German physicist who lived from 1858 to 1947. From his hypothesis (1900) that Atoms emit and absorb Energy only in discrete bundles (quanta - quantum is plural of quanta) instead of
continuously, as assumed in classical physics, the Quantum Theory was developed. Planck received the 1918 Nobel Prize in physics for his work
on Blackbody radiation (see Radioactivity). He was professor (1889-1928) at the University of Berlin and president
(1930-35) of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society for the Advancement of Science, Berlin. Planck's Constant is named for him.