albert
einstein
Albert Einstein was born at Ulm, in Württemberg, Germany, on
March 14, 1879. Six weeks later the family moved to Munich and he
began his schooling there 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*. 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 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). Among his non-scientific
works, About Zionism (1930), Why War? (1933), My Philosophy (1934),
and Out of My Later Years (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.
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