Max Delbrück
- Born: November 4, 1906 (Berlin, Germany)
- Died: March 9, 1981
Education
- 1930: PhD, University of Göttingen (Physics)
Major Positions
- 1930–1932: University of Copenhagen and University of Zurich, Rockefeller Fellow
- 1932–1937: Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry, Assistant
- 1937–1939: California Institute of Technology, Rockefeller Fellow
- 1940–1945: Vanderbilt University, Instructor in Physics
- 1945–1947: California Institute of Technology, Assistant Profesor to Associate Professor
- 1947–1957: California Institute of Technology, Professor
- 1957–1976: California Institute of Technology, Albert Billings Ruddock Professor
- 1976–1981: California Institute of Technology, Emeritus Professor
Selected Awards and Honors
- 1949: National Academy of Sciences, Member
- 1969: Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
Archival Resources
California Institute of Technology, Institute Archives, Pasadena, California
Online Finding Aid
Oral History Interviews
- 1978: Available Online
Resources on the Web
Published Resources
William Hayes, "Max Ludwig Henning Delbrück: 1906-1981", Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences
Peter Fischer, Licht und Leben: Ein Bericht über Max Delbrück, den Wegbereiter der Molekularbiologie (Konstanz: Universitätsverlag, 1985)
Ernst Peter Fischer and Carol Lipson, Thinking about Science: Max Delbrück and the Origins of Molecular Biology (New York : Norton, 1988)
Simone Wenkel and Ute Deichmann, Max Delbrück and Cologne : An Early Chapter of German Molecular Biology (Hackensack: World Scientific, 2007)
Wolfgang Beese, "Die Arbeit von Max Delbrück und die Entstehung der Molekulargenetik: Einige Weltanschaulich-Philosophische und Wissenschaftshistorische Probleme," Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift der Humboldt Universität zu Berlin 32 (1983): 331-337
William Hayes, "Max Delbrück and the Birth of Molecular Biology," Social Research 32 (1984): 641-673
Lily E. Kay, "The Secret of Life: Niels Bohr's Influence on the Biology Program of Max Delbrück," Rivista di Storia della Scienza 2 (1985): 487-510
Lily E. Kay, "Conceptual Models and Analytical Tools: The Biology of Physicist Max Delbrück," Journal of the History of Biology 18 (1985): 207-246
Charles P. Enz, "Bohr, Delbrück, Pauli, and Biology," in Essays in honour of Kalvero Vihtori Laurikainen (Helsinki : Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia: 1985), 23-32
Joachim Tripoczky, "Max Delbrück: Begründer der Phagengenetik," Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift der Humboldt Universität zu Berlin 39 (1990): 251-256
Wolfgang Beese, "Max Delbrück: A Physicist in Biology," in Essays in honour of Kalvero Vihtori Laurikainen, ed. William R. Woodward and Robert S. Cohen (Dordrecht : Kluwer: 1991), 415-422
Lily E. Kay, "Quanta of Life: Atomic Physics and the Reincarnation of the Phage," History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 14 (1992): 3-21
Ton van Helvoort, "The Controversy between John H. Northrop and Max Delbrück on the Formation of Bacteriophage: Bacterial Synthesis or Autonomous Multiplication?," Annals of Science 49 (1992): 545-575
Denis Thieffry, ""Escherichia coli" as a model system with which to study cell differentiation," History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 18 (1996): 163-193
Nils Roll-Hansen, "The Application of Complementarity to Biology: From Niels Bohr to Max Delbrück," Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences 30 (2000): 417-442
Fabio De Sio, "Il Principio di Complementarità di Niels Bohr ed il Suo Presunto Superamento nella Biologia Molecolare: Alcuni Nodi Non Risolti," Atti dell'Accademia di scienze morali e politiche di Napoli 114 (2004): 207-248
Daniel J. McKaughan, "The Influence of Niels Bohr on Max Delbrück: Revisiting the Hopes Inspired by "Light and Life"," Isis 96 (2005): 507-529
Andrew T. Domondon, "Bringing Physics to Bear on the Phenomenon of Life: The Divergent Positions of Bohr, Delbrück, and Schrödinger," Studies in the History and Philosophy of the Biological and Biomedical Sciences 37 (2006): 433-458
Angela N. H. Creager, "The Paradox of the Phage Group: Essay Review," Journal of the History of Biology 43 (2010): 183-193
