In 1896 he entered the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich to be trained as a teacher in physics and mathematics.
In 1901, the year he gained his diploma, he acquired Swiss citizenship and, as he was unable to find a teaching post, he accepted a position as technical assistant in the Swiss Patent Office. In 1905 he obtained his doctor's degree.
In 1909 he became Professor Extraordinary at Zurich, in 1911 Professor of Theoretical Physics at Prague, returning to Zurich in the following year to fill a similar post.
In 1914 he was appointed Director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Physical Institute and Professor in the University of Berlin.
In 1914 and remained in Berlin until 1933 when he renounced his citizenship for political reasons and emigrated to America to take the position of Professor of Theoretical Physics at Princeton
He became a United States citizen in 1940 and retired from his post in 1945.
He dealt with classical problems of statistical mechanics and problems in which they were merged with quantum theory: this led to an explanation of the Brownian movement of molecules.
He investigated the thermal properties of light with a low radiation density and his observations laid the foundation of the photon theory of light.
In his early days in Berlin, Einstein postulated that the correct interpretation of the special theory of relativity must also furnish a theory of gravitation and in 1916 he published his paper on the general theory of relativity.
In the 1920's, Einstein embarked on the construction of unified field theories, although he continued to work on the probabilistic interpretation of quantum theory, and he persevered with this work in America.
He contributed to statistical mechanics by his development of the quantum theory of a monatomic gas and he has also accomplished valuable work in connection with atomic transition probabilities and relativistic cosmology.
Einstein's researches are,
1. Special Theory of Relativity (1905),
2. Relativity (English translations, 1920 and 1950),
3. General Theory of Relativity (1916),
4. Investigations on Theory of Brownian Movement (1926),
5. The Evolution of Physics (1938).
6. About Zionism (1930),
7. Why War? (1933),
8. My Philosophy (1934),
9. Out of My Later Years (1950)
Honorary doctorate degrees in science, medicine and philosophy from many European and American universities.
He gained numerous awards in recognition of his work, including the Copley Medal of the Royal Society of London in 1925, and the Franklin Medal of the Franklin Institute in 1935.
He married Mileva Maric in 1903 and they had a daughter and two sons; their marriage was dissolved in 1919 and in the same year he married his cousin, Elsa Löwenthal, who died in 1936.
He died on April 18, 1955 at Princeton, New Jersey.
Photo Gallery : Photo Gallery