Dr. Martin Jähnert
Research team member in the project The Philology of the Physicists. Textual Knowledge and Practices within the Academic Culture of Quantum Physics
CV
Since May 2026 | Research Associate | Centre for Literary and Cultural Research, Berlin
Sept. 2024 – Jan. 2025 | Research Associate | Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
Oct. 2023 – Aug. 2024 | Research Associate | Chair of the History of Science, University of Regensburg
Aug. 2020 – Aug. 2022 | Research Associate (Project Lead) | Technical University of Berlin
Mar. 2020 – Jul. 2020 | Scholar in Residence | Deutsches Museum, Munich
Aug. 2019 – Feb. 2020 | Research Associate | Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
Jun. 2017 – Jun. 2019 | Postdoctoral Fellow | Berlin Centre for the History of Knowledge (TU Berlin)
2011 – 2016 | Doctoral Researcher and Research Associate | Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
Research Interests
History of Quantum Physics, Historical Epistemology, History of science of photography, History of Photometry
Publications
Monographs
2025 Die Entwicklung der Quantenmechanik. With Alexander Blum. Springer: Klassische Texte zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte.
2019 Practicing the Correspondence Principle in the Old Quantum Theory: A Transformation Through Implementation. Archimedes. Dordrecht: Springer.
Articles
2025
The formation of a paper tool: intensity schemes in the old quantum theory. Archives for the History of the Exact Sciences 79, no. 7. [https://doi.org/10.1007/s00407-024-00345-1](https://doi.org/10.1007/s00407-024-00345-1)
2024
Quantum Mechanics, Radiation and the Equivalence Proof, with Alexander Blum. Archives for the History of the Exact Sciences 78, no. 5: 567–616.
Real Virtuality and Actual Transitions: Historical Reflections on Virtual Entities before Quantum Field Theory, with Alexander Blum. Perspectives on Science 32, no. 3: 329–349.
2022
The Birth of Quantum Mechanics from the Spirit of Radiation Theory, with Alexander Blum. Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 91: 125–147.
The Early Interpretational Debate on Quantum Mechanics, with Christoph Lehner. In: Olival Freire et al. (eds.), Oxford Handbook of the History of Interpretation of Quantum Physics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 135–173.
2017
Translation as Heuristics: Heisenberg’s Turn to Matrix Mechanics, with Alexander Blum, Christoph Lehner, and Jürgen Renn. Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 60: 3–22.
2015
Practising the Correspondence Principle in the Old Quantum Theory: James Franck, Friedrich Hund, and the Ramsauer Effect. In: Finn Aaserud and Helge Kragh (eds.), One Hundred Years of the Bohr Atom: Proceedings from a Conference. Copenhagen: 200–216.
Lectures
2024
What is a (Perfect) Negative? Measuring Photographic Deposit, ca. 1890. Lecture Series “Photography and the Sciences,” University of Regensburg.
2023
Sensitometry in the Making: William de. W. Abney and the Law of Photographic Action\
Advanced Seminar (Research Colloquium), University of Regensburg.
2022
Development in and out of Sensitometry: Photographic Science and Practice Circa 1890. Workshop After Exposure, ETH Zurich.
2021
Substitute Radiators, Virtual Oscillators, and Actual Transitions: Radiation Processes in the Old Quantum Theory and Quantum Mechanics (1913–1927). Virtual Entities in Science: A Virtual Workshop. RWTH Aachen University & TU Berlin.
2020
Die Vermessung des Instabilen: Hermann Vogel und sein Photometer am Deutschen Museum. Research Working Group, Deutsches Museum, Munich. [Cancelled due to the pandemic]
2019
Die Vermessung des Instabilen: Photometrische Wissenspraktiken und Technologien des Lichts (1830–1880). Master's Seminar, Chair of the History of Science, University of Regensburg.
Der Leuchtturm als Camera Obscura: John F. Campbell und die Royal Commission on Lights, Buoys, and Beacons (1860).
Zwischen Meer und Fabrik. Photometrie der Leuchttürme ca. 1860. Research Colloquium on the History of Knowledge, Humboldt University of Berlin.
2018
Transformation Through Implementation: The Evolution of the Correspondence Principle (1918–1926). &HPS7 The Evolution of Knowledge. Hannover.
2017
The Formation of a Paper Tool: Intensity Schemes in the Old Quantum Theory. Symposium Quantum Cultures / 25th International Congress for the History of Science and Technology: Science, Technology, and Medicine between Global and Local. Rio de Janeiro.
2016
Between Problem Solving and Conceptual Development: The Correspondence Principle as a Research Tool (1918–1926). Transitions: The Eighth British-North American Joint Meeting of the BSHS, CSHPS, and HSS, Edmonton.
2015
Revisiting Umdeutung: The Correspondence Principle and the Intensity Problem 1922–1925. Fourth Conference on History of Quantum Physics, Donostia/San Sebastián.
2013
The Correspondence Principle in Practice: Its Use and Dispersion in the Old Quantum Theory. 100 Years of the Bohr Atom, Copenhagen.
Courses
SoSe 2024 (Universität Regensburg)
RVL Photography and the Sciences // Masterseminar (Forschungskolloquium) // Glass, a material history of science (Hauptseminar) // Basiskurs II: historische Positionen (Seminar)
WiSe 2023/24 (Universität Regensburg)
From Structure to Practice: or how to think about scientific change? (Seminar) //
History of Photography: A Glimpse into the Work of William W. Abney (Seminar)
SoSe 2023 - WiSe 2022/23
InterAktion: HistLab meets Mathesis (Projektlabor MINTgrün, TU Berlin)
HistLab – Wissen – Technik – Umwelt. (Projektlabor MINTgrün, TU Berlin)
WiSe 2021/22
SE Erkenntnis und Methode: Schlüsseltexte zu Theorie und Geschichte der Wissenschaft und Technik
HistLab – Wissen – Technik – Umwelt. (Projektlabor MINTgrün, TU Berlin)
SoSe 2020/21
HistLab – Wissen – Technik – Umwelt. (Projektlabor MINTgrün, TU Berlin)
IS 1 - Einführung in Kultur und Technik (BA KulT TU Berlin)
WiSe 2020/21
HistLab – Wissen – Technik – Umwelt. (Projektlabor MINTgrün, TU Berlin)
WiSe 2019/20
Wissenschaft als Beruf im 19. Jahrhundert. Michael Faraday als Forscher, Vortragender und Experte (Proseminar, TU Berlin)
SoSe 2016
Theorien, Instrumente und das Sehen: Historiographische Perspektiven auf die Geschichte der Optik um 1800 (Proseminar, TU Berlin)
WiSe 2015/16
Die Vermessung des Lichts: Wissenspraktiken der Photometrie im 18. und 19. Jahrhundert (Proseminar, TU Berlin)