Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck, FRS (/plɑːŋk/; German: [plaŋk]; April 23, 1858 – October 4, 1947) was a German theoretical physicist who originated quantum theory, which won him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918.Planck made many contributions to theoretical physics, but his fame as a physicist rests primarily on his role as an originator of the quantum theory.