Biography : The Greatest Scientist of The World ( Germany – USA )
Albert Einstein is popularly known as the
Father of Modern Physics
Albert Einstein was a German-born physicist who developed the general
theory of relativity, among other feats. He is considered the most influential
physicist of the 20th century.
Do you fondly call
the whiz kid in your class/ organization ‘Einstein’? If yes, then you aren’t
the only one who does so. People around the world honor their friends and
acquaintance with the title of ‘Einstein’ for the person’s immaculate
brilliance and genius mind. While there may be a lot of genius mind set at work
to this date, only once in a century is Albert Einstein born. The 19th century
not just witnessed the birth of Albert Einstein, but with it, the birth of
modern physics. Rightly known as the Father of Modern Physics, Albert Einstein
was, without a doubt, the most influential physicist of the 20th century. With
his research and finding, Einstein created a revolution in the field of
science. Amongst his numerous works: (a) the general theory of relativity,
which provided a unified description of gravity as a geometric property of
space and time, and (b) photoelectric effect that established the quantum
theory within physics are the most important ones. During his lifetime,
Einstein published more than 300 scientific papers, apart from 150
non-scientific works. He was the proud recipient of numerous awards, such as
Nobel Prize in Physics, Copley Medal, Matteucci Medal and Max Planck medal.
Other than these, he has also been credited by the Times magazine as the Person
of the Century. Such was his contribution to mankind that his name Einstein has
been made synonymous to being "genius".
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| Albert Einstine : Children |
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.
Childhood
& Early Life :
· Born to Hermann
Einstein and Pauline Einstein, in Ulm, in the Kingdom of Wurttemberg, Albert
Einstein was one of the two children of the couple. He had a younger sister
named Maja Einstein
· The family shifted
base to Munich, where his father, along with his uncle, founded the
Elektrotechnische Fabrik J. Einstein & Cie Company, manufacturing electrical
equipment based on direct current.
· Albert’s first taste
of education was at the Catholic Elementary School, when he was five. After
acquiring three years of education, he was transferred to the Luitpold
Gymnasium. Post completing advanced primary and secondary school education, he
left Germany.
· Right from the early
childhood, Einstein showed signs of having an in-depth talent and skill for
mathematics. During this time, he used to build models and mechanical devices,
but those were for mere entertainment.
· It was at the age of
ten that Einstein’s fantasy for the mathematics grew, when he was handed over
popular books on science, mathematical texts and philosophical writings by Max
Talmund. These included Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason, and Euclid's
Elements.
· In 1894, with the
introduction of alternating current to the world, Einstein’s father went out of
business. As such, in search of trade, the family moved to Milan initially and
a few months later to Pavia.
· Einstein, however,
stayed back at Munich to complete his studies at Luitpold Gymnasium. Though he
did try to adhere to the wishes of his father who wanted Einstein to pursue
electrical engineering, it wasn’t long before Einstein withdrew his name from
the school roll list as his views clashed with the study regimen of the
education center. While Einstein craved for creative learning, the institution
focussed on rote learning
· Joining his family
in Pavia in 1894, he started working on what was his first paper titled, ‘On
the Investigation of the State of the Ether in a Magnetic Field’.
· The following year,
Einstein appeared for the examinations for the Swiss Federal Polytechnic in
Zurich. Though he did not clear the test, his grades in physics and mathematics
were exceptional.
· Adhering to the
advice of the Principal of Polytechnic, Einstein enrolled himself in the Aargau
Cantonal School in Aarau, Switzerland, for the academic year 1895-96, to
complete his secondary schooling.
· Fearing the call for
military service, Einstein renounced his citizenship in the German Kingdom of
Wurttemberg in 1896. His decision was duly supported by his father. In the
month of September, he passed the exam with overall good grades, once again
gaining top grades in papers of mathematics and physics.
· Einstein was only
seventeen years of age when he enrolled in the four-year mathematics and
physics teaching diploma program at the ETH Zurich. He was awarded the Zurich
Polytechnic teaching diploma degree in 1900.
· The following year,
i.e. in 1901, Einstein gained Swiss citizenship.
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| Albert Einstine |
Formative
Years :
· Post graduating,
Einstein spent two years in search of a job in the teaching sector, but could
not secure even one. Finally, with the help of his former classmate’s father,
he bagged the chair of an assistant examiner at the Federal Office for
Intellectual Property, the patent office.
· It was in 1903 that
Einstein became a permanent officer therein. His job involved evaluating patent
applications for electromagnetic devices.
· His work was mostly
related to questions about transmission of electric signals and
electrical-mechanical synchronization of time. It was through this that
Einstein made his conclusion about the nature of light and the fundamental
connection between time and space.
· Most of Einstein’s
strikingly remarkable works came during this period. He utilized his free time
by engaging himself in scientific research. In 1901, he published the paper
‘Folgerungen aus den Kapillaritat Erscheinungen’ (Conclusions from the
Capillarity Phenomena) in the most prominent scientific journal, Annalen der
Physik.
· Four years thence,
in 1905, he completed his thesis by presenting a dissertation which was
entitled “A New Determination of Molecular Dimensions”. For the same, he was
awarded a PhD by the University of Zurich. However, the degree was just the
beginning of the many more things that were waiting to come up.
Atomic Theory of Albert Einstine
Excellence at Academics :
· Year 1905, fondly
called the Annus Mirabilis or the miracle year in the life of Einstein, saw the
birth of Einstein as innovator and creator, for it was during this year that he
published his four ground-breaking papers.
· The papers provided
information on the photoelectric effect, Brownian motion, special relativity,
and the equivalence of matter and energy. They not only changed the way the
world looked at time, space and matter, but also contributed and laid
foundation for the growth of modern physics. Additionally, the papers brought
Einstein to the limelight.
· As expected, post
the publication of the papers, Einstein became instantly famous and was
recognized as the leading scientist. In 1908, he was appointed as a lecturer at
the University of Bern. However, Einstein quit this position as well as the one
he was holding at the patent office to take up the profile of physics docent at
the University of Zurich.
· In 1911, he became a
full-time professor at the Karl-Ferdinand University in Prague.
· Three years later,
in 1914, he returned to Germany as he was appointed director of the Kaiser
Wilhelm Institute for Physics and a professor at the Humboldt University of
Berlin, with a special clause in his contract that freed him from most teaching
obligations.
· Two years thence in
1916, Einstein was appointed as the president of the German Physical Society, a
position he held for two years. During this time, Einstein also attained
membership of the Prussian Academy of Sciences.
Albert Einstine's Great Theory
Voyages Undertaken
· Einstein’s growing
reputation resulted in his being invited officially by the Mayor of New York,
who personally welcomed the great scientist on April 2, 1921. During his stay
at New York, Einstein delivered several lectures at the Columbia and Princeton
University.
· Post New York,
Einstein moved to Washington D.C, where he accompanied several representatives
of the National Academy of Science to the White House.
· During his journey
back to Europe, Einstein made a short stay as the guest of the British
statesman and philosopher Viscount Haldane in London. During his visit,
Einstein met several scientific, intellectual and political figures and
delivered a lecture at Kings College.
· The following year,
in 1922, Einstein journeyed to Asia and later to Palestine, as a part of the
six-month excursion and speaking tour. His travels included Singapore, Ceylon,
and Japan, where he gave a series of lecture to more than thousands of
Japanese.
· His first lecture at
Japan lasted for four hours after which he met the emperor and the empress at
the Imperial Palace. Einstein visit to Palestine lasted for 12 days. It also
became his only visit to the region.
· Einstein’s next
visit to America was in 1933. He visited several universities during the tour.
He even undertook his third two-month visiting professorship at the California
Institute of Technology.
· While returning to
Belgium by the end of March, Einstein heard the news that his cottage and
recreational boat had been confiscated by the Nazi’s, who had risen to power
under the authority of Germany’s new chancellor.
· Upon returning,
Einstein almost immediately went to the German consulate where he turned down
his passport and renounced his German citizenship. (He had earlier renounced
citizenship in the German Kingdom of Wurttemberg.
· A new law had been
set in Germany according to which Jews could not hold any official positions,
including teaching at the universities. Not only were Einstein’s work targeted,
he himself was on the list of assassination targets of the Nazi’s with a $5,000
bounty on his head.
· Einstein found his
temporary shelter in England, before returning to US in the October of 1933.
Therein, he took up a position at the Institute for Advanced Study at
Princeton, New Jersey, that required his presence for six months each year. His
association with the institute lasted until his death.
· Einstein was
uncertain of his future, as he had offers from the European Universities as
well. He, however, made the decision to permanently stay in the United States
and thus, applied for citizenship.
· In the year 1939, a
group of Hungarian scientists attempted to alert Washington of the ongoing
atomic bomb research undertaken by the Nazi’s. However, not much heed was paid
to their warning. As such, they resorted to Einstein, who wrote a letter to
President Franklin D. Roosevelt alerting him of the possibility.
· The letter
immediately drew the attention of the US government, which became directly
involved in uranium research and associated chain reaction research. US
utilized its immense financial and scientific resource to initiate the
Manhattan Project and surfaced as the only country to successfully develop an
atomic bomb during World War II.
· Einstein gained a
permanent citizenship in US in the year 1940. What was most appealing to him
about this country and its culture was the existence of meritocracy unlike Europe.
In US, people were rewarded for their works and they had the right to say and
think what pleased them.
· Einstein, in his
later years, was even offered the position of President of Israel, but he
declined the same stating that he had neither the aptitude nor the experience.
Major Works
· In 1905, Einstein
came up with his revolutionary works, which were focussed on photoelectric
effect, Brownian motion, the special theory of relativity and the equivalence
of matter and energy.
· He worked on
thermodynamic fluctuations and statistical physics. He even worked on general
relativity and applied the same to explain cosmology. The other work carried
out by Einstein include Schrodinger gas model and Einstein refrigerator.
Awards & Achievements
· He received the
Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921 for his services to Theoretical Physics, and
especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect.
· In 1929, Einstein
was presented with the Max Planck medal of the German Physical Society in
Berlin
· In 1936, he was
awarded the Franklin Institute's Franklin Medal for his extensive work on
relativity and the photo-electric effect
· International Union
of Pure and Applied Physics named 2005 as the "World Year of Physics"
commemorating the 100th anniversary of the publication of the ‘annus mirabilis’
papers.
· Albert Einstein has
to his name a science park, located on the hill, Telegrafenberg in Potsdam,
Germany. The park has a tower by the name, Einstein Tower which is an
astrophysical, built to perform checks of Einstein's theory of General
Relativity
· Washington DC houses
the Albert Einstein Memorial. In it is a monumental bronze statue depicting
Einstein seated with manuscript papers in hand.
· Four months after
his death, the chemical element 99 (einsteinium) was named for him
· The Time magazine,
in 1999, named Einstein as the Person of the Century.
· The United States
Postal Service honored Einstein with a Prominent Americans series 8 postage stamp.
· In 2008, Einstein
was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame.
Personal Life & Legacy
· Year 1896 was an
important one for Einstein as far as his personal life was concerned, for it
was then that he met Mileva Mariac. The two became great friends and very soon,
this friendship culminated into marriage. However, before the nuptial knots
were tied, Einstein and Mariac became parents to their first born, a daughter
whom they named Lieserl.
· Einstein and Mariac
married in the January of 1903. Later next year, Mariac gave birth to their
first son, Hans Albert Einstein. Six years later, the couple was blessed with
another son, Eduard. In 1914, Einstein moved to Berlin, while his wife and two
sons remained in Zurich.
· Five years later,
the two divorced on February 14, 1919. The same year, Einstein remarried with
his then lady love, Elsa Lowenthal, after having had a relationship with her
since 1912.
· In 1933, the couple
immigrated to the United States. After having being diagnosed with heart and
kidney problems in 1835, Elsa didn’t live long and passed away the December of
1936.
· Albert Einstein
experienced internal bleeding, which was caused by the rupture of an abdominal
aortic aneurysm on April 17, 1955. Although Dr. Rudolph Nissen had reinforced
the same surgically in 1948, the problem reappeared. He was admitted to the Princeton
Hospital.
· Though the doctors
were preparing for the surgery, Einstein refused the same saying he did not
want to prolong life using artificial measures. As a result, Einstein breathed
his last on April 18, 1955. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered at an
undisclosed location.
Albert Einstine & His Wife
Falderal
· He is known as the
Father of Modern Physics. Interestingly, his surname has been adjudged with the
meaning ‘genius’, and is used by the world all over.
· A mastermind and
impeccable theoretical physicist, he is responsible for creating new waves in
the field of modern physics. However, as a child, he faced speech difficulty
and had a slow cadence in speaking.
· There are two
instances that had a marked effect on the life of this Nobel Prize winning
physicists – the encounter with the compass and discovering Euclid’s Element a
geometry book which he fondly called ‘holy little geometry book’.
· Post death, the
pathologist of Princeton Hospital, Thomas Stoltz Harvey, removed this
proficient scientist’s brain for preservation without the permission of his
family, in the hope that the neuroscience of the future would be able to
discover what made the man who developed the theory of relativity so
intelligent.
Top 10 Facts You Did Not Know About Albert Einstein
· Albert Einstein
considered himself an agnostic, not an atheist as some people believe.
· He was a ladies’ man
and had numerous extramarital affairs.
· His mother was a piano
player and she instilled in him a lifelong love for music. Einstein himself was
a talented violin player.
· He was a slow
learner as a child and had speech problems.
· It is said that he
expected a lot from his first wife and set some weird rules for her to follow.
· Einstein was
well-known for his unkempt appearance, especially his unruly hair. A fact that
not many people know is that he hated wearing socks.
· Einstein was once
offered the presidency of Israel which he politely declined.
· His Nobel Prize
money went to his ex-wife as a divorce settlement.
· He was famous for
being absent minded—he could not remember names, dates, and phone numbers.
· He loved sailing and
was given a boat as a gift on his 50th birthday. But he was not a good sailor
and had to be constantly rescued.
