Scientists

The scientific achievements of Germany have been very significant for the international development of breakthrough discoveries. Germany is the home of the most important scientists in various disciplines. Here are a few influential scientists to gain insight into a wide range of research areas:

 

Albert Einstein (14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) 

What would science be without Albert Einstein? He is probably one of the most popular
German scientists and we automatically associate the general theory of relativity with him. He received in 1921 the Nobel Prize in Physics for his services to theoretical physics and published hundreds of scientific papers. His intellectual achievements have made the word “Einstein” synonymous with “genius”.

 

 

Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 1769 – 6 May 1859)

Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt’s name is definitely not what makes him exceptional. The reason behind his prominence is that was a geographer, naturalist, explorer and influential proponent of Romantic philosophy and science. He is widely recognised for his works on botanical geography that laid the foundation for the field of biogeography.

 

 

Lise Meitner (7 November 1878 – 27 October 1968)

Lise Meitner was an Austrian physicist who worked on radioactivity and nuclear physics. She worked together with Otto Hahn who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1944 for the discovery and the radiochemical proof of nuclear fission. The name of the chemical element, meitnerium with symbol Mt is named for Lise Meitner because of her discoveries of protactinium.

 

 

Robert Koch (11 December 1843 – 27 May 1910)

Translated into English, his last name means cook, but he was a celebrated physician and microbiologist. He is the founder of modern bacteriology and therefore known for his role in identifying the causative agents of tuberculosis, cholera and anthrax. Moreover, Koch created and improved laboratory technologies and techniques in the field of microbiology. In 1905, he received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his research on tuberculosis.

 

 

Max Planck (23 April 1858 – 4 October 1947)

 Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck was a theoretical physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918 for his work on quantum theory and revolutionised like Albert Einstein’s theory our understanding of gravity, time and space. He found that the energies radiated by hot objects have distinct values.