Albert Einstein (Ulm, Germany, March14, 1879 - Princeton, United States, April 18, 1955) was a German-born physicist, later nationalized U.S. and Switzerland. He is considered as the most important scientist of the twentieth century, in addition to being the best known. In 1905, still an unknown young physicist, who was employed at the Patent Office in Bern, (Switzerland), published his theory of special relativity.
It sat in a simple theoretical framework, based on simple physical principles, concepts and phenomena studied earlier by Henri Poincare and Hendrik Lorentz.
Probably the most famous equation in physics at the grass roots level, is the mathematical expression of mass-energy equivalence, E = mc ², derived by him as a logical consequence of this theory. That same year he published other works that would lay some of the foundations of statistical physics and quantum mechanics.
In 1915, he presented the theory of general relativity. In 1919, when the British observations of a solar eclipse confirmed his predictions about the bending of light, was idolized by the press.
Einstein became a popular icon of the science world famous, a privilege available to very few scientists. For their explanation of the photoelectric effect and his numerous contributions to theoretical physics, in 1921 won the Nobel Prize in Physics and the Theoryof Relativity, as the scientist who was given the task of evaluating it, did not understand, and feared risking that was eventually found to be erroneous.
At that time was still considered some what controversial by many scientists. in December 1932, the scientist left Germany for the United States, where he taught teaching at Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. Became a U.S. citizen in 1940. In his later years he worked to integrate in a single theory the electromagnetic and gravitational force. He died in Princeton, New Jersey on April 18, 1955.
Proclaimed as the "character of the twentieth century" and as the preeminent scientist in the famous Time magazine.
