(April 23, 1858-October 4, 1947)
Birth name is Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck
Invented quantum theory
Head of the German Physical Society (1905-1909)
President of the Emperor-Wilhelm-Society for the advancement of science a.k.a. KWG (1930-37, 45-46)
Won the Nobel Peace Prize in Physics (1918)

He came from a traditional, intellectual family.
Although gifted in music, he chose to study physics instead.
His Munich physics professor Philipp von Jolly once said to him about physics: 'In this field, almost everything is already discovered, and all that remains is to fill a few holes.'
Before being given an academic position, he was an unpaid private lecturer in Munich.
He was described as being childish.
He did not get along with his professors.

He graduated high school in Munich at age 16.
He attended Munich University.
He went to Berlin to study physics under famed physicists Hermann von Helmholtz and Gustav Kirchhoff and mathematician Karl Weierstrass.
He discovered a fundamental constant which was named 'Planck's constant' (1899).
His law of heat radiation, known as Planck's Law of Black Radiation, is the basis of quantum theory, which was later perfected ten years later by Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr.
During WW II, he tried to convince Adolf Hitler to spare his Jewish colleagues.
After his death, the KWG renamed itself the Max Planck Society for the advancement of science a.k.a the MPG in his honor.
His theory simply stated that matter is made up of particles.
He proved energy radiates in small packets, not continuously as previously thought.
His theory allowed scientists to calculate a precise measure of units of energy such as heat, light and radio waves.
He outlived all four of his children. His son was killed in an auto accident and both of his daughters died in childbirth.
His other son was implicated in a plot on Hitler's life and was tortured to death by the Gestapo.
His home in Berlin was destroyed during World War II.

Credit: Jeff (some information provided by: Jack Magic)

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