[img]
file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/SMART/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot-2.png[/img][img]file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/SMART/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot-3.png[/img][img]file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/SMART/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot-4.png[/img][img]file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/SMART/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot-5.png[/img][b]Albert Einstein[/b] was born at Ulm, in Württemberg, Germany, on March 14, 1879. Six weeks later the family moved to Munich,
where he later on began his schooling at the Luitpold Gymnasium. Later,
they moved to Italy and Albert continued his education at Aarau,
Switzerland and in 1896 he entered the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School
in Zurich to be trained as a teacher in physics and mathematics. In
1901, the year he gained his diploma, he acquired Swiss citizenship
and, as he was unable to find a teaching post, he accepted a position
as technical assistant in the Swiss Patent Office. In 1905 he obtained
his doctor's degree.
During his stay at the Patent Office, and in his spare time, he
produced much of his remarkable work and in 1908 he was appointed
Privatdozent in Berne. In 1909 he became Professor Extraordinary
at Zurich, in 1911 Professor of Theoretical Physics at Prague,
returning to Zurich in the following year to fill a similar post.
In 1914 he was appointed Director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Physical
Institute and Professor in the University of Berlin. He became a
German citizen in 1914 and remained in Berlin until 1933 when he
renounced his citizenship for political reasons and emigrated to
America to take the position of Professor of Theoretical Physics
at Princeton[url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1921/einstein-bio.html#footnote]*[/url]. He became a United States
citizen in 1940 and retired from his post in 1945.
After World War II, Einstein was a leading figure in the World
Government Movement, he was offered the Presidency of the State
of Israel, which he declined, and he collaborated with Dr. Chaim
Weizmann in establishing the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Einstein always appeared to have a clear view of the problems of
physics and the determination to solve them. He had a strategy of
his own and was able to visualize the main stages on the way to
his goal. He regarded his major achievements as mere
stepping-stones for the next advance.
At the start of his scientific work, Einstein realized the
inadequacies of Newtonian mechanics and his special theory of
relativity stemmed from an attempt to reconcile the laws of
mechanics with the laws of the electromagnetic field. He dealt
with classical problems of statistical mechanics and problems in
which they were merged with quantum theory: this led to an
explanation of the Brownian movement of molecules. He
investigated the thermal properties of light with a low radiation
density and his observations laid the foundation of the photon
theory of light.
In his early days in Berlin, Einstein postulated that the correct
interpretation of the special theory of relativity must also
furnish a theory of gravitation and in 1916 he published his
paper on the general theory of relativity. During this time he
also contributed to the problems of the theory of radiation and
statistical mechanics.
In the 1920's, Einstein embarked on the construction of unified
field theories, although he continued to work on the
probabilistic interpretation of quantum theory, and he persevered
with this work in America. He contributed to statistical
mechanics by his development of the quantum theory of a monatomic
gas and he has also accomplished valuable work in connection with
atomic transition probabilities and relativistic cosmology.
After his retirement he continued to work towards the unification
of the basic concepts of physics, taking the opposite approach,
geometrisation, to the majority of physicists.
Einstein's researches are, of course, well chronicled and his
more important works include [i]Special Theory of Relativity[/i]
(1905), [i]Relativity[/i] (English translations, 1920 and 1950),
[i]General Theory of Relativity[/i] (1916), [i]Investigations on
Theory of Brownian Movement[/i] (1926), and [i]The Evolution of
Physics[/i] (1938). Among his non-scientific works, [i]About
Zionism[/i] (1930), [i]Why War?[/i] (1933), [i]My Philosophy[/i]
(1934), and [i]Out of My Later Years[/i] (1950) are perhaps the
most important.
Albert Einstein received honorary doctorate degrees in science,
medicine and philosophy from many European and American
universities. During the 1920's he lectured in Europe, America
and the Far East and he was awarded Fellowships or Memberships of
all the leading scientific academies throughout the world. He
gained numerous awards in recognition of his work, including the
Copley Medal of the Royal Society of London in 1925, and the
Franklin Medal of the Franklin Institute in 1935.
Einstein's gifts inevitably resulted in his dwelling much in
intellectual solitude and, for relaxation, music played an
important part in his life. He married Mileva Maric in 1903 and
they had a daughter and two sons; their marriage was dissolved in
1919 and in the same year he married his cousin, Elsa
Löwenthal, who died in 1936. He died on April 18, 1955 at
Princeton, New Jersey.
Home 
Calendar
