Max Planck, Kiel, and the beginning of the quantum era

The year 2025 has been designated "International year of Quantum Science and Technology" by UNESCO to inform the public about the revolution brought to science and everyday life by quantum theory. In fact, the year 2025 marks the 100th anniversary of the Schrödinger equation - the mathematical foundation of quantum mechanics. At the same time, quantum physics was born 25 years earlier when Max Planck put forward his hypothesis about quantization of the energy of electromagnetic radiation.

In this talk, Prof. Dr. Michael Bonitz (Kiel University) will recall the status of physics at the end of the 19th century where everybody thought that physics would be complete. This view was shattered by Planck; Prof. Dr. Bonitz sketches Planck’s unusual path to his discovery that completely revolutionized science and technology - a revolution that is still ongoing.

As a footnote, Planck was born in Kiel, held his first professorship at Kiel University, and throughout his life he maintained close ties to his home town. This lecture will close in describing activities in Kiel towards creation of a science center for Planck and quantum physics.

Speaker: Michael Bonitz, Institute for Theoretical Physics and Astrophysics Christian-Albrechts Universität Kiel, Germany