Time Magazine voted Albert Einstein as the "Person of the 20th Century" in its special "end of the millennium" issue, while the United Nations has designated 2005 as the "World Year of Physics" in honor of the celebrity-scientist's annus mirabilis ("miracle year") one hundred years ago, which changed the course of physics. The fame and glory gained by Albert Einstein during his lifetime is unprecedented and unsurpassed amongst scientists, being more on par with The Beatles than with other investigators of nature's puzzles. Almost immediately following experimental verification of his General Theory of Relativity in 1919, the forty-year old Director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin became a much loved and sometimes hated household name.
This one-hour seminar will focus on i) the personal and societal forces that helped shape the originality and independence of Albert Einstein's ideas and ii) his subsequent powerful influence on the evolution of the 20th century, not only in the realm of science but also in political and cultural affairs. Best known -- and least understood -- for his incredible breakthroughs in theoretical physics (in which Prague played a key part), Albert Einstein was a chronic non-conformist, a trait that led him toward international activism as well as passionate humanism until his peaceful end fifty years ago in Princeton, NJ. Perpetually puzzling, Albert Einstein was at once charmingly simple yet exceptionally complex, and always fascinating.