Max Jammer

Jammer studied physics, philosophy and history of science, first at the University of Vienna, and then from 1935 at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he received a PhD in experimental physics in 1942. He served in the British Army for the rest of the war.{{fact|date=March 2025}}

Jammer then returned to Hebrew University, where he lectured on the history and philosophy of science, before moving in 1952 to Harvard University. He subsequently became a lecturer there and a close colleague of Albert Einstein at Princeton University. He taught at Harvard, the University of Oklahoma, and Boston University, before in 1956 establishing the Department and becoming Professor of Physics at Bar-Ilan University in Israel.{{fact|date=March 2025}}

He was Rector and Acting President (succeeding Joseph H. Lookstein, and succeeded by Emanuel Rackman) at Bar-Ilan University from 1967 to 1977.{{cite web|url=https://www1.biu.ac.il/indexE.php?id=6551&pt=1&pid=988&level=5&cPath=35,983,988 |title=Bar-Ilan Presidents | Bar Ilan University |publisher=.biu.ac.il |date= |accessdate=2020-02-14}} He also co-founded the Institute for Philosophy of Science at Tel Aviv University, and was president of the Association for the Advancement for Science in Israel. He was Visiting Professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich, the University of Göttingen, the Institut Henri Poincaré, Columbia University, the Catholic University of America in Washington, D. C., and other universities in the United States and Canada.

He is the father of Rabbi Michael Yammer{{cite web|url=https://www.yutorah.org/rabbi-michael-yammer/|title=Rabbi Michael Yammer|date=29 May 2021 }} who is the rosh yeshiva (dean) of Yeshivat Sha’alvim.

Awards received by Jammer include:

• the 1984 Israel Prize, awarded for history of science;{{cite web

| title = Israel Prize Official Site - Recipients in 1984 (in Hebrew)

| accessdate = 2009-07-09

| url = http://cms.education.gov.il/EducationCMS/Units/PrasIsrael/Tashmag/Tashnab_Tashmag_Rikuz.htm?DictionaryKey=Tashmad}}

• the 2003 EMET Prize awarded by the Prime Minister of Israel;
• the 2007 Abraham Pais Prize for History of Physics, awarded by the American Physical Society;{{cite web

| title = 2007 Abraham Pais Prize for History of Physics Recipient

| accessdate = 2014-12-27

| url = http://www.aps.org/programs/honors/prizes/prizerecipient.cfm?last_nm=Jammer&first_nm=Max&year=2007}}

• the Monograph Prize of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; and
• a prize for 'an outstanding book on theology and natural sciences' from the Templeton Foundation.

{{refbegin|30em|indent=yes}}

• Concepts of Space: The History of Theories of Space in Physics. Cambridge (Mass): Harvard University Press, 1954; New York: Harper, 1960; 2nd ed: Cambridge: Harvard U.P., 1969; 3rd ed: New York: Dover, 1993. {{ISBN|0-486-27119-6}}. (Foreword by Albert Einstein)
• Concepts of Force: A Study in the Foundations of Dynamics. Cambridge (Mass): Harvard U.P., 1957 New York: Harper, 1962 [https://books.google.com/books/about/Concepts_of_Force.html?id=CZtEBcmOe6gC New York: Dover, 1999]. {{ISBN|0-486-40689-X}}
• Concepts of Mass in Classical and Modern Physics. Cambridge (Mass): Harvard U.P., 1961 New York: Harper, 1964 New York: Dover, 1997. {{ISBN|0-486-29998-8}}
• Concepts of Mass in Contemporary Physics and Philosophy. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton U.P., 2000. {{ISBN|0-691-01017-X}}
• The Conceptual Development of Quantum Mechanics. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1966{{cite journal|title=Review of The conceptual development of quantum mechanics by Max Jammer|author=Pilar, Frank L.|journal=J. Chem. Educ.|volume=44|issue=5|page=308|doi=10.1021/ed044p308.1|date=May 1967|bibcode=1967JChEd..44..308P|doi-access=free}} 2nd ed: New York: American Institute of Physics, 1989. {{ISBN|0-88318-617-9}}
• The Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics: The Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics in Historical Perspective. New York: Wiley-Interscience, 1974. {{ISBN|0-471-43958-4}}
• Einstein and Religion: Physics and Theology. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1999. {{ISBN|0-691-00699-7}} hardbound. {{ISBN|0-691-10297-X}} paperback
• Concepts of Simultaneity: From Antiquity to Einstein and Beyond. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins U.P., 2006. {{ISBN|0-8018-8422-5}}
• Energy, in: Donald Borchert (Editor): Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Vol. 3, Thomson Gale, 2nd. Edition, 2005
• Concepts of Time in Physics: A Synopsis, in Physics in Perspective, Volume 9, Issue 3, pp. 266-280, 2007.

{{refend}}

• List of Israel Prize recipients

{{reflist}}

• Max Jammer, 2007 Abraham Pais Prize for History of Physics Recipient, American Physical Society, Prizes, Awards & Fellowships. [http://www.aps.org/programs/honors/prizes/prizerecipient.cfm?name=Max%20Jammer&year=2007 APS]

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Category:1915 births

Category:2010 deaths

Category:Israeli physicists

Category:Historians of physics

Category:Philosophers of cosmology

Category:Israel Prize in history of science recipients

Category:Israel Prize in exact science recipients

Category:EMET Prize recipients in the Humanities

Category:University of Vienna alumni

Category:Hebrew University of Jerusalem alumni

Category:Harvard University Department of Philosophy faculty

Category:Princeton University faculty

Category:Academic staff of Bar-Ilan University

Category:University of Oklahoma faculty

Category:Boston University faculty

Category:Columbia University faculty

Category:Catholic University of America faculty

Category:Jewish physicists

Category:Presidents of universities in Israel

Category:British Army personnel of World War II

Category:Mandatory Palestine military personnel of World War II