Albert Einstein was a German Swiss mathematical physicist. He was born in 1879, and died 1955. His first job was in a patent office in Berne, where, finding the work undemanding, he turned his attention to problems in theoretical physics and in 1905 successfully used the quantum theory to explain the photoelectric effect, for which he received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921. In 1905 he also published a paper on molecular motion, and a paper in which he put forward the special theory of relativity, describing the effects of motion on observed values of length, mass, and time. One consequence of his theory is that mass, m, is equivalent to energy, E, a concept expressed by the equation E = mc2, where c is the speed of light. This equation is the basis of all calculations of the energy released by nuclear reactions. He extended his ideas in the general theory of relativity which was published in 1915, and which is concerned with gravitation and the effects of accelerated motion.
The first independent verification of general relativity was obtained in 1919 when the bending of light was observed during an eclipse. Einstein also made important contributions to quantum mechanics. However, he was unable to accept as final the probabilistic description of physics which quantum theory involved. In 1913 he returned to his native Germany to take up a professorship at the University of Berlin, but as a Jew he experienced Nazi persecution, and in 1932 was forced to leave the country. After a brief stay in Britain he settled in the USA, and eventually became an American citizen. Research Albert Einstein
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