a focus on industrial collaborations, and the Helmholtz-Gesellschaft, a network of the national laboratories in Germany.

1 Max Planck Institutes
2 Research School
3 List of presidents of the MPG
4 Former Institutes
5 Research Groups
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] Max Planck Institutes

The main administration building of the Max Planck Society in Munich.

Here is a list of the institutes, the names translated into English:

Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig
Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg
Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, Garching
Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle/Saale
Bibliotheca Hertziana - Max Planck Institute of Art History, Rome
Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Martinsried
Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena
Max Planck Institute for Biology, Tübingen
Max Planck Institute for Biophysics, Frankfurt/Main
Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry (Karl Friedrich Bonhoeffer Institute), Göttingen
Max Planck Institute for Brain Research, Frankfurt/Main
Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Physiology, Seewiesen closing
Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, Köln
Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine, Münster
Max Planck Institute for Chemistry (Otto Hahn Institute), Mainz
Max Planck Institute for Bioinorganic Chemistry, Mülheim/Ruhr, formerly Max Planck Institute for Radiation Chemistry
Max Planck Institute for Colloids and Interfaces, Golm b. Potsdam
Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen
Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena
Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Bonn
Max Planck Institute for Cell Biology, Ladenburg b. Heidelberg, closed 2003
Max Planck Institute for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden
Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock
Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, formerly Max Planck Institute for Flow Research, Göttingen
Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems, Magdeburg
Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, Tübingen
Max Planck Institute of Economics, Jena
Max Planck Institute for Experimental Endocrinology, Hanover
Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Garching
Max Planck Research Unit for Enzymology of Protein Folding, Halle/Saale
Max Planck Institute for Experimental Medicine, Göttingen
Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law, Freiburg
Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Social Law, München
The Friedrich Miescher Laboratory of the MPG, Tübingen
Fritz Haber Institute of the MPG, Berlin
Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute), Golm b. Potsdam
Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin
Max Planck Institute for History, Göttingen
Max Planck Institute for European History of Law, Frankfurt/Main
Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin
Max Planck Institute for Iron Research GmbH, Düsseldorf
Max Planck Institute for Immunobiology, Freiburg
Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, Berlin
Max Planck Institute for Informatics, Saarbrücken
Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property, Competition and Tax Law, München
Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, Heidelberg
Max Planck Institute für Kohlenforschung (Coal Research) (rechtsfähige Stiftung), Mülheim/Ruhr
Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz (Institute of Art History) - Max Planck Institute, Firenze
Max Planck Institute of Limnology, Plön
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 Metals Research, Stuttgart
Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, 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 Molecular Genetics, Berlin
Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics, Heidelberg
Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology, Martinsried
Max Planck Institute for Neurological Research, Köln
Max Planck Institute for Neuropsychological Research, Leipzig
Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Andechs-Erling (Biological Rhythms and Behaviour), Radolfzell, Seewiesen (Reproductive Biology and Behaviour)[2]
Max Planck Institute for Molecular Plant Physiology, Golm
Max Planck Institute for Physics (Werner Heisenberg Institute), München
Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Dresden
Max Planck Institute for the Chemical Physics of Solids, Dresden
Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Garching
Max Planck Institute for Molecular Physiology, Dortmund
Max Planck Institute for physiological and clinical Research, Bad Nauheim
Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, Garching and Greifswald
Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Mainz
Max Planck Institute for Foreign Private and Private International Law, Hamburg
Max Planck Institute for Psychiatry, München
Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen
Max Planck Institute for Psychological Research, München
Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics, Garching
Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, Bonn
Max Planck Institute for Software Systems, Kaiserslautern and Saarbrücken
Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, formerly Max Planck Institute for Aeronomy, Katlenburg-Lindau
Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, Stuttgart
Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Köln

[edit] Research School

Max Planck Research School for Computer Science , Saarbrücken
International Max Planck Research School for molecular and cellular Life Sciences [3], Munich
International Max Planck Research School for Molecular Cell Biology and Bioengineering [4], Dresden
International Max Planck Research School for the Social and Political Constitution of the Economy [5], Cologne
International Max Planck Research School on Physical Processes in the Solar System and Beyond, Katlenburg-Lindau
International Max Planck Research School on Gravitational Wave Astronomy, Hannover
International Max Planck Research School for Radio and Infrared Astronomy, Bonn
International Max Planck Research School on Physical Processes in the Solar System and Beyond[6] at the Universities of Braunschweig and Göttingen

[edit] List of presidents of the MPG

Otto Hahn (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 (since 2002)

[edit] Former Institutes

Max Planck Institute of Oceanic Bilogy in Wilhelmshaven renamed to Max Planck Institute of Cell Biology in 1968 and moved to Ladenburg 1977
Max Planck Institute of Cell Biology in Ladenburg was closed 2003
Max Planck Institute for Ionospheric Research in Katlenburg-Lindau was renamed to Max Planck Institute for Aeronomics in 1958
Max Planck Institute for Aeronomics in Katlenburg-Lindau was renamed to Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in 2004
Max Planck Institute for Protein and Lether Research in Regensburg moved to Munich 1957 and was united with the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in 1977