Born in 1879, Albert Einstein is known today for his incredible mathematical ability and… well, his wild hair. But more important than the physical attributes of his cranium, is the fantastic information which it provided. He will probably always be remembered as the greatest mathematical genius of the modern world. Honors he has received for his works include the Nobel Prize, which he was awarded in 1921, the Royal Society Copley Medal, which he was awarded in 1925, he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1921, and he became an AMS Gibbs Lecturer in 1934. He also was a very vocal advocate against nuclear weapons, and spoke out for international peace. Fittingly, a letter asking that his name be put on a manifesto urging all nations to give up their nuclear weapons, was the last he wrote before his death in 1955.
Albert Einstein was born on March 14th, 1879, in Ulm, Württembert, Germany, and six weeks later his family moved to Munich. 
When he was very young, accounts given by his family say that he was always one to think before action. While he was first talking, his sister recalls that he would nearly always “pause before speaking, as though pondering what he was going to say.” A story he enjoyed telling about his youth was of the “wonder" he saw when he was four or five years old: a magnetic compass. The needle's invariable northward swing, guided by an invisible force, profoundly impressed the child. The compass convinced him that there had to be "something behind things, something deeply hidden." He was taught violin from the ages six to thirteen, and had religious schooling at home, where he was taught Judaism. He began his high school education at the Luitpold Gymnasium, and thereafter his religious education was given at school. An avid learner, especially in the area of math, he became intrigued with theoretical mathematics at an early age. "At the age of 12, I experienced a wonder in a booklet dealing with Euclidean plane geometry, which came into my hands at the beginning of a school year. Here were assertions, as for example the intersection of the three altitudes of a triangle in one point, which -- though by no means evident -- could nevertheless be proved with such certainty that any doubt appeared to be out of the question. This lucidity and certainty made an indescribable impression on me." Although he loved to learn, he hated high school, mostly because of the necessity to obey arbitrary orders given by authority. A teacher once suggested Einstein leave school, since his very presence destroyed the other students' respect for the teacher. 
He later did, quitting school at midterm to join his parents in Italy, who had moved to Milan in 1894, and at that time he had remained in Munich to finish his schooling, he was fifteen when he returned to his parents. In 1896 Einstein renounced German citizenship and was stateless until he applied for Swiss citizenship, where he was attending school in Aarau, in 1899, and was granted it in 1901. Throughout his childhood and early adulthood, Einstein expressed a fascination with the world and love for learning that proved to be insatiable. "There was this huge world out there, independent of us human beings and standing before us like a great, eternal riddle, at least partly accessible to our inspection and thought. The contemplation of that world beckoned like a liberation." Throughout his early years, the quest for knowledge continued to grow in intensity, and later in life this earned him much respect and honor.
Before he became a well known mathematic thinker, however, Einstein had much difficulty finding positions in which to employ his intellectual ability. He graduated from Aarau in 1900 as a teacher of mathematics and physics. Although he sent applications to many universities trying to obtain a position teaching, he did not get an offer to teach from any of them. Still searching in 1901, he managed to obtain a temporary job as a teacher at the Technical High School in Winterthur. At about this point in his life, he wrote that he had “given up the ambition to get to a university…” Following his position at the high school he taught at a private school, and then got a job as a technical expert third class at a patent office in Bern, largely because a former classmate of his had their father write to the director of the patent office recommending him for the position. 
He married Mileva Mariç in 1903, one of his classmates at the polytechnic. They had two sons before getting a divorced. Later, he remarried. Einstein would work in the patent office from 1902 to 1909, holding first a temporary position, before being made permanent in 1904, and in 1906 he was promoted to technical expert secondary class. During his time at the patent office Einstein wrote a number of theoretical physics publications, astonishingly without the aid of close contact with scientific literature or colleagues. 1905 was probably his most fruitful year, and he completed several award winning papers. In 1905 Einstein received his doctorate from the University of Zürich for a theoretical dissertation on the dimensions of molecules. As he described it, “a storm broke loose in my mind.” The particular essays that he wrote in 1905 were his Nobel Prize winning theories about light, and how it moves, bends and how fast it may travel, and probably his most famous theory, the special theory of relativity, “On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies ", E=mc². Here E represents energy, m represents mass, and c² is a very large number, the square of the speed of light. "When the Special Theory of Relativity began to germinate in me, I was visited by all sorts of nervous conflicts... I used to go away for weeks in a state of confusion." In regard to previous experiments that had yet to be understood his work provided an explanation of the unexpected result through a new analysis of space and time.
Success in his theoretical work was sealed in 1915. The new equations of gravitation had an essential logical simplicity, despite their unfamiliar mathematical form. To describe the action of gravity, the equations showed how the presence of matter warped the very framework of space and time. This warping would determine how an object moved. Einstein tested his theory by correctly calculating a small discrepancy in the motion of the planet Mercury, a discrepancy that astronomers had long been at a loss to explain. Einstein predicted a specific amount of deflection, and the prediction spurred British astronomers to try to observe a total eclipse in May 1919. After the success of his theories and the actions of the universe (the eclipse) confirmed they were correct, he became an international star of sorts. The defeat and rejection he had received while trying to obtain a teaching position, were no more.
After 1919, Einstein became internationally renowned. He received honors and awards, such as in 1922 he went to Sweden to accept a Nobel Prize in physics which he actually won in 1921. He won the award for his theories about the quantum of light, which he developed in 1905. (not special relativity, as many think mistakenly)
With his second wife, Elsa, Einstein toured the US in 1921 like a celebrity. 
His name and face became familiar even in cartoons and advertisements. When Hitler came to power, Einstein immediately decided to leave Germany and move to the United States. 
Many universities abroad were eager to invite the renowned scientist, but he had already accepted an offer to join the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. He arrived in the United States in October 1933, and in 1940 became an American citizen. In 1936 his wife Elsa died. One of her daughters and Einstein's long-time secretary lived on with Einstein in Princeton and helped with housekeeping. Although his quest for knowledge was far from over, and neither were his international travels.
During the early twenties physicists had already realized that the mechanics of quantum theories needed to be rebuilt in order to understand the actions of atoms. This was mainly because Einstein had opened the door for new discovery with his quantum theory ideas and papers. A new generation began working on rebuilding quantum mechanics, including Einstein. However, he was unhappy with the resulting quantum mechanics theory because it was not basic enough. 
During the Solvay Congress of 1927, Einstein hotly debated with such individuals as Max Planck, Werner Heisenberg, Max Born, and H. A. Lorentz. By the mid 1930s, Einstein had accepted quantum mechanics as a consistent theory for the statistics of the behavior of atoms. 
He recognized that it was "the most successful physical theory of our time." This theory, which he had helped to create, could explain nearly all the physical phenomena of the everyday world. Yet Einstein could not accept quantum mechanics as a completed theory, for its mathematics did not describe individual events. Einstein felt that a more basic theory, one that could completely describe how each individual atom behaved, might yet be found. By following the approach of his own general theory of relativity, he hoped to dig deeper than quantum mechanics. The search for a deeper theory was to occupy much of the rest of his life.
Other groundbreaking discoveries were made during this time period that caused him to question the very theories he created earlier in his life. The general theory of relativity, unlike quantum theory, was not rapidly developed after Einstein began the work. Gravity was now understood in a new way, but the equations were difficult to work with so little was done as far as advancing the ideas. In 1917 Einstein and the Dutch astronomer Willem de Sitter showed that Einstein's equations could be used to describe a highly simplified universe. When other scientists attempted to put his new equations to use using real stars, they found a problem: the model had to show the stars either all moving apart, as if from a giant explosion, or all collapsing together upon each other. But Einstein had found room in his equations for an extra mathematical term, the "cosmological term" as he called it. He could adjust this term to give a new model: an unchanging model universe. This “cosmological term” came into question when in 1929 the American astronomer Edwin Hubble discovered evidence that distant galaxies of stars are moving away from our galaxy, and away from each other, which could mean that the universe was expanding indefinitely. When he learned of this, Einstein felt that his notion of a "cosmological term" was a mistake. Other scientists withheld judgment, and debate over the cosmological term still continues today. But most astronomers agree that with or without the cosmological term, Einstein's equations give the best available forum for a description of the overall structure of the universe.
After the Japanese surrendered under nuclear bombardment, Einstein was often in the public eye. In May 1946 he became chairman of the newly formed Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists, joining their drive for international and civilian control of nuclear energy. He recorded fund-raising radio messages for the group, and wrote a widely read article on their work. Einstein's appeals for nuclear disarmament had an influence among both scientists and the general public. He also spoke out against German rearmament and criticized the Cold War policies of the United States. An early and firm supporter of the United Nations, he was convinced that the solution to international conflict was world law, world government, and a strong world police force. "I am opposed to the use of force under any circumstances, except when confronted by an enemy who pursues the destruction of life as an end in itself." Although his activity was limited by advancing age and ill health, Einstein made clear his commitment to civil liberties. He attacked racial prejudice and supported the black civil rights movement. He even rejected honors from his native land -- he could not forgive the murder of Jews by Germans. He also called for scientists to fulfill what he believed was their duty.
"We scientists, whose tragic destiny it has been to help make the methods of annihilation ever more gruesome and more effective, must consider it our solemn and transcendent duty to do all in our power in preventing these weapons from being used.... What task could possibly be more important to us?"
This period of Einstein’s life was filled with public relations, and his signature carried the weight of one of the greatest mathematical and scientific minds of the century. The work he did, however, did not cease with this increase of time in the spotlight. 
He also has said that that period of his life was one of the happiest he ever had. Being stateless for many years, and continually moving since childhood, he had never before felt that he had a permanent home, until he lived at his home in Princeton, New Jersey.
"I have settled down splendidly here: I hibernate like a bear in its cave, and really feel more at home than ever before in my life with all its changes."
"I am happy because I want nothing from anyone. I do not care for money. Decorations, titles, or distinctions mean nothing to me. 
I do not crave praise. The only thing that gives me pleasure, apart from my work, my violin, and my sailboat, is the appreciation of my fellow workers."
In 1952 Einstein was offered the position of President of Israel, a chiefly honorific post. Old and sick, but at peace in his Princeton home and office, he turned down the invitation. 
Still interested in public affairs, he was writing a speech for the anniversary of Israel's independence. An incomplete draft of the speech was found at his bedside after he died. He also continued his mathematical work as his chalkboard had been used only days before, had some mathematical equation half finished. He died on April 18th, 1955. He was cremated the day he died and had his ashes scattered at an undisclosed place.
Einstein's researches are, of course, well chronicled and his more important works include Special Theory of Relativity, Relativity, General Theory of Relativity, Investigations on Theory of Brownian Movement, and The Evolution of Physics. His works have had tremendous impact on the ability of scientists today. For instance, his statistical theory of heat, and the embrace of quantum of energy, is the basis for many such instrumental devises today. 
The terms stimulation and cooperative phenomena, used in laser physics, directly describe much of the work he has done. Eventually the applications would include transistors, lasers, a new chemistry, and more. Without his mathematical advances, we would never have gotten into space when we did. His contributions may seem nominal as they are only mathematical equations and theories, but if you consider the technology we use today, and the mathematical engineering behind them, you would realize that without those “nominal” contributions, many inventions would never have come into being. Influence from his research reaches as far away from the purely academic and theoretical societies as health care. Without his new ideas about light and about quantum of energy, lasers may not have been in existence yet, and corrective eye surgery performed with them now would be unthinkably risky done manually. His insistence and persistence at trying to achieve a global peace, and nuclear disarmament have brought us far along in rebuilding a cooperative global society since the Second World War. Over all Albert Einstein was a positive force in contributing to the knowledge and humanitarianism of the world.
From KMHIGGINSON
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