Jürgen Renn
Director (Since 1994)
Dr., Professor, Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Jürgen Renn and his group undertake research on the structural changes in systems of knowledge. Their aim is to develop a theoretical understanding of knowledge evolution, taking into account its epistemic, social, and material dimensions. As groundwork for such a theoretical approach to the history of knowledge, he has been studying some of the great transformations of systems of physical knowledge, such as the origin of theoretical science in antiquity, the emergence of classical mechanics in the early modern period, and the revolutions of modern physics in the early twentieth century. In addition to this longitudinal perspective on the evolution of knowledge, he and his collaborators have developed a transversal approach, studying dissemination and transformation processes of knowledge across cultural boundaries, as well as processes of globalization and the historical origins and co-evolutionary dynamics leading into the Anthropocene.
An early pioneer of the Digital Humanities and the Open Access Movement, he is a co-initiator of the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities launched by the MPG in 2003 and, together with his colleagues, has created the Edition Open Access platform for open access publication. He has also been responsible for numerous major exhibitions on the history of science, from Albert Einstein–Chief Engineer of the Universe, Archimede – Arte e scienza dell’invenzione, to Leonardo’s Intellectual Cosmos.
Jürgen Renn is honorary professor for History of Science at both the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and the Freie Universität Berlin. He has taught at Boston University, at the ETH in Zurich, and at the University of Tel Aviv. He has held visiting positions in Vienna, Bergamo, Pavia, and at CalTech. He is a member of the Leopoldina as well as of further national and international scientific and editorial boards. In 2011 he won the Premio Anassilaos International. In 2014, he won the ESHS Neuenschwander Prize and the Premio Internazionale Marco & Alberto Ippolito and was awarded the Max Planck Communitas Award and the Francis Bacon Award. In 2019 he was elected member of the German Archeological Society and in 2021 a foreign associate for mathematics, physical and natural science at the Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arte in Venice. From 2017–2019, Jürgen Renn served as Chairperson of the Humanities Sciences Section of the Max Planck Society. His book The Evolution of Knowledge: Rethinking Science for the Anthropocene was published in 2020 with Princeton University Press, and has since appeared in a number of foreign-language editions (2022: Suhrkamp, Carocci editore, Les Belles Lettres). Jürgen Renn was recently awarded the 2022 Abraham Pais Prize for the History of Physics.
In June 2022, Jürgen Renn became founding director of the newly established Max Planck Institute of Geoanthroplogy in Jena (MPIGEA).
Projects
Anthropocene Curriculum
Atlas of Innovations
Berlin Institute for the Foundations of Learning and Data (BIFOLD)
BIFOLD - BZML
Epistemic Configurations: The Formation of Anthropocene Knowledge
Geoanthropology
History and Foundations of Quantum Field Theory
IV. Anthropocene Formations
Leonardos intellektueller Kosmos in der Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, 11. Mai bis 17. Juli 2021
Albert Einstein—Chief Engineer of the Universe (Exhibition 2005)
Continuity and Epistemic Developments of Astronomical Knowledge in the Longue Durée: The Sphaera-tradition
Convivencia. Iberian to Global Dynamics (500–1750)
Development of Mechanical Knowledge in China
Early Modern Mechanics: Benedetti
Knowledge as a Fellow Traveler
Knowledge of Astronomy and the Invention of the Telescope: International Year of Astronomy 2009
Selected Publications
Gutfreund, Hanoch and Jürgen Renn (2022). Einstein über Einstein: autobiographische und wissenschaftliche Reflexionen. Berlin: De Gruyter.
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Renn, Jürgen (2022). L’Évolution de la connaissance: repenser la science pour l’Anthropocène, Translator Raymond Clarinard. Paris: Les Belles Lettes.
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Renn, Jürgen and Nuccio Ordine (2022). “Une science moins utile, plus humaine: de l’intérêt d’un bilinguisme culturel.” In Science si humaine, 94–97. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.
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Creutzig, Felix, Daron Acemoglu, Xuemei Bai, Paul N. Edwards, Marie Josefine Hintz, Lynn H. Kaack, Siir Kilkis, Stefanie Kunkel, Amy Luers, Nikola Milojevic-Dupont, Dave Rejeski, Jürgen Renn, David Rolnick, Christoph Rosol, Daniela Russ, Thomas…
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Selected Media
Feature Stories
Selected Books
News & Press
Presentations, Talks, & Teaching Activities
Knowledge and Its Resources: Historical Reciprocities
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin und Technische Universität Berlin
Digitalization and sustainability
Symposium Scientific Council
Köln, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies
Mathematical Concepts in the Sciences and Humanities
Jostfest at Leibniz-Saal, Leipzig
Genzelfest im Schloss Ringberg
The Future of Science - Disciplines in Disarray
Harnack House, Berlin
Harvard Science Book Talks