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The joint Alexander von Humboldt and Max Planck Society Research Award is announced on an annually alternating basis for areas within the natural sciences, engineering, life sciences and the humanities. It is financed from funding provided by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Every year, the award is granted to one researcher working in Germany and one working abroad who already have an international reputation and who are expected to continue producing cutting-edge results in the context of international collaboration.
The Max Planck Research Award promotes German and foreign scientists and scholars from specialist disciplines with high potential for the future. It is assumed that the act of granting the award will give an impetus to the development of the respective research field in Germany. Each award winner is granted 750,000 euros for a period of three to a maximum of five years to pursue research of their own choosing. It is not possible to apply directly. The award is financed from funding provided by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
In 2004, in response to international competition, the national funding spectrum in Germany, and the European Union’s research framework programmes, the “Max Planck Research Award for International Cooperation“, as the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation’s and Max Planck Society’s research award was formerly known, was redesigned. Since 2004, two award winners have been selected in a designated field. Parallel to this, the value of the “new” Max Planck Research Award was increased to 750,000 euros, providing the award winners with considerably more scope for research and cooperation.
Up until 1994, the award was granted to tandems composed of German and foreign academics.
From 1995 to 2003, as many as twelve award winners from all disciplines were selected annually who then sought their own collaborative partners in Germany or abroad.
10 July 2012
The Max Planck Research Award 2012 goes to Martin Hellwig from the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods in Bonn and Katharina Pistor from Columbia University Law School for their work in the field of ‘regulating international financial markets’.
10 March 2011
Sebastian Thrun from Stanford University and Bernhard Schölkopf from the Max Planck Institute for Metals Research in Stuttgart have been awarded the 2011 Max Planck Research Award, which is endowed with 750,000 euros for each award winner.
2 March 2010
Timothy George Bromage of New York University College of Dentistry and Michael Tomasello of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig are the recipients of this year’s Max Planck Research Awards, valued at 750,000 EUR each.
20 October 2009
Aleida Assmann and Karl Galinsky were honoured on Tuesday for their outstanding achievements in the field of History and Memory.
01 October 2009
The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and the Max Planck Society are conferring this international research award, valued at 1.5 million EUR, on Aleida Assmann and Karl Galinsky for outstanding achievements in the area of History and Memory. The award will be conferred on Tuesday, 20 October by the Federal Minister of Research, Annette Schavan, at the University of Bonn. We are also pleased to invite you to meet the award winners for an interview session on the morning of 20 October.
12 February 2009
The two 2009 Max Planck Research Awards, valued at 750,000 EUR each, go to the German scholar of English, Aleida Assmann, and the American philologist and Humboldt Research Award winner, Karl Galinsky. They are being granted the award for their research in the field of History and Memory.
14 March 2008
Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and Max Planck Society present lucrative prize of, in total, 1.5 million euros. The Max Planck Research Award 2008, with prize money of, in total, 1.5 million euros is to go to the Austrian colloids and interfaces researcher Prof. Dr. Peter Fratzl and the American chemical engineer Prof. Dr. Robert Langer. They will receive the award for their research into structural-functional correlations in the development of biologically inspired materials and systems.
13 November 2007
On Monday, 19 November, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and the Max Planck Society are conferring this international research award, valued at 1.5. mill. EUR, for outstanding achievements in the area of life sciences. The award winners are Professor Dr. Raymond Joseph Dolan and Professor Dr. Hans-Christian Pape.
09 March 2007
The Max Planck Research Award 2007, valued at 750,000 EUR, is being awarded to the Irish neuroscientist and previous Humboldt Research Award Winner, Ray Dolan, and the German neurophysiologist, Hans-Christian Pape. The award recognises their research in the field of neuromodulation and behaviour.
07 March 2006
The Max Planck Research Award, an international prize from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and the Max Planck Society, is awarded this year to Harvard Art History and Architecture Professor Alina Payne and Professor Horst Bredekamp at Humboldt University in Berlin. The award comes with a 1.5 million euro grant and each year recognises one German, and one non-German researcher, both of whom show outstanding work involving international co-operation.
29 June 2005
On 29 June, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and the Max Planck Society are granting the International Max Planck Research Award for outstanding achievements in the field of astrophysics. Each award is valued at 750,000 EUR and will be conferred on the German particle physicist, Professor Dr. Christof Wetterich, and the American radio astronomer, Dr. Christopher Carilli.
14 June 2005
On 29 June, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and the Max Planck Society will confer their international research award for outstanding achievements in the field of astrophysics on the particle physicist, Professor Dr. Christof Wetterich, and the radio astronomer, Dr. Christoper Carilli. Each award is valued at 750,000 EUR.
16 March 2005
The Max Planck Research Award 2005, valued at 750,000 EUR is being granted to the American radio astronomer, Christopher Carilli, and the German particle physicist, Christof Wetterich.
06 May 2004
Prof. Martin Vingron, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin, Germany, and Prof. Eugene W. Myers from the University of California, Berkeley, USA, are the two winners of the 2004 Max Planck Research Prize, worth 750,000 Euros each.
Here you can find detailed information on each of the Max Planck Research Award Winners (currently only in German).
The respective brochure provides a good overview of award winners and their research. You can download them yourself as a pdf file from the following pages or order a copy from the AvH. Just contact us, we’ll be pleased to send you material.
In order to view the films, please note that you need a media player, such as QuickTime Player or Adobe Flash Player, which can be downloaded free of charge using the following links:
QuickTime Player: www.apple.com/de/quicktime/download
Adobe Flash Player: http://get.adobe.com/de/flashplayer
Max Planck Research Award Winners since 2004 in alphabetical order
Sandra Schulmeister
Barbara Wieners-Horst
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