Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein (March 14, 1879-April 18, 1955), German physicist, is one of the most important physicists and scientists of the 20th century, known the world over for developing the general and special theories of relativity and the formula E=mc2. Considered a lazy student in his youth, the name "Einstein" has come to mean "genius" because of his work. From 1902 to 1909 he worked as a patent clerk in Switzerland, during which time he obtained a Ph.D. degree and produced some of the most important and revolutionary work in the history of science. Among his most noted accomplishments, he received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the photoelectric effect (first published in 1905), studied Brownian motion, light, gravitational fields, and atomic particles, and was a key figure in the creation of the atomic bomb.