Albert Einstein was a scientist who revolutionized physics in the early twentieth century with his theory of relativity, which holds that measurements of space and time vary according to conditions such as the state of motion of the observer.
Name: Albert Einstein
Birth Date: March 1879 – April 1955
Job Functions: Scientist and Physicist
Fields: Physics
Known For: Theory of Relativity
Albert Einstein’ Steps to Success
- Einstein was a considered a slow child, but “His scientific interests were awakened early and at home-by the mysterious compass his father gave him when he was about four; by the algebra he learned from his uncle; and by the books he read, mostly popular scientific works of the day. A geometry text which he devoured at the age of twelve made a particularly strong impression.”
- He failed the entrance exam to the Federal Institute of Technology (FIT), and on the advice of the principal he first obtained a diploma from Cantonal School in Aarau, Switzerland in 1896 and gained automatic admittance to FIT.
- Throughout his career, Einstein had ongoing dialogues with other great physicists such as Niels Bohr, Max Planck, Werner Heisenberg, Wolfgang Pauli, and Erwin Schrödinger.
- From 1907 to 1915 Einstein developed his theory of relativity.
- He was persistent and always picked himself up when he was knocked down.
- He worked hard and consistently.
Why Albert Einstein’s Contribution Matters
Einstein, the greatest scientist who lived, created a body of work that other scientists have used. He is best known for his theories of special and general relativity and the famous equation E = MC2 (Energy equals mass times the speed of light squared). Einstein also made major contributions to quantum mechanics, statistical mechanics, physics, and cosmology. He left the world a better place than he found it and won a Nobel Prize for his efforts.
Lessons from Albert Einstein
- Einstein started off very slow in life, and many of his teachers did not think he would amount to anything, but he believed in himself, and that made a difference in his life.
- Took the time to figure out what excited him in life then pursued it.
- He had a network of his peers with whom he could talk things through with.
- He was a questioner, which helped him to solve life’s “riddles.”
Self-Mentoring Strategy
To get the most from The Invisible Mentor Profile of Albert Einstein, while you are reading, reflectively answer the following questions:
- What can you learn from the person profiled?
- Look at the way you currently do your job, are there ideas from the profile that could help you to become more efficient?
- After reading the profile, what is one concrete action you can take?
- What are your five takeaways from the profile?
- How do the concepts in the profile relate to what you already know?
- How can you combine key ideas from the profile to what you already know to create a new idea?
Biography
Albert Einstein was born in Ulm, Germany but grew up in Munich. He wasn’t a very good student, and some of his teachers thought that he had a mental disability because at age nine he was unable to speak fluently. Despite that, he began playing the violin at age six and continued throughout his life. Einstein puzzled over the invisible force directing a compass needle. When he was 12, Einstein discovered geometry and was fascinated by clear and certain proofs, and by age 16 had mastered calculus.
Einstein disliked school, and was expelled at age 16 for having a bad attitude and being disruptive to other students. He failed the entrance exam to the Federal Institute of Technology (FIT), and on the advice of the principal he first obtained a diploma from Cantonal School in Aarau, Switzerland in 1896 and gained automatic admittance to FIT.
He discovered that his academic interests were in physics and mathematics. Einstein graduated from FIT in 1900, but was denied an assistantship because one of his professors opposed it. In 1902, he was hired as an inspector in the patent office in Bern, Switzerland. Six months later he married Mileva Maric, a former classmate in Zurich. From 1902 to 1904, Einstein reworked the foundations of thermodynamics, which was the foundation for papers he produced in 1905, one of which was on Brownian motion.
While in Bern, Einstein completed the requirements for his doctorate degree in 1905 at age 26. The year 1905 was a seminal one for Einstein because he published five papers on special relativity, on the particle (photon) nature of light, resulting in the complementary idea that light was both a wave and a particle, and papers in statistical physics, three of which were revolutionary and brought him recognition in the scientific community.
Famous Papers of 1905
- In one of these papers, Einstein described the physics of Brownian motion, the random motion of particles in a gas of liquid.
- In another paper, he used the new field of quantum mechanics to explain the photoelectric effect, where metals give off electrons when exposed to certain types of light.
- In his third paper, Einstein outlined what later became known as the special theory of relativity. This theory showed how the laws of physics worked near the speed of light. The paper also included the famous equation E=mc2, explaining how energy was equal to the mass of an object times the speed of light squared.
Einstein’s famous papers allowed him to leave his job as a clerk at the Swiss patent office, serving as a lecturer at the University of Bern. In 1909, Einstein was called as an associate professor to the University of Zurich. Two years later he was appointed a full professor at the German University in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Within eighteen months Einstein became a full professor at the FIT. In 1913, scientists Max Planck and Walther Nernst travelled to Zurich to persuade Einstein to accept a lucrative research professorship at the University of Berlin in Germany. In 1914, Einstein was appointed director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics, and a professor at the Humboldt University of Berlin, with a special clause in his contract that freed him from most teaching obligations. He became a member of the Prussian Academy of Science.
Einstein and his wife grew distant, and they subsequently divorced. He married his widowed cousin Elsa Löwenthal on June 2, 1919, after having had a relationship with her since 1912.
Shortly after he accepted the directorship position at Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics, Einstein published the general theory of relativity which was confirmed in 1919. “During an eclipse of the sun, English astronomer Arthur Eddington measured the deflection of starlight and found it to be 1.61 seconds of an arc, well within experimental error… although it was not until 1924 that Eddington proved the final hypothesis concerning redshift with a spectral analysis of the star Sirius B.”
The acceptance of his theory turned him into an international celebrity, and he toured the world giving lectures. In 1920, Einstein was appointed to a lifelong honorary visiting professorship at the University of Leiden in Holland. And in 1922, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics, for his work studying the photoelectric effect because the selection committee were not sure if his theory of relativity was a discovery.
At a time of Adolph Hitler’s ascent to power in 1932, hatred of Jews spread across Germany, and attacks on Einstein began. Einstein had visited the California Institute of Technology a few times, and on his last trip to the United States in 1932, he was offered a position at the newly established Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton, Massachusetts. Einstein went there in 1933 and resigned from the Prussian Academy of Science in 1933.
In 1939, Einstein played a key role in constructing the atomic bomb, by signing a letter – written by his friend Leo Szillard – to President Roosevelt, which stated that the Germans had made scientific advances, and that it was possible for Adolph Hitler to be the first to have atomic weapons. Adolph Hitler’s actions led to the Second World War. The letter led to the Manhattan Project for the construction of the first atomic bomb. Einstein’s work on relativity, particularly E=mc2 was instrumental to the project. Einstein did not actually work on the project because he was viewed as a security risk, even though he had renounced his German citizenship and became a US citizen in 1940.
It is worthy to note that in 1944, Einstein contributed to the US war effort by handwriting his 1905 paper on relativity and putting it up for auction. The manuscript raised $6 million, and is today the property of the Library of Congress.
The US bombed the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan in August 1945. The bombing demonstrated that E=mc2, Einstein’s famous equation worked. Einstein later regretted his action, and in 1955, “in response to development of the hydrogen bomb, he co-signed with Bertrand Russell, a public manifesto calling on all scientists to become involved in helping to reverse the nuclear arms race.”
At the end of the twentieth century, Time magazine called him the person of the century. Einstein died in hospital in Princeton on April 18, 1955.
Speech: Peace in the Atomic Age
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Further Reading
Einstein Distraction Index: A Method of Deep Focus
Who You Gonna Call When You Need a Backer
Works Cited/Referenced
Encyclopedia of World Biography
UXL Encyclopedia of World Biography
Encyclopedia of Science, Technology, and Ethics
Encyclopedia of Religion
World of earth Science
The Times: Great Live A Century of Obituaries
Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography
Quantum Leaps: 100 Scientists Who Changed the World
Space Sciences
Macmillan Encyclopedia of Energy
