The globally renowned physicist and mathematician who discovered the mass-energy formula E = mc2 was Albert Einstein, who revolutionized the technological advancement. It would have been impossible to make as many scientific discoveries that we have till now without the generous contribution of Einstein to science through mathematics and physics. He also received the esteemed Nobel Prize in Physics for his distinguished work.
Born on 14 March 1879, in Ulm, in the Kingdom of Württemberg, Einstein had a German heritage. His father Hermann was an engineer and a salesman. The family moved to Munich in 1880 where his father and uncle established an electrical equipment manufacturing company named, Elektrotechnische Fabrik J. Einstein & Cie. Einstein attended a Catholic elementary school in Munich. At Luitpold Gymnasium he received advanced primary and secondary education for a decade before leaving German Empire.
In Zürich, Einstein took the entrance examinations for the Swiss Federal Polytechnic at the age of 16. He couldn’t acquire the required marks in the general section of the exam. However, he scored distinguished marks in the Mathematics and Physics section. He completed his secondary schooling at the Argovian cantonal school upon the suggestion of the principal. In order to avoid military service, he renounced the German Kingdom of Württemberg’s citizenship which his father approved.
While staying with Professor Jost Winteler’s family he came to admire his daughter Marie and in the future his sister Maja tied the knot with Marie’s brother. He himself ended up marrying a fellow student at polytechnic Mileva Marić. She was the only female student in the mathematics and physics diploma program. With the passage of time, Albert and Marić grew closer and shared a strong romantic bond as they read books in each other’s company on physics. Zürich Polytechnic conferred teaching diploma to Einstein in 1900, whereas Marić couldn’t receive one as she failed mathematics section in exam.
Historian believe that Albert and Marić had a daughter who might have been adopted or died of scarlet fever evident from their letter exchange while Marić was at parents’. They got married in 1903 and had two sons and after the birth of their second child in 1910 they moved to Berlin. Upon discovering that Albert’s main love interest was his first cousin Elsa, Marić left with her sons. Marić took care of her second son Eduard was diagnosed with schizophrenia and was committed to asylum sporadically. They finalized their divorce in 1919, the same year Einstein married Elsa, who died of a heart and kidney disease in 1936.
University of Bern appointed him as a lecturer in 1908 and by then he was recognized as a lead scientist and later on he was promoted to associate professor. In Prague, the German Charles-Ferdinand University offered him a full professor position which he accepted in 1911. His contribution to the field of mathematics includes his valuable papers on radiation mathematics. Upon his return to his alma mater he assumed the position of professor of theoretical physics. Afterwards, he held the chair as the director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics and president of the German Physical Society.
Einstein presented a theory of general relativity, proposing the light from another star should be bent by the Sun’s gravity, in 1911. It was proven correct during the solar eclipse of 29th May, 1919 and also confirmed by Sir Arthur Eddington. After presenting the law of the photoelectric effect, in 1921 he received Nobel Prize in Physics for his distinguished services to Theoretical Physics.