Dr. Serageldin lectures on Einstein
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Alexandria, 4 May 2005—Dr. Ismail Serageldin, Director of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, will give a lecture at the Supreme Council of Culture, on 7 May 2005, that sheds light on the life of Albert Einstein. This lecture comes within the context of preparing for the Einstein Symposium, organized by the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, 4-6 June, which will bring together international leaders, Nobel Laureates in physics, and renowned physicists to celebrate the achievements of Albert Einstein. The lecture begins at 7:00 pm.
Albert Einstein (1879-1955) is one of the most recognized and well-known scientists of the century. His theories solved centuries-old problems in physics and rocked even non-physicists" view of the world. To honor the centennial of 1905, when he published his five major papers on the special theory of relativity, Brownian motion and the quantum theory, the Library of Alexandria is organizing a symposium in June 2005, the UNESCO declared "World Year of Physics (WYP)".
Born in 14 March 1879 in Ulm, Württemberg, Germany, Albert Einstein began his school career in Munich around 1886. He graduated in 1900 as a teacher of mathematics and physics. By 1901 he had a job as a teacher of mathematics at the Technical High School in Winterthur. In 1906 he was promoted to technical expert second class. While in the Bern patent office, he completed an astonishing range of theoretical physics publications, written in his spare time without the benefit of close contact with scientific literature or colleagues.
Einstein earned a doctorate from the University of Zurich in 1905 for a thesis on a new determination of molecular dimensions. In this year, Einstein shattered many cherished scientific beliefs in five great papers, in special relativity and quantum theory and some other theories that would establish him as the world"s leading physicist. After 1905 Einstein made important contributions to quantum theory, but he sought to extend the special theory of relativity to phenomena involving acceleration. The key appeared in 1907 with the principle of equivalence, in which gravitational acceleration was held to be indistinguishable from acceleration caused by mechanical forces. Gravitational mass was therefore identical with inertial mass.
Einstein received the Nobel Prize in 1921 for his 1905 work on the quantum theory.
Visit the Symposium’s website: www.bibalex.org/einstein2005.