10

After World War II, Einstein was a leading figure in the World Government Movement, he was offered the Presidency

of the State of Israel, which he declined, and he collaborated with Dr. Chaim Weizmann in establishing the Hebrew

University of Jerusalem.

Einstein always appeared to have a clear view of the problems of physics and the determination to solve them. He

had a strategy of his own and was able to visualize the main stages on the way to his goal. He regarded his major

achievements as mere stepping-stones for the next advance.

At the start of his scientific work, Einstein realized the inadequacies of Newtonian mechanics and his special theory

of relativity stemmed from an attempt to reconcile the laws of mechanics with the laws of the electromagnetic field.

He dealt with classical problems of statistical mechanics and problems in which they were merged with quantum

theory: this led to an explanation of the Brownian movement of molecules. He investigated the thermal properties of

light with a low radiation density and his observations laid the foundation of the photon theory of light. In his early

days in Berlin, Einstein postulated that the correct interpretation of the special theory of relativity must also furnish

a theory of gravitation and in 1916 he published his paper on the general theory of relativity.

During this time he also contributed to the problems of the theory of radiation and statistical mechanics. In the

interpretation of quantum theory, and he persevered with this work in America. He contributed to statistical

mechanics

by his development of the quantum theory of a monatomic gas and he has also accomplished valuable

work in connection with atomic transition probabilities and relativistic cosmology. After his retirement he continued

to work towards the unification of the basic concepts of physics, taking the opposite approach, geometrisation, to

the majority of physicists. Einstein’s researches are, of course, well chronicled and his more important works include

Special Theory of Relativity (1905), Relativity (English translations, 1920 and 1950), General Theory of Relativity

(1916), Investigations on Theory of Brownian Movement (1926), and The Evolution of Physics (1938). Among his

non-scientific works, About Zionism (1930), Why War? (1933), My Philosophy (1934), and Out of My Later Years

(1950) are perhaps the most important.

Albert Einstein received honorary doctorate degrees in science, medicine and philosophy from many European and

American universities. During the 1920’s he lectured in Europe, America and the Far East and he was awarded Fellowships

of

his work, including the Copley Medal of the Royal Society of London in 1925, and the Franklin Medal of the Franklin

Institute in 1935. Einstein’s gifts inevitably resulted in his dwelling much in intellectual solitude and, for relaxation,

music played an important part in his life. He married Mileva Maric in 1903 and they had a daughter and two sons;

their marriage was dissolved in 1919 and in the same year he married his cousin, Elsa Löwenthal, who died in 1936.

He died on April 18, 1955 at Princeton, New Jersey.

From

Nobel Lectures

, Physics 1901-1921, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1967

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