Time 100: The Most Important People of the Century

Person of the Century:

Of the 100 chosen, Albert Einstein was crowned the Person of the Century, on the grounds that he was the prominent scientist in a century dominated by science. The editors of Time believed the 20th century "will be remembered foremost for its science and technology", and Einstein "serves as a symbol of all the scientists—such as Heisenberg, Bohr, Richard Feynman, ...who built upon his work".

The cover of the magazine featured the famous image of Einstein taken in 1947 by American portrait photographer Philippe Halsman. It was during this photo session that Einstein recounted to Halsman his despair that his special theory of relativity and his letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt had led the United States to create the atomic bomb. It was at this point of immense sadness for Einstein that Halsman took the picture.

It was debated whether Adolf Hitler, German Chancellor and Führer responsible for World War II and the Holocaust, should have been made Person of the Century for his impact on the 20th Century. The argument was based on Time's criterion that the person chosen should have the greatest impact on this century, for better or worse. However, it was decided that since Hitler's goals were defeated and the century ended on a positive note, he was not as influential as Einstein, Roosevelt, or Gandhi, though he did still make the list.

Albert Einstein (14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955)

Albert Einstein (14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German theoretical physicist who discovered the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics. He received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his services to theoretical physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect".

Near the beginning of his career, Einstein thought that Newtonian mechanics was no longer enough to reconcile the laws of classical mechanics with the laws of the electromagnetic field. This led to the development of his special theory of relativity. He realized, however, that the principle of relativity could also be extended to gravitational fields, and with his subsequent theory of gravitation in 1916, he published a paper on the general theory of relativity. He continued to deal with problems of statistical mechanics and quantum theory, which led to his explanations of particle theory and the motion of molecules. He also investigated the thermal properties of light which laid the foundation of the photon theory of light. In 1917, Einstein applied the general theory of relativity to model the structure of the universe as a whole.

He escaped from Nazi Germany in 1933, where he had been a professor at the Berlin Academy of Sciences, and settled in the U.S., becoming a citizen in 1940. On the eve of World War II, he helped alert President Franklin D. Roosevelt that Germany might be developing an atomic weapon, and recommended that the U.S. begin nuclear research. That research, begun by a newly-established Manhattan Project, resulted in the U.S. becoming the first and only country to possess nuclear weapons during the war. He taught physics at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, New Jersey, until his death in 1955.

Einstein published more than 300 scientific papers along with over 150 non-scientific works, and received honorary doctorate degrees in science, medicine and philosophy from many European and American universities; he also wrote about various philosophical and political subjects such as socialism, international relations and the existence of God. His great intelligence and originality has made the word "Einstein" synonymous with genius.