lated to questions about the transmission of electric signals and the electrical-mechanical synchronization of time. These technical problems would show up repeatedly in Einstein’s thought experiments, eventually leading him to his radical conclusions about the nature of light and the fundamental connection between space and time.
In 1900, he published a paper titled “Folgerungen aus den Capillaritätserscheinungen” (“Conclusions from the Capillarity Phenomena”). Drawing on Newton’s theory of universal gravitation, he proposed in this paper that the theory that the interactions between all molecules are a universal function of distance, in analogy with the inverse-square force of gravity. This would later be proven to be incorrect, but the publication of the paper in the prestigious Annalen der Physik (Journal of Physics) garnered attention from the academic world.
On April 30th, 1905, Einstein completed his thesis under the watchful eye of Professor Alfred Kleiner, the university’s Professor of Experimental Physics. His dissertation – which was titled, “A New Determination of Molecular Dimensions” – earned him a PhD with the University of Zürich.
That same year, in an explosion of creative intellectual energy – what is known as his “annus mirabilis” (miracle year) – Einstein also published four groundbreaking papers on the photoelectric effect, Brownian motion, special relativity, and the equivalence of mass and energy, which would bring him to the notice of the international scientific community.
By 1908, he was appointed as a lecturer at the University of Bern. The following year, after giving a lecture on electrodynamics and the relativity principle at the University of Zurich, Alfred Kleiner recommended him to the faculty for a newly created professorship in theoretical physics. Einstein was appointed associate professor in 1909.
In April 1911, Einstein became a full professor at the Charles-Ferdinand University in Praque, which was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the time. During his time in Prague, he wrote 11 scientific works, 5 of which were on radiation mathematics and on the quantum theory of solids.
In July 1912, he returned to Switzerland and the ETH Zürich, where he taught about analytical mechanics and thermodynamics until 1914. During his time at the ETH Zürich, he also studied continuum mechanics, andthe molecular theory of heat and the problem of gravitation. In 1914, he returned to Germany and was appointed director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics (1914–1932) and a professor at the Humboldt University of Berlin.
He soon became a member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences, and from 1916 to 1918 he served as president of the German Physical Society. In 1920, he became Foreign Member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, and was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 1921.
In 1933, Einstein visited the United States for the third time. But unlike previous visits – where he conducted lecture series and tours – on this occasion he knew he could not return to Germany, due to the rise of Nazism under Adolf Hitler. After performing his third two month visiting professorship at American universities, he and wife Elsa traveled to Antwerp, Belgium in March of 1933.
Upon their arrival, when they learned that their cottage had been raided by the Nazis and their personal sailboat confiscated, Einstein renounced his German citizenship. A month later, Einstein’s works were among those targeted by Nazi book burnings, and he was placed on a list of “enemies of the German regime”, with a bounty of $5000 on his head.
During this period, Einstein became part of a large community of German and Jewish ex-patriots in Belgium, many of whom were scientists. For the first few months, he rented a house in De Haan, Belgium, where he lived and worked. He also dedicated himself to helping Jewish scientists escape persecution and murder at the hands of the Nazis.
In July 1933, he went to England at the personal invitation of his friend and naval officer Commander Oliver Locker-L