Max Planck Society

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 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 17 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. 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.

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, 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.

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.

Max Planck institutes
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 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, Florence
 * 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)
 * 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 Religious and Ethnic Diversity, formerly Max Planck Institute for History, Göttingen
 * Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Köln

Research schools

 * International Max Planck Research School for Neurosciences, Göttingen
 * International Max Planck Research School for Molecular Biology, Göttingen
 * International Max Planck Research School for Complex Surfaces in Material Sciences, Berlin
 * International Max Planck Research School for Advanced Materials, Stuttgart
 * International Max Planck Research School for Computer Science, Saarbrücken
 * International Max Planck Research School for Molecular and Cellular Biology, Freiburg
 * International Max Planck Research School for molecular and cellular Life Sciences, Munich
 * International Max Planck Research School for Molecular Cell Biology and Bioengineering, Dresden
 * International Max Planck Research School for the Social and Political Constitution of the Economy, 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, 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

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)

Former institutes

 * Max Planck Institute of Oceanic Biology 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
 * Max Planck Institute for Virus Research in Tübingen since 1985 Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology