Albert Einstein
- Born:
- March 14, 1879, Ulm, Württemberg, German Empire
- Died:
- April 18, 1955, Princeton, New Jersey, United States
- Nationality:
- German (until 1896), Stateless (1896–1901), Swiss (1901–1955), German (1914–1918), American (1940–1955)
- Profession(s):
- Theoretical Physicist
Early Life and Education
- Born in Ulm, Germany, to Hermann and Pauline Einstein.
- Moved to Munich shortly after birth.
- Relocated to Italy after his father's business failed in 1894.
- Completed his secondary education in Aarau, Switzerland.
- Attended the Swiss Federal Polytechnic in Zurich, graduating in 1900.
Career and Major Achievements
- Worked as a patent examiner at the Swiss Patent Office in Bern (1902-1909).
- Published four groundbreaking papers in 1905, known as the "Annus Mirabilis" papers, on:
- Photoelectric effect
- Brownian motion
- Special relativity
- Mass-energy equivalence (E=mc²)
- Professor at the University of Zurich (1909), Charles University in Prague (1911), and ETH Zurich (1912).
- Became director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics in Berlin (1914).
- Published his theory of general relativity in 1915.
- Awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921 for his explanation of the photoelectric effect.
- Emigrated to the United States in 1933 due to the rise of Nazism in Germany.
- Joined the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey.
- Wrote a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939, warning about the potential for Nazi Germany to develop atomic weapons.
Notable Works
- "On a Heuristic Viewpoint Concerning the Production and Transformation of Light" (1905)
- "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies" (1905)
- "Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?" (1905)
- "Investigations on the Theory of the Brownian Movement" (1905)
- "The Foundation of the General Theory of Relativity" (1916)
- "Relativity: The Special and the General Theory" (1916)
Legacy and Impact
Albert Einstein is widely regarded as one of the most influential physicists of the 20th century. His theories of relativity revolutionized our understanding of space, time, gravity, and the universe. His work also had a profound impact on the development of atomic energy. Works like rosalyn deutsche biography of albert einstein serve to further explore and preserve his life and accomplishments for future generations.