German-born American physicist.

Einstein received his doctorate in 1905 from the University of Zurich. In 1909 he was appointed Associate Professor at the University, followed by professorships at the German University in Prague (1911) and the Polytechnic in Zurich (1912).

During the First World War, he continued his research and developed his general theory of relativity (1915). However, his ideas were not proven until 1919 when the deviation of light passing near the sun, as predicted by his theory, was observed during a solar eclipse.

In 1921 Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics. In 1933 he was offered a teaching post split between the Prussian Academy in Berlin and the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. However, with Hitler's rise to power in Germany, he resigned his post in Berlin and joined the Institute, which was to be his home for the next 22 years. He became an US citizen in 1940.