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Albert Einstein: Life and Contributions

Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist renowned for developing the theory of relativity and making significant contributions to quantum mechanics. He received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the photoelectric effect and is known for his mass-energy equivalence formula E = mc2. After moving to the US in 1933, he became an American citizen and played a role in alerting the government about the potential for nuclear weapons during World War II.

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38 views1 page

Albert Einstein: Life and Contributions

Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist renowned for developing the theory of relativity and making significant contributions to quantum mechanics. He received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the photoelectric effect and is known for his mass-energy equivalence formula E = mc2. After moving to the US in 1933, he became an American citizen and played a role in alerting the government about the potential for nuclear weapons during World War II.

Uploaded by

Alex Hovhannisyan
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Albert Einstein (/ˈaɪnstaɪn/ EYEN-styne;[4] German: [ˈalbɛɐt ˈʔaɪnʃtaɪn] ⓘ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April

1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who is widely held to be one of the greatest and most
influential scientists of all time. Best known for developing the theory of relativity, Einstein also made
important contributions to quantum mechanics, and was thus a central figure in the revolutionary
reshaping of the scientific understanding of nature that modern physics accomplished in the first
decades of the twentieth century.[1][5] His mass–energy equivalence formula E = mc2, which arises
from relativity theory, has been called "the world's most famous equation".[6] He received the
1921 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his services to theoretical physics, and especially for his discovery
of the law of the photoelectric effect",[7] a pivotal step in the development of quantum theory. His work
is also known for its influence on the philosophy of science.[8][9]
Born in the German Empire, Einstein moved to Switzerland in 1895, forsaking his German
citizenship (as a subject of the Kingdom of Württemberg)[note 1] the following year. In 1897, at the age
of seventeen, he enrolled in the mathematics and physics teaching diploma program at the
Swiss federal polytechnic school in Zürich, graduating in 1900. In 1901, he acquired Swiss
citizenship, which he kept for the rest of his life. In 1903, he secured a permanent position at
the Swiss Patent Office in Bern. In 1905, he submitted a successful PhD dissertation to
the University of Zurich. In 1914, he moved to Berlin in order to join the Prussian Academy of
Sciences and the Humboldt University of Berlin. In 1917, he became director of the Kaiser Wilhelm
Institute for Physics; he also became a German citizen again, this time as a subject of the Kingdom
of Prussia.[note 1]
In 1933, while he was visiting the United States, Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany. Horrified by
the Nazi "war of extermination" against his fellow Jews,[10] Einstein decided to remain in the US, and
was granted American citizenship in 1940.[11] On the eve of World War II, he endorsed a letter to
President Franklin D. Roosevelt alerting him to the potential German nuclear weapons program and
recommending that the US begin similar research. Einstein supported the Allies but generally viewed
the idea of nuclear weapons with great dismay.[12]

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