Likes: Theoretical physics and mathematics, developing theories such as the mass-energy equivalence equation (E=MC2), changing the world view about things
In a radical manner. For example, proving that time does not pass in the same manner; for everybody, through his theory of physical relativity.
Music: Loves the violin, being a gifted musician. Lives daydreams in music and views his life in terms of music. Follows in his Mother, Pauline’s footsteps as she was a great pianist. He began learning how to play the violin at the age of six when they were in Munich. He tried to perfect his skills by himself until he found the joys of Mozart’s sonatas at 13 years of age. Despite not getting further lessons on the Violin, it remained his close companion. After relocating to Aarau in Switzerland, his devoted much time to the music. He practiced hard on the Brahms’s G-major violin sonata. His goal was to get the maximum benefit when Joseph Joachim, a great violinist visited Aarau. Music also helped Einstein in his work. Even his wife, Elsa gave a rare glimpse of him, and said that the cause of falling in love with him was that he played Mozart very beautifully on the violin. He leveraged his fame being a scientist to get achievements to perform at benefits concerts.
Baroque period: Victorian Era
Achievements: Einstein’s achievements include milestones that not only became historical science milestones, but also a central part of the world that people live in today.
Academic career: Had his paper “Conclusions from the Capillarity Phenomena” published in 1900. In April 1905, he completed his thesis together with Professor Alfred Kleiner. The thesis earned him his Ph.D. from the University of Zurich through the dissertation entitled “A New Determination of Molecular Dimensions”. In the same year, he got four papers published on the photoelectric effect, special relativity, the Brownian motion and mass-energy equivalence. These led to his recognition in academia and subsequent appointment as lecturer at the University of Bern. In the next year, after lecturing on the relativity principle and electrodynamics, he got recommended by Alfred Kleiner for the professorship in theoretical physics. In 1909, he became an associate professor. He became a full professor at Charles-Ferdinand University in 1911 in Prague. He travelled back to Zurich in 1912, and taught thermodynamics and analytical mechanics. In addition, he studied the molecular theory of heat, continuum mechanics, and the gravitation problem.
Travels abroad:
- 1921-1922: Visited New York City where he lectured after being received by Mayor John Francis Hylan. He taught at Princeton as well as Columbia University, after returning to Europe, he was the guest of Viscount Valdane, a British statesman as well as philosopher.
- 1930-1931: Visited the United States in December 1930 for the second time. He expected to work at the California Institute of Technology as a research fellow. His hosts needed to hide his identity, following the first visit that gave him much publicity. He visited several places such as Chinatown and enjoyed dinner with New York Times editors. In addition, he got a performance of Carmen at the Metropolitan Opera. Other important personalities that he met included the president of Columbia University as well as Pastor Harry Emerson Fosdick of the Riverside Church in New York City. In 1933, he moved to America after the Nazis got power when Adolf Hitler became Chancellor.
References
Einstein, A., & Hawking, S. W. (2007). A stubbornly persistent illusion: the essential scientific writings of Albert Einstein. Philadelphia, PA: Running Press.
