albert einstein biography for students

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Albert Einstein facts for kids

At the beginning of his career, Einstein did not think that Newtonian mechanics was enough to bring together the laws of classical mechanics and the laws of the electromagnetic field . Between 1902 and 1909, he developed the theory of special relativity to correct that.

Einstein also thought that Isaac Newton 's idea of gravity was not completely correct. So, he added gravity to his ideas about special relativity. In 1916, he published a paper on general relativity with his theory of gravitation.

Most scientists think that Einstein's theories of special and general relativity work very well, and they use those ideas and formulas in their work.

Theory of special relativity

Mass-energy equivalence, theory of general relativity, contribution, awards and honors, albert einstein quotes, interesting facts about albert einstein, images for kids.

Einstein was born in Ulm , Württemberg , Germany , on March 14, 1879. His family was Jewish , but was not very religious. However, later in life, Einstein became very interested in his Judaism .

Einstein did not begin speaking until he was 2 years old. According to his younger sister, Maja, "He had such difficulty with language that those around him feared he would never learn."

When Einstein was around 4 years old, his father gave him a magnetic compass . He tried hard to understand how the needle could seem to move itself so that it always pointed north. The needle was in a closed case, so clearly nothing like wind could be pushing the needle around, and yet it moved. This mystery caused Einstein to become interested in studying science and mathematics.

When he became older, he went to a school in Switzerland . After he graduated, he got a job in the patent office there. While he was working there, he wrote the papers that first made him famous as a great scientist.

Einstein married a 20-year-old Serbian woman Mileva Marić in January 1903.

In 1917, Einstein became very ill. His cousin Elsa Löwenthal nursed him back to health. After this happened, Einstein divorced Mileva on February 14, 1919, and married Elsa on June 2, 1919.

Einstein's first daughter was "Lieserl" (her real name may have been Marta). She was born in Novi Sad , Vojvodina , Austria-Hungary , on January 27, 1902. She spent her first years with her Serbian grandparents because Einstein did not want to bring her to Switzerland, where he had a job offer at the patent office. Some historians believe she died from scarlet fever .

Einstein's two sons were Hans Albert Einstein and Eduard "Tete" Einstein. Hans Albert was born in Bern , Switzerland , in May 1904. He became a professor in Berkeley (California). Eduard was born in Zürich , Switzerland , in July 1910. He died at 55 years old of a stroke in the Psychiatric University Hospital, "Burghölzli," in Zurich.

In the spring of 1914, Einstein moved back to Germany and became a member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences and the director of a newly established Institute for Physics of the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft (Kaiser Wilhelm Society).

He lived in Berlin and finished the paper on the theory of general relativity in November 1915.

In 1922, he received the Nobel prize for Physics for his explanation of the photoelectric effect in 1905.

He had doubts about the quantum mechanics invented by Heisenberg (1925) and Schrödinger (1926).

In spring 1933, Einstein and Elsa were traveling in the USA when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party came to power. The new German government was violently antisemitic and passed laws barring Jews from holding any official positions, including teaching at universities. Thousands of Jewish scientists were suddenly forced to give up their university positions and their names were removed from the rolls of institutions where they were employed. A month later, Einstein's works were among those targeted by the German Student Union in the Nazi book burnings. One German magazine included him in a list of enemies of the German regime, offering a $5,000 bounty on his head.

Einstein was now without a permanent home, unsure where he would live and work, and equally worried about the fate of countless other scientists still in Germany. Aided by the Academic Assistance Council, founded in 1933 to help academics escape Nazi persecution, Einstein was able to leave Germany. He rented a house in De Haan, Belgium, where he lived for a few months. In late July 1933, he visited England for about six weeks at the invitation of the British Member of Parliament Commander Oliver Locker-Lampson, who had become friends with him in the preceding years. Locker-Lampson invited him to stay near his Cromer home in a secluded wooden cabin on Roughton Heath in the Parish of Roughton, Norfolk. To protect Einstein, Locker-Lampson had two bodyguards watch over him.

Locker-Lampson took Einstein to meet Winston Churchill at his home, and later, Austen Chamberlain and former Prime Minister Lloyd George . Einstein asked them to help bring Jewish scientists out of Germany. British historian Martin Gilbert notes that Churchill responded immediately, and sent his friend, physicist Frederick Lindemann, to Germany to seek out Jewish scientists and place them in British universities.

Locker-Lampson also submitted a bill to parliament to extend British citizenship to Einstein. The bill failed, however, and Einstein then accepted an earlier offer from the Institute for Advanced Study , in Princeton, New Jersey , US, to become a resident scholar. He became a United States citizen in 1940.

Before World War II , in August 1939, Einstein, at the suggestion of Leó Szilárd , sent a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt explaining to him that Germany was in the process of making a nuclear weapon; so Einstein recommended that the U.S. should also make one. This led to the Manhattan Project , and the U.S. became the first nation in history to create and use the atomic bomb (not on Germany but Japan ). Einstein and other physicists like Richard Feynman who worked on the Manhattan project later regretted that the bomb was used on Japan.

Einstein, a Jew but not an Israeli citizen, was offered the Israeli presidency in 1952 but turned it down. He said, "I am deeply moved by the offer from our State of Israel, and at once saddened and ashamed that I cannot accept it."

He spent much of his later life trying to find a " unified field theory " that would include his general relativity theory, Maxwell's theory of electromagnetism , and perhaps a better quantum theory. He did not succeed in his lifetime. He did his research on gravitation at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, New Jersey until his death on April 18, 1955, of a burst aortic aneurysm . He was still writing about quantum physics hours before he died.

The theory of special relativity was published by Einstein in 1905, in a paper called "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies." It says that both distance measurements and time measurements change near the speed of light . This means that as you get closer to the speed of light , lengths appear to get shorter, and clocks tick more slowly.

Special relativity also relates energy with mass in Albert Einstein's E=mc 2 formula.

E=mc 2 , also called the mass-energy equivalence, is one of the things for which Einstein is most famous. It is a famous equation in physics and math that shows what happens when mass changes to energy or energy changes to mass.

The "E" in the equation stands for energy. "E" is a number that you give to objects depending on how much they can change other things. For instance, a brick hanging over an egg can put enough energy onto the egg to break it. A feather hanging over an egg does not have enough energy to hurt the egg.

The theory of general relativity was published in 1915, ten years after the theory of special relativity was created.

General relativity is a theory of space and time .

The main idea of general relativity is that space and time are two aspects of spacetime .

Spacetime is curved when there is matter , energy , and momentum resulting in what we perceive as gravity . The links between these forces are shown in the Einstein field equations .

According to the theory of general relativity, any mass causes spacetime to curve, and any other mass follows these curves. A bigger mass causes more curving. This was a new way to explain gravitation ( gravity ).

General relativity explains that light bends when it comes near a massive object such as the sun.

Many scientists only care about their work, but Einstein also spoke and wrote often about politics and world peace . He liked the ideas of socialism and of having only one government for the world.

He also worked for Zionism , the effort to try to create the new country of Israel . Einstein's family was Jewish, but Einstein never practiced this religion seriously. He liked the ideas of the Jewish philosopher Baruch Spinoza and also thought that Buddhism was a good religion.

Even though Einstein thought of many ideas that helped scientists understand the world much better, he disagreed with some scientific theories that other scientists liked. Einstein did not like some parts of quantum theory which he called “spooky action at a distance." He believed that all natural phenomena have explanations that do not include pure chance.

Einstein is considered 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 . His mass–energy equivalence formula has been called "the world's most famous equation". In the 1999 poll of 130 leading physicists worldwide by the British journal Physics World , Einstein was ranked the greatest physicist of all time.

Throughout his life, Einstein published hundreds of books and articles. He published more than 300 scientific papers and 150 non-scientific ones. On 5 December 2014, universities and archives announced the release of Einstein's papers, comprising more than 30,000 unique documents.

In 1916, Einstein predicted gravitational waves . Einstein's prediction was confirmed on 11 February 2016, when researchers at LIGO published the first observation of gravitational waves, detected on Earth on 14 September 2015, nearly one hundred years after the prediction.

In 1926, Einstein and his former student Leó Szilárd co-invented (and in 1930, patented) the Einstein refrigerator. This absorption refrigerator was then revolutionary for having no moving parts and using only heat as an input. On 11 November 1930, US patent 1781541 was awarded to Einstein and Leó Szilárd for the refrigerator. Their invention was not immediately put into commercial production, but the most promising of their patents were acquired by the Swedish company Electrolux.

Einstein also invented an electromagnetic pump, sound reproduction device, and several other household devices.

A unit used in photochemistry was named after Einstein. It is equal to Avogadro's number multiplied by the energy of one photon of light.

The chemical element Einsteinium is named after the scientist as well. In slang, we sometimes call a very smart person an "Einstein."

Mount Einstein in the Chugach Mountains of Alaska was named in 1955.

Mount Einstein in New Zealand's Paparoa Range was named after the scientist in 1970 by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research.

Einstein received many awards and honors, and in 1922, he was awarded the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his services to Theoretical Physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect."

• "Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile."
• "We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them."
• "I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious."
• “If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.”
• “Logic will get you from A to Z; imagination will get you everywhere.”
• “Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”
• “I speak to everyone in the same way, whether he is the garbage man or the president of the university.”
• “The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence."
• Albert dropped out of school at age 15, after he had mastered differential and integral calculus .
• He renounced his German citizenship at age 16.
• He played the violin and owned one that he named Lina.
• Albert never learned to swim but liked to sail . He owned a boat named Tinef, which is Yiddish for “worthless.”
• Albert married Mileva Marić, the only female student in his physics class.
• He promised his Nobel Prize money to Mileva if she would grant him a divorce.
• Albert’s second wife was his first cousin.
• Albert’s son, Eduard, was institutionalized for most of his adult life after being diagnosed with schizophrenia.
• Albert had a habit of not wearing socks.
• The make-up supervisor responsible for Yoda designed his eyes and wrinkles based on Einstein’s features.
• He smoked a pipe .
• The FBI spied on him for 22 years.
• Albert Einstein’s brain was taken for study after his death.

Albert Einstein in 1893 (age 14)

Einstein's Matura certificate, 1896

Albert Einstein and Mileva Marić Einstein, 1912

Olympia Academy founders: Conrad Habicht, Maurice Solovine and Albert Einstein

The New York Times reported confirmation of "the Einstein theory" (specifically, the bending of light by gravitation) based on 29 May 1919 eclipse observations in Principe (Africa) and Sobral (Brazil), after the findings were presented on 6 November 1919 to a joint meeting in London of the Royal Society and the Royal Astronomical Society . ( Full text )

Einstein with his second wife, Elsa, in 1921

Einstein's official portrait after receiving the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics

Albert Einstein (left) and Charlie Chaplin at the Hollywood premiere of City Lights , January 1931

Albert Einstein's landing card (26 May 1933), when he landed in Dover (United Kingdom) from Ostend (Belgium) to visit Oxford

Portrait of Einstein taken in 1935 at Princeton

Einstein accepting US citizenship certificate from judge Phillip Forman

Albert Einstein (right) with writer, musician and Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore , 1930

Eddington 's photograph of a solar eclipse

Einstein with Millikan and Georges Lemaître at the California Institute of Technology in January 1933

Einstein during his visit to the United States

Newspaper headline on 4 May 1935

The 1927 Solvay Conference in Brussels, a gathering of the world's top physicists. Einstein is in the center.

• This page was last modified on 13 July 2024, at 09:20. Suggest an edit .

Albert Einstein – Person of the Century

You might think Albert Einstein’s theories have little to do with your life, but his discoveries made everything from television to garage door openers to DVD players possible. Einstein was one of the most brilliant scientists of all time. He was named “Person of the Century” in 1999 by TIME Magazine.

Albert Einstein was a German-born physicist who is widely regarded as one of the most influential scientists of the 20th century. He is best known for his theory of relativity and his famous equation, E=mc². Einstein was also a pacifist and a civil rights activist, and he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921. He died in 1955 at the age of 76.

Albert Einstein Facts for Kids

Theory of relativity.

Albert Einstein, a renowned scientist born in 1879, is famous for his Theory of Relativity. This theory explains the relationship between time and space. It has two parts: the Special and General Theory of Relativity. The Special Theory, introduced in 1905, demonstrates how time can change depending on an object’s speed. The General Theory, published in 1915, describes how massive objects can bend space and time. These ideas revolutionized our understanding of the universe and led to discoveries such as GPS technology and the study of black holes.

Einstein’s Life

Albert Einstein, a physicist born in Germany in 1879, made significant contributions to science, including his famous Theory of Relativity and its equation E=mc². This shows that energy (E) and mass (m) are connected through the speed of light (c²). He also introduced spacetime, a four-dimensional structure combining space and time, changing our understanding of gravity. Einstein’s discoveries in physics have shaped modern science, technology, and daily life. Besides his scientific achievements, he promoted peace, education, and a love for learning, making him a role model for kids worldwide.

Nobel Prize in Physics

Albert Einstein, a highly influential scientist, received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921 for his discovery of the photoelectric effect. This crucial finding, demonstrating light’s wave-like and particle-like properties, significantly impacted modern physics and our comprehension of light and energy. Though Einstein is more famous for his theory of relativity, the Nobel Prize acknowledged his equally important photoelectric effect discovery, inspiring future physicists to pursue their curiosity and passion for understanding the universe.

Pacifism and Politics

Einstein’s thought experiments.

Albert Einstein, a renowned physicist, used ‘thought experiments’ to understand complex scientific concepts. These imaginary scenarios helped him test ideas and theories. One famous thought experiment, the ‘Twin Paradox,’ helped develop the theory of special relativity. It involved two twins, one on Earth and the other traveling through space at near-light speed. Upon return, the traveling twin was younger due to time dilation. This concept inspired many to explore physics and the universe. Einstein’s thought experiments encourage children to use imagination and critical thinking to solve problems and discover scientific wonders.

Albert Einstein’s Famous Quotes

Albert Einstein, a renowned physicist, was famous not only for his groundbreaking research but also for his wise and inspiring words. His quotes have become a source of motivation and learning for kids worldwide. From ‘Imagination is more important than knowledge’ to ‘Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new,’ Einstein’s quotes teach kids to embrace creativity, curiosity, and perseverance. He believed that asking questions and exploring the world are the keys to understanding the universe. Introducing children to Einstein’s quotes can inspire them to think beyond their textbooks and encourage them to dream big and pursue their passions fearlessly.

Einstein and Education

Einstein’s legacy.

Albert Einstein’s legacy significantly impacted science and our understanding of the universe. As the ‘Father of Modern Physics,’ he made groundbreaking discoveries, such as the theory of relativity, which altered our perception of space, time, and gravity, and the photoelectric effect, which contributed to quantum theory development. His famous equation, E=mc², demonstrates the relationship between energy and mass. Awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921, Einstein has inspired generations of scientists and inquisitive minds to explore the universe’s mysteries and make their own discoveries.

Einstein’s Brain

Einstein’s brain has been a subject of curiosity among researchers. After his death, it was preserved for study. It was found that his brain was slightly smaller than average, but had more glial cells and a 15% larger parietal lobe. This could explain his intelligence and problem-solving abilities. Scientists continue to study his brain to understand human intelligence, inspiring children to believe that a unique brain can lead to groundbreaking achievements.

Fun Facts about Albert Einstein for Kids

Albert einstein vocabulary, learn more all about albert einstein – person of the century.

A video about 5 facts you might not know about Einstein.

Albert Einstein Q&A

Question : Did Albert Einstein invent the atomic bomb?

Answer : Albert Einstein did not invent the atomic bomb and was actually barred from helping the US government develop atomic weapons. He opposed war and violence. He wrote a letter to President Roosevelt warning him that the Germans were developing atomic weapons.

Answer : Albert Einstein moved to the United States when the Nazis took power in Germany. He spent many years as a mathematics professor at Princeton University.

Albert Einstein

This brilliant physicist worked to crack open the mysteries of the universe. Check out the time line below to learn about the life of this legend.

Albert Einstein is born in Ulm, Germany . As a child, the prodigy enjoys solving math riddles and building skyscrapers out of playing cards. Some of his card creations are 14 mini-stories tall!

Sixteen-year-old Einstein writes his first scholarly paper on the force of magnetism. Bet that pulled in a lot of readers. Ha-ha. Get it?

Living in Switzerland , the physicist figures out that matter—the tiny particles that form objects—can be turned into energy, and vice versa. He also comes up with the famous formula E=mc2, which calculates the energy produced by converting a given amount of matter. He’s now a star!

Einstein wows the world by publishing his theory of relativity. The theory explains gravity—basically ginormous objects such as planets bend the space around them as they travel or pulsate. These curves in space then produce a gravitational pull toward the planet.

Einstein receives the Nobel Prize in physics—an award for major scientific accomplishments.

The science genius continues his research at Princeton University in New Jersey , and his life’s work helps completely change people’s understanding of the universe. The contributions of this brainy guy are mind-blowing.

more to explore

Women heroes, african american heroes, native americans.

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Albert Einstein

Introduction.

Scientific Breakthroughs

In 1905 Einstein caused a stir by publishing five major research papers. These papers forever changed the way people thought about the universe. One of these papers contained completely new ideas about the properties of light. Einstein received the Nobel prize for physics in 1921, mainly for the work in this paper.

In another paper, Einstein presented what is now called the special theory of relativity. This theory states that measurements of space and time are relative. That is, they change when taken by people moving at different speeds. This idea was entirely new. The special theory of relativity also changed how scientists thought about energy and matter . (Matter is everything that takes up space.)

Later Years

When the Nazi Party took over Germany in 1933, Einstein left the country. He eventually settled in the United States.

During World War II Einstein urged the United States to build nuclear weapons . He felt that these weapons might be needed to defeat the Nazis. The United States did create the first atomic bomb in 1945. Einstein, however, did not work to develop the bomb. After World War II he tried to prevent any future use of atomic weapons. Einstein died in Princeton, New Jersey, on April 18, 1955.

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Albert Einstein

• Occupation: Scientist and Inventor
• Born: March 14,1879 Ulm, in Germany
• Died: 18 April 1955 in Princeton, New Jersey
• Best known for: Theory of Relativity and E=mc2

• Albert experienced speech problems as a child. His parents were worried that he wasn't very smart!
• He failed his first try on his entrance exam for college (this gives us all hope!).
• He was offered the presidency of Israel .
• He auctioned off a hand written version of his Theory of Relativity in 1940 for 6 million dollars in order to help with the war effort.
• Albert had a sister named Maja.
• Listen to a recorded reading of this page:

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Albert Einstein Facts & Worksheets

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Table of Contents

Albert Einstein is a German-born physicist who developed special and general theories of relativity and the concept of mass-energy equivalence expressed by his famous equation, E = mc2. He won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921 for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect.

See the fact file below for more information on the Albert Einstein or alternatively, you can download our 17-page Albert Einstein worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

• Born in Germany on March 14, 1879, Albert Einstein was the first born to Hermann, a featherbed salesman / engineer, and Pauline Einstein who ran the family household. His parents were secular, middle-class Jews.
• At an early age, his family moved to Munich where he attended a Catholic school and showed early aptitude in Mathematics (Geometry and Calculus). However, he disliked learning languages and learning by rote that was popular at the time. His teachers found him to be a slow learner. He then found himself unsuccessful in school.
• At age 12, he picked up a geometry book and read it from cover to cover. He later on refer to this book as the “holy booklet”.
• Einstein was influenced by a medical student and family friend, Max Talmud who taught him mathematics and philosophy.
• At 15, his father’s business failed which forced their family to move to Milan. Einstein was left alone at a boarding house in Munich and was expected to finish his education.
• At 16, he ran away from Munich and followed his parents.
• Even as a school drop out, he fortunately passed at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich at his second attempt. His records showed that he excelled in Math and Physics, but failed at French, Chemistry, and Biology. He was then allowed into the school due to his exceptional math scores with the condition that he should first finish formal schooling.
• He graduated in 1896 in a special high school and renounced his German citizenship to avoid military conscription. Later on, he gained Swiss citizenship in 1901.

THE YOUNG EINSTEIN

• Einstein had a difficulty finding a teaching position after graduation, so he worked as a clerk in the Swiss patent office in Bern.
• He married Mileva Maric, the only female student in his university class, in 1903. They had two sons, Hans Albert (1904) and Eduard (1910), and possibly another child named Lieserl (1902), who was commonly thought to have died of scarlet fever or was given up for adoption.
• While working at the Patent Office, Einstein continued his own scientific discoveries and published his first scientific paper in 1900.
• He completed his PhD in 1905 and published four pivotal scientific works that would later revolutionize modern physics.
• In 1908, he became a lecturer in Bern and in 1909, he became a faculty member at the University of Zurich. In 1911, he taught at Carl-Ferdinand University in Prague and returned to Germany to continue his work.
• In 1916, he published the Theory of Relativity which is based on the notion that gravity and acceleration are indistinguishable (the principle of equivalence) and describes gravity as a property of the geometry of space-time, leading to the prediction of phenomena like the bending of light, black holes , and wormholes.

CAREER AND CONTRIBUTIONS

• Einstein won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921 for his work on photoelectric effect. This proposed that light can be considered as consisting particles called photons.
• In 1933, Einstein took a position at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, New Jersey and never went back to his native land due to Nazi strategies to create atomic weapons.
• On April 17, 1955, while working on a speech to honor Israel’s seventh anniversary, Einstein suffered an abdominal aortic aneurysm. He was taken to the University Medical Center at Princeton for treatment but refused surgery and died the next day at the age of 76.

Albert Einstein Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle which includes everything you need to know about Albert Einstein across 17 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use Albert Einstein worksheets that are perfect for teaching students about Albert Einstein who is a German-born physicist who developed special and general theories of relativity and the concept of mass-energy equivalence expressed by his famous equation, E = mc2. He won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921 for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect.

Complete List Of Included Worksheets

• Albert Einstein Facts
• Nobel Prize
• Einstein’s Timeline
• Einstein’s Biography
• His Achievements
• Based on his Discoveries
• Like Einstein
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10 facts about Albert Einstein

Find out about this extraordinary physicist….

Discover the scientist whose ideas and theories about time and space changed the world and what we think about the universe in our 10 facts about Albert Einstein…

Albert Einstein Facts

Full name: Albert Einstein

Born: 14 March 1879

Occupation: Scientist specialising in physics, also known as a theoretical physicist*

Died: 18 April 1955

Best known for: His theory of relativity*

1. Albert Einstein was born in Germany, but lived in Italy, Switzerland and Czechia (which was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire), until he eventually moved to the United States in 1933.

Albert never went back to Germany after moving to the USA . He didn’t feel safe in Germany because of the events that led to World War 2 , and instead settled down to life in the American town of Princeton , New Jersey .

2. When Albert was a boy, he fell in love with physics when his father gifted him a compass.

He was fascinated by the way the magnets moved inside of the compass, and thought about this when he was older and coming up with his theories around relativity.

3. Albert hated the strict discipline of the grammar school he attended as a teenager, and left aged 15…

While at school, he excelled at maths , physics , and philosophy , but struggled with other subjects like languages .

4. …but he still managed to write his first scholarly paper at just 16 years old!

The paper was inspired by his compass, and discussed the force of magnetism .

5. Rather than becoming a physicist straight away, Albert first trained as a teacher.

In 1896 , he was accepted into the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zürich, Switzerland. He originally failed the entrance exam, but was let anyway due to his exceptional maths results ! However, this was on the condition that Albert also went to high school and finished his formal schooling.

6. After failing to find work as a maths and physics teacher, Albert decided to obtain a Ph.D. in physics.

He obtained this degree in 1905 – a year that came to be known as Albert’s “ year of miracles “, because he published four groundbreaking papers in just 12 months!

7. One of the discoveries Albert announced in 1905 was his famous formula: E=mc 2

Albert figured out that matter – the tiny particles that make up everything in the world – can be turned into energy . The equation, E=mc 2 , describes how this conversion can be achieved. This amazing breakthrough made the 26-year-old Albert Einstein a star!

8. The formula formed part of Albert’s ‘general theory of relativity’, which he worked on over the next ten years.

Other scientists, for example Dutch physicist Hendrik Lorentz , had already been forming pieces of the theory. However, Albert was the first one to put the whole thing together. He published the complete theory in 1915 , where it wowed the world!

9. Albert’s theory of relativity helped scientists understand how the universe works.

Albert’s theory showed that the effects of gravity result from the ways that objects affect space and time . These interactions can only been seen on enormous objects like the planets. As a result, Albert’s general theory of relativity describes the way that amazing phenomena like the movement of planets, the birth and death of stars, black holes, and evolution of the universe, are possible.

Check out our space facts article to learn more about these out-of-this-world places!

10. He went on to win The Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921.

The Nobel Prize is an award for major scientific accomplishments – and by the time Albert won it, he and his discoveries were famous around the world. He continued working on theories until his death in 1955 , aged 76.

*A theoretical physicist is a scientist who try to figure out how the world and universe works.

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Albert Einstein Facts For Kids – Albert Einstein Biography For Kids

Among all the scientists in the world, Albert Einstein is well known among the kids as one of the most genius people the world has ever seen. Here we have the best Albert Einstein Biography For Kids with a complete collection of Albert Einstein Facts For Kid s that will help kids in learning all about Albert Einstein . You are going to learn who he is, his full name, when & where he was born, his childhood, nationality, where he lived, where he is actually from, why he is famous, his significance, contribution to science, physics, and maths, his education, life history, inventions, discoveries, accomplishments, patents, workplaces, atomic theory, noble prize, complete family information, personal life, death, books, timeline, quotations and many other interesting facts about Albert Einstein.

Albert Einstein Facts For Kids

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                                           E = mc 2

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“Imagination is more important than knowledge”.

“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough”.

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”.

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From graduation to the “miracle year” of scientific theories of Albert Einstein

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After graduation in 1900, Einstein faced one of the greatest crises in his life. Because he studied advanced subjects on his own, he often cut classes; this earned him the animosity of some professors, especially Heinrich Weber. Unfortunately, Einstein asked Weber for a letter of recommendation. Einstein was subsequently turned down for every academic position that he applied to. He later wrote,

I would have found [a job] long ago if Weber had not played a dishonest game with me.

Meanwhile, Einstein’s relationship with Maric deepened, but his parents vehemently opposed the relationship. His mother especially objected to her Serbian background (Maric’s family was Eastern Orthodox Christian ). Einstein defied his parents, however, and in January 1902 he and Maric even had a child, Lieserl, whose fate is unknown. (It is commonly thought that she died of scarlet fever or was given up for adoption .)

In 1902 Einstein reached perhaps the lowest point in his life. He could not marry Maric and support a family without a job, and his father’s business went bankrupt. Desperate and unemployed, Einstein took lowly jobs tutoring children, but he was fired from even these jobs.

The turning point came later that year, when the father of his lifelong friend Marcel Grossmann was able to recommend him for a position as a clerk in the Swiss patent office in Bern . About then, Einstein’s father became seriously ill and, just before he died, gave his blessing for his son to marry Maric. For years, Einstein would experience enormous sadness remembering that his father had died thinking him a failure.

With a small but steady income for the first time, Einstein felt confident enough to marry Maric, which he did on January 6, 1903. Their children, Hans Albert and Eduard, were born in Bern in 1904 and 1910, respectively. In hindsight , Einstein’s job at the patent office was a blessing. He would quickly finish analyzing patent applications, leaving him time to daydream about the vision that had obsessed him since he was 16: What would happen if you raced alongside a light beam? While at the polytechnic school he had studied Maxwell’s equations , which describe the nature of light, and discovered a fact unknown to James Clerk Maxwell himself—namely, that the speed of light remains the same no matter how fast one moves. This violates Newton’s laws of motion , however, because there is no absolute velocity in Isaac Newton ’s theory. This insight led Einstein to formulate the principle of relativity : “the speed of light is a constant in any inertial frame (constantly moving frame).”

During 1905, often called Einstein’s “miracle year,” he published four papers in the Annalen der Physik , each of which would alter the course of modern physics:

• 1. “Über einen die Erzeugung und Verwandlung des Lichtes betreffenden heuristischen Gesichtspunkt” (“On a Heuristic Viewpoint Concerning the Production and Transformation of Light”), in which Einstein applied the quantum theory to light in order to explain the photoelectric effect . If light occurs in tiny packets (later called photons ), then it should knock out electrons in a metal in a precise way.
• 2. “Über die von der molekularkinetischen Theorie der Wärme geforderte Bewegung von in ruhenden Flüssigkeiten suspendierten Teilchen” (“On the Movement of Small Particles Suspended in Stationary Liquids Required by the Molecular-Kinetic Theory of Heat”), in which Einstein offered the first experimental proof of the existence of atoms . By analyzing the motion of tiny particles suspended in still water, called Brownian motion , he could calculate the size of the jostling atoms and Avogadro’s number ( see Avogadro’s law ).
• 3. “Zur Elektrodynamik bewegter Körper” (“On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies”), in which Einstein laid out the mathematical theory of special relativity .
• 4. “Ist die Trägheit eines Körpers von seinem Energieinhalt abhängig?” (“Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?”), submitted almost as an afterthought, which showed that relativity theory led to the equation E = m c 2 . This provided the first mechanism to explain the energy source of the Sun and other stars .

Einstein also submitted a paper in 1905 for his doctorate.

Other scientists, especially Henri Poincaré and Hendrik Lorentz , had pieces of the theory of special relativity, but Einstein was the first to assemble the whole theory together and to realize that it was a universal law of nature , not a curious figment of motion in the ether , as Poincaré and Lorentz had thought. (In one private letter to Mileva, Einstein referred to “our theory,” which has led some to speculate that she was a cofounder of relativity theory. However, Mileva had abandoned physics after twice failing her graduate exams, and there is no record of her involvement in developing relativity. In fact, in his 1905 paper, Einstein only credits his conversations with Besso in developing relativity.)

In the 19th century there were two pillars of physics: Newton’s laws of motion and Maxwell’s theory of light. Einstein was alone in realizing that they were in contradiction and that one of them must fall.

Albert Einstein: Biography, facts and impact on science

A brief biography of Albert Einstein (March 14, 1879 - April 18, 1955), the scientist whose theories changed the way we think about the universe.

• Einstein's birthday and education

Einstein's wives and children

How einstein changed physics.

• Later years and death

Gravitational waves and relativity

Additional resources.

Albert Einstein was a German-American physicist and probably the most well-known scientist of the 20th century. He is famous for his theory of relativity , a pillar of modern physics that describes the dynamics of light and extremely massive entities, as well as his work in quantum mechanics , which focuses on the subatomic realm. 

Albert Einstein's birthday and education

Einstein was born in Ulm, in the German state of Württemberg, on March 14, 1879, according to a biography from the Nobel Prize organization . His family moved to Munich six weeks later, and in 1885, when he was 6 years old, he began attending Petersschule, a Catholic elementary school.

Contrary to popular belief, Einstein was a good student. "Yesterday Albert received his grades, he was again number one, and his report card was brilliant," his mother once wrote to her sister, according to a German website dedicated to Einstein's legacy. But when he later switched to the Luitpold grammar school, young Einstein chafed under the school's authoritarian attitude, and his teacher once said of him, "never will he get anywhere."

In 1896, at age 17, Einstein entered the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich to be trained as a teacher in physics and mathematics. A few years later, he gained his diploma and acquired Swiss citizenship but was unable to find a teaching post. So he accepted a position as a technical assistant in the Swiss patent office. 

Related: 10 discoveries that prove Einstein was right about the universe — and 1 that proves him wrong

Einstein married Mileva Maric, his longtime love and former student, in 1903. A year prior, they had a child out of wedlock, who was discovered by scholars only in the 1980s, when private letters revealed her existence. The daughter, called Lieserl in the letters, may have been mentally challenged and either died young or was adopted when she was a year old. Einstein had two other children with Maric, Hans Albert and Eduard, born in 1904 and 1910, respectively.

Einstein divorced Maric in 1919 and soon married his cousin Elsa Löwenthal, with whom he had been in a relationship since 1912.

Einstein obtained his doctorate in physics in 1905 — a year that's often known as his annus mirabilis ("year of miracles" in Latin), according to the Library of Congress . That year, he published four groundbreaking papers of significant importance in physics.

The first incorporated the idea that light could come in discrete particles called photons. This theory describes the photoelectric effect , the concept that underpins modern solar power. The second explained Brownian motion, or the random motion of particles or molecules. Einstein looked at the case of a dust mote moving randomly on the surface of water and suggested that water is made up of tiny, vibrating molecules that kick the dust back and forth. 

The final two papers outlined his theory of special relativity, which showed how observers moving at different speeds would agree about the speed of light, which was a constant. These papers also introduced the equation E = mc^2, showing the equivalence between mass and energy. That finding is perhaps the most widely known aspect of Einstein's work. (In this infamous equation, E stands for energy, m represents mass and c is the constant speed of light).

In 1915, Einstein published four papers outlining his theory of general relativity, which updated Isaac Newton's laws of gravity by explaining that the force of gravity arose because massive objects warp the fabric of space-time. The theory was validated in 1919, when British astronomer Arthur Eddington observed stars at the edge of the sun during a solar eclipse and was able to show that their light was bent by the sun's gravitational well, causing shifts in their perceived positions.

Related: 8 Ways you can see Einstein's theory of relativity in real life

In 1921, he won the Nobel Prize in physics for his work on the photoelectric effect, though the committee members also mentioned his "services to Theoretical Physics" when presenting their award. The decision to give Einstein the award was controversial because the brilliant physicist was a Jew and a pacifist. Anti-Semitism was on the rise and relativity was not yet seen as a proven theory, according to an article from The Guardian .

Einstein was a professor at the University of Berlin for a time but fled Germany with Löwenthal in 1933, during the rise of Adolf Hitler. He renounced his German citizenship and moved to the United States to become a professor of theoretical physics at Princeton, becoming a U.S. citizen in 1940.

During this era, other researchers were creating a revolution by reformulating the rules of the smallest known entities in existence. The laws of quantum mechanics had been worked out by a group led by the Danish physicist Niels Bohr , and Einstein was intimately involved with their efforts.

Bohr and Einstein famously clashed over quantum mechanics. Bohr and his cohorts proposed that quantum particles behaved according to probabilistic laws, which Einstein found unacceptable, quipping that " God does not play dice with the universe ." Bohr's views eventually came to dominate much of contemporary thinking about quantum mechanics.

Einstein's later years and death

After he retired in 1945, Einstein spent most of his later years trying to unify gravity with electromagnetism in what's known as a unified field theory . Einstein died of a burst blood vessel near his heart on April 18, 1955, never unifying these forces.

Einstein's body was cremated and his ashes were spread in an undisclosed location, according to the American Museum of Natural History . But a doctor performed an unauthorized craniotomy before this and removed and saved Einstein's brain. 

The brain has been the subject of many tests over the decades, which suggested that it had extra folding in the gray matter, the site of conscious thinking. In particular, there were more folds in the frontal lobes, which have been tied to abstract thought and planning. However, drawing any conclusions about intelligence based on a single specimen is problematic. 

Related: Where is Einstein's brain?

In addition to his incredible legacy regarding relativity and quantum mechanics, Einstein conducted lesser-known research into a refrigeration method that required no motors, moving parts or coolant. He was also a tireless anti-war advocate, helping found the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists , an organization dedicated to warning the public about the dangers of nuclear weapons . 

Einstein's theories concerning relativity have so far held up spectacularly as a predictive models. Astronomers have found that, as the legendary physicist anticipated, the light of distant objects is lensed by massive, closer entities, a phenomenon known as gravitational lensing, which has helped our understanding of the universe's evolution. The James Webb Space Telescope , launched in Dec. 2021, has utilized gravitational lensing on numerous occasions to detect light emitted near the dawn of time , dating to just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang.

In 2016, the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory also announced the first-ever direct detection of gravitational waves , created when massive neutron stars and black holes merge and generate ripples in the fabric of space-time. Further research published in 2023 found that the entire universe may be rippling with a faint "gravitational wave background," emitted by ancient, colliding black holes.

Find answers to frequently asked questions about Albert Einstein on the Nobel Prize website. Flip through digitized versions of Einstein's published and unpublished manuscripts at Einstein Archives Online. Learn about The Einstein Memorial at the National Academy of Sciences building in Washington, D.C. 

This article was last updated on March 11, 2024 by Live Science editor Brandon Specktor to include new information about how Einstein's theories have been validated by modern experiments.

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Adam Mann is a freelance journalist with over a decade of experience, specializing in astronomy and physics stories. He has a bachelor's degree in astrophysics from UC Berkeley. His work has appeared in the New Yorker, New York Times, National Geographic, Wall Street Journal, Wired, Nature, Science, and many other places. He lives in Oakland, California, where he enjoys riding his bike. 

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Biography Online

Albert Einstein Biography

Einstein is also well known as an original free-thinker, speaking on a range of humanitarian and global issues. After contributing to the theoretical development of nuclear physics and encouraging F.D. Roosevelt to start the Manhattan Project, he later spoke out against the use of nuclear weapons.

Born in Germany to Jewish parents, Einstein settled in Switzerland and then, after Hitler’s rise to power, the United States. Einstein was a truly global man and one of the undisputed genius’ of the Twentieth Century.

Early life Albert Einstein

Einstein was born 14 March 1879, in Ulm the German Empire. His parents were working-class (salesman/engineer) and non-observant Jews. Aged 15, the family moved to Milan, Italy, where his father hoped Albert would become a mechanical engineer. However, despite Einstein’s intellect and thirst for knowledge, his early academic reports suggested anything but a glittering career in academia. His teachers found him dim and slow to learn. Part of the problem was that Albert expressed no interest in learning languages and the learning by rote that was popular at the time.

“School failed me, and I failed the school. It bored me. The teachers behaved like Feldwebel (sergeants). I wanted to learn what I wanted to know, but they wanted me to learn for the exam.” Einstein and the Poet (1983)

At the age of 12, Einstein picked up a book on geometry and read it cover to cover. – He would later refer to it as his ‘holy booklet’. He became fascinated by maths and taught himself – becoming acquainted with the great scientific discoveries of the age.

Albert Einstein with wife Elsa

Despite Albert’s independent learning, he languished at school. Eventually, he was asked to leave by the authorities because his indifference was setting a bad example to other students.

He applied for admission to the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. His first attempt was a failure because he failed exams in botany, zoology and languages. However, he passed the next year and in 1900 became a Swiss citizen.

At college, he met a fellow student Mileva Maric, and after a long friendship, they married in 1903; they had two sons before divorcing several years later.

In 1896 Einstein renounced his German citizenship to avoid military conscription. For five years he was stateless, before successfully applying for Swiss citizenship in 1901. After graduating from Zurich college, he attempted to gain a teaching post but none was forthcoming; instead, he gained a job in the Swiss Patent Office.

While working at the Patent Office, Einstein continued his own scientific discoveries and began radical experiments to consider the nature of light and space.

Einstein in 1921

He published his first scientific paper in 1900, and by 1905 had completed his PhD entitled “ A New Determination of Molecular Dimensions . In addition to working on his PhD, Einstein also worked feverishly on other papers. In 1905, he published four pivotal scientific works, which would revolutionise modern physics. 1905 would later be referred to as his ‘ annus mirabilis .’

Einstein’s work started to gain recognition, and he was given a post at the University of Zurich (1909) and, in 1911, was offered the post of full-professor at the Charles-Ferdinand University in Prague (which was then part of Austria-Hungary Empire). He took Austrian-Hungary citizenship to accept the job. In 1914, he returned to Germany and was appointed a director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics. (1914–1932)

Albert Einstein’s Scientific Contributions

Quantum Theory

Einstein suggested that light doesn’t just travel as waves but as electric currents. This photoelectric effect could force metals to release a tiny stream of particles known as ‘quanta’. From this Quantum Theory, other inventors were able to develop devices such as television and movies. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921.

Special Theory of Relativity

This theory was written in a simple style with no footnotes or academic references. The core of his theory of relativity is that:

“Movement can only be detected and measured as relative movement; the change of position of one body in respect to another.”

Thus there is no fixed absolute standard of comparison for judging the motion of the earth or plants. It was revolutionary because previously people had thought time and distance are absolutes. But, Einstein proved this not to be true.

He also said that if electrons travelled at close to the speed of light, their weight would increase.

This lead to Einstein’s famous equation:

Where E = energy m = mass and c = speed of light.

General Theory of Relativity 1916

Working from a basis of special relativity. Einstein sought to express all physical laws using equations based on mathematical equations.

He devoted the last period of his life trying to formulate a final unified field theory which included a rational explanation for electromagnetism. However, he was to be frustrated in searching for this final breakthrough theory.

Solar eclipse of 1919

In 1911, Einstein predicted the sun’s gravity would bend the light of another star. He based this on his new general theory of relativity. On 29 May 1919, during a solar eclipse, British astronomer and physicist Sir Arthur Eddington was able to confirm Einstein’s prediction. The news was published in newspapers around the world, and it made Einstein internationally known as a leading physicist. It was also symbolic of international co-operation between British and German scientists after the horrors of the First World War.

In the 1920s, Einstein travelled around the world – including the UK, US, Japan, Palestine and other countries. Einstein gave lectures to packed audiences and became an internationally recognised figure for his work on physics, but also his wider observations on world affairs.

Bohr-Einstein debates

During the 1920s, other scientists started developing the work of Einstein and coming to different conclusions on Quantum Physics. In 1925 and 1926, Einstein took part in debates with Max Born about the nature of relativity and quantum physics. Although the two disagreed on physics, they shared a mutual admiration.

As a German Jew, Einstein was threatened by the rise of the Nazi party. In 1933, when the Nazi’s seized power, they confiscated Einstein’s property, and later started burning his books. Einstein, then in England, took an offer to go to Princeton University in the US. He later wrote that he never had strong opinions about race and nationality but saw himself as a citizen of the world.

“I do not believe in race as such. Race is a fraud. All modern people are the conglomeration of so many ethnic mixtures that no pure race remains.”

Once in the US, Einstein dedicated himself to a strict discipline of academic study. He would spend no time on maintaining his dress and image. He considered these things ‘inessential’ and meant less time for his research. Einstein was notoriously absent-minded. In his youth, he once left his suitcase at a friends house. His friend’s parents told Einstein’s parents: “ That young man will never amount to anything, because he can’t remember anything.”

Although a bit of a loner, and happy in his own company, he had a good sense of humour. On January 3, 1943, Einstein received a letter from a girl who was having difficulties with mathematics in her studies. Einstein consoled her when he wrote in reply to her letter

“Do not worry about your difficulties in mathematics. I can assure you that mine are still greater.”

Einstein professed belief in a God “Who reveals himself in the harmony of all being”. But, he followed no established religion. His view of God sought to establish a harmony between science and religion.

“Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.”

– Einstein, Science and Religion (1941)

Politics of Einstein

Einstein described himself as a Zionist Socialist. He did support the state of Israel but became concerned about the narrow nationalism of the new state. In 1952, he was offered the position as President of Israel, but he declined saying he had:

“neither the natural ability nor the experience to deal with human beings.” … “I am deeply moved by the offer from our State of Israel, and at once saddened and ashamed that I cannot accept it.”

Einstein receiving US citizenship.

Albert Einstein was involved in many civil rights movements such as the American campaign to end lynching. He joined the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and  considered racism, America’s worst disease. But he also spoke highly of the meritocracy in American society and the value of being able to speak freely.

On the outbreak of war in 1939, Einstein wrote to President Roosevelt about the prospect of Germany developing an atomic bomb. He warned Roosevelt that the Germans were working on a bomb with a devastating potential. Roosevelt headed his advice and started the Manhattan project to develop the US atom bomb. But, after the war ended, Einstein reverted to his pacifist views. Einstein said after the war.

“Had I known that the Germans would not succeed in producing an atomic bomb, I would not have lifted a finger.” (Newsweek, 10 March 1947)

In the post-war McCarthyite era, Einstein was scrutinised closely for potential Communist links. He wrote an article in favour of socialism, “Why Socialism” (1949) He criticised Capitalism and suggested a democratic socialist alternative. He was also a strong critic of the arms race. Einstein remarked:

“I do not know how the third World War will be fought, but I can tell you what they will use in the Fourth—rocks!”

Rabindranath Tagore and Einstein

Einstein was feted as a scientist, but he was a polymath with interests in many fields. In particular, he loved music. He wrote that if he had not been a scientist, he would have been a musician. Einstein played the violin to a high standard.

“I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music… I get most joy in life out of music.”

Einstein died in 1955, at his request his brain and vital organs were removed for scientific study.

Citation: Pettinger, Tejvan . “ Biography of Albert Einstein ”, Oxford, www.biographyonline.net 23 Feb. 2008. Updated 2nd March 2017.

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19 Comments

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• January 11, 2019 3:00 PM

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Biography of Albert Einstein, Theoretical Physicist

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Albert Einstein (March 14, 1879–April 18, 1955), a German-born theoretical physicist who lived during the 20th century, revolutionized scientific thought. Having developed the Theory of Relativity, Einstein opened the door for the development of atomic power and the creation of the atomic bomb.

Einstein is best known for his 1905 general theory of relativity, E=mc 2 , which posits that energy (E) equals mass (m) times the speed of light (c) squared. But his influence went far beyond that theory. Einstein's theories also changed thinking about how the planets revolve around the sun. For his scientific contributions, Einstein also won the 1921 Nobel Prize in physics.

Einstein also was forced to flee Nazi Germany after the rise of Adolf Hitler . It's no exaggeration to say that his theories indirectly helped lead the Allies to victory over the Axis powers in World War II, particularly the defeat of Japan.

Fast Facts: Albert Einstein

• Known For : The General Theory of Relativity, E=mc 2 , which led to the development of the atomic bomb and atomic power.
• Born : March 14, 1879 in Ulm, Kingdom of Württemberg, German Empire
• Parents : Hermann Einstein and Pauline Koch
• Died : April 18, 1955 in Princeton, New Jersey
• Education : Swiss Federal Polytechnic (1896–1900, B.A., 1900; University of Zurich, Ph.D., 1905)
• Published Works : On a Heuristic Point of View Concerning the Production and Transformation of Light, On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies, Does an Object’s Inertia Depend on Its Energy Content?
• Awards and Honors : Barnard Medal (1920), Nobel Prize in Physics (1921), Matteucci Medal (1921), Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1926), Max Planck Medal (1929), Time Person of the Century (1999)
• Spouses : Mileva Marić (m. 1903–1919), Elsa Löwenthal (m. 1919–1936)
• Children : Lieserl, Hans Albert Einstein, Eduard
• Notable Quote : "Try and penetrate with our limited means the secrets of nature and you will find that, behind all the discernible concatenations, there remains something subtle, intangible and inexplicable."

Early Life and Education

Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879, in Ulm, Germany to Jewish parents, Hermann and Pauline Einstein. A year later, Hermann Einstein's business failed and he moved his family to Munich to start a new electric business with his brother Jakob. In Munich, Albert's sister Maja was born in 1881. Only two years apart in age, Albert adored his sister and they had a close relationship with each other their whole lives.

Although Einstein is now considered the epitome of genius, in the first two decades of his life, many people thought Einstein was the exact opposite. Right after Einstein was born, relatives were concerned with Einstein's pointy head. Then, when Einstein didn't talk until he was 3 years old, his parents worried something was wrong with him.

Einstein also failed to impress his teachers. From elementary school through college, his teachers and professors thought he was lazy, sloppy, and insubordinate. Many of his teachers thought he would never amount to anything.

When Einstein was 15 years old, his father's new business had failed and the Einstein family moved to Italy. At first, Albert remained behind in Germany to finish high school, but he was soon unhappy with that arrangement and left school to rejoin his family.

Rather than finish high school, Einstein decided to apply directly to the prestigious Polytechnic Institute in Zurich, Switzerland. Although he failed the entrance exam on the first try, he spent a year studying at a local high school and retook the entrance exam in October 1896 and passed.

Once at the Polytechnic, Einstein again did not like school. Believing that his professors only taught old science, Einstein would often skip class, preferring to stay home and read about the newest in scientific theory. When he did attend class, Einstein would often make it obvious that he found the class dull.

Some last-minute studying allowed Einstein to graduate in 1900. However, once out of school, Einstein was unable to find a job because none of his teachers liked him enough to write him a recommendation letter.

For nearly two years, Einstein worked at short-term jobs until a friend was able to help him get a job as a patent clerk at the Swiss Patent Office in Bern. Finally, with a job and some stability, Einstein was able to marry his college sweetheart, Mileva Maric, whom his parents strongly disapproved.

The couple went on to have two sons: Hans Albert (born 1904) and Eduard (born 1910).

Einstein the Patent Clerk

For seven years, Einstein worked six days a week as a patent clerk. He was responsible for examining the blueprints of other people's inventions and then determining whether they were feasible. If they were, Einstein had to ensure that no one else had already been given a patent for the same idea.

Somehow, between his very busy work and family life, Einstein not only found time to earn a doctorate from the University of Zurich (awarded 1905) but found time to think. It was while working at the patent office that Einstein made his most influential discoveries.

Influential Theories

In 1905, while working at the patent office, Einstein wrote five scientific papers, which were all published in the Annalen der Physik ( Annals of Physics , a major physics journal). Three of these were published together in September 1905.

In one paper, Einstein theorized that light must not just travel in waves but existed as particles, which explained the photoelectric effect. Einstein himself described this particular theory as "revolutionary." This was also the theory for which Einstein won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921.

In another paper, Einstein tackled the mystery of why pollen never settled to the bottom of a glass of water but rather, kept moving (Brownian motion). By declaring that the pollen was being moved by water molecules, Einstein solved a longstanding, scientific mystery and proved the existence of molecules.

His third paper described Einstein's "Special Theory of Relativity," in which Einstein revealed that space and time are not absolutes. The only thing that is constant, Einstein stated, is the speed of light; the rest of space and time are all based on the position of the observer.

Not only are space and time not absolutes, Einstein discovered that energy and mass, once thought completely distinct items, were actually interchangeable. In his E=mc 2  equation (E=energy, m=mass, and c=speed of light), Einstein created a simple formula to describe the relationship between energy and mass. This formula reveals that a very small amount of mass can be converted into a huge amount of energy, leading to the later invention of the atomic bomb.

Einstein was only 26 years old when these articles were published and already he had done more for science than any individual since Sir Isaac Newton.

Scientists Take Notice

In 1909, four years after his theories were first published, Einstein was finally offered a teaching position. Einstein enjoyed being a teacher at the University of Zurich. He had found traditional schooling as he grew up extremely limiting and thus he wanted to be a different kind of teacher. Arriving at school unkempt, with hair uncombed and his clothes too baggy, Einstein soon became known as much for his appearance as his teaching style.

As Einstein's fame within the scientific community grew, offers for new, better positions began to pour in. Within only a few years, Einstein worked at the University of Zurich ( Switzerland ), then the German University in Prague (Czech Republic), and then went back to Zurich for the Polytechnic Institute.

The frequent moves, the numerous conferences that Einstein attended, and preoccupation of Einstein with science left Mileva (Einstein's wife) feeling both neglected and lonely. When Einstein was offered a professorship at the University of Berlin in 1913, she didn't want to go. Einstein accepted the position anyway.

Not long after arriving in Berlin, Mileva and Albert separated. Realizing the marriage could not be salvaged, Mileva took the kids back to Zurich. They officially divorced in 1919.

Achieves Worldwide Fame

During  World War I , Einstein stayed in Berlin and worked diligently on new theories. He worked like a man obsessed. With Mileva gone, he often forgot to eat and sleep.

In 1917, the stress eventually took its toll and he collapsed. Diagnosed with gallstones, Einstein was told to rest. During his recuperation, Einstein's cousin Elsa helped nurse him back to health. The two became very close and when Albert's divorce was finalized, Albert and Elsa married.

It was during this time that Einstein revealed his General Theory of Relativity, which considered the effects of acceleration and gravity on time and space. If Einstein's theory was correct, then the gravity of the sun would bend light from stars.

In 1919, Einstein's General Theory of Relativity could be tested during a solar eclipse. In May 1919, two British astronomers (Arthur Eddington and Sir Frances Dyson) were able to put together an expedition that observed the  solar eclipse  and documented the bent light. In November 1919, their findings were announced publicly.

After having suffered monumental bloodshed during World War I, people around the world were craving news that went beyond their country's borders. Einstein became a worldwide celebrity overnight.

It wasn't just his revolutionary theories; it was Einstein's general persona that appealed to the masses. Einstein's disheveled hair, poorly fitting clothes, doe-like eyes, and witty charm endeared him to the average person. He was a genius, but he was an approachable one.

Instantly famous, Einstein was hounded by reporters and photographers wherever he went. He was given honorary degrees and asked to visit countries around the world. Albert and Elsa took trips to the United States, Japan, Palestine (now Israel), South America, and throughout Europe.

Becomes an Enemy of the State

Although Einstein spent the 1920s traveling and making special appearances, these took away from the time he could work on his scientific theories. By the early 1930s, finding time for science wasn't his only problem.

The political climate in Germany was changing drastically. When Adolf Hitler took power in 1933, Einstein was luckily visiting the United States (he never returned to Germany). The Nazis promptly declared Einstein an enemy of the state, ransacked his house, and burned his books.

As death threats began, Einstein finalized his plans to take a position at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, New Jersey. He arrived at Princeton on Oct. 17, 1933.

Einstein suffered a personal loss when Elsa died on Dec. 20, 1936. Three years later, Einstein's sister Maja fled from  Mussolini's Italy and came to live with Einstein in Princeton. She stayed until her death in 1951.

Until the Nazis took power in Germany, Einstein had been a devoted pacifist for his entire life. However, with the harrowing tales coming out of Nazi-occupied Europe, Einstein reevaluated his pacifist ideals. In the case of the Nazis, Einstein realized they needed to be stopped, even if that meant using military might to do so.

The Atomic Bomb

In July 1939, scientists Leo Szilard and Eugene Wigner visited Einstein to discuss the possibility that Germany was working on building an atomic bomb.

The ramifications of Germany building such a destructive weapon prompted Einstein to write a letter to  President Franklin D. Roosevelt  to warn him about this potentially massive weapon. In response, Roosevelt established the  Manhattan Project , a collection of U.S. scientists urged to beat Germany to the construction of a working atomic bomb.

Even though Einstein's letter prompted the Manhattan Project, Einstein himself never worked on constructing the atomic bomb.

Later Years and Death

From 1922 until the end of his life, Einstein worked on finding a "unified field theory." Believing that "God does not play dice," Einstein searched for a single, unified theory that could combine all the fundamental forces of physics between elementary particles. Einstein never found it.

In the years after World War II , Einstein advocated for a world government and for civil rights. In 1952, after the death of Israel's first President Chaim Weizmann , Einstein was offered the presidency of Israel. Realizing that he was not good at politics and too aged to start something new, Einstein declined the offer.

On April 12, 1955, Einstein collapsed at his home. Just six days later, on April 18, 1955, Einstein died when the aneurysm he had been living with for several years finally burst. He was 76 years old.

Resources and Further Reading

• “ The Year Of Albert Einstein. ”  Smithsonian.com , Smithsonian Institution, 1 June 2005.
• “ Albert Einstein. ”  Biography.com , A&E Networks Television, 14 Feb. 2019.
• Kuepper, Hans-Josef. “ The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein. ”  Albert Einstein - Honours, Prizes and Awards.
• Max Planck Formulates Quantum Theory
• Most Influential Scientists of the 20th Century
• 10 Things You Don't Know About Albert Einstein
• Biography of Enrico Fermi
• 32 Ronald Reagan Quotes You Should Know
• What Is Nuclear Disarmament?
• Queen Victoria's Death and Final Arrangements
• Biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer, Director of the Manhattan Project
• Biography of Saddam Hussein, Dictator of Iraq
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• The Life of Zelda Fitzgerald, the Other Fitzgerald Writer
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• Life and Work of H.L. Mencken: Writer, Editor, and Critic
• Adlai Stevenson: American Statesman and Presidential Candidate
• A Profile of Meyer Lansky

Learn some interesting facts and information about the amazing life of Albert Einstein with this short biographical video. Einstein is perhaps the most well known scientist of all time, contributing a range of important theories to the field of theoretical physics and being awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921. Check out our page of for more on this famous scientist.         Albert Einstein Science Kids ©  |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |  Updated: Oct 9, 2023 Albert Einstein One of the most influential scientists of the 20 th century, Albert Einstein was a physicist who developed the theory of relativity. We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back. Quick Facts Early life, family, and education, einstein’s iq, patent clerk, inventions and discoveries, nobel prize in physics, wives and children, travel diaries, becoming a u.s. citizen, einstein and the atomic bomb, time travel and quantum theory, personal life, death and final words, einstein’s brain, einstein in books and movies: "oppenheimer" and more, who was albert einstein. Albert Einstein was a German mathematician and physicist who developed the special and general theories of relativity. In 1921, he won the Nobel Prize in Physics for his explanation of the photoelectric effect. In the following decade, he immigrated to the United States after being targeted by the German Nazi Party. His work also had a major impact on the development of atomic energy. In his later years, Einstein focused on unified field theory. He died in April 1955 at age 76. With his passion for inquiry, Einstein is generally considered the most influential physicist of the 20 th century. FULL NAME: Albert Einstein BORN: March 14, 1879 DIED: April 18, 1955 BIRTHPLACE: Ulm, Württemberg, Germany SPOUSES: Mileva Einstein-Maric (1903-1919) and Elsa Einstein (1919-1936) CHILDREN: Lieserl, Hans, and Eduard ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Pisces Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879, in Ulm, Württemberg, Germany. He grew up in a secular Jewish family. His father, Hermann Einstein, was a salesman and engineer who, with his brother, founded Elektrotechnische Fabrik J. Einstein & Cie, a Munich-based company that mass-produced electrical equipment. Einstein’s mother, the former Pauline Koch, ran the family household. Einstein had one sister, Maja, born two years after him. Einstein attended elementary school at the Luitpold Gymnasium in Munich. However, he felt alienated there and struggled with the institution’s rigid pedagogical style. He also had what were considered speech challenges. However, he developed a passion for classical music and playing the violin, which would stay with him into his later years. Most significantly, Einstein’s youth was marked by deep inquisitiveness and inquiry. Toward the end of the 1880s, Max Talmud, a Polish medical student who sometimes dined with the Einstein family, became an informal tutor to young Einstein. Talmud had introduced his pupil to a children’s science text that inspired Einstein to dream about the nature of light. Thus, during his teens, Einstein penned what would be seen as his first major paper, “The Investigation of the State of Aether in Magnetic Fields.” Hermann relocated the family to Milan, Italy, in the mid-1890s after his business lost out on a major contract. Einstein was left at a relative’s boarding house in Munich to complete his schooling at the Luitpold. Faced with military duty when he turned of age, Einstein allegedly withdrew from classes, using a doctor’s note to excuse himself and claim nervous exhaustion. With their son rejoining them in Italy, his parents understood Einstein’s perspective but were concerned about his future prospects as a school dropout and draft dodger. Einstein was eventually able to gain admission into the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, specifically due to his superb mathematics and physics scores on the entrance exam. He was still required to complete his pre-university education first and thus attended a high school in Aarau, Switzerland, helmed by Jost Winteler. Einstein lived with the schoolmaster’s family and fell in love with Winteler’s daughter Marie. Einstein later renounced his German citizenship and became a Swiss citizen at the dawn of the new century. Einstein’s intelligence quotient was estimated to be around 160, but there are no indications he was ever actually tested. Psychologist David Wechsler didn’t release the first edition of the WAIS cognitive test, which evolved into the WAIS-IV test commonly used today, until 1955—shortly before Einstein’s death. The maximum score of the current version is 160, with an IQ of 135 or higher ranking in the 99 th percentile. Magazine columnist Marilyn vos Savant has the highest-ever recorded IQ at 228 and was featured in the Guinness Book of World Records in the late 1980s. However, Guinness discontinued the category because of debates about testing accuracy. According to Parade , individuals believed to have higher IQs than Einstein include Leonardo Da Vinci , Marie Curie , Nikola Tesla , and Nicolaus Copernicus . After graduating from university, Einstein faced major challenges in terms of finding academic positions, having alienated some professors over not attending class more regularly in lieu of studying independently. Einstein eventually found steady work in 1902 after receiving a referral for a clerk position in a Swiss patent office. While working at the patent office, Einstein had the time to further explore ideas that had taken hold during his university studies and thus cemented his theorems on what would be known as the principle of relativity. In 1905—seen by many as a “miracle year” for the theorist—Einstein had four papers published in the Annalen der Physik , one of the best-known physics journals of the era. Two focused on the photoelectric effect and Brownian motion. The two others, which outlined E=MC 2 and the special theory of relativity, were defining for Einstein’s career and the course of the study of physics. As a physicist, Einstein had many discoveries, but he is perhaps best known for his theory of relativity and the equation E=MC 2 , which foreshadowed the development of atomic power and the atomic bomb. Theory of Relativity Einstein first proposed a special theory of relativity in 1905 in his paper “On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies,” which took physics in an electrifying new direction. The theory explains that space and time are actually connected, and Einstein called this joint structure space-time. By November 1915, Einstein completed the general theory of relativity, which accounted for gravity’s relationship to space-time. Einstein considered this theory the culmination of his life research. He was convinced of the merits of general relativity because it allowed for a more accurate prediction of planetary orbits around the sun, which fell short in Isaac Newton ’s theory. It also offered a more expansive, nuanced explanation of how gravitational forces worked. Einstein’s assertions were affirmed via observations and measurements by British astronomers Sir Frank Dyson and Sir Arthur Eddington during the 1919 solar eclipse, and thus a global science icon was born. Today, the theories of relativity underpin the accuracy of GPS technology, among other phenomena. Even so, Einstein did make one mistake when developing his general theory, which naturally predicted the universe is either expanding or contracting. Einstein didn’t believe this prediction initially, instead holding onto the belief that the universe was a fixed, static entity. To account for, this he factored in a “cosmological constant” to his equation. His later theories directly contracted this idea and asserted that the universe could be in a state of flux. Then, astronomer Edwin Hubble deduced that we indeed inhabit an expanding universe. Hubble and Einstein met at the Mount Wilson Observatory near Los Angeles in 1931. Decades after Einstein’s death, in 2018, a team of scientists confirmed one aspect of Einstein’s general theory of relativity: that the light from a star passing close to a black hole would be stretched to longer wavelengths by the overwhelming gravitational field. Tracking star S2, their measurements indicated that the star’s orbital velocity increased to over 25 million kph as it neared the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy, its appearance shifting from blue to red as its wavelengths stretched to escape the pull of gravity. Einstein’s E=MC² Einstein’s 1905 paper on the matter-energy relationship proposed the equation E=MC²: the energy of a body (E) is equal to the mass (M) of that body times the speed of light squared (C²). This equation suggested that tiny particles of matter could be converted into huge amounts of energy, a discovery that heralded atomic power. Famed quantum theorist Max Planck backed up the assertions of Einstein, who thus became a star of the lecture circuit and academia, taking on various positions before becoming director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics (today is known as the Max Planck Institute for Physics) from 1917 to 1933. In 1921, Einstein won the Nobel Prize in Physics for his explanation of the photoelectric effect, since his ideas on relativity were still considered questionable. He wasn’t actually given the award until the following year due to a bureaucratic ruling, and during his acceptance speech, he still opted to speak about relativity. Einstein married Mileva Maric on January 6, 1903. While attending school in Zurich, Einstein met Maric, a Serbian physics student. Einstein continued to grow closer to Maric, but his parents were strongly against the relationship due to her ethnic background. Nonetheless, Einstein continued to see her, with the two developing a correspondence via letters in which he expressed many of his scientific ideas. Einstein’s father passed away in 1902, and the couple married shortly thereafter. Einstein and Mavic had three children. Their daughter, Lieserl, was born in 1902 before their wedding and might have been later raised by Maric’s relatives or given up for adoption. Her ultimate fate and whereabouts remain a mystery. The couple also had two sons: Hans Albert Einstein, who became a well-known hydraulic engineer, and Eduard “Tete” Einstein, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia as a young man. The Einsteins’ marriage would not be a happy one, with the two divorcing in 1919 and Maric having an emotional breakdown in connection to the split. Einstein, as part of a settlement, agreed to give Maric any funds he might receive from possibly winning the Nobel Prize in the future. During his marriage to Maric, Einstein had also begun an affair some time earlier with a cousin, Elsa Löwenthal . The couple wed in 1919, the same year of Einstein’s divorce. He would continue to see other women throughout his second marriage, which ended with Löwenthal’s death in 1936. In his 40s, Einstein traveled extensively and journaled about his experiences. Some of his unfiltered private thoughts are shared two volumes of The Travel Diaries of Albert Einstein . The first volume , published in 2018, focuses on his five-and-a-half month trip to the Far East, Palestine, and Spain. The scientist started a sea journey to Japan in Marseille, France, in autumn of 1922, accompanied by his second wife, Elsa. They journeyed through the Suez Canal, then to Sri Lanka, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Japan. The couple returned to Germany via Palestine and Spain in March 1923. The second volume , released in 2023, covers three months that he spent lecturing and traveling in Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil in 1925. The Travel Diaries contain unflattering analyses of the people he came across, including the Chinese, Sri Lankans, and Argentinians, a surprise coming from a man known for vehemently denouncing racism in his later years. In an entry for November 1922, Einstein refers to residents of Hong Kong as “industrious, filthy, lethargic people.” In 1933, Einstein took on a position at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, where he would spend the rest of his life. At the time the Nazis, led by Adolf Hitler , were gaining prominence with violent propaganda and vitriol in an impoverished post-World War I Germany. The Nazi Party influenced other scientists to label Einstein’s work “Jewish physics.” Jewish citizens were barred from university work and other official jobs, and Einstein himself was targeted to be killed. Meanwhile, other European scientists also left regions threatened by Germany and immigrated to the United States, with concern over Nazi strategies to create an atomic weapon. Not long after moving and beginning his career at IAS, Einstein expressed an appreciation for American meritocracy and the opportunities people had for free thought, a stark contrast to his own experiences coming of age. In 1935, Einstein was granted permanent residency in his adopted country and became an American citizen five years later. In America, Einstein mostly devoted himself to working on a unified field theory, an all-embracing paradigm meant to unify the varied laws of physics. However, during World War II, he worked on Navy-based weapons systems and made big monetary donations to the military by auctioning off manuscripts worth millions. In 1939, Einstein and fellow physicist Leo Szilard wrote to President Franklin D. Roosevelt to alert him of the possibility of a Nazi bomb and to galvanize the United States to create its own nuclear weapons. The United States would eventually initiate the Manhattan Project , though Einstein wouldn’t take a direct part in its implementation due to his pacifist and socialist affiliations. Einstein was also the recipient of much scrutiny and major distrust from FBI director J. Edgar Hoover . In July 1940, the U.S. Army Intelligence office denied Einstein a security clearance to participate in the project, meaning J. Robert Oppenheimer and the scientists working in Los Alamos were forbidden from consulting with him. Einstein had no knowledge of the U.S. plan to use atomic bombs in Japan in 1945. When he heard of the first bombing at Hiroshima, he reportedly said, “Ach! The world is not ready for it.” Einstein became a major player in efforts to curtail usage of the A-bomb. The following year, he and Szilard founded the Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists, and in 1947, via an essay for The Atlantic Monthly , Einstein espoused working with the United Nations to maintain nuclear weapons as a deterrent to conflict. After World War II, Einstein continued to work on his unified field theory and key aspects of his general theory of relativity, including time travel, wormholes, black holes, and the origins of the universe. However, he felt isolated in his endeavors since the majority of his colleagues had begun focusing their attention on quantum theory. In the last decade of his life, Einstein, who had always seen himself as a loner, withdrew even further from any sort of spotlight, preferring to stay close to Princeton and immerse himself in processing ideas with colleagues. In the late 1940s, Einstein became a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), seeing the parallels between the treatment of Jews in Germany and Black people in the United States. He corresponded with scholar and activist W.E.B. Du Bois as well as performer Paul Robeson and campaigned for civil rights, calling racism a “disease” in a 1946 Lincoln University speech. Einstein was very particular about his sleep schedule, claiming he needed 10 hours of sleep per day to function well. His theory of relativity allegedly came to him in a dream about cows being electrocuted. He was also known to take regular naps. He is said to have held objects like a spoon or pencil in his hand while falling asleep. That way, he could wake up before hitting the second stage of sleep—a hypnagogic process believed to boost creativity and capture sleep-inspired ideas. Although sleep was important to Einstein, socks were not. He was famous for refusing to wear them. According to a letter he wrote to future wife Elsa, he stopped wearing them because he was annoyed by his big toe pushing through the material and creating a hole. One of the most recognizable photos of the 20 th century shows Einstein sticking out his tongue while leaving his 72 nd birthday party on March 14, 1951. According to Discovery.com , Einstein was leaving his party at Princeton when a swarm of reporters and photographers approached and asked him to smile. Tired from doing so all night, he refused and rebelliously stuck his tongue out at the crowd for a moment before turning away. UPI photographer Arthur Sasse captured the shot. Einstein was amused by the picture and ordered several prints to give to his friends. He also signed a copy of the photo that sold for $125,000 at a 2017 auction. Einstein died on April 18, 1955, at age 76 at the University Medical Center at Princeton. The previous day, while working on a speech to honor Israel’s seventh anniversary, Einstein suffered an abdominal aortic aneurysm. He was taken to the hospital for treatment but refused surgery, believing that he had lived his life and was content to accept his fate. “I want to go when I want,” he stated at the time. “It is tasteless to prolong life artificially. I have done my share, it is time to go. I will do it elegantly.” According to the BBC, Einstein muttered a few words in German at the moment of his death. However, the nurse on duty didn’t speak German so their translation was lost forever. In a 2014 interview , Life magazine photographer Ralph Morse said the hospital was swarmed by journalists, photographers, and onlookers once word of Einstein’s death spread. Morse decided to travel to Einstein’s office at the Institute for Advanced Studies, offering the superintendent alcohol to gain access. He was able to photograph the office just as Einstein left it. After an autopsy, Einstein’s corpse was moved to a Princeton funeral home later that afternoon and then taken to Trenton, New Jersey, for a cremation ceremony. Morse said he was the only photographer present for the cremation, but Life managing editor Ed Thompson decided not to publish an exclusive story at the request of Einstein’s son Hans. During Einstein’s autopsy, pathologist Thomas Stoltz Harvey had removed his brain, reportedly without his family’s consent, for preservation and future study by doctors of neuroscience. However, during his life, Einstein participated in brain studies, and at least one biography claimed he hoped researchers would study his brain after he died. Einstein’s brain is now located at the Princeton University Medical Center. In keeping with his wishes, the rest of his body was cremated and the ashes scattered in a secret location. In 1999, Canadian scientists who were studying Einstein’s brain found that his inferior parietal lobe, the area that processes spatial relationships, 3D-visualization, and mathematical thought, was 15 percent wider than in people who possess normal intelligence. According to The New York Times , the researchers believe it might help explain why Einstein was so intelligent. In 2011, the Mütter Museum in Philadelphia received thin slices of Einstein’s brain from Dr. Lucy Rorke-Adams, a neuropathologist at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and put them on display. Rorke-Adams said she received the brain slides from Harvey. Since Einstein’s death, a veritable mountain of books have been written on the iconic thinker’s life, including Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson and Einstein: A Biography by Jürgen Neffe, both from 2007. Einstein’s own words are presented in the collection The World As I See It . Einstein has also been portrayed on screen. Michael Emil played a character called “The Professor,” clearly based on Einstein, in the 1985 film Insignificance —in which alternate versions of Einstein, Marilyn Monroe , Joe DiMaggio , and Joseph McCarthy cross paths in a New York City hotel. Walter Matthau portrayed Einstein in the fictional 1994 comedy I.Q. , in which he plays matchmaker for his niece played by Meg Ryan . Einstein was also a character in the obscure comedy films I Killed Einstein, Gentlemen (1970) and Young Einstein (1988). A much more historically accurate depiction of Einstein came in 2017, when he was the subject of the first season of Genius , a 10-part scripted miniseries by National Geographic. Johnny Flynn played a younger version of the scientist, while Geoffrey Rush portrayed Einstein in his later years after he had fled Germany. Ron Howard was the director. Tom Conti plays Einstein in the 2023 biopic Oppenheimer , directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Cillian Murphy as scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer during his involvement with the Manhattan Project. The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it. A question that sometimes drives me hazy: Am I or are the others crazy? A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new. Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere. I want to go when I want. It is tasteless to prolong life artificially. I have done my share, it is time to go. I will do it elegantly. If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough. Nature shows us only the tail of the lion. But there is no doubt in my mind that the lion belongs with it even if he cannot reveal himself to the eye all at once because of his huge dimension. We see him only the way a louse sitting upon him would. [T]he distinction between past, present, and future is only an illusion, however persistent. Living in this “great age,” it is hard to understand that we belong to this mad, degenerate species, which imputes free will to itself. If only there were somewhere an island for the benevolent and the prudent! Then also I would want to be an ardent patriot. I, at any rate, am convinced that He [God] is not playing at dice. How strange is the lot of us mortals! Each of us is here for a brief sojourn; for what purpose he knows not, though he sometimes thinks he senses it. I regard class differences as contrary to justice and, in the last resort, based on force. I have never looked upon ease and happiness as ends in themselves—this critical basis I call the ideal of a pigsty. The ideals that have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth. My political ideal is democracy. Let every man be respected as an individual and no man idolized. It is an irony of fate that I myself have been the recipient of excessive admiration and reverence from my fellow-beings, through no fault and no merit of my own. The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed. An autocratic system of coercion, in my opinion, soon degenerates. For force always attracts men of low morality, and I believe it to be an invariable rule that tyrants of genius are succeeded by scoundrels. My passionate interest in social justice and social responsibility has always stood in curious contrast to a marked lack of desire for direct association with men and women. I am a horse for single harness, not cut out for tandem or team work. I have never belonged wholeheartedly to country or state, to my circle of friends, or even to my own family. Everybody is a genius. Fact Check: We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn’t look right, contact us ! The Biography.com staff is a team of people-obsessed and news-hungry editors with decades of collective experience. We have worked as daily newspaper reporters, major national magazine editors, and as editors-in-chief of regional media publications. Among our ranks are book authors and award-winning journalists. Our staff also works with freelance writers, researchers, and other contributors to produce the smart, compelling profiles and articles you see on our site. To meet the team, visit our About Us page: https://www.biography.com/about/a43602329/about-us Tyler Piccotti first joined the Biography.com staff as an Associate News Editor in February 2023, and before that worked almost eight years as a newspaper reporter and copy editor. He is a graduate of Syracuse University. When he's not writing and researching his next story, you can find him at the nearest amusement park, catching the latest movie, or cheering on his favorite sports teams. Nobel Prize Winners Chien-Shiung Wu The Solar Eclipse That Made Albert Einstein a Star 14 Hispanic Women Who Have Made History Marie Curie Martin Luther King Jr. Henry Kissinger Malala Yousafzai Jimmy Carter 10 Famous Poets Whose Enduring Works We Still Read 22 Famous Scientists You Should Know Wole Soyinka History Classics Your Profile Find History on Facebook (Opens in a new window) Find History on Twitter (Opens in a new window) Find History on YouTube (Opens in a new window) Find History on Instagram (Opens in a new window) Find History on TikTok (Opens in a new window) This Day In History History Podcasts History Vault Albert Einstein By: History.com Editors Updated: May 16, 2019 | Original: October 27, 2009 The German-born physicist Albert Einstein developed the first of his groundbreaking theories while working as a clerk in the Swiss patent office in Bern. After making his name with four scientific articles published in 1905, he went on to win worldwide fame for his general theory of relativity and a Nobel Prize in 1921 for his explanation of the phenomenon known as the photoelectric effect. An outspoken pacifist who was publicly identified with the Zionist movement, Einstein emigrated from Germany to the United States when the Nazis took power before World War II. He lived and worked in Princeton, New Jersey, for the remainder of his life. Einstein’s Early Life (1879-1904) Born on March 14, 1879, in the southern German city of Ulm, Albert Einstein grew up in a middle-class Jewish family in Munich. As a child, Einstein became fascinated by music (he played the violin), mathematics and science. He dropped out of school in 1894 and moved to Switzerland, where he resumed his schooling and later gained admission to the Swiss Federal Polytechnic Institute in Zurich. In 1896, he renounced his German citizenship, and remained officially stateless before becoming a Swiss citizen in 1901. Did you know? Almost immediately after Albert Einstein learned of the atomic bomb's use in Japan, he became an advocate for nuclear disarmament. He formed the Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists and backed Manhattan Project scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer in his opposition to the hydrogen bomb. While at Zurich Polytechnic, Einstein fell in love with his fellow student Mileva Maric, but his parents opposed the match and he lacked the money to marry. The couple had an illegitimate daughter, Lieserl, born in early 1902, of whom little is known. After finding a position as a clerk at the Swiss patent office in Bern, Einstein married Maric in 1903; they would have two more children, Hans Albert (born 1904) and Eduard (born 1910). Einstein’s Miracle Year (1905) While working at the patent office, Einstein did some of the most creative work of his life, producing no fewer than four groundbreaking articles in 1905 alone. In the first paper, he applied the quantum theory (developed by German physicist Max Planck) to light in order to explain the phenomenon known as the photoelectric effect, by which a material will emit electrically charged particles when hit by light. The second article contained Einstein’s experimental proof of the existence of atoms, which he got by analyzing the phenomenon of Brownian motion, in which tiny particles were suspended in water. In the third and most famous article, titled “On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies,” Einstein confronted the apparent contradiction between two principal theories of physics: Isaac Newton’s concepts of absolute space and time and James Clerk Maxwell’s idea that the speed of light was a constant. To do this, Einstein introduced his special theory of relativity, which held that the laws of physics are the same even for objects moving in different inertial frames (i.e. at constant speeds relative to each other), and that the speed of light is a constant in all inertial frames. A fourth paper concerned the fundamental relationship between mass and energy, concepts viewed previously as completely separate. Einstein’s famous equation E = mc2 (where “c” was the constant speed of light) expressed this relationship. From Zurich to Berlin (1906-1932) Einstein continued working at the patent office until 1909, when he finally found a full-time academic post at the University of Zurich. In 1913, he arrived at the University of Berlin, where he was made director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics. The move coincided with the beginning of Einstein’s romantic relationship with a cousin of his, Elsa Lowenthal, whom he would eventually marry after divorcing Mileva. In 1915, Einstein published the general theory of relativity, which he considered his masterwork. This theory found that gravity, as well as motion, can affect time and space. According to Einstein’s equivalence principle–which held that gravity’s pull in one direction is equivalent to an acceleration of speed in the opposite direction–if light is bent by acceleration, it must also be bent by gravity. In 1919, two expeditions sent to perform experiments during a solar eclipse found that light rays from distant stars were deflected or bent by the gravity of the sun in just the way Einstein had predicted. The general theory of relativity was the first major theory of gravity since Newton’s, more than 250 years before, and the results made a tremendous splash worldwide, with the London Times proclaiming a “Revolution in Science” and a “New Theory of the Universe.” Einstein began touring the world, speaking in front of crowds of thousands in the United States, Britain, France and Japan. In 1921, he won the Nobel Prize for his work on the photoelectric effect, as his work on relativity remained controversial at the time. Einstein soon began building on his theories to form a new science of cosmology, which held that the universe was dynamic instead of static, and was capable of expanding and contracting. Einstein Moves to the United States (1933-39) A longtime pacifist and a Jew, Einstein became the target of hostility in Weimar Germany, where many citizens were suffering plummeting economic fortunes in the aftermath of defeat in the Great War. In December 1932, a month before Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany, Einstein made the decision to emigrate to the United States, where he took a position at the newly founded Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey . He would never again enter the country of his birth. By the time Einstein’s wife Elsa died in 1936, he had been involved for more than a decade with his efforts to find a unified field theory, which would incorporate all the laws of the universe, and those of physics, into a single framework. In the process, Einstein became increasingly isolated from many of his colleagues, who were focused mainly on the quantum theory and its implications, rather than on relativity. Einstein’s Later Life (1939-1955) In the late 1930s, Einstein’s theories, including his equation E=mc2, helped form the basis of the development of the atomic bomb. In 1939, at the urging of the Hungarian physicist Leo Szilard, Einstein wrote to President Franklin D. Roosevelt advising him to approve funding for the development of uranium before Germany could gain the upper hand. Einstein, who became a U.S. citizen in 1940 but retained his Swiss citizenship, was never asked to participate in the resulting Manhattan Project , as the U.S. government suspected his socialist and pacifist views. In 1952, Einstein declined an offer extended by David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s premier, to become president of Israel . Throughout the last years of his life, Einstein continued his quest for a unified field theory. Though he published an article on the theory in Scientific American in 1950, it remained unfinished when he died, of an aortic aneurysm, five years later. In the decades following his death, Einstein’s reputation and stature in the world of physics only grew, as physicists began to unravel the mystery of the so-called “strong force” (the missing piece of his unified field theory) and space satellites further verified the principles of his cosmology. HISTORY Vault: Secrets of Einstein's Brain Originally stolen by the doctor trusted to perform his autopsy, scientists over the decades have examined the brain of Albert Einstein to try and determine what made this seemingly normal man tick. Sign up for Inside History Get HISTORY’s most fascinating stories delivered to your inbox three times a week. By submitting your information, you agree to receive emails from HISTORY and A+E Networks. You can opt out at any time. You must be 16 years or older and a resident of the United States. More details : Privacy Notice | Terms of Use | Contact Us You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser to improve your experience and security. Enhanced Page Navigation Albert Einstein - Biographical Albert Einstein Biographical. Questions and Answers on Albert Einstein During his stay at the Patent Office, and in his spare time, he produced much of his remarkable work and in 1908 he was appointed Privatdozent in Berne. In 1909 he became Professor Extraordinary at Zurich, in 1911 Professor of Theoretical Physics at Prague, returning to Zurich in the following year to fill a similar post. In 1914 he was appointed Director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Physical Institute and Professor in the University of Berlin. He became a German citizen in 1914 and remained in Berlin until 1933 when he renounced his citizenship for political reasons and emigrated to America to take the position of Professor of Theoretical Physics at Princeton * . He became a United States citizen in 1940 and retired from his post in 1945. After World War II, Einstein was a leading figure in the World Government Movement, he was offered the Presidency of the State of Israel, which he declined, and he collaborated with Dr. Chaim Weizmann in establishing the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Einstein always appeared to have a clear view of the problems of physics and the determination to solve them. He had a strategy of his own and was able to visualize the main stages on the way to his goal. He regarded his major achievements as mere stepping-stones for the next advance. At the start of his scientific work, Einstein realized the inadequacies of Newtonian mechanics and his special theory of relativity stemmed from an attempt to reconcile the laws of mechanics with the laws of the electromagnetic field. He dealt with classical problems of statistical mechanics and problems in which they were merged with quantum theory: this led to an explanation of the Brownian movement of molecules. He investigated the thermal properties of light with a low radiation density and his observations laid the foundation of the photon theory of light. In his early days in Berlin, Einstein postulated that the correct interpretation of the special theory of relativity must also furnish a theory of gravitation and in 1916 he published his paper on the general theory of relativity. During this time he also contributed to the problems of the theory of radiation and statistical mechanics. In the 1920s, Einstein embarked on the construction of unified field theories, although he continued to work on the probabilistic interpretation of quantum theory, and he persevered with this work in America. He contributed to statistical mechanics by his development of the quantum theory of a monatomic gas and he has also accomplished valuable work in connection with atomic transition probabilities and relativistic cosmology. After his retirement he continued to work towards the unification of the basic concepts of physics, taking the opposite approach, geometrisation, to the majority of physicists. Einstein’s researches are, of course, well chronicled and his more important works include Special Theory of Relativity (1905), Relativity (English translations, 1920 and 1950), General Theory of Relativity (1916), Investigations on Theory of Brownian Movement (1926), and The Evolution of Physics (1938). Among his non-scientific works, About Zionism (1930), Why War? (1933), My Philosophy (1934), and Out of My Later Years (1950) are perhaps the most important. Albert Einstein received honorary doctorate degrees in science, medicine and philosophy from many European and American universities. During the 1920’s he lectured in Europe, America and the Far East, and he was awarded Fellowships or Memberships of all the leading scientific academies throughout the world. He gained numerous awards in recognition of his work, including the Copley Medal of the Royal Society of London in 1925, and the Franklin Medal of the Franklin Institute in 1935. Einstein’s gifts inevitably resulted in his dwelling much in intellectual solitude and, for relaxation, music played an important part in his life. He married Mileva Maric in 1903 and they had a daughter and two sons; their marriage was dissolved in 1919 and in the same year he married his cousin, Elsa Löwenthal, who died in 1936. He died on April 18, 1955 at Princeton, New Jersey. This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and first published in the book series Les Prix Nobel . It was later edited and republished in Nobel Lectures . To cite this document, always state the source as shown above. * Albert Einstein was formally associated with the Institute for Advanced Study located in Princeton, New Jersey. Nobel Prizes and laureates Nobel prizes 2023. Explore prizes and laureates 401 IMAGES Albert Einstein Biography Activities, Flip Book, & Report for Grade 4 Reading Lesson 23 Biographies LKS2 Albert Einstein Biography Writing Unit Albert Einstein Accomplishments List Einstein Albert Einstein BIOGRAPHY VIDEO ALBERT Einstein BIOGRAPHY|| The greatest scientist Albert Einstein Biography Hindi #upsc #ias Scientists Biography what was Albert Einsteins IQ? Top 3 Albert Einstein Secrets unveiled #alberteinstein #einstein #top3 #top5 #facts #factshorts #yt who was ALBERT EINSTEIN? "Albert Einstein: The Genius Who Changed the World" COMMENTS Albert Einstein Einstein's urging led to the creation of the Manhattan Project and the development of the first two atomic bombs in 1945. Einstein died in Princeton, New Jersey, on April 18, 1955. (1879-1955). Any list of the greatest thinkers in history will contain the name of the brilliant physicist Albert Einstein. Albert Einstein Facts for Kids Albert Einstein. Albert Einstein (March 14, 1879 - April 18, 1955) was a German-born scientist. He developed the theory of relativity. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921 for theoretical physics. His famous equation is (E = energy, m = mass, c = speed of light ). Fun Albert Einstein Facts for Kids (All You Need to Know!) Albert Einstein was a famous physicist. He was born in Germany in 1879. Einstein developed the theory of relativity. His most known equation is E=mc^2. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921. Einstein moved to the USA before World War II. He was offered to be Israel's second President. Albert Einstein Albert Einstein is born in Ulm, Germany. As a child, the prodigy enjoys solving math riddles and building skyscrapers out of playing cards. Some of his card creations are 14 mini-stories tall! 1895. Sixteen-year-old Einstein writes his first scholarly paper on the force of magnetism. Bet that pulled in a lot of readers. Ha-ha. Albert Einstein Albert Einstein was born to Jewish parents in Ulm, Germany, on March 14, 1879. He did not do well in school, but he did take an interest in mathematics and science. While at college, he studied physics and math. After graduating in 1900, he worked in a government office. Meanwhile, he continued studying physics on his own. Albert Einstein: Genius Inventor and Scientist Biographies for kids Go here to watch a video about Albert Einstein.. Occupation: Scientist and Inventor Born: March 14,1879 Ulm, in Germany Died: 18 April 1955 in Princeton, New Jersey Best known for: Theory of Relativity and E=mc2 Biography: Albert Einstein was a scientist in the early 1900s. He came up with some of the most important discoveries and theories in all of science. Albert Einstein Facts, Biography & Worksheets For Kids Complete List Of Included Worksheets. Albert Einstein is a German-born physicist who developed special and general theories of relativity and the concept of mass-energy equivalence expressed by his famous equation, E = mc2. He won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921 for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect. Albert Einstein Biography Early Childhood - A genius was born. Albert Einstein was born in Germany in 1879, to a Jewish family. His father was an engineer and a salesman. Einstein wasn't a very bright student. He even had problems with his speech. When he was five years old, Einstein saw a magnetic compass and marvelled at the needle that kept moving with an ... 10 facts about Albert Einstein Died: 18 April 1955. Best known for: His theory of relativity*. 1. Albert Einstein was born in Germany, but lived in Italy, Switzerland and Czechia (which was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire), until he eventually moved to the United States in 1933. Albert never went back to Germany after moving to the USA. Albert Einstein Facts For Kids The best Albert Einstein Biography For Kids with complete collection of Albert Einstein Facts For Kids. Learn all about Albert Einstein, his childhood, nationality, his significance, contribution to science, physics and maths, his education, life history, inventions, discoveries, accomplishments, patents, work places, atomic theory, noble prize, complete family information, personal life ... Albert Einstein Albert Einstein (born March 14, 1879, Ulm, Württemberg, Germany—died April 18, 1955, Princeton, New Jersey, U.S.) was a German-born physicist who developed the special and general theories of relativity and won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921 for his explanation of the photoelectric effect. Einstein is generally considered the most ... Albert Einstein Albert Einstein - Physics, Relativity, Nobel Prize: After graduation in 1900, Einstein faced one of the greatest crises in his life. Because he studied advanced subjects on his own, he often cut classes; this earned him the animosity of some professors, especially Heinrich Weber. Unfortunately, Einstein asked Weber for a letter of recommendation. Einstein was subsequently turned down for every ... Albert Einstein Lesson for Kids: Biography & Facts He was born on March 14, 1879 to Hermann and Pauline Einstein in Ulm, Württemberg, Germany. Albert's grandmother feared that Albert would have delayed development due to the sound of his cry. In ... Who was Albert Einstein? He was born in Ulm, in the German Empire. He lived until the age of 76. Albert Einstein was dyslexic. He often pretended not to be Albert Einstein due to frequent questions from the public on the street. He was one of the founders of the German Democratic Party in 1918. Einstein became an American citizen in 1940. Albert Einstein: Biography, facts and impact on science A brief biography of Albert Einstein (March 14, 1879 - April 18, 1955), the scientist whose theories changed the way we think about the universe. ... Einstein was a good student. Albert Einstein Biography At college, he met a fellow student Mileva Maric, and after a long friendship, they married in 1903; they had two sons before divorcing several years later. ... " Biography of Albert Einstein ", Oxford, www.biographyonline.net 23 Feb. 2008. Updated 2nd March 2017. Albert Einstein - His Life and Universe . Biography of Albert Einstein, Theoretical Physicist Albert Einstein (March 14, 1879-April 18, 1955), a German-born theoretical physicist who lived during the 20th century, revolutionized scientific thought. Having developed the Theory of Relativity, Einstein opened the door for the development of atomic power and the creation of the atomic bomb. Einstein is best known for his 1905 general ... Albert Einstein Video Albert Einstein Biography. Learn some interesting facts and information about the amazing life of Albert Einstein with this short biographical video. Einstein is perhaps the most well known scientist of all time, contributing a range of important theories to the field of theoretical physics and being awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921. Albert Einstein: Biography, Physicist, Nobel Prize Winner Einstein married Mileva Maric on January 6, 1903. While attending school in Zurich, Einstein met Maric, a Serbian physics student. Einstein continued to grow closer to Maric, but his parents were ... Albert Einstein Albert Einstein was born in Ulm, [21] in the Kingdom of Württemberg in the German Empire, on 14 March 1879. ... In 1926, Einstein and his former student Leó Szilárd co-invented (and in 1930, patented) the Einstein refrigerator. Albert Einstein Einstein's Early Life (1879-1904) Born on March 14, 1879, in the southern German city of Ulm, Albert Einstein grew up in a middle-class Jewish family in Munich. Albert Einstein Albert Einstein was born at Ulm, in Württemberg, Germany, on March 14, 1879. Six weeks later the family moved to Munich, where he later on began his schooling at the Luitpold Gymnasium. Later, they moved to Italy and Albert continued his education at Aarau, Switzerland and in 1896 he entered the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich to be ... assignment homework phd report resume review speech thesis