Professor Albert Einstein, c mid-20th century

Albert Einstein, born 14 March 1879, died 18 April 1955, was a German theoretical physicist, who is known for developing the theory of relativity. He is considered the greatest and most prolific scientist of the 20th century. His formula E = mc2 has been called the world's most famous equation. Einstein received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics for his services to theoretical physics. Einstein moved to Switzerland in 1895, forsaking his German citizenship, obtaining Swiss citizenship in 1901. He obtained a PhD from the University of Zurich in 1905. In 1914, he moved to Berlin to join the Prussian Academy of Sciences, and became director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics in 1917. He also became a German citizen again at this time. In 1933, as Einstein was visiting the US, the Nazis took power in Germany, and as Einstein was Jewish, and horrified at the treatment of his fellow Jewish scientists under Deutsche Physik, Einstein decided to stay in the US, and was granted US citizenship in 1940. As WWII began, Einstein wrote a letter to President Roosevelt alerting him to potential nuclear developments in Germany. Einstein was married twice, once to Mileva Marić from 1903, until their divorce in 1919, and then Elsa Löwenthal, his cousin, who he married in 1919 until her death in 1936. Einstein had three children. Einstein died in 1955 from internal bleeding caused by abdominal aortic aneurysm, age 76. Einsteinium, the element, was named in his honour in 1955. In 1999, Time named him Person of the Century.