Albert Einstein Biography

Albert Einstein is born in Ulm, Württemberg, Germany.

Moves to Berlin for a senior research appointment and membership of the Prussian Academy of Sciences.

Publishes work refining the mathematical and covariance problems of his developing gravitational theory.

Co-signs a pacifist appeal opposing wartime nationalism among European intellectuals.

Publishes experimental work with Wander de Haas linking magnetism to angular momentum.

Lectures on gravitation in Göttingen, stimulating intense discussion with leading mathematicians.

Presents revised gravitational field equations to the Prussian Academy during his final push toward general relativity.

Presents another formulation of gravitation using a restricted coordinate condition with unit determinant.

Explains Mercury's anomalous perihelion advance using the emerging general theory of relativity.

Presents the final generally covariant gravitational field equations to the Prussian Academy.

Elected a corresponding member of the Royal Society of Sciences at Göttingen.

Publishes a systematic presentation of the general theory of relativity and its field equations.

Serves as president of the German Physical Society during the consolidation of general relativity.

Develops a quantum theory of radiation introducing transition probabilities later represented by Einstein coefficients.

Predicts gravitational waves as propagating disturbances in spacetime within general relativity.

Publishes his popular introduction to special and general relativity.

Einstein adds the cosmological constant to his gravitational field equations to permit a static universe, creating the mathematical term later associated with dark energy.

Becomes founding director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics.

Applies general relativity to the universe and introduces the cosmological constant in a static cosmological model.

Einstein interprets the cosmological constant as a repulsive contribution capable of balancing ordinary gravitational attraction on the largest cosmic scales.

Formulates stimulated emission in his quantum theory of radiation, a principle later fundamental to lasers.

Refines gravitational-wave theory and derives the quadrupole form for radiated energy.

Returns to Zurich for guest lectures while continuing work on relativity and quantum theory.

Becomes internationally famous after eclipse observations are widely reported as confirming general relativity.

British eclipse expeditions photograph stars near the Sun to test Einstein's predicted gravitational deflection.

Royal Society and Royal Astronomical Society report eclipse results supporting Einstein's general relativity.

Publicly confronts organized attacks on relativity amid growing political and antisemitic hostility.

Delivers the lecture Ether and the Theory of Relativity, redefining the concept in gravitational terms.

Begins official duties as special professor at Leiden University.

Uses his first American visit to support fundraising for the future Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Awarded the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics for theoretical physics, especially the law of the photoelectric effect.

Delivers four Stafford Little Lectures explaining special and general relativity.

Arrives in New York during his first visit to the United States, including lectures and fundraising.

Elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society.

Receives an honorary Doctor of Science degree from the University of Manchester and lectures on relativity.

Begins sustained attempts to combine gravitation and electromagnetism within a single field framework.

Travels through Japan giving lectures and public talks on relativity and modern physics.

The Meaning of Relativity is published from the four lectures Einstein delivered at Princeton in May 1921.

Explains how he developed the theory of relativity in a lecture at Kyoto University.

Spends an extended period in Leiden amid political threats in Germany, continuing scientific work.

Lectures in French on relativity during his visit to British Mandate Palestine.

Gives a second Jerusalem lecture on relativity, this time in German.

Becomes a corresponding member of the Royal Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences in Madrid.

Receives an honorary doctorate in science from the University of Madrid.

Is admitted to the Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts.

Delivers his Nobel lecture on fundamental ideas and problems of relativity.

Translates Satyendra Nath Bose's paper on Planck's law into German and arranges its publication.

Predicts that ideal bosonic particles can accumulate in the lowest quantum state at low temperature.

Extends Bose's statistical method from photons to particles of an ideal gas.

The Einstein Tower begins operation as a solar observatory designed to test relativistic effects.

Accepts election as a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Joins the administrative council of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Engages critically with the emerging matrix and wave formulations of quantum mechanics.

Publishes further work on the quantum theory of the ideal monatomic gas.

Tours Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil, giving lectures and meeting scientific and civic audiences.

Awarded the Royal Society's Copley Medal for relativity and contributions to quantum theory.

Works with Leo Szilard on safer refrigerator designs without moving mechanical parts.

Collaborates with Emil Rupp on proposed tests of whether atomic radiation behaves as waves or quanta.

Studies and discusses Schrödinger's wave mechanics while questioning its physical interpretation.

Receives the Royal Astronomical Society Gold Medal for relativity and the theory of gravitation.

Challenges Niels Bohr with thought experiments testing the completeness of quantum mechanics.

Participates in the fifth Solvay Conference and debates the interpretation of quantum mechanics.

Investigates with Jakob Grommer whether particle motion can follow directly from gravitational field equations.

Receives an invitation to accept a research professorship at Princeton University.

Patent work with Leo Szilard advances an absorption refrigerator using electromagnetic pumping concepts.

Develops a unified-field approach using distant parallelism, also called teleparallel geometry.

Employs Helen Dukas as his secretary and assistant, beginning a long professional association.

Publishes a widely publicized unified-field theory based on teleparallel geometry.

Receives the inaugural Max Planck Medal for outstanding achievement in theoretical physics.

Begins an extended academic visit to the California Institute of Technology.

Attends the sixth Solvay Conference and continues discussions on quantum theory and field physics.

Receives an honorary Doctor of Science degree from ETH Zurich.

Adopts an expanding cosmological model and abandons the need for his earlier static-universe construction.

Gives three Rhodes Memorial Lectures on relativity, cosmology and his latest work in theoretical physics.

Receives the Prix Jules Janssen for distinguished work in astronomy and astrophysics.

Einstein abandons the need for a static cosmological model after cosmic expansion becomes established, leaving the cosmological constant without its original motivation.

Receives an honorary Doctor of Science degree from the University of Oxford.

With Willem de Sitter, proposes a simple expanding cosmological model with zero cosmological constant.

Accepts appointment to the newly founded Institute for Advanced Study.

Becomes a member of the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina.