Albert Einstein Biography and Quotes

Born: March 14th, 1879
Commemoration: April 18th, 1955
Nationality: German, American, Swiss, Prussian

76

Years Old

Famously Known For

Albert Einstein is famous for developing the theories of relativity used in modern day physics.

Albert won the Nobel peace prize in 1921 for his explanation of the photoelectric effect in physics.

Einstein is also remembered for his matter and energy relationship equation; E=MC2. The equation led to the development of atomic power used in nuclear bombs.

Early Life and Education

Albert Einstein was the son of Hermann Einstein and Pauline Koch. He was born in Ulm, Wurttemberg, Germany. He attended his elementary school at the Luitpold Gymnasium, Munich. Albert Einstein was introduced to science by Max Talmud, a medical student and a family friend to the Einstein family.

He eventually got admitted to the Federal Polytechnic school in Switzerland for his Bachelors after being forced to attend high school in Aarau, and in the University of Zurich for his Ph.D.

Career

Albert Einstein found it difficult to secure employment after graduation having failed to attend several lectures. He however got a job as a clerk in a patent office in swiss. The job was not very demanding, which gave him the time to work on his ideas. In 1905, he was able to publish four papers in the best physics journal of the time, Annalen der Physik. Two papers talked about the photoelectric effect and the Brownian motion while the other two outlined theory of relativity and the relationship of matter to energy (E=MC²).

Personal Life

In 1903, Einstein got married to the love of his life, Mileva Maric. However, the marriage only lasted for 16 years as they got divorced in 1919, which led to Maric’s emotional breakdown.

During his first marriage, Einstein had developed feelings for a cousin, Elsa Lowenthal. The two got married immediately after Einstein’s divorce with Maric. As fate would have it, Einstein kept seeing other women while married to Elsa and that led to the death of Elsa Lowenthal in 1936.

It is also important to note that later at his life, Albert Einstein immigrated to the US after being targeted by the Nazis led by Adolf Hitler.

Death

Albert Einstein met his death at the age of 76 while receiving treatment at the University medical center at Princeton. While at the hospital, Einstein refused to undergo surgery, arguing that there was no need to prolong life artificially. He had been admitted there after suffering abdominal aortic aneurysm while preparing his speech for Israel’s seventh anniversary.

After his death, a scientist by the name Thomas Holtz removed Einstein’s brain and preserved it for future studies by neuroscientists.

Einstein died at the age of 76 years.