Max Rubner

Max Rubner [ru:bner] (June 2, 1854, Munich - April 27, 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.

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Rubner is remembered for his research in metabolism, energy physiology, hygiene and dietary thermogenesis. With Otto Heubner (1843-1926) and Wilhelm Camerer (1842–1910), he performed important studies involving infant nutrition. In 1883 he introduced the "surface hypothesis", which stated that the metabolic rate of birds and mammals that maintain a relatively constant body temperature should ultimately be proportional to their surface area.

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.