Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein was born in Ulm, Germany, in 1879. A curious but unconventional student, he studied physics in Zurich and took a job at the Swiss patent office in Bern. There, in his spare hours, he produced the astonishing papers of 1905, his "miracle year", introducing special relativity, explaining the photoelectric effect, and offering proof of the existence of atoms.

In 1915 Einstein completed his general theory of relativity, describing gravity as the curvature of space and time. When observations of a solar eclipse in 1919 confirmed his predictions, he became famous overnight. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921, cited for his explanation of the photoelectric effect, and spent the following years lecturing and refining his ideas across the world.

With the rise of the Nazi regime in 1933, Einstein, who was Jewish, left Germany and settled in the United States, joining the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. He spent his later years seeking a unified theory of physics and speaking for peace and human rights. He died in 1955, leaving a legacy that still defines how humanity pictures the universe.