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 to Archimede. Arte e scienza dell’invenzione.
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. From 2017–2019, Jürgen Renn served as Chairperson of the Humanities Sciences Section of the Max Planck Society. His most recent publication is The Evolution of Knowledge: Rethinking Science for the Anthropocene (forthcoming in 2020, Princeton University Press).
Projects
Anthropocene Curriculum
Anthropocene Knowledge: Earth History in the Making
Atlas of Innovations
Berlin Center for Machine Learning (BZML)
Berlin Institute for the Foundations of Learning and Data (BIFOLD)
Convivencia. Iberian to Global Dynamics (500–1750)
History and Foundations of Quantum Field Theory
IV. Knowledge in and of the Anthropocene
Albert Einstein - Chief Engineer of the Universe (Exhibition 2005)
Continuity and Epistemic Developments of Astronomical Knowledge in the Longue Durée: The Sphaera-tradition
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
The Genesis of General Relativity (Four-Volume Edition)
Selected Publications
Laubichler, M. D., Wintergrün, D., Renn, J., Lalli, R., & Valleriani, M. (2015). Netzwerke als Wissensspeicher. Berlin: Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte.
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Rosol, C., Steininger, B., Renn, J., & Schlögl, R. (2018). On the age of computation in the epoch of humankind. Nature; Nature Publishing Group, London, (563), 7733-7738.
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Renn, J. (2020). The evolution of knowledge: rethinking science for the Anthropocene. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
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Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Max Planck Society (2019). Leonardo's intellectual cosmos. Spark: catalysts for insight, (4), 26-33.
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Selected Media
Selected Books
News & Press
Institute Events
Book Launch
- Institute Event
Science, (Anti-)Communism and Diplomacy. The Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs in the Early Cold War
MORESymposium
How Do New Concepts Emerge? On New Knowledge, Old Patterns of Thought, and Structural Changes
MORESymposium
- Institute Event
25 Years of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
MORE500th Anniversary Event
Leonardo da Vinci. An Inquisitive Man: Technologist, Scientist, and Artist
MORESymposium
- Institute Event
Freunde der offenen Gesellschaft
MORELecture
Wie entsteht die moderne Wissenschaft / Wie entstehen wissenschaftliche Disziplinen?
MOREExternal/Cooperation Event
- Institute Event
Comenius-Garten: Eröffnung der Werkstatt mit Gewächshaus
MOREWorkshop
- Institute Event
Political Epistemology I
MOREWorkshop
Opening New Windows on the Cosmos: Astrophysics and Astronomy in the History of the Max Planck Society
MOREPresentations, Talks, & Teaching Activities
FU Berlin, ABV Modul Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft, Vorlesung zu Wissenschaftsgeschichte
Lausanne,“Quand le droit rencontre la relativité Soirée Albert Einstein”
Hannover, Seventh International Conference on Integrated History and Philosophy of Science: The Evolution of Knowledge
Symposium at the Harnack Haus, Berlin
Göttinger Literaturherbst
International Symposium on China and the World in the Global History of Science and Technology
21. Leibniz-Kolleg Potsdam
Akademie der Wissenschaften, Hamburg
Leopoldina Jahresempfang 2017, Halle
Perspectives Committee Meeting Biology and Medicine Section, GV, Munich
Secularity and the Disciplines: A Farewell Conference for Gabriel Motzkin
Jahresversammlung der Leopoldina, Halle
GDNÄ Jahresversammlung, Greifswald
Konferenz Towards a Global History of Ideas, Erfurt
Cycle de conférence: Les mécanos de la Générale: Einstein, 100 ans de relativité générale, Paris
Colloquium am Albert Einstein Institut, Golm
Conference Series: Gravitation 2015, University of Vienna
Salzburger Hochschulwochen
DPG Lehrerfortbildung Bad Honnef
Conference: Convergence. Im Perimeter Institute in Waterloo, Canada
CPT and GSHS- Section, Meeting at the Annual Assembly, Berlin
Die Zukunft der Wissensspeicher, Westfälische Akademie der Wissenschaften und Künste, Düsseldorf
Conference: 100th Anniversary of General Relativity, Cambridge
Minerva Advisory Board Meeting, Tel Aviv
Paris, Séminaire d’Historie et Philosophie de la Physique-Paris
Jerusalem Meeting on Space—Time Theories
Jerusalem Meeting on Space—Time Theories
Conference on Einstein and the relation between physics and mathematics, Chicago
Workshop on Online Publishing in Florence, Italy
6th International Conference for the European Society for the History of Science, Lisbon
Integrated History and Philosophy of Science—&HPS5 in Wien
Knowledge in this Era: Historical Perspecitves, Contemporary Challenges and the Future of Higher Education, Tel Aviv
Seven Pines Symposium: The Conceptual Development of Quantum Physics, Minnesota
UNESCO, First WSIS+10 Review Meeting, Paris
XIV. Colloquio del Lessico Intellettuale Europeo (ILIESI), Roma
The 5th conference of the European Society for the History of Science, University of Athens
„Wissenschaftsakademien im Zeitalter der Ideologien“, LEOPOLDINA und HU Berlin, Halle
Biblioteca Leonardiana di Vinci, VINCI
The International Radiation Symposium 2012, Berlin
8th meeting of STEP ( Science and Technology in the European Periphery), Corfu National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, Keynote Lecture
Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina, Halle
8th meeting of STEP (Science and Technology in the European Periphery), Corfu National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, Keynote Lecture
Evangelische Akademie Tutzing, Tagung „Himmels(t)raum“
FU Berlin, Akademische Abschlussfeier des Fachbereichs Physik, Berlin
EFC Research Forum Stakeholders’ Conference, Barcelona
Symposium of the Max Planck Society, Havana Cuba
Wozu Wissenschaftsgeschichte? Ziele und Wege, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften
The Anthropocene: Challenging the Disciplines, Universität Wien