Einstein, Albert
Einstein, Albert (1879-1955), a German-American physicist and mathematician. His genius conceived ideas that revolutionized 20th-century physics, ushered in the atomic age, and earned him a Nobel Prize in physics. Like Copernicus, Newton, and Darwin, Einstein changed the course of science. His major contribution was the theory of relativity. Its two parts—the special theory (1905) and the general theory (1916)—and his unified field theory (1949) are his explanation of the nature of the universe. The theory of relativity was later confirmed by other scientists, but the unified field theory did not win support.
Almost every concept of modern physics has been influenced, wholly or in part, by Einstein's thinking. His proposals guided other scientists, including Max Planck, Lise Meitner, Lord Rutherford, James Chadwick, Enrico Fermi, and Werner Heisenberg, in their study of the basic properties of matter. Such investigations led to a thorough reexamination of the older physical laws. As a result, many principles were replaced by entirely new concepts of the fundamental nature of matter.
Einstein was more concerned with theories than with practical matters. He worked with pad and pencil, rather than in a laboratory. He was a pacifist, working for world government and disarmament, and was also a socialist and dedicated Zionist.
Early CareerAlbert Einstein was born in Ulm, Germany, but his boyhood was spent in Munich. His teachers thought him stupid. He did not display his talent for mathematics until he was 14, when he taught himself integral calculus and analytical geometry. In 1894 his family moved to Italy, and Albert was sent to Switzerland to study. He attended the Zurich Polytechnic Institute and the University of Zurich, where he earned a Ph.D. in physics in 1909. He became a citizen of Switzerland.
While still at the university, Einstein worked as an inspector in the Swiss patent office in Berne. During this period he completed the mathematical computations for the special theory of relativity. The special theory was not well understood because of its complicated mathematical argument. But as more scientists learned to comprehend this theory, it became one keystone of modern physics.
In the same year that the special theory was published, 1905, Einstein published two other important papers, one contributing to the quantum theory by explaining a phenomenon called the photoelectric effect and the other giving the theoretical basis for Brownian movement. Though the quantum theory became a second keystone of modern physics, Einstein considered it a mere stopgap, useful until some more general theory was developed.
Einstein was professor of theoretical physics at the University of Zurich, 1909-11, and at the University of Prague, 1911-13. In 1913 he was appointed director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Physical Institute in Berlin.
Later CareerEinstein became professor of physics at the University of Berlin in 1914. In 1916 he published the general theory of relativity, an explanation of the special theory. In 1921 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics for his investigations of the photoelectric effect.
A Jew, Einstein fled Germany when Adolf Hitler came to power. The Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, New Jersey, granted him a lifetime professorship in mathematics in 1933. He became a United States citizen in 1940.
In 1939 Einstein wrote to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, telling of the progress being made in the study of nuclear fission in Germany and that there was a possibility that Hitler's regime would be the first to produce an atomic bomb. The letter stimulated an all-out effort by the United States, especially after the country entered World War II in 1941, to develop the bomb. Although Einstein saw the necessity of defeating the Axis, it saddened him that his influence was partly responsible for the development of this weapon.
In 1949, after more than 30 years' preparation, Einstein presented his unified field theory. In this theory, which Einstein called an extension of the theory of relativity, he described an apparent relationship between magnetism, electricity, and gravitation. A number of other scientists believe that such a relationship may exist, but they do not regard Einstein's explanation as completely satisfactory.
Einstein's books include: Meaning of Relativity (1923); About Zionism (1931); The World As I See It (1934); Out of My Later Years (1950); Ideas and Opinions (1954).