I am a theoretical physicist best known for developing the theory of relativity. I also made important contributions to quantum theory, and my mass–energy formula E = mc2 has been called the world's most famous equation.
Extended Bose statistics; predicted condensate
4 milestones
Extended Bose's counting to atoms and predicted a Bose–Einstein condensate, confirmed experimentally decades later.
Received 30 June 1905; removed the aether and unified space and time, reshaping physics foundations.
Proposed light quanta in 1905; initially resisted but later confirmed by experiments, leading to a Nobel Prize.
Early work (1900–1905) showing Brownian motion provides strong empirical evidence for molecules and yields molecular-dim
Between 1907 and 1915 I developed general relativity, in which the attraction between masses results from their warping of spacetime. My prediction that gravity bends light was confirmed by Eddington's 1919 eclipse observations.
In 1935, with Boris Podolsky and Nathan Rosen, I published the EPR thought experiment: two entangled particles whose properties can be predicted at a distance. We concluded quantum theory does not give a complete description of reality.
From 1902 I interpreted atomic phenomena statistically. That physics research led to my 1905 paper on Brownian motion, which showed the jittering of suspended particles can be read as firm scientific evidence that molecules exist.
I helped found quantum theory, yet I was skeptical that its randomness was fundamental rather than the result of an underlying determinism. Until the end of my life I maintained that quantum mechanics was incomplete.