Albert Einstein
Physicist
Born: March 14, 1879, in Ulm, Germany
Died: April 18, 1955, in Princeton, New Jersey
New Jersey Hall of Fame, Class of 2008: Historical
It’s as hard to decipher Albert Einstein’s ground-breaking theories as it is to fully understand the fame achieved by this German-born, droopy-eyed, wild-haired physicist. Yet Einstein was renowned throughout the world and is considered one of the most influential humans of the 20th century.
Einstein was born in Ulm, an ancient city on the banks of the Danube River in what was then the German Empire. When Einstein was an infant, his father, a salesman and engineer, moved the family to Munich to start an electrical-equipment factory. The family later moved to Italy, but Einstein stayed behind in Germany to finish his schooling. A slow learner as a small child, Einstein matured to excel in physics and mathematics, mastering calculus while still in his early teens.
Continuing his education in Switzerland, Einstein was awarded a teaching diploma in math and physics. Failing to get a teaching job, he took a position as an assistant examiner at the Swiss Patent Office. While working in this civil-service job. Einstein published his first scientific papers and earned his PhD from the University of Zurich.
In 1905, while still working at the patent office, Einstein produced what became known as his “miracle year,” wowing his contemporary scientists with four ground-breaking research papers, including his special theory of relativity. Moving back to academia, Einstein achieved a professorship at the University of Zurich in 1911 and continued filling the scientific pipeline with important research papers. Two years later, he moved to Berlin, where he would continue his research for the next 20 years, winning the 1921 Nobel Prize for physics.
Throughout the 1920s, Einstein travelled the world, making several trips to the United States. Greeted as a celebrity, he lectured in scientific settings, met other prominent individuals (including Charlie Chaplin, with whom he attended the Hollywood premiere of Chaplin’s film “City Lights”), and promoted the cause of world peace. Working with the newly formed League of Nations, he encouraged thinkers around the globe to work together across borders.
In 1933, alarmed by Nazi book burnings and a raid on his own home, Einstein, who was Jewish, renounced his German citizenship. Taking refuge in Belgium, he rallied several European nations to help other Jewish scientists escape persecution in Germany. By the end of the year, Einstein accepted an offer to become a resident scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, where he would remain until his death in 1955.
After the tumult in Germany, Princeton proved to be an intellectual paradise for Einstein. He served for several years as a professor of theoretical physics at Princeton University and continued to work on his theories about such topics as thermodynamics, atomic theory, and the nature of gravity.
In the dark days leading up to World War II, Einstein, who became a U.S. citizen in 1940, was influential in warning President Franklin D. Roosevelt about the possibility of Germany developing an atomic bomb. This led to Roosevelt initiating the Manhattan Project, which produced America’s first nuclear weapons. It was an odd legacy for a man who considered himself a lifelong pacifist, yet Einstein was not naïve to the German threat.
Einstein was politically outspoken throughout his life. In Germany, he advocated for socialism, but was critical of Russian communism. As an American, he joined the NAACP and campaigned for civil rights. A supporter of Jewish causes, he was not fully on board with the Zionist vision of a separate Jewish state. Despite this, he supported numerous Israeli institutions of learning and remained a beloved figure in the global Jewish community.
Named “Person of the Century” by Time magazine in 1999, Einstein is memorialized throughout the world. In Princeton, a bronze bust greets passersby on Stockton Street, opposite the university campus. The Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx is just one of the esteemed institutions of science that carry his name.