数学家传记
阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦对现代物理实在观的贡献超过任何其他科学家。他的狭义和广义相对论至今仍被视为我们拥有的关于大尺度宇宙的最令人满意的模型。
大约在1886年，阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦在慕尼黑开始了他的学校生涯。除了从六岁到十三岁学习小提琴外，他还在家里接受宗教教育，学习犹太教。两年后，他进入了文理中学，此后他的宗教教育在学校进行。大约从1891年开始，他学习数学，特别是微积分。
1894年，爱因斯坦的家人搬到了米兰，但爱因斯坦留在了慕尼黑。1895年，爱因斯坦未能通过考试，该考试本可让他进入苏黎世的Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule学习，以获得电气工程师文凭。爱因斯坦于1896年放弃了德国国籍，并在此后数年处于无国籍状态。他甚至直到1899年才申请瑞士国籍，1901年获得公民身份。
在未能通过⟦E1⟧的入学考试后，爱因斯坦在阿劳就读中学，计划通过这条途径进入苏黎世的⟦E1⟧。在阿劳期间，他写了一篇文章（仅获得了略高于一半的分数！），文中阐述了他对未来的规划，见[13]：-
如果我有幸通过考试，我会去苏黎世。我会在那里待四年，学习数学和物理。我想象自己成为这些自然科学分支的教师，选择其中的理论部分。以下是我得出这个计划的原因。首先，是我对抽象和数学思维的倾向，以及我缺乏想象力和实践能力。
爱因斯坦的计划成功了，于1900年毕业，成为数学和物理教师。他在⟦E1⟧的一位朋友是马塞尔·格罗斯曼，与爱因斯坦同班。爱因斯坦试图获得职位，写信给阿道夫·赫维兹，后者曾表示有希望提供职位，但最终没有结果。爱因斯坦的三位同学，包括马塞尔·格罗斯曼，被任命为苏黎世⟦E1⟧的助理，但显然爱因斯坦没有给人留下足够印象，直到1901年他还在写信给各大学希望获得工作，但没有成功。
他确实设法避免了瑞士兵役，理由是他有平足和静脉曲张。到1901年中期，他有一份临时教师工作，在温特图尔的技术高中教数学。大约在这个时候，他写道：-
我已经放弃了进入大学的雄心……
随后又在沙夫豪森的私立学校担任了另一个临时教职。然后马塞尔·格罗斯曼的父亲试图帮助爱因斯坦找到工作，将他推荐给伯尔尼专利局局长。爱因斯坦被任命为三级技术专家。
爱因斯坦从1902年到1909年在这家专利局工作，最初被任命时是临时职位，但到1904年职位转为永久，1906年他晋升为二级技术专家。在伯尔尼专利局期间，他在业余时间完成了令人惊讶的一系列理论物理出版物，没有与科学文献或同事密切接触的便利。
爱因斯坦于1905年从苏黎世大学获得博士学位，学位论文为On a new determination of molecular dimensions。他将论文献给了马塞尔·格罗斯曼。
在三篇论文中的第一篇中，这三篇论文均写于1905年，爱因斯坦考察了马克斯·普朗克发现的现象，根据这一现象，电磁能似乎以离散的量从辐射物体中发射出来。这些量子的能量与辐射的频率成正比。这似乎与基于詹姆斯·克拉克·麦克斯韦方程和热力学定律的经典电磁理论相矛盾，后者假设电磁能由可以包含任意小能量的波组成。爱因斯坦使用马克斯·普朗克的量子假说来描述光的电磁辐射。
爱因斯坦1905年的第二篇论文提出了今天所谓的狭义相对论。他将新理论建立在对经典相对性原理的重新解释之上，即物理定律在任何参考系中都必须具有相同的形式。作为第二个基本假设，爱因斯坦假设光速在所有参考系中保持不变，正如詹姆斯·克拉克·麦克斯韦的理论所要求的那样。
1905年晚些时候，爱因斯坦展示了质量和能量是如何等价的。爱因斯坦并不是第一个提出狭义相对论所有组成部分的人。他的贡献是统一了经典力学和詹姆斯·克拉克·麦克斯韦电动力学的重要部分。
爱因斯坦1905年的第三篇论文涉及统计力学，这是一个曾由路德维希·玻尔兹曼和Josiah 约西亚·威拉德·吉布斯研究过的领域。
1905年之后，爱因斯坦继续在上述领域工作。他对quantum theory做出了重要贡献，但他试图将狭义相对论扩展到涉及加速度的现象。关键出现在1907年的等效原理中，其中引力加速度被认为与机械力引起的加速度无法区分。因此引力质量与惯性质量相同。
1908年，爱因斯坦在提交了他的教授资格论文（Habilitation）学位论文Consequences for the constitution of radiation following from the energy distribution law of black bodies后成为伯尔尼大学的讲师。第二年，他成为苏黎世大学的物理学教授，此前他辞去了伯尔尼的讲师职位和伯尔尼专利局的工作。
到1909年，爱因斯坦已被公认为顶尖的科学思想家，并于当年辞去了专利局的职务。1911年，他被任命为布拉格卡尔-费迪南德大学的正式教授。事实上，1911年对爱因斯坦来说是极为重要的一年，因为他能够初步预测来自遥远恒星的光线经过太阳附近时，会如何显得略微向太阳方向弯曲。这将具有重大意义，因为它将带来支持爱因斯坦理论的第一个实验证据。
大约在1912年，爱因斯坦在其数学家朋友马塞尔·格罗斯曼的帮助下，开始了引力研究的新阶段，他将自己的工作用图利奥·列维-齐维塔和格雷戈里奥·里奇-库尔巴斯托罗的张量演算来表达。爱因斯坦将其新工作称为广义相对论。1912年，他从布拉格搬到苏黎世，在苏黎世的联邦理工学院担任讲席。
1914年，爱因斯坦回到德国，但没有重新申请德国国籍。他接受的是一个令人瞩目的职位。那是柏林科学院的一个研究职位，同时还有柏林大学的一个讲席（但没有教学任务）。他还被提议担任即将成立的柏林威廉皇帝物理研究所的所长。
在多次起步失败之后，爱因斯坦于1915年末发表了广义理论的最终版本。就在发表这项工作之前，他在哥廷根讲授了广义相对论，并写道：
事实上，在爱因斯坦完成其工作的一周前，大卫·希尔伯特提交了一篇论文供发表，其中包含广义相对论的正确场方程。
当1919年英国日食考察证实了他的预言时，爱因斯坦受到大众媒体的崇拜。伦敦Times在1919年11月7日的头条是：
科学革命——宇宙新理论——牛顿观念被推翻。
1920年，爱因斯坦在柏林的讲座被示威打断，这些示威虽然官方否认，但几乎肯定是反犹太的。当然，在此期间有人强烈反对他的著作，爱因斯坦在报刊上回应，引用亨德里克·洛伦兹、马克斯·普朗克和亚瑟·爱丁顿来支持他的理论，并指出如果他是——
……一个德国国民，无论是否佩戴纳粹标志，而不是一个持有自由国际信念的犹太人……
1921年，爱因斯坦首次访问美国。他的主要目的是为计划中的耶路撒冷希伯来大学筹集资金。然而，他在访问期间获得了巴纳德奖章，并多次就相对论进行演讲。据报道，他在普林斯顿一个挤满人的大厅演讲时，对主席评论道：-
我从未意识到有这么多美国人对张量分析感兴趣。
爱因斯坦于1921年获得诺贝尔奖，但不是因为相对论，而是因为他在1905年关于光电效应的工作。事实上，1922年12月他并未出席领奖，当时他正在前往日本的途中。大约在这段时间，他进行了许多国际访问。他曾在1922年早些时候访问巴黎，并在1923年访问巴勒斯坦。在1924年做出关于波与物质关联的最后一项重大科学发现后，他于1925年进一步访问，这次是去南美。
爱因斯坦获得的其他荣誉包括1925年皇家学会的科普利奖章和1926年皇家天文学会的金奖章。
尼尔斯·玻尔和爱因斯坦将就量子理论展开一场辩论，这场辩论始于1927年的索尔维会议。除爱因斯坦外，马克斯·普朗克、尼尔斯·玻尔、路易·德布罗意、维尔纳·海森堡、埃尔温·薛定谔和保罗·狄拉克也出席了这次会议。爱因斯坦拒绝在会议上提交论文，并且：-
……除了对概率解释提出一个非常简单的反对意见外，几乎什么也没说……然后他又陷入了沉默……
爱因斯坦的生活一直忙乱不堪，1928年他因过度劳累导致身体崩溃，为此付出了代价。然而，尽管在整个1928年不得不放慢节奏，他还是完全康复了。
到1930年，他再次进行国际访问，回到美国。1932年第三次访问美国后，他收到了普林斯顿的职位邀请。其设想是爱因斯坦每年在柏林待七个月，在普林斯顿待五个月。爱因斯坦接受了邀请，于1932年12月离开德国前往美国。次月，纳粹在德国掌权，爱因斯坦再也没有回到那里。
1933年期间，爱因斯坦在欧洲旅行，访问了牛津、格拉斯哥、布鲁塞尔和苏黎世。他在1901年难以获得的学术职位邀请，此时却纷至沓来。他收到了来自耶路撒冷、莱顿、牛津、马德里和巴黎的邀请。
原本只是一次访问，到1935年却变成了永久安排，那年他申请并获得了美国的永久居留权。在普林斯顿，他的工作试图统一物理定律。然而，他试图解决的是深度极大的问题，他写道：-
我把自己锁进了毫无希望的科学问题中——尤其是因为，作为一个年长的人，我一直与这里的社交圈疏远……
1940年，爱因斯坦成为美国公民，但选择保留瑞士国籍。他一生为和平做出了许多贡献。1944年，他手写了自己1905年关于狭义相对论的论文并拿出来拍卖，为战争努力做出了贡献。它筹集了六百万美元，这份手稿如今保存在国会图书馆。
到1949年，爱因斯坦身体欠佳。一次住院帮助他康复，但他开始为死亡做准备，于1950年立下遗嘱。他将科学论文留给了耶路撒冷的希伯来大学，这所大学是他在第一次访问美国时为其筹集资金的，1925年至1928年间担任该校理事，但他在1933年拒绝了该校的职位邀请，因为他对该校的管理非常批评。
他一生中还有一件大事。1952年以色列第一任总统去世后，以色列政府决定将第二任总统的职位提供给爱因斯坦。他拒绝了，但觉得这一提议令人尴尬，因为他很难在不冒犯对方的情况下拒绝。
去世前一周，爱因斯坦签署了他最后一封信。这是一封写给伯特兰·罗素的信，他在信中同意将自己的名字列在一份宣言上，敦促所有国家放弃核武器。他最后的行动之一是为国际和平而呼吁，正如他一生所做的那样，这是恰如其分的。
爱因斯坦于1955年4月18日下午4点（他去世的那一天）在新泽西州特伦顿火化。他的骨灰被撒在一个未公开的地点。
Around 1886 Albert Einstein began his school career in Munich. As well as his violin lessons, which he had from age six to age thirteen, he also had religious education at home where he was taught Judaism. Two years later he entered the Luitpold Gymnasium and after this his religious education was given at school. He studied mathematics, in particular the calculus, beginning around 1891.
In 1894 Einstein's family moved to Milan but Einstein remained in Munich. In 1895 Einstein failed an examination that would have allowed him to study for a diploma as an electrical engineer at the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule in Zürich. Einstein renounced German citizenship in 1896 and was to be stateless for a number of years. He did not even apply for Swiss citizenship until 1899, citizenship being granted in 1901.
Following the failing of the entrance exam to the ETH, Einstein attended secondary school at Aarau planning to use this route to enter the ETH in Zürich. While at Aarau he wrote an essay (for which was only given a little above half marks!) in which he wrote of his plans for the future, see [13]:-
If I were to have the good fortune to pass my examinations, I would go to Zürich. I would stay there for four years in order to study mathematics and physics. I imagine myself becoming a teacher in those branches of the natural sciences, choosing the theoretical part of them. Here are the reasons which lead me to this plan. Above all, it is my disposition for abstract and mathematical thought, and my lack of imagination and practical ability.
Indeed Einstein succeeded with his plan graduating in 1900 as a teacher of mathematics and physics. One of his friends at ETH was Marcel Grossmann who was in the same class as Einstein. Einstein tried to obtain a post, writing to Hurwitz who held out some hope of a position but nothing came of it. Three of Einstein's fellow students, including Grossmann, were appointed assistants at ETH in Zürich but clearly Einstein had not impressed enough and still in 1901 he was writing round universities in the hope of obtaining a job, but without success.
He did manage to avoid Swiss military service on the grounds that he had flat feet and varicose veins. By mid 1901 he had a temporary job as a teacher, teaching mathematics at the Technical High School in Winterthur. Around this time he wrote:-
I have given up the ambition to get to a university ...
Another temporary position teaching in a private school in Schaffhausen followed. Then Grossmann's father tried to help Einstein get a job by recommending him to the director of the patent office in Bern. Einstein was appointed as a technical expert third class.
Einstein worked in this patent office from 1902 to 1909, holding a temporary post when he was first appointed, but by 1904 the position was made permanent and in 1906 he was promoted to technical expert second class. While in the Bern patent office he completed an astonishing range of theoretical physics publications, written in his spare time without the benefit of close contact with scientific literature or colleagues.
Einstein earned a doctorate from the University of Zürich in 1905 for a thesis On a new determination of molecular dimensions. He dedicated the thesis to Grossmann.
In the first of three papers, all written in 1905, Einstein examined the phenomenon discovered by Max Planck, according to which electromagnetic energy seemed to be emitted from radiating objects in discrete quantities. The energy of these quanta was directly proportional to the frequency of the radiation. This seemed to contradict classical electromagnetic theory, based on Maxwell's equations and the laws of thermodynamics which assumed that electromagnetic energy consisted of waves which could contain any small amount of energy. Einstein used Planck's quantum hypothesis to describe the electromagnetic radiation of light.
Einstein's second 1905 paper proposed what is today called the special theory of relativity. He based his new theory on a reinterpretation of the classical principle of relativity, namely that the laws of physics had to have the same form in any frame of reference. As a second fundamental hypothesis, Einstein assumed that the speed of light remained constant in all frames of reference, as required by Maxwell's theory.
Later in 1905 Einstein showed how mass and energy were equivalent. Einstein was not the first to propose all the components of special theory of relativity. His contribution is unifying important parts of classical mechanics and Maxwell's electrodynamics.
The third of Einstein's papers of 1905 concerned statistical mechanics, a field of that had been studied by Ludwig Boltzmann and Josiah Gibbs.
After 1905 Einstein continued working in the areas described above. He made important contributions to quantum theory, but he sought to extend the special theory of relativity to phenomena involving acceleration. The key appeared in 1907 with the principle of equivalence, in which gravitational acceleration was held to be indistinguishable from acceleration caused by mechanical forces. Gravitational mass was therefore identical with inertial mass.
In 1908 Einstein became a lecturer at the University of Bern after submitting his Habilitation thesis Consequences for the constitution of radiation following from the energy distribution law of black bodies. The following year he become professor of physics at the University of Zürich, having resigned his lectureship at Bern and his job in the patent office in Bern.
By 1909 Einstein was recognised as a leading scientific thinker and in that year he resigned from the patent office. He was appointed a full professor at the Karl-Ferdinand University in Prague in 1911. In fact 1911 was a very significant year for Einstein since he was able to make preliminary predictions about how a ray of light from a distant star, passing near the Sun, would appear to be bent slightly, in the direction of the Sun. This would be highly significant as it would lead to the first experimental evidence in favour of Einstein's theory.
About 1912, Einstein began a new phase of his gravitational research, with the help of his mathematician friend Marcel Grossmann, by expressing his work in terms of the tensor calculus of Tullio Levi-Civita and Gregorio Ricci-Curbastro. Einstein called his new work the general theory of relativity. He moved from Prague to Zürich in 1912 to take up a chair at the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule in Zürich.
Einstein returned to Germany in 1914 but did not reapply for German citizenship. What he accepted was an impressive offer. It was a research position in the Berlin Academy of Sciences together with a chair (but no teaching duties) at the University of Berlin. He was also offered the directorship of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Physics in Berlin which was about to be established.
After a number of false starts Einstein published, late in 1915, the definitive version of general theory. Just before publishing this work he lectured on general relativity at Göttingen and he wrote:-
To my great joy, I completely succeeded in convincing Hilbert and Klein.
In fact Hilbert submitted for publication, a week before Einstein completed his work, a paper which contains the correct field equations of general relativity.
When British eclipse expeditions in 1919 confirmed his predictions, Einstein was idolised by the popular press. The London Times ran the headline on 7 November 1919:-
Revolution in science - New theory of the Universe - Newtonian ideas overthrown.
In 1920 Einstein's lectures in Berlin were disrupted by demonstrations which, although officially denied, were almost certainly anti-Jewish. Certainly there were strong feelings expressed against his works during this period which Einstein replied to in the press quoting Lorentz, Planck and Eddington as supporting his theories and stating that certain Germans would have attacked them if he had been:-
... a German national with or without swastika instead of a Jew with liberal international convictions...
During 1921 Einstein made his first visit to the United States. His main reason was to raise funds for the planned Hebrew University of Jerusalem. However he received the Barnard Medal during his visit and lectured several times on relativity. He is reported to have commented to the chairman at the lecture he gave in a large hall at Princeton which was overflowing with people:-
I never realised that so many Americans were interested in tensor analysis.
Einstein received the Nobel Prize in 1921 but not for relativity rather for his 1905 work on the photoelectric effect. In fact he was not present in December 1922 to receive the prize being on a voyage to Japan. Around this time he made many international visits. He had visited Paris earlier in 1922 and during 1923 he visited Palestine. After making his last major scientific discovery on the association of waves with matter in 1924 he made further visits in 1925, this time to South America.
Among further honours which Einstein received were the Copley Medal of the Royal Society in 1925 and the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1926.
Niels Bohr and Einstein were to carry on a debate on quantum theory which began at the Solvay Conference in 1927. Planck, Niels Bohr, de Broglie, Heisenberg, Schrödinger and Dirac were at this conference, in addition to Einstein. Einstein had declined to give a paper at the conference and:-
... said hardly anything beyond presenting a very simple objection to the probability interpretation .... Then he fell back into silence ...
Indeed Einstein's life had been hectic and he was to pay the price in 1928 with a physical collapse brought on through overwork. However he made a full recovery despite having to take things easy throughout 1928.
By 1930 he was making international visits again, back to the United States. A third visit to the United States in 1932 was followed by the offer of a post at Princeton. The idea was that Einstein would spend seven months a year in Berlin, five months at Princeton. Einstein accepted and left Germany in December 1932 for the United States. The following month the Nazis came to power in Germany and Einstein was never to return there.
During 1933 Einstein travelled in Europe visiting Oxford, Glasgow, Brussels and Zürich. Offers of academic posts which he had found it so hard to get in 1901, were plentiful. He received offers from Jerusalem, Leiden, Oxford, Madrid and Paris.
What was intended only as a visit became a permanent arrangement by 1935 when he applied and was granted permanent residency in the United States. At Princeton his work attempted to unify the laws of physics. However he was attempting problems of great depth and he wrote:-
I have locked myself into quite hopeless scientific problems - the more so since, as an elderly man, I have remained estranged from the society here...
In 1940 Einstein became a citizen of the United States, but chose to retain his Swiss citizenship. He made many contributions to peace during his life. In 1944 he made a contribution to the war effort by hand writing his 1905 paper on special relativity and putting it up for auction. It raised six million dollars, the manuscript today being in the Library of Congress.
By 1949 Einstein was unwell. A spell in hospital helped him recover but he began to prepare for death by drawing up his will in 1950. He left his scientific papers to the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, a university which he had raised funds for on his first visit to the USA, served as a governor of the university from 1925 to 1928 but he had turned down the offer of a post in 1933 as he was very critical of its administration.
One more major event was to take place in his life. After the death of the first president of Israel in 1952, the Israeli government decided to offer the post of second president to Einstein. He refused but found the offer an embarrassment since it was hard for him to refuse without causing offence.
One week before his death Einstein signed his last letter. It was a letter to Bertrand Russell in which he agreed that his name should go on a manifesto urging all nations to give up nuclear weapons. It is fitting that one of his last acts was to argue, as he had done all his life, for international peace.
Einstein was cremated at Trenton, New Jersey at 4 pm on 18 April 1955 (the day of his death). His ashes were scattered at an undisclosed place.
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