Biography of Albert Einstein

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Albert Einstein, 1879-1955, is known widely for his formulation of the relativity theory. Einstein, while in his childhood, lived in Munich and Milan. He continued his studies at the cantonal school at Aarau, Switzerland, and graduated in 1900 form the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. Later he became a Swiss citizen. He was an examiner at a patent office in 1902-1909. While working as an examiner he obtained his doctorate at the University of Zurich in 1905, evolved the special theory of relativity, explained the photoelectric effect, and studied the motion of atoms, which he based his explanation of Brownian movement. By 1909, his work had already attracted attention among scientists, and he was offered an adjunct professorship at the University of Zurich. He resigned from that position in 1910 to become a full professor at the German University in Prague. In 1912, he accepted the chair of theoretical physics at the Federal Institute of Technology of Zurich.

By 1913, Einstein had won international fame and was invited by the Prussian Academy of Sciences to come to Berlin as a professor of physics at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute. He assumed these positions in 1914 and resumed his German citizenship. He received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics, for his work in theoretical physics, especially on the photoelectric effect. His property was confiscated in 1934 by the Nazi government because he was Jewish, and he was deprived of his German citizenship. He had previously accepted in 1933, a post at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, which he held until his death in 1955. A committed pacifist, Einstein was long involved in the cause of world peace. However, in 1939, at the request of a group of scientists, he wrote to President Franklin Roosevelt to stress the...