Albert Einstein

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Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein, 1921
Born 14 March 1879
Ulm, Kingdom of Württemberg, German Empire
Died 18 April 1955 (aged 76)
Princeton, New Jersey, USA
Residence Germany, Italy, Switzerland, USA
Citizenship Württemberg/Germany (until 1896)
Stateless (1896–1901)
Switzerland (since 1901)
Austria (1911–12)
Germany (1914–33)
United States (since 1940)[1]
Ethnicity Jewish
Fields Physics
Institutions Swiss Patent Office (Bern)
University of Zurich
Charles University in Prague
ETH Zurich
Prussian Academy of Sciences
Kaiser Wilhelm Institute
University of Leiden
Institute for Advanced Study
Alma mater ETH Zurich
University of Zurich
Doctoral advisor Alfred Kleiner
Other academic advisors Heinrich Friedrich Weber
Notable students Ernst G. Straus
Nathan Rosen
Leo Szilard
Raziuddin Siddiqui[2]
Known for General relativity
Special relativity
Photoelectric effect
Brownian motion
Mass-energy equivalence
Einstein field equations
Unified Field Theory
Bose–Einstein statistics
Notable awards Nobel Prize in Physics (1921)
Copley Medal (1925)
Max Planck Medal (1929)
Time Person of the Century
Signature



Albert Einstein (pronounced /ˈælbərt ˈaɪnstaɪn/; German: [ˈalbɐt ˈaɪ̯nʃtaɪ̯n] ( listen); 14 March 1879–18 April 1955) was a German-born Swiss-American theoretical physicist, philosopher and author who is widely regarded as one of the most influential and best known scientists and intellectuals of all time. He is often regarded as the father of modern physics.[3] 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."[4]

His many contributions to physics include the special and general theories of relativity, the founding of relativistic cosmology, the first post-Newtonian expansion, explaining the perihelion advance of Mercury, prediction of the deflection of light by gravity and gravitational lensing, the first fluctuation dissipation theorem which explained the Brownian movement of molecules, the photon theory and wave-particle duality, the quantum theory of atomic motion in solids, the zero-point energy concept, the semiclassical version of the Schrödinger equation, and the quantum theory of a monatomic gas which predicted Bose–Einstein condensation.

Einstein published more than 300 scientific and over 150 non-scientific works.[5] Einstein additionally wrote and commentated prolifically on numerous philosophical and political issues.