n of the photoelectric effect, as his theory of relativity was still considered somewhat controversial. In 1925, the Royal Society awarded him the Copley Medal, the oldest Royal Society medal still awarded.
In 1929, Max Planck presented Einstein with the Max Planck medal of the German Physical Society in Berlin, for extraordinary achievements in theoretical physics. In 1934 Einstein gave the Josiah Willard Gibbs lecture, an prestigious annual event where the American Mathematical Society awards a prize for achievements in the field of mathematics. In 1936, Einstein was awarded the Franklin Institute‘s Franklin Medal for his extensive work on relativity and the photoelectric effect.
In 1949, in honor of Einstein’s 70th birthday, the the Lewis and Rosa Strauss Memorial Fund established the Albert Einstein Award. Also known as the Albert Einstein Medal (because it is accompanied with a gold medal) this award was established to recognize high achievement in theoretical physics and the natural sciences.
Since his death, Einstein has been honored by having countless schools, buildings, and memorials named after him. The Luitpold Gymnasium, where he received his early education, was renamed the Albert Einstein Gymnasium in his honor. In August of 1955, four months after Einstein’s death, the 99th chemical element on the Periodic Table was named “einsteinium”.
Also in 1955, the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, a research-intensive not-for-profit, private, and nonsectarian medical school was founded in the Morris Park neighborhood of the Bronx in New York City. Between 1965 and 1978, the US Postal Service issued a series of commemorative stamps known as the Prominent American Series. Einstein was honored with a 8¢ stamp in 1966, the second year of the series.
Similar stamps were issued by the state of Israel in 1956 (a year after his death) and the Soviet Union in 1973. In 1973, an inner main belt asteroid was discovered, which was named 2001 Einstein in his honor. In 1977, the Albert Einstein Society was founded in Bern, Switzerland. Since 1979, they began issuing the Albert Einstein Medal, an annual award presented to people who have “rendered outstanding services” in connection with Einstein.
In 1979, the National Academy of Sciences commissioned the Albert Einstein Memorial on Constitution Avenue in central Washington, D.C. The bronze statue depicts Einstein seated with manuscript papers in hand. In 1990, his name was added to the Walhalla temple for “laudable and distinguished Germans”, which is located in Donaustauf in Bavaria.
In Potsdam, Germany, the Albert Einstein Science Park was constructed on Telegrafenberg hill. The best known building in the park is the Einstein Tower, an astrophysical observatory that was built to perform checks of Einstein’s theory of General Relativity, which has a bust of Einstein at the entrance.
In 1999 Time magazine named him the Person of the Century, ahead of Mahatma Gandhi and Franklin Roosevelt, among others. In the words of a biographer, “to the scientifically literate and the public at large, Einstein is synonymous with genius”. Also in 1999, an opinion poll of 100 leading physicists ranked Einstein the “greatest physicist ever”.
Also in 1999, a Gallup poll conducted recorded him as being the fourth most admired person of the 20th century in the U.S. – Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, Jr. and John F. Kennedy ranked first through third.
The International Union of Pure and Applied Physics named 2005 the “World Year of Physics” in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the publication of the “annus mirabilis” papers. In 2008, Einstein was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame. And every year, the Chicago-based Albert Einstein Peace Prize Foundation issues the Albert Einstein Peace Prize, an award that comes with a bursary of $50,000.
Einstein has also been the subject of or inspiration for many novels, films, plays, and works of music. He is a favorite model for fictional representations of the mad scientist and the absent-minded professor, with depictions of these archetypes