Awards

Awards and honours for researchers in the Max Planck Society

Wolfgang Bauermeister at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried near Munich

The biophysicist is being honoured for his groundbreaking development and application of cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) more

Dennis Gaitsgory at the award ceremony on April 5, 2025 in Santa Monica.

Gaitsgory, director at the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in Bonn, receives the award in recognition of his “foundational works and numerous breakthrough contributions to the geometric Langlands program and its quantum version; in particular, the development of the derived algebraic geometry approach and the proof of the geometric Langlands conjecture in characteristic 0”. more

Prestigious award for Maria Sokolova

Maria Sokolova, head of the Lise Meitner Research Group Bacteriophages at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, receives this year's Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize 2025 more

Gilles Laurent is awarded the Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine in 2025

The director of the Max-Planck-Institute for Brain Research has shaped the modern science of neuronal populations more

A portrait of Bettina Lotsch, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research in Stuttgart, looking at the camera and smiling. She has shoulder-length white hair and is wearning a T-shirt with white and blue stripes.

The Director at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research in Stuttgart is honoured for her development of new materials more

A collage of the 31 Nobel Prize Winners of the Max Planck Society

Starting on 7 October, the excitement around the Nobel Prizes will once again capture the world’s attention. The announcements will begin in Stockholm on Monday, with the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine,  revealed around midday. more

Measurements by the Copernicus satellite Sentinel-5P in 2023 show the ozone hole over the Antarctic

Rescue from the UV catastrophe more

Lorraine Daston

The emerita director at the MPI for the History of Science receives the prestigious award in the category of History of Modern and Contemporary Science more

Portraits of the three award winners: on the left Geordie Williamson (short grey hair, white shirt, blue jacket), in the middle Laura Waller (shoulder-length brown hair, turquoise blouse, dark jacket), on the right Torsten Hoefler (glasses, short red hair, moustache and chin beard, white shirt, black jacket).

Geordie Williamson receives the Max Planck-Humboldt Research Award 2024, and Max Planck-Humboldt Medals go to Laura Waller and Torsten Hoefler more

This is a picture of Erin Schuman, who has been director at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt since 2009. In this picture, Schuman is wearing a white lab coat buttoned over a purple shirt. She is standing in what appears to be a lab setting, with one hand resting on the counter, and the other one in the pocket of her lab coat. She is looking into the camera. Her brown hair is of medium lenght and curly.

The director at the MPI for Brain Research is honoured for pioneering research on neuronal protein synthesis more

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Wolfgang Bauermeister at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried near Munich

The biophysicist is being honoured for his groundbreaking development and application of cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) more

Dennis Gaitsgory at the award ceremony on April 5, 2025 in Santa Monica.

Gaitsgory, director at the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in Bonn, receives the award in recognition of his “foundational works and numerous breakthrough contributions to the geometric Langlands program and its quantum version; in particular, the development of the derived algebraic geometry approach and the proof of the geometric Langlands conjecture in characteristic 0”. more

Prestigious award for Maria Sokolova

Maria Sokolova, head of the Lise Meitner Research Group Bacteriophages at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, receives this year's Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize 2025 more

Gilles Laurent is awarded the Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine in 2025

The director of the Max-Planck-Institute for Brain Research has shaped the modern science of neuronal populations more

A portrait of Bettina Lotsch, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research in Stuttgart, looking at the camera and smiling. She has shoulder-length white hair and is wearning a T-shirt with white and blue stripes.

The Director at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research in Stuttgart is honoured for her development of new materials more

A collage of the 31 Nobel Prize Winners of the Max Planck Society

Starting on 7 October, the excitement around the Nobel Prizes will once again capture the world’s attention. The announcements will begin in Stockholm on Monday, with the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine,  revealed around midday. more

Lorraine Daston

The emerita director at the MPI for the History of Science receives the prestigious award in the category of History of Modern and Contemporary Science more

Portraits of the three award winners: on the left Geordie Williamson (short grey hair, white shirt, blue jacket), in the middle Laura Waller (shoulder-length brown hair, turquoise blouse, dark jacket), on the right Torsten Hoefler (glasses, short red hair, moustache and chin beard, white shirt, black jacket).

Geordie Williamson receives the Max Planck-Humboldt Research Award 2024, and Max Planck-Humboldt Medals go to Laura Waller and Torsten Hoefler more

This is a picture of Erin Schuman, who has been director at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt since 2009. In this picture, Schuman is wearing a white lab coat buttoned over a purple shirt. She is standing in what appears to be a lab setting, with one hand resting on the counter, and the other one in the pocket of her lab coat. She is looking into the camera. Her brown hair is of medium lenght and curly.

The director at the MPI for Brain Research is honoured for pioneering research on neuronal protein synthesis more

Richard Andersen (left) and Karl Friston, laureates of the International Prize for Translational Neuroscience 2024.

The Getrud Reemtsma Foundation honours brain researchers Richard Andersen and Karl Friston with the International Prize for Translational Neuroscience more

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Measurements by the Copernicus satellite Sentinel-5P in 2023 show the ozone hole over the Antarctic

Rescue from the UV catastrophe more

The making of a quantum movie

Electrons hold the world together. When chemical reactions yield new substances, they play a leading role. And in electronics, too, they are the protagonists. Together with his colleagues, Ferenc Krausz, Director of the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in Garching, photographs the rapid movements of electrons with attosecond flashes, creating the basis for new technological developments. more

Scientific highlights 2022

Scientific highlights 2022

December 14, 2022

Many publications by Max Planck scientists in 2022 were of great social relevance or met with a great media response. We have selected 12 articles to present you with an overview of some noteworthy research of the year more

The human imprint in meteorological background noise

The statistical model with which global warming can be attributed to increasing concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere was developed by former Director of the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Klaus Hasselmann, who will be receiving the Nobel Prize in Physics 2021 for his work. more

“We will be using unique new Treuhand data”

Ufuk Akcigit, this year's winner of the Max Planck-Humboldt Research Award, explains the unique set-up of his Germany-based research project more

Celebrity at stand-up reception

The Higgs particle gives mass to matter - and wings to experimental physicists more

Light switches for nerve cells

Max Planck scientists revolutionize neurobiology and win coveted science prize more

A close look was worthwhile for Stefan Hell - as was his tenacity.

Trying to controvert a seemingly incontrovertible law is a hard job. And Stefan Hell discovered just how hard when he attempted to thwart the resolution limit of optical microscopes. Initially, his ideas fell on deaf ears. Today, however, Stefan Hell is a Director at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry. more

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