Albert Einstein
Best known as: physicist who developed the theory of relativity
Occupation: Scientist
Nationality: born German, later became an American citizen
Religion: raised Jewish, became a humanist
Born: March 14, 1879 in Ulm, Germany
Died: April 18, 1955 in Princeton, New Jersey
Education: graduated from Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (1900), earned PhD from University of Zurich (1905)
Short biography:
The best known scientist of the 20th century, Einstein was actually not a great student. At one point, he dropped out of high school, but he later went back to school and graduated from college in 1900, where he often cut class and studied for exams off a classmate's notes. He worked in a patent office for a while, and in 1905 he published three influential papers. In the first one, he predicted the motion of particles randomly distributed in a fluid. In the second, he theorized that light can be thought of as a particle. In the third, he published his famous special theory of relativity. In 1909, Einstein received his first academic appointment, at the University of Zurich. He subsequently took jobs at several other German-speaking universities, gradually rising up the academic ladder. In 1916, he published the full version of his general theory of relativity, which characterized physical interactions as the effects of bodies on the geometry of space-time. Einstein gained worldwide fame and received the Nobel Prize in 1921 for his work on light. When Hitler came to power, Einstein moved to the U.S. and took a job at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. He was one of a group of physicists who sent a letter to President Roosevelt in 1939 to warn him of Germany's intent to develop an atomic bomb.
Wife: Mileva Maric (1903-1919), Elsa Lowenthal (1919-1936)
Children: Leiserl, Hans Albert, and Eduard
Parents: Hermann Einstein and Pauline Koch
Learn more? Quotes by Einstein
