Albert Einstein
- Name
- Albert Einstein
- Country
- Germany / United States
- Field
- Science & Technology
- Known For
- Developer of the special and general theories of relativity; formulated the mass-energy equivalence formula $E = mc^2$.
- Profile
Albert Einstein (1879–1955)
Albert Einstein was a theoretical physicist widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential scientists of all time.
Key Scientific Contributions
- Special Theory of Relativity (1905): Introduced the mass-energy equivalence formula, $E = mc^2$.
- General Theory of Relativity (1915): Formulated a modern theory of gravitation, describing gravity as the geometric curvature of spacetime.
- Photoelectric Effect: Explained the emission of electrons when light shines on a material, which earned him the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics and laid the groundwork for quantum theory.
Historical Context
- Migration: Born in Germany; renounced his citizenship and fled Nazi Germany in 1933, settling in the United States where he worked at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.
- World War II: Co-signed the Einstein-Szilard letter in 1939 to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, alerting him to potential German nuclear weapon research, which prompted the Manhattan Project.