The Meaning of Relativity: Four Lectures Delivered at Princeton University, May, 1921

Albert Einstein; born 14 March 1879 and died 18 April 1955 was a German-born theoretical physicist. He produced the theory of relativity, one of the two pillars of contemporary physics (alongside quantum mechanics). Einstein's work is also known for its impact on the philosophy of science. Einstein is best recognized by the people for his mass-energy equivalence formula E = mc2 (which has been called "the world's most famous equation"). Albert earned the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his work on theoretical physics, and particularly for his identification of the law of the photoelectric effect," a crucial step in the unfolding of quantum theory. At the beginning of his career, Einstein reasoned that Newtonian mechanics was no longer sufficient to harmonize the laws of classical mechanics with the ones of the electromagnetic field. This conclusion led him to formulate his special theory of relativity while working at the Swiss Patent Office in Bern (1902-1909), Switzerland. He recognized, however, that the principle of relativity could also encompass the gravitational fields, resulting in his consequent theory of gravitation in 1916, he wrote a paper on general relativity. Einstein continued to deal with dilemmas of statistical mechanics and quantum theory, that led to his explanations of particle theory and the movement of molecules. He also examined the thermal properties of light that laid the grounds for the photon theory of light. In 1917, Albert applied the general theory of relativity to model the large-scale structure of the universe. Between 1895 and 1914 while he lived in Switzerland (except for one year in Prague, 1911-12), where he earned his academic diploma from the Swiss Federal Polytechnic in Zurich in 1900. He later stays to teach there at the same institute as a professor of theoretical physics between 1912 and 1914 then he left for Berlin. In 1901, after being stateless for more than five years, Albert acquired Swiss citizenship, which he kept for the rest of his life. In 1905, Albert was awarded a Ph.D. from the University of Zurich. The same year, his annus mirabilis (miracle year), during he published four groundbreaking papers, which brought him to the eyes of the academic world, at only the age of 26. Einstein was visiting the United States when Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933 and, being from Jewish assent, did not return to Germany, where he was a professor at the Berlin Academy of Sciences. Albert settled in the United States, becoming an American citizen in 1940. On the eve of World War II, he endorsed a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt informing him to the potential development of "potent bombs of a new type" and urging that the U.S. begin comparable research, which led to the Manhattan Project. Albert supported defending the Allied forces but denounced the idea of using the discovered nuclear fission as a weapon. Next, together with the British philosopher Bertrand Russell, he signed the Russell-Einstein Manifesto highlighting the danger of nuclear weapons. Albert was a member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, until his death in 1955. Einstein wrote 300-plus scientific papers and more than 150 non-scientific works. Albert's intellectual achievements and originality have made the word "Einstein" synonymous with "genius."