Albert Einstein was one of the greatest scientists of the 20th century, an era dominated by science. Born in Ulm, Württemberg, Germany in 1879.
Albert Einstein, whose theories exploded and reshaped our ideas of how the universe works.
In 1905, when he was 26 years old, Einstein worked as a clerk at the Patent Office in Bern, Switzerland. In his spare time, he wrote and then submitted a series of five scientific papers to a leading German physics journal. It was during this time that the young physicist obtained his Doctorate degree and published four of his most influential research papers, including the Special Theory of Relativity.
Albert Einstein ten years later, in 1915, Einstein completed his General Theory of Relativity. This theory explains how measurements change when you travel very fast — almost as fast as light travels.
In 1921, he won the Nobel Prize for physics for his explanation of the photoelectric effect.
It also launched him to international superstardom and his name became a household word synonymous with genius all over the world.
Einstein moved to the United States in the autumn of 1933 and took up residence in Princeton, New Jersey and a professorship at the prestigious Institute for Advanced Study.
Einstein is generally considered the most influential physicist of the 20th century. He died on April 18, 1955, in Princeton, New Jersey. He was 76. His funeral and cremation were intensely private affairs, and only one photographer managed to capture the events of that extraordinary day: LIFE magazine’s Ralph Morse.
