Albert Einstein: His Goals and Career

Introduction 

Albert Einstein was brought up in a Jewish family where his father was an engineer and a salesman. He had a brother and a sister who was two years younger. He started his elementary school at Luitpold Gymnasium but felt alienated after struggling with the rigid pedagogical style in the school. He had speech challenges though he loved classical music and playing the violin and continued with it into his late years. His early years were marked with inquiry and inquisitiveness. In the late 1880s, Max Talmud a student studying medicine and a friend to Einstein family became a part time informal tutor to Albert. Talmud work in children science text inspired Einstein to develop a passion for light and it motivated him to write his first major paper at his teenage. Einstein is the father of modern day science and his second name has been attributed to genius. He is responsible for the new wave in modern physics. The encounter with the compass and the discovery of the geometry book had a marked effect on the life of Einstein. After his death, the pathologist removed his brain with the hope of preserving it for future science to try and discover what made him so intelligent ( Albert, 2016; Isaacson, 2007; Overbye, 2016 ). 

Life 

Albert Einstein work relates to thermodynamics, kinetic theory, and statistical mechanics. His activities started in 1900 when he wrote his first paper and span for over fifty years. During this period, he wrote over forty articles dealing with these subjects. His greatest year was in 1905 when he developed three independent methods for determining the Avogadro number. His main work was to establish facts that would support the existence of atoms of definite sizes (Pais, 2005). 

In mid-1890s Einstein family relocated to Milan after his father's business lost a major contract. However, Albert did not move with them but was left in a relative's house to complete his schooling. Upon achieving the legal age to join the military, Einstein allegedly withdrew from school. He used a doctor's note and claimed of nervous exhaustion. He later joined his parents who understood his perspective but were concerned about his career. Albert was admitted in the Swiss federal polytechnic school. He started his high school studies in Aarau and stayed with Jost Winteler where he fell in love with his daughter Maric. (Isaacson, 2007). 

Einstein developed a lasting friendship with his future wife Mileva Maric while still in school in Zurich. When he graduated from Polytechnic Einstein faced hurdles in finding any academic position because he had alienated several professors by not attending classes regularly and instead opting to study independently. The friendship with Maric continued to flourish, but her parents were against it because of the ethnic background. In 1902, the two had their first daughter whose whereabouts remain a mystery. In 1903 he married Milena and the two had two boys, Hans and Eduard. In 1919 he divorced Maric. The split had an emotional breakdown on her, and as a settlement Albert agreed to give her money he will receive from the Nobel Prize which he was likely to win. He wed his cousin Elsa in the same year and they remained together until her death in 1936 (Isaacson, 2007). 

Contributions 

Einstein found a secure job in 1902 as a clerk in a Swiss patent office. At his work, he had an opportunity to further ideas he had conceptualized at the Polytechnic. This enhanced his theories and contributed to his principle of relativity. In 1905, Albert had four papers accepted in Annalen der Physik a leading physics journal. The four papers related to, Brownian motion, photoelectric effect, special theory of relativity and the matter/energy relationships. His papers took physics into an entirely new direction (Isaacson, 2007). 

Albert successfully finalized the general theory of relativity in 1915 and considered it the pinnacle of his lifetime study. To him, he was assured that this would allow for accurate prediction of planet orbits around the sun and an explanation of how gravity worked. His assertions were confirmed through observation and measurement by Sir Frank Dyson and Sir Arthur Eddington in the 1919 solar eclipse giving birth to a science figure. In post-WWI Nazis propaganda labeled Einstein's contribution as Jewish Physics and during the period, Jews were barred from working in universities. The Nazis wanted to kill him for his contribution and it is at this juncture that he fled to America never to return again (Isaacson, 2007; Overbye, 2016 ). 

In 1933 Einstein started working at the institute for advanced study Princeton. For the rest of his life he was engaged on a consolidated field approach. In 1939 together with other physicists, they sent a letter to President Roosevelt notifying him the possibility of Germany creating an atomic bomb. At Princeton, he expressed appreciation for meritocracy and opportunity for free thoughts in America. He became a permanent resident in 1935 and an American citizen in 1936. During the Second World War, Einstein worked in a Navy based weapon system and donated monetarily to the military from proceeds of manuscripts he auctioned (Isaacson, 2007); Neffe, 2007). 

After the US attacked Hiroshima, Einstein campaigned against the use of atomic bombs. In 1946 he founded the emergency committee of Atomic Scientist together with Szilard. In 1947, Albert in an essay advocated working with the United Nations to regulate the use of Nuclear weapons. He acquired membership of the National Association for the Advancement of people of color. He also campaigned for civilian rights (Neffe, 2007). 

Final years 

Einstein suffered from an abdominal problem on April 17, 1955, while writing a speech in celebration of Israel Seventh commemoration. He was admitted in a medical Center for treatment, but he declined to be operated. Albert was ready to die having lived his life. He died in the following morning at seventy-six. During the autopsy, Albert’s brain was removed and preserved for future studies. His body was cremated and ashes scattered in an undisclosed location as he wished. His brain is currently placed at the Princeton University Medical Centre (Neffe, 2007). 

Achievements 

In 1921 Einstein received the Nobel peace prize in physics for his contribution to theoretical physics and analysis of the law of photoelectric. He was awarded the German Physical Society medal in Berlin. In 1936 he got the Franklin Medal from the Franklin Institute for his contribution to relativity and the photoelectric effect. In 2005, the international union of pure and applied physics commemorated a hundred years of the publication of Einstein’s papers ( Albert, 2016; Isaacson, 2007) . 

A science park has been named in his recognition and Einstein tower constructed in it. The tower is astrophysical and was built to perform checks against his theory of general relativity. Albert Einstein Memorial is housed in Washington DC and has a monument of Albert seated with a manuscript paper in his hand. Einsteinium a chemical element 99 was named for him four months after he died. In 1999 the time's magazine named him the Person of the Century. The postal service in the US honored him with a prominent series eight postage stamp. Lastly, he was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2008 ( Albert, 2016, Isaacson, 2007) . 

References 

Albert Einstein, (2016).    The Famous People website.   Retrieved 11:37, Nov 28, 2016, 

Isaacson W. (2007). Einstein: his life and universe. Simon & Schuster, New York 

Maslin, J. (2007). The Scale of Einstein, From Faith to Formulas . New York Times . April 9, 2007. Accessed November 29, 2016 

Neffe, J. & Frisch, S. (2007). Einstein: A Biography . New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Pais Abraham, (2005). Subtle is the Lord: the science and the life of Albert Einstein 

Overbye, D. (2016, April 28). A century ago, Einstein’s theory of relativity changed everything.  Science . New York times