Albert Einstein was an outstanding German-born theoretical physicist and one of the fathers of modern physics. He received a Nobel Prize in Physics and was an Honorary Doctor of about 20 leading universities in the world. Einstein wrote more than 300 scientific papers and 150 books on the history and essence of science. He was born on March 14th, 1879, in Ulm, in the family of a salesman. His father and his uncle were the founders of one electrical equipment company. His mother was a housewife. When he was still a toddler, his family moved to Munchen where Albert attended a Catholic elementary school. Later, he transferred to Gymnasium, which now has his name. When he turned 14, he moved to Switzerland, where he studied at the Zurich Polytechnic School. Starting from 1909, he taught at this educational institution and became a Professor.
At the age of 34, he was already the director of the Institute of Physics and a Professor of the University of Berlin. In 1933 he was forced to leave Germany by the Nazis. He moved to the USA then and lectured there at Princeton until his death. His three important scientific works on the theory of relativity, the Brownian motion and quantum theory were published already in 1905. The next year, he created the formula about the relation between mass and energy. In 1916, he predicted the phenomenon of induced radiation of atoms. A year later he completed the general theory of relativity. His theory for the first time in science showed the link between the space-time geometry and distribution of mass in the universe. This theory was based on Newton’s gravitational law. Although Einstein’s theories seemed too revolutionary for that time, he soon received a number of confirmations.
In 1920s and 1930s the anti-Semitism was gradually gaining popularity in Germany. His theory of relativity became a subject of criticism. When the scientific work became impossible in his native country, he moved to the USA. There, he instantly received a professorship at the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study. Unified field theory became the subject of his scientific research for the last twenty years of his life. He tried to bring the theory of gravitation and electromagnetic field together. During the Second World War, he heard of the German uranium project and wrote an open letter to the US President Franklin warning about the possible consequences of the Nazi’s creation of atomic bomb. Shortly before his death, Einstein signed a petition addressed to the governments of all countries, warning them about the dangers of hydrogen bomb and nuclear weapons.
An outstanding and brilliant physicist died on April 18th, 1955. During his life he had a great number of honorary awards and world recognition. He had once received an offer to become the president of Israel, which he politely refused. In 1999, “The Times” magazine named him the man of the century. Einstein was married twice. He met his first wife when he was studying in Zurich. The couple had two sons. In 1919, he got a divorce and married his widowed cousin Elsa, who died in 1936. In his free time he liked playing the violin and was rather good at it. Another cherished hobby of the scientist was sailing.
