Born 1956 in Moers. 1983 Diploma in Physics at Freie Universität Berlin; 1987 Ph.D. in Mathematics at Technische Universität Berlin. From 1986-1992 Jürgen Renn was collaborator and co-editor of the Collected Papers of Albert Einstein; 1989-1992 Assistant, later Associate Professor of Physics, Philosophy, History of Science and Philosophy of Science at Boston University; 1993 Simon Silverman Visiting Professor in the History of Science at Tel Aviv University; 1993-1994 Visiting Professor of Philosophy at ETH Zurich. Since 1994 he has been Founding Director and Scientific Member at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science. Since 1996 he has held an honorary professorship at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Since 2005, he has been a member of the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina; since 2006, he has held an honorary professorship in the history of science at the Freie Universität Berlin.

In 2019 he was elected Corresponding Member of the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) and in 2021 Foreign Associate in the Class of Physical, Mathematical and Natural Sciences at the Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arte in Venice.

Among others, Jürgen Renn has been awarded the Francis Bacon Prize of the California Institute for Technology (2014), the Gustav Neuenschwander Prize of the European Society for the History of Science (2014), the Medaglia Commandiana of the University of Urbino (2018) and the Pirelli Internetional Award (1998).