Winners of the Max Planck Medal

Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist best known for developing the theory of relativity. Einstein also made important contributions to quantum theory. His mass–energy equivalence formula E = mc2, which arises from special relativity, has been called "the world's most famous equation". He received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics for "his services to theoretical physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect".

Danish physicist (1885–1962)

German theoretical physicist (1858–1947)

Italian–American physicist (1901–1954)

Austrian physicist (1887–1961)

German theoretical physicist and nobel prize winner (1901–1976)

British theoretical physicist (1902–1984)

German-Jewish physicist and mathematician (1882-1970)

physicist, Nobel prize winner (1900–1958)

Nobel laureate credited to pioneer the discovery of wave character of matter (1892–1987)

Soviet theoretical physicist (1908–1968)

Hungarian-American physicist and mathematician (1902–1995)

German chemist and physicist (1879-1968)

German-American nuclear physicist

Austrian-Swedish physicist

German physicist, Nobel laureate and anti-Nazi (1879–1960)

German physicist (1882–1964)

German physicist (1887–1975)

German physicist, mathematician and chemist (1891-1957)

German physicist (1868-1951)

Dutch-American physicist and physical chemist (1884–1966)

theoretical physicist and mathematician (1923–2020)

American theoretical physicist (1921-2015)

Italian physicist (1948-)

German physicist (1912–2007)

Austrian American theoretical physicist (1908–2002)

Soviet mathematician and theoretical physicist (1909-1992)

German physicist and politician (1902-1980)

German physicist (1896-1997)

German-born British physicist

Dutch-American physicist (1902–1978)

Dutch physicist (1900–1988)

Swedish physicist

physicist (1904-1981)

Russian mathematician and physicist (1934–2017)

Russian physicist

German physicist (1888-1956)

Belgian-French mathematical physicist

German physicist (1922–2016)

Spanish theoretical physicist

Swiss mathematician and physicist (1905-1984)

Austrian theoretical physicist (1952-)

Austrian physicist (1934-2007)

German physicist (1929–2008)

Italian physicist (1923–2014)

German physicist noted for the discovery of particle spin and for his theory of X-ray absorption spectroscopy (1904-1995)

American mathematical physicist and professor of mathematics and physics at Princeton University

German physicist (1898–1978)

German physicist (1888–1985)

German physicist

Swiss physicist (1925-2014)

Swiss theoretical physicist (1918–1990)

Swiss physicist (1912-2006)

German cosmologist and theoretical physicist

Austrian physicist (1944–2022)

Belgian physicist, Director General of CERN (1924–1990)

British physicist (1911–1998)

American mathematical physicist

German-American physicist

German academic