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Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein was a theoretical physicist best known for his theory of relativity and specifically mass-energy equivalence: E=mc2. His contributions outside of science include tremendous humanitarian efforts as an advocate for civil rights. Einstein is revered by the physics community, and in 1999, Time magazine named him the “Person of the Century.” In popular culture, the name “Einstein” has become synonymous with genius. He is recognized as one of the most influential people in history.

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”

Being Beneath the Dirt

Although Albert Einstein had early speech difficulties, he was a top student in elementary school. At 10 years old, Albert was introduced to key science, mathematics, and philosophy texts, and he began to understand deductive reasoning at an early age. By the age of 12, he learned geometry from a school booklet, and soon thereafter he began to investigate calculus. In his teens, Einstein clashed with authorities in school and resented the regimen. He later wrote that the spirit of learning and creative thought were lost in strict rote learning.

When Einstein was 15 years old, his father’s business failed, and the family relocated to Italy. Albert had been left behind in Munich, Germany, to finish high school, but he withdrew to join his family, convincing the school to let him go by using a doctor’s note. Rather than completing high school, he decided to apply directly to an institute of higher education in Zurich, Switzerland. Without a school certificate, he was required to take an entrance examination, which he did not pass. The Einstein’s sent Albert to Switzerland to finish secondary school, where he graduated, and then he was finally enrolled in the mathematics program he had applied for earlier.

Branching Out Roots for Balance

Following graduation, Einstein could not find a teaching post. After nearly two years of searching, a former acquaintance helped get him a job as an evaluator of patent applications. While he was working in the patent office, in 1905, Einstein had four papers published in the leading German physics journal, one of which described what later became the well-known expression: E = mc2. All four papers are today recognized as tremendous achievements, and hence, that year is Einstein’s life is known as his “Wonderful Year.”

At the time, however, Einstein’s papers were not noticed by most physicists as being important. Some scientists rejected them. Some of Einstein’s work remained controversial for years. At the age of 26, Einstein was awarded a PhD by the University of Zurich. Einstein continued to work at the patent office, but he did not give up on academia. He continued to write and publish papers, introducing radical new concepts and growing in distinction. Eventually, he became a professor and taught in various European institutions.

Rising like a Surfacing Stem

In 1919, a photograph of a solar eclipse taken by a team of astronomers confirmed one of Einstein’s predictions related to the gravitational deflection of starlight by the Sun. News of this discovery made the headlines, deemed as a “Revolution in Science.” In their excitement, the world media made Albert Einstein world-famous. Two years later, Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics “for his services to Theoretical Physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect,” referring to one of his four 1905 papers.

In 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany, and one of the first actions of Hitler’s administration was to remove Jews and politically suspect government employees (including university professors) from their jobs, unless they had demonstrated their loyalty to Germany by serving in World War I. Einstein became a target for German censure for several reasons, one of which was his previous renouncement of German citizenship in order to avoid military service. During World War II, there was a campaign to eliminate Einstein’s work from the German lexicon as unacceptable “Jewish physics.” Activists published pamphlets and even textbooks denigrating Einstein, and instructors who taught his theories were blacklisted.

Reaching Fruition

Einstein’s very visible position allowed him to speak and write frankly, even provocatively, at a time when many people of conscience could only flee to the underground. Einstein flouted the ascendant Nazi movement. He wrote affidavits recommending United States visas for a huge number of Jews from Europe trying to flee persecution. He raised money for Zionist organizations and was in part responsible for the formation, in 1933, of the International Rescue Committee. He also tried to be a voice of moderation in the tumultuous formation of the State of Israel, and braved anti-communist politics and resistance to the civil rights movement in the U.S.

He served a great deal of the later part of his life as a participant in several civil rights groups, including the Princeton chapter of the NAACP. With increasing public demands, his involvement in political, humanitarian, and academic projects in various countries, and his new acquaintances with scholars and political figures from around the world, Einstein transitioned from a leader in physics to an influential civil rights advocate. When the aged W.E.B. Du Bois was accused of being a Communist spy, Einstein volunteered as a character witness, and the case was dismissed shortly afterward. Einstein befriended activists, such as Paul Robeson, with whom he served as co-chair of the American Crusade to End Lynching.

Leaving a Legacy

Albert Einstein has been the subject of or inspiration for many novels, films, and plays. He is a favorite model for depictions of mad scientists and absent-minded professors; his expressive face and hairstyle have been widely copied and exaggerated. In 1999, Albert Einstein was named “Person of the Century” by Time magazine. He is recognized as one of the most influential people in history, as one of the greatest scientists of the 20th century and one of the supreme intellects of all time.

Disclaimer: Mud Puds bios are derived from widely-accepted “truths,” as shared in the Public Domain. In the absence of first-hand accounts, information is presented as: “Factual, as far as we know.”