--- title: Google Doodle Celebrates German Quantum Physicist Max Born description: Google Doodle honors German physicist, mathematician and Nobel laureate Max Born on what would be his 135th birthday canonical: https://time.com/5058077/google-doodle-max-born-nobel/ author: Casey Quackenbush article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-12-11T08:38:02.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:47:24.498Z og:title: Google Doodle Honors German Quantum Physicist Max Born og:description: The Nobel laureate transformed the way scientists make predictions og:url: https://time.com/5058077/google-doodle-max-born-nobel/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0cb4a3033a7e9d3e/6988f48a929fad7c94beece2/max-borns-135th-birthday-6605540930093056-2x.png?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: max-borns-135th-birthday-6605540930093056-2x og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Google Doodle Honors German Quantum Physicist Max Born twitter:description: The Nobel laureate transformed the way scientists make predictions twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0cb4a3033a7e9d3e/6988f48a929fad7c94beece2/max-borns-135th-birthday-6605540930093056-2x.png?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Google Doodle Honors Nobel Laureate Max Born, the Famed German Quantum Physicist ## Video: How Google Makes its Doodles [Watch (HLS stream): How Google Makes its Doodles](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/upF0qp1E.m3u8) (3:23)  _Published 2018-07-07. Our videographer went to the Googleplex in Mountain View, California to meet some of the designers and coders who create the special, clever variations on the Google.com logo known as_ by [Casey Quackenbush](https://time.com/author/casey-quackenbush/) ## Casey Quackenbush Dec 11, 2017 8:38 AM UTC  Today's Doodle celebrates the 135th birthday of Max Born, German physicist and mathematician who was awarded the Nobel Prize for his contribution to the field of quantum mechanics. Today's Doodle celebrates the 135th birthday of Max Born, German physicist and mathematician who was awarded the Nobel Prize for his contribution to the field of quantum mechanics.Kati Szilagyi/Google Images by [Casey Quackenbush](https://time.com/author/casey-quackenbush/) ## Casey Quackenbush Dec 11, 2017 8:38 AM UTC German physicist and mathematician Max Born, awarded a Nobel Prize for his contributions to quantum physics, is seen hunched happily over a flurry of textbooks and scribbled equations in Monday’s [Google Doodle](https://www.google.com/doodles/max-borns-135th-birthday). The illustration honors what would be his 135th birthday. The 1954 laureate is most famous for establishing the Born rule, a theory that uses mathematical probability — rather than exact equations — to predict the location of wave particles in a quantum system. Quantum mechanics is a branch of physics that examines nature at the atomic level. The field has led to the development of major technologies such as lasers, computers and MRIs. Born’s theory revolutionized the basis of quantum mechanics predictions and ultimately transformed technology as we know it today. Worked with several other renowned mathematicians, Born earned his Ph.D. from Germany’s Göttingen University in the early 1900s. Of Jewish descent, he served as a professor of theoretical physics there until he had to flee Nazi Germany in 1933\. For the next twenty years he worked as a professor of natural philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. In 1954, Born returned home to Göttingen to retire. Born continued his scientific work through retirement until his death in 1970 at age 87. 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