Max Ferdinand Perutz (May 19 1914 - February 6 2002) was an Austrian molecular biologist.

In 1936 he became a research student at the Cavendish Laboratory in a crystallography group directed by J. Bernal, and remained in Cambridge subsequently.
During World War II, he was asked to think of a way to improve the structural qualities of ice for Project Habbakuk and invented the mixture of ice and woodpulp known as pykrete.
In 1953 Perutz showed that the diffracted rays from protein crystals could be phased by comparing the patterns from crystals of the protein with and without heavy atoms attached.
In 1959 he determined the molecular structure of the protein hemoglobin, which transports oxygen in the blood, using this method.
In 1962 he received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, with John Kendrew.
He established the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, England.in 1962 and was chairman until 1979. He remained active in research to the end of his life.
Max Perutz received a number of other important honors, in addition to the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1962, which he shared with John Kendrew for their studies of the structures of hemoglobin and globular proteins: he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1963, received the Österreichisches Ehrenzeichen für Wissenschaft und Kunst in 1967, the Royal Medal in 1971, the Copley Medal in 1979 and the Order of Merit in 1989.