Birthday Celebration at the MPIfG

A celebration in honor of Renate Mayntz’s 95th birthday in April this year was held at the MPIfG in Cologne and attended by current and former Institute employees, alumni, and associates. Joining the well-wishers in congratulating the MPIfG’s founding director, Jens Beckert, Wolfgang Streeck, and Rudolf Stichweh paid tribute in their speeches to the sociologist’s impressive body of work. Mayntz founded the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies (MPIfG) in 1984 and was its director until 1997. It was under her leadership that the Institute evolved into one of the leading research institutions in the social sciences in Germany and internationally. Her groundbreaking research has shaped sociology in many of its fields – from organizational sociology, governance and policy research to science and technology studies – and inspired generations of scholars. Renate Mayntz has received numerous awards and distinctions, among them in 2010 the “Innovationspreis NRW,” a lifetime achievement award bestowed by the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Research of North-Rhine Westphalia, and honorary doctorates from various universities. Her work has received worldwide recognition and been translated into many languages.