ALBERT EINSTEIN BIOGRAPHY
ALBERT EINSTEIN
BIRTH: March 14, 1879
Ulm, Germany
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DEATH: April 18, 1955 (aged 76)
Princeton, New Jersey, USA
Albert Einstein was a German-born physicist famously known as the ‘Father of Modern Physics’. He won the Nobel Prize in 1921. His major scientific work was the general theory of relativity. He is recognized as one of the most important physicists and mathematicians of the 21st century.
Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879, in Ulm, Germany to Hermann and Pauline Einstein. He had one younger sibling. His father worked in an electronics company. His love for science and physics developed because of his father. In 1880, his family moved to Munich, Germany. At the age of five, Einstein started his schooling at the Catholic Elementary School. His father gave the young Einstein a compass. The first thing he questioned was why the needle always pointed north on the compass.
He had an unbelievable brain capacity and was often called a genius. He also learned the violin from the age of six to thirteen. However, as a child, he had difficulty with his speech and was unable to speak fluently. But later in life, he did exceptionally well. He loved music all his life, as his mother was also a piano player.
In 1888, he went to the Luitpold Gymnasium. Einstein loved studying maths and science in school, especially calculus. In 1895, he attended a school in Aargau. The next year, he started to study at the Zurich Polytechnic in a teachers’ training program. He was only seventeen years old when he was studying for his four-year mathematics and physics diploma program. In 1900, he got the Zurich Polytechnic teaching diploma. Einstein continued his studies and received his doctoral degree in 1905. To complete his doctoral degree, he submitted research from which four of his papers got published in
a prestigious physics journal of the time. That year, people began to see the birth of Einstein as an innovator and a great scientist.
He began working as a clerk at the Swiss patent office. During his job in the patent office, he published some of his major works in the field of science. In his free time, he would do scientific research. The major achievement of his life was researching about the theory of relativity and quantum theory in 1905. He changed the world and the history of science with his theories, which became the base for modern physics.
He made people think about the concepts of time, space and matter. Einstein was able to prove the impact of the solar eclipse with his theory of relativity. He created a new theory about the concept of gravity for he believed that the existing knowledge was inaccurate. Later he tested out his theories to be proven right. Einstein shared his research on the nature of light, and how it is created because of small
particles called photons. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921 for this discovery. Einstein’s brilliant theory of relativity helped in the invention of the atomic bomb. In 1911, he got a job at the Charles-Ferdinand University as a professor. Einstein worked as a professor most of his life. He was even a professor at Humboldt University. In 1916, after having had many academic successes, he was selected as the president of the German Physical Society. In 1921, Einstein’s work was acknowledged by the
Mayor of New York. He invited Einstein to stay in New York.
Soon, World War II broke out, which only ended in the year 1945. Einstein’s theories were applied to create the atomic bomb by America during this war. By 1954, Einstein had written more than 300 scientific works. His theories are still used to study the universe and its laws. Many current experiments are based on Einstein’s theories.
He was honored multiple times for his outstanding contribution to modern physics.In 1929, he was given the Max Planck Medal by the German Physical Society. He received the Franklin Institute’s Franklin Medal for his discovery of relativity and photons.
Einstein and Mileva Maric married in the January of 1903. They were parents to three lovely children. But the marriage didn’t last long and the couple got divorced in 1919. Einstein got married for the second time to a lady named Elsa in the same year. Elsa died in 1936, at the age of 76, after suffering from heart and kidney problems.
Einstein also had internal bleeding for which he refused to get surgery. He died on April 18, 1955.
The same year, an element called ‘Einsteinium’ was included in the periodic table. In 1999, Einstein was named as the ‘Person of the Century’ by Time magazine. USA issued Einstein stamps as a tribute to the brilliant scientist.