Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck, ForMemRS (April 23, 1858 –October 4, 1947) is a German theoretical physicist whose discovery of energy quanta wins him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918.

Planck makes many contributions to theoretical physics, but his fame as a physicist rests primarily on his role as the originator of quantum theory, which revolutionized human understanding of atomic and subatomic processes.

In 1948, the German scientific institution the Kaiser Wilhelm Society (of which Planck is twice president) is renamed the Max Planck Society (MPS).

The MPS now includeseighty-three institutions representing a wide range of scientific directions.