Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein was born on 14th March, 1879, Ulm, Württemberg, Germany was a German scientist of Jewish origin who developed the special and general theories of relativity. In 1921 he won the Nobel Prize for Physics for his invention of the photoelectric effect. Einstein is generally considered the most prominent scientist of the 20th century.

Einstein’s father was Hermann Einstein, who was originally a salesman and his mother was Pauline Koch who was a housewife. Einstein had one sister, Maria who was two years younger than him. Einstein wrote that two “wonders” deeply affected his primary years. The first was his encounter with a compass at the age of five. He was influenced by the invisible forces could deflect the needle. This would lead to a lifelong attraction with invisible forces. The second wonder came at age 12 when he discovered a book of geometry, which he called as his “sacred little geometry book.” At the age of 12, Einstein became deeply religious, composing several songs in praise of God and chanting religious songs on his way to school. However, this began to change, after reading science books that contradicted his religious beliefs. Einstein’s education was disrupted by his father’s repeated failures at business. In 1894, Einstein’s father’ company failed to get an important contract to electrify the city of Munich, and Hermann Einstein moved to Milan to work with his relative. Einstein was left at a boarding house in Munich and expected to finish his education. After six months, Einstein absconded from the hostel and reached his parent’s house. His parents understood that there are no employable skills for their school dropout son.

In 1896, Einstein got admitted into the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich to be trained as a teacher in physics and mathematics. In 1901, the year he got his diploma certificate and attained the Swiss citizenship. As Einstein was unable to find a teaching post, he accepted a position as technical assistant in the Swiss Patent Office. In 1905 Albert Einstein successfully defended his PhD viva to obtain his PhD degree. He became a German citizen in 1914 and remained in Berlin till 1933 when he surrendered his citizenship due to political reasons and migrated to America to take the position of Professor of Theoretical Physics at Princeton University. He became a US citizen in 1940 and retired from his post in 1945. Even after his retirement, Einstein 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 in Physics are Special Theory of Relativity (1905), Relativity (English translations, 1920 and 1950), General Theory of Relativity (1916), Investigations on Theory of Brownian Movement (1926), and The Evolution of Physics (1938). Einstein also authored some non-scientific works, About Zionism (1930), Why War? (1933), My Philosophy (1934), and Out of My Later Years (1950) are the prominent ones. On April 18, 1955 at the age of 76, Einstein took his last breath at Princeton, New Jersey.