STRUGGLE:
Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879, in the city of Ulm, in the Kingdom of Württemberg in the German Empire. His parents lived in a very different world from what it is now: there was no electric light. The year Albert was born was the same year the electric bulb was invented by Thomas Edison. Albert was not a childhood prodigy. He started speaking relatively late when he was three years old. His parents made him see a doctor worrying that Albert had developmental issues.
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| Young Albert Einstein |
As a student, young Einstein did not show remarkable results. Most of his grades were passing, and he was near the top of his class, but mainly because of math and science. In 1895, at the age of 16, Albert Einstein was determined to study electrical engineering, but he entered the Zürich Polytechnic (ETH Zurich) at the four-year mathematics and physics teaching diploma program at the age of 17. He skipped classes that he did not like and was a frequent guest in coffee houses and beer halls. To pass his exams, Albert copied class notes from Marcel Grossmann, which got him the highest grades in the group surpassing Grossmann himself. Einstein got some of his first ideas when still in college.
Albert Einstein passed the exit exams well and obtained the degree and a teaching diploma in mathematics and physics. He wanted to continue his life story as a professor’s assistant, but none of the professors would accept him for his rebellious character. After graduating in 1900, Albert Einstein searched for a job for two years until the father of his university classmate, Marcel Grossmann, helped him get employed as an assistant examiner at the Federal Office for Intellectual Property in Bern, Switzerland. At the patent office, Einstein was responsible for evaluating patent submissions for a variety of inventions.
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| Albert Einstein and Mileva Einstein-Marić got married |
Albert Einstein romantically became involved with Mileva Marić, who was the only female student in his group and got married to her on January 06, 1903 and gave birth to two sons. Albert Einstein and Mileva Einstein-Marić got divorced on February 14, 1919. Their separation was accompanied by fierce arguments about money and children. Albert Einstein was restricted to get married for the next two years, but he married Elsa Löwenthal just three and a half months later, on June 02, 1919. By this time, Albert earned the reputation of an eccentric non-traditional educator, and his teaching career started its decline.
STRENGTH:
When Einstein was 10 years old, he started educating himself under the guidance of his uncle Jakob Einstein, who bought the boy books for the upcoming study years.
This way Albert managed to read them before the classes started and get good grades without active participation in classroom sessions. For instance, he taught himself Euclidean geometry by the age of 12 and differential and integral calculus by the age of 15. Einstein loved doing things his own way rather than following the teachers’ guidelines.
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| “The Olympia Academy” founders (left to right): Conrad Habicht, Maurice Solovine and Albert Einstein |
In 1902, together with new friends, Conrad Habicht and Maurice Solovine, Einstein had met in Bern, he organized a small discussion group “The Olympia Academy,” which regularly gathered in Einstein’s apartment to discuss physics and philosophy. The discussion group played a significant role in Einstein’s intellectual development.
Einstein was a visionary, thinking ahead of the time and most of the achievements made in this period became widely appreciated only 15 years later. Liberty and equality were essential values for Einstein. He was a big supporter of socialism and the idea of a global democratic government. He was also recognized as an advocate for African Americans civil rights movements and was even a supporter of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in Princeton.
Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile – Albert Einstein
SUCCESS:
The year of 1905 is called the “miracle year” of Albert Einstein. The reason for this was that he wrote four papers printed in a scientific journal Annalen der Physik that contributed significantly to the groundwork of modern physics and completely changed the view on space, time, mass, and energy. Those papers were on the photoelectric effect, Brownian motion, special theory of relativity, and mass-energy equivalence.
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| Albert Einstein rides the streets in a motorcade in New York City with citizens welcoming his first visit to New York City in 1921. |
Having given a lecture on electrodynamics and the relativity principle at the University of Zurich in February 1909, Alfred Kleiner recommended Einstein to the faculty for a recently created professorship in theoretical physics. Therefore, Einstein became an associate professor in 1909. The new title altered Einstein´s image completely. He changed his neat patent office appearance for baggy short trousers and indifferent hairstyle. His lectures bore quite a similar style. They were quite informal: students could interrupt the professor anytime and often spent time together at different cafes and even joined him at his home.
Albert Einstein moved to Prague to work as a full professor at German Charles-Ferdinand University and obtained the Austrian citizenship to do so in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It is interesting to know that, at first, his application for the position was not approved by the Ministry of Education in Vienna and Franz Joseph I, Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary. The job was given to Gustav Jaumann (1863–1924), who turned down the offer when found that Albert Einstein was the first choice for it. The position allowed Einstein to travel a lot through Europe. Also, while working at German Charles-Ferdinand University, Albert Einstein wrote 11 scientific papers, 5 of which was on the quantum theory of solids and radiation mathematics.
He held the position of a professor at the Humboldt University of Berlin and the head of Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics (1914–1932). He also became a member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences, and in 1916 Einstein was assigned as president of the German Physical Society (1916–1918).
Einstein spent 1911 – 1913 working on the general theory of relativity, which calculated that the Sun’s gravity bends light from another star (now known as Gravitational lens effect). By November 1915, Einstein finalized his general theory of relativity and in the spring of 1919, an English astronomer, physicist, and mathematician Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington went to Africa to prove the theory during the solar eclipse of May 29, 1919. In November 1919, when he received the proofs, Einstein became an overnight success. This theory of gravitation has now received an extensive usage in astrophysics and explained the essence of black holes, the parts of space with such a strong gravity attraction that even light gets attracted to it.
Albert Einstein was awarded the 1921 Nobel Prize “for his services to Theoretical Physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect.”
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| Judge Phillip Forman handing U.S. citizenship certificate to Albert Einstein |
In 1940, Einstein became the official citizen of the USA. He was inspired by America´s power of individual in government and the respect for the freedom of speech. This encouraged the creativity, the trait he has always treasured. Albert Einstein was one of the founders and Board of Governors of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, established on July 24, 1918.
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| Albert died at the age of 76. |
Albert Einstein died at the age of 76 in Princeton Hospital. During his last years, when his health was worsening, he still worked on theories. Albert Einstein left behind hundreds of both scientific and non-scientific works; the total archive released comprised more than 30,000 unique documents. In 1916, Einstein made the discovery that has been proven by science 100 years later. He predicted gravitational waves that transfer energy in the form of gravitational radiation.
Thomas Stoltz Harvey, a doctor at the Princeton Hospital, performed the autopsy and preserved Einstein’s brain without the permission of his family for the neuroscience of the future to discover the reason for his intelligence.
Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them – Albert Einstein
SUMMARY:
That is the story of a child who can’t speak until he was three years old. A rebellious teenager always skipping classes and was a frequent guest in coffee houses and beer halls. A jobless man for two years.
He was creative and a man with self-confidence. He became a genius not overnight, but by early self-discovery, critical reasoning and started gaining knowledge when he was 10 year-old by educating himself under the guidance of his uncle. Einstein understood the fact that when you are different from others, people tend not to understand you, hence they oppose you, yet He was never afraid to stand alone and loved doing things his own way rather than following others. He cared less about what people will say, He was determined, focused, hardworking, and never gave up. Einstein was a visionary, thinking ahead of the time and believed in impacting lives. Though His road was tough and rough, He never hesitates to pass through it and become a success; Einstein did not lose his gaze on his dream, he pursued his dream to the very end and achieved it.
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| Albert Einstein Quote |
He turned himself into a World Citizen, a Jewish physicist surviving Nazi Germany, the fighter for the world peace. He was the underestimated professor, the Nobel Prize Winner, a “mad” scientist and the man, whose input can be traced all the way to current high-tech explorations. Now the name Einstein is often used as a synonym to “genius,”
Reference: “Albert Einstein Biography: Success Story of Physicist and Scientist.” Astrum People, (2017). Web. 10 Mar 2017.
