Max Planck Planck in 1933 Born Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck 23 April 1858 Kiel , Duchy of Holstein Died 4 October 1947 (aged 89) Göttingen , Lower Saxony , Germany Nationality German Alma mater Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich Known for Planck constant Planck postulate Planck's law of black body radiation Fokker–Planck equation Nernst–Planck equation Third law of thermodynamics Spouse(s) Marie Merck ( m. 1887; died 1909) Marga von Hösslin ( m. 1911) Children 5 Awards Nobel Prize in Physics (1918) Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences (1926) Lorentz Medal (1927) Copley Medal (1929) Max Planck Medal (1929) Goethe Prize (1945) Scientific career Fields Physics Institutions University of Kiel University of Göttingen Kaiser Wilhelm Society Thesis On the Second Principles of Mechanical Heat Theory (1879) Doctoral advisor Alexander von Brill Gustav Kirchhoff Hermann von Helmhol