Albert Einstein
- Born:
- March 14, 1879, Ulm, Württemberg, Germany
- Died:
- April 18, 1955, Princeton, New Jersey, United States
- Nationality:
- German (until 1896), Swiss (1901–1955), Austrian (1911–1912), American (1940–1955)
- Profession(s):
- Theoretical Physicist
Early Life and Education
- Born in Ulm, Germany, to Hermann and Pauline Einstein.
- Family moved to Munich shortly after his birth.
- Relatively slow to speak as a child.
- Received early education at Luitpold Gymnasium in Munich.
- Renounced German citizenship in 1896 and was stateless for several years.
- Graduated from the Swiss Federal Polytechnic in Zurich in 1900.
Career and Major Achievements
- Worked as a patent clerk in Bern, Switzerland, from 1902 to 1909.
- Published four groundbreaking papers in 1905, known as the "Annus Mirabilis" papers.
- These papers covered Brownian motion, the photoelectric effect, special relativity, and mass-energy equivalence (E=mc²).
- Professor of theoretical physics at the University of Zurich (1909), Charles University in Prague (1911), and ETH Zurich (1912).
- Director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics in Berlin (1914).
- Developed the general theory of relativity, published 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 Nazi Germany.
- Worked at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, until his death.
- Wrote to President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939, alerting him to the potential for Germany to develop atomic weapons.
Notable Works
- "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies" (1905) - Special Relativity
- "Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?" (1905) - Mass-Energy Equivalence
- "On a Heuristic Viewpoint Concerning the Production and Transformation of Light" (1905) - Photoelectric Effect
- "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) - Popular science explanation of relativity.
Legacy and Impact
Albert Einstein revolutionized our understanding of space, time, gravity, and the universe. His theories continue to be fundamental to modern physics and cosmology. He remains one of the most influential scientists of all time, and the question of what constitutes the life of a great mind is often explored when discussing figures like Albert Einstein, influencing works such as 'afeez abiodun biography of albert' focusing on his contributions to science.