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Einstein, Albert

German-born, Swiss-educated Physicist 1879-1955

Albert Einstein was a scientist who revolutionized physics in the early twentieth century with his theories of relativity. Born in Ulm, Germany, in 1879, Einstein was interested in science from an early age. While he performed well in school, he disliked the academic environment and left at the age of fifteen. He took an entrance exam for the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich but failed; only after completing secondary school was he able to gain entrance to ETH, where he graduated in 1900. Unable to find a teaching position, Einstein accepted a job in the Swiss patent office in 1902.

During his time as a patent clerk Einstein made some of his most important discoveries. In 1905 he published three papers, which brought him recognition in the scientific community. In one he described the physics of Brownian motion, the random motion of particles in a gas of liquid. In another paper he used the new field of quantum mechanics to explain the photoelectric effect, where metals give off electrons when exposed to certain types of light. Einstein published his third, and arguably most famous, paper in 1905, which outlined what later became known as the special theory of relativity. This theory showed how the laws of physics worked near the speed of light. The paper also included the famous equation E=mc², explaining how energy was equal to the mass of an object times the speed of light squared.

These papers allowed Einstein to exchange his patent clerk job for university positions in Zurich and Prague before going to Berlin as director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Physics. Shortly thereafter he published the general theory of relativity, which describes how gravity warps space and time. This theory was confirmed in 1919 when astronomers measured the positions of stars near the Sun during a solar eclipse and found that they had shifted by the amount predicted if the Sun's gravity had warped the light.

The acceptance of Einstein's general theory turned him into an international celebrity. During the 1920s he toured the world, giving lectures. In 1922 he won the Nobel Prize for physics, although it was officially awarded for his work studying the photoelectric effect, not relativity. In 1932 he accepted a part-time position at Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey, and planned to split his time between Germany and the United States. But when the Nazis took power in Germany one month after he arrived at Princeton, Einstein decided to stay in the United States.

Einstein spent the rest of his scientific career in an unsuccessful pursuit of a theory that would explain all the fundamental forces of nature. He also took a greater role outside of physics. In 1939 he cowrote a letter to President Franklin Roosevelt, urging him to investigate the possibility of developing an atomic bomb and warning him that Germany was likely doing the same. After the war he urged world leaders to give up nuclear weapons to preserve peace. In ill health for several years, he died in Princeton in 1955.