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Albert Einstein  

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"I, at any rate, am convinced that God does not throw dice."  — Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, best known for his theory of relativity and specifically, mass-energy equivalence (E = mc2). In 1999, Time magazine named him the "Person of the Century." In wider culture, the name "Einstein" has become synonymous with genius.

Albert Einstein in 1947.

2.   Born into a Jewish family in Ulm, Württemberg, Germany, Einstein entered the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich in 1896 to be trained as a teacher in physics and mathematics. Unable to find a teaching post after two years, he accepted a position as assistant examiner at the patent office in Bern.


3.   In 1905, Einstein published four papers, now known as Annus Mirabilis Papers, in the Annalen der Physik, the leading German physics journal. He became Professor Extraordinary at Zurich in 1909 and in 1911, became Professor of Theoretical Physics at Prague, only to return to Zurich the following year to fill a similar post.[1] In 1914, he was appointed Director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute and professor in the University of Berlin and in 1915, published his general theory of relativity in the form that is still used today. This theory explains gravitation as a distortion of the structure of spacetime by matter, affecting the inertial motion of other matter.


4.   In 1921, Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics "for his services to Theoretical Physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect". When asked where he got his scientific ideas from, Einstein explained that he believed scientific work best proceeds from an examination of physical reality and a search for underlying axioms. After his general relativity, his research consisted primarily of a long series of attempts to generalize his theory of gravitation in order to unify and simplify the fundamental laws of physics, particularly gravitation and electromagnetism. Einstein's goal of unifying the laws of physics under a single model survives in the current drive for the grand unification theory.


5.   In 1933, Einstein emigrated to America to take up the position of Professor of Theoretical Physics at Princeton where he worked until his retirement in 1945, having obtained American citizenship in 1940.[1] After his retirement he continued to work towards the unification of the basic concepts of physics, taking the opposite approach, geometrization, to the majority of physicists.[1]


6.   After World War II, Einstein became a leading figure in the World Government Movement and was offered the Presidency of the State of Israel, for which he declined. However, he collaborated with Dr. Chaim Weizmann in establishing the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In April 1955, Einstein experienced internal bleeding, caused by the rupture of an aortic aneurism, and died at age 76. His remains were cremated and his ashes scattered. Before the cremation, however, Princeton Hospital pathologist Thomas Stoltz Harvey removed Einstein's brain for preservation, hoping that the neuroscience of the future would be able to discover what made Einstein so intelligent.   more... at Wikipedia

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