The most famous scientist of his time and the most important physicist since Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein created the simple equation, E = mc² that not only demonstrated the equivalence of matter and energy, but showed the tremendous quantity of energy inherent in the atomic nucleus. The insight, provided mainly by Leo Szilard, that such energy might be liberated was the theoretical basis for the atomic bomb. While Einstein did not participate directly in the war effort, the letter Szilard persuaded him to compose and send to President Franklin D. Roosevelt on August 2, 1939, prompted Roosevelt to authorize what quickly became the Manhattan Project, the all-out American effort to create an atomic weapon before the Axis powers (especially Germany) could do the same.

Einstein was born in Ulm, Germany, in 1879 and moved with his family the following year to Munich. Young Einstein did not respond well to the strict and unimaginative German schools, but fared better in Swiss schools. He graduated in physics and mathematics from the Federal Polytechnic Academy in Zurich in 1900. He became a Swiss citizen, taught mathematics very briefly, then worked as a patents examiner in Bern. In 1905, Einstein published "A New Determination of Molecular Dimensions," which earned him a Ph.D. from the University of Zurich. This same year saw the publication of papers including "On a Heuristic Viewpoint Concerning the Production and Transformation of Light," which formed the basis for quantum theory; "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies," which postulated the epoch-making special theory of relativity; and "Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?" which established the equivalence of mass and energy, expressing this in the equation E = mc².

Einstein was catapulted to prominence among physicists and became in 1912 a professor at the Polytechnic in Zurich. In 1914, Einstein became associated with the Prussian Academy of Sciences and lectured at the University of Berlin. He published "Foundation of the General Theory of Relativity" in 1916, arguing that gravitation is not a force, as Newton held, but a curved field in what Einstein called the space-time continuum. . .

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