Max Rubner

Max Rubner
Max Rubner
Born	2 June 1854 Munich
Died	27 April 1932 Berlin
Nationality	German
Fields	physiology
Institutions	University of Marburg
Alma mater	University of Munich
Doctoral advisor	Adolf von Baeyer Carl von Voit
Known for	metabolism

Max Rubner [ru:bner] (2 June 1854, Munich – 27 April 1932, Berlin) was a German physiologist and hygienist.

He studied at the University of Munich under Adolf von Baeyer (1835-1917) and Carl von Voit (1831-1908). Afterwards he taught as a professor at the University of Marburg and the Robert Koch Institute of Hygiene at the University of Berlin. Rubner was co-founder of the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institut für Arbeitsphysiologie, and became its director in 1913.

Rubner is remembered for his research in metabolism, energy physiology, hygiene and dietary thermogenesis. With Otto Heubner (1843-1926), he performed important studies involving energy metabolism in infancy.^[1] In 1883 he introduced the "surface hypothesis", which stated that the metabolic rate of birds and mammals maintaining a steady body temperature is roughly proportional to their body surface area.^[2]

Max Rubner is also known for his "rate-of-living theory", which proposed that a slow metabolism increases an animal's longevity. Rubner's observation was that larger animals outlived smaller animals, and the metabolic rates of larger animals were slower pro rata. The theory might have been inspired by the Industrial Revolution, the logic that the more a machine is worked, the sooner it will wear out.

References

1. ^ Haroun RI, Rigamonti D, Tamargo RJ (December 2000). "Recurrent artery of Heubner: Otto Heubner's description of the artery and his influence on pediatrics in Germany". Journal of Neurosurgery 93 (6): 1084–8. doi:10.3171/jns.2000.93.6.1084. PMID 11117858. 
2. ^ Eckert animal physiology by David J. Randall, Warren W. Burggren, Kathleen French, Roger Eckert

Further reading

• "Max Rubner--1854-1932. Energy physiologist". JAMA 194 (1): 86–7. October 1965. doi:10.1001/jama.194.1.86. PMID 5318322. 
• KNOWLES HC (1957). "Max Rubner: 1854-1932". Diabetes 6 (4): 369–71. PMID 13447770. 

External links

• Rubner, Max (1854-1932) -- from Eric Weisstein's World of Scientific Biography at scienceworld.wolfram.com
• Short biography and bibliography in the Virtual Laboratory of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
• http://www.brandenburg.de/~mwfkneu/minister/presse_alt/html/pr96/pr96.091.html (German)
• Animal Physiology, Energetics and Metabolism

Persondata
Name	Rubner, Max
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	2 June 1854
Place of birth	Munich
Date of death	27 April 1932
Place of death	Berlin