Max Born and his legacy to condensed matter physics

After a presentation of Max Born's most salient biographical data, we discuss his contributions to science and science policy, with special emphasis on those related to condensed matter physics. Our discussion includes journal articles as well as books. The methodology used is both qualitative and quantitative, including number of items, number of formal and informal citations, and other bibliometric indicators such as the recently proposed Hirsch index (h‐index). The data are mainly based on the Thomson/ISI Web of Science (WoS) which covers a carefully selected set of the more prestigious journals dating back to 1900. Born's books and articles not published in the journals covered by the WoS can also be evaluated, provided they are cited within the WoS journals. Some anecdotic and historical details, which have come to the fore in the course of our bibliometric investigations, are included.