Jürgen Renn

Jürgen Renn (born 11 July 1956 in Moers, West Germany) is a German historian of science, and since 2022 Founding Director of the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology in Jena. == Short biography == Renn studied physics at the Free University of Berlin and at the Sapienza University of Rome. In 1987 he received his Ph.D. in mathematical physics from Technische Universität Berlin. Between 1986 and 1992 he worked as co-editor of the "Collected Papers of Albert Einstein" at Boston University. Between 1991 and 1996 he co-directed with Peter Damerow the "Arbeitsstelle Albert Einstein" at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin. In 1993/94 he was visiting professor at Tel Aviv University and at the ETH Zurich. Since its founding in 1994 Renn was a Director at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG) in Berlin. In 2022, he was appointed Founding Director of the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, which is based on a concept that emerged from his research on the Anthropocene conducted jointly with a global research network. Renn holds an honorary professorship for the history of science at the Humboldt University of Berlin and at the Free University of Berlin. Since 1998 he is Adjunct Professor for philosophy and physics at Boston University. He is a member of the Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the International Academy for the History of Science, and serves on the executive boards of Berlin's German Universities Excellence Initiative 'Topoi' and the Berliner Antike-Kolleg. His writings include The Formative Years of Relativity: The History and Meaning of Einstein's Princeton Lectures (with Hanoch Gutfreund, Princeton University Press, 2017) and The Road to Relativity: The History and Meaning of Einstein's "The Foundation of General Relativity", Featuring the Original Manuscript of Einstein's Masterpiece (with Hanoch Gutfreund, Princeton University Press, 2017), and Einstein on Einstein: Autobiographical and Scientific Reflections (with Hanoch Gutfreund, Princeton University Press, 2020). == Scholarly activities == === Research and fields of study === Renn's research projects focus on long-term developments of knowledge while taking into account processes of globalization. His research projects have dealt with the historical development of mechanics from antiquity until the 20th century. In this context Renn also investigates the origins of mechanics in China, the transformation of ancient knowledge, and the exchange of knowledge between Europe and China in the early modern period. A main focus of Renn's research is the history of modern physics, investigating the origin and development of general theory of relativity, and of quantum theory in particular. Renn has written about the Anthropocene in relation to the history of knowledge and science. === Digitalization and open access === Since the emergence of the World Wide Web, Renn has advocated for free access to historical sources. In 1992 he launched an ini