Einstein Papers Project
Encyclopedia
Literary executor
A literary executor is a person with decision-making power in respect of a literary estate. According to Wills, Administration and Taxation: a practical guide "A will may appoint different executors to deal with different parts of the estate...
of Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history...
(more than forty thousand documents) and from other collections (more than fifteen thousand Einstein-related documents).
Sponsored by the Princeton University Press
Princeton University Press
-Further reading:* "". Artforum International, 2005.-External links:* * * * *...
and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem ; ; abbreviated HUJI) is Israel's second-oldest university, after the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. The Hebrew University has three campuses in Jerusalem and one in Rehovot. The world's largest Jewish studies library is located on its Edmond J...
since its inception, the project was located at Boston University
Boston University
Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
until 2000. The project is also supported by endowments from individuals and universities, the National Science Foundation
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health...
and the National Endowment for the Humanities
National Endowment for the Humanities
The National Endowment for the Humanities is an independent federal agency of the United States established by the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965 dedicated to supporting research, education, preservation, and public programs in the humanities. The NEH is located at...
.
The Project is now located in Pasadena, California
Pasadena, California
Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Although famous for hosting the annual Rose Bowl football game and Tournament of Roses Parade, Pasadena is the home to many scientific and cultural institutions, including the California Institute of Technology , the Jet...
at the California Institute of Technology
California Institute of Technology
The California Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech has six academic divisions with strong emphases on science and engineering...
, which Einstein first visited in 1930.
In the first two decades of the Einstein Papers Project, the Princeton University Press
Princeton University Press
-Further reading:* "". Artforum International, 2005.-External links:* * * * *...
has published ten of the projected twenty five volumes in the series, The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein.
Introductions, headnotes, footnotes, etc., are provided in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, while all documents in the series are reproduced in the language in which they were originally written. The Press simultaneously publishes English translations of previously untranslated documents when it releases each volume in the series.
- The Early Years: 1879-1902 is the first volume in the series.
- The Swiss Years: 1900-1914 and The Berlin Years: 1914-1920 follow thus far (2007) in two parallel and extensively cross-referenceCross-referenceA cross-reference is an instance within a document which refers to related or synonymous information elsewhere, usually within the same work. To cross-reference or to cross-refer is to make such connections. The term "cross-reference" is often abbreviated as x-ref, xref, or, in computer science,...
d branches: - Writings: published and previously unpublished articles, lecture notes, research notes, accounts of his lectures, speeches, interviews, book reviews, etc.
- Correspondence: letters, travel diaries, calendars, documents about Einstein by third parties, etc.
Volume 1 - Collected Papers 1879-1902
Includes many previously unpublished documents, e.g. class notes for Heinrich Friedrich WeberHeinrich Friedrich Weber
Heinrich Friedrich Weber was a physicist born in the town of Magdala, near Weimar. Around 1861 he entered the University of Jena, where Ernst Abbe became the first of two physicists who decisively influenced his career...
's lectures on thermodynamics
Thermodynamics
Thermodynamics is a physical science that studies the effects on material bodies, and on radiation in regions of space, of transfer of heat and of work done on or by the bodies or radiation...
and electromagnetism
Electromagnetism
Electromagnetism is one of the four fundamental interactions in nature. The other three are the strong interaction, the weak interaction and gravitation...
during Einstein's second year at ETH Zurich
ETH Zurich
The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich or ETH Zürich is an engineering, science, technology, mathematics and management university in the City of Zurich, Switzerland....
, etc.
- The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, Volume 1, The Early Years: 1879-1902.
- Editors: John StachelJohn StachelJohn Stachel is an American physicist and philosopher of science.Stachel earned his PhD at Stevens Institute of Technology in Physics about a topic in General relativity in 1958...
et al. ISBN 0-691-08407-6, 1987.
Volume 2 - Writings 1900-1909
Includes Einstein's first (1900) published paper after his graduation from ETH ZurichETH Zurich
The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich or ETH Zürich is an engineering, science, technology, mathematics and management university in the City of Zurich, Switzerland....
, the Annus Mirabilis Papers
Annus Mirabilis Papers
The Annus Mirabilis papers are the papers of Albert Einstein published in the Annalen der Physik scientific journal in 1905. These four articles contributed substantially to the foundation of modern physics and changed views on space, time, and matter...
, text of his invited lecture after his first academic appointment to the University of Zurich
University of Zurich
The University of Zurich , located in the city of Zurich, is the largest university in Switzerland, with over 25,000 students. It was founded in 1833 from the existing colleges of theology, law, medicine and a new faculty of philosophy....
, etc.
- The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, Volume 2, The Swiss Years: Writings, 1900-1909.
- Editors: John StachelJohn StachelJohn Stachel is an American physicist and philosopher of science.Stachel earned his PhD at Stevens Institute of Technology in Physics about a topic in General relativity in 1958...
et al. ISBN 0-691-08526-9, 1989.
Volume 3 - Writings 1909-1911
Includes Einstein's report to the first Solvay ConferenceSolvay Conference
The International Solvay Institutes for Physics and Chemistry, located in Brussels, were founded by the Belgian industrialist Ernest Solvay in 1912, following the historic invitation-only 1911 Conseil Solvay, the turning point in world physics...
, his appointment to the Charles University in Prague
Charles University in Prague
Charles University in Prague is the oldest and largest university in the Czech Republic. Founded in 1348, it was the first university in Central Europe and is also considered the earliest German university...
, his paper calculating gravitational bending
Gravitational lens
A gravitational lens refers to a distribution of matter between a distant source and an observer, that is capable of bending the light from the source, as it travels towards the observer...
of light, previously unpublished lecture notes, etc.
- The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, Volume 3, The Swiss Years: Writings, 1909-1911.
- Editors: Martin J. KleinMartin J. KleinMartin J. Klein was a science historian of 19th and 20th century physics. At Yale University, he was the Eugene Higgins emeritus professor of the history of physics and an emeritus professor of physics...
et al. ISBN 0-691-08772-5, 1993.
Volume 4 - Writings 1912-1914
Includes a previously unpublished manuscript on relativityTheory of relativity
The theory of relativity, or simply relativity, encompasses two theories of Albert Einstein: special relativity and general relativity. However, the word relativity is sometimes used in reference to Galilean invariance....
and electrodynamics, a notebook documenting his preparation for his first joint paper (1913, with Marcel Grossmann
Marcel Grossmann
Marcel Grossmann was a mathematician of Jewish ancestry, and a friend and classmate of Albert Einstein. He became a Professor of Mathematics at the Federal Polytechnic Institute in Zurich, today the ETH Zurich, specializing in descriptive geometry....
), previously unknown calculations with Michele Besso
Michele Besso
Michele Angelo Besso was a Swiss/Italian engineer of Jewish Italian descent. He was a close friend of Albert Einstein during his years at the Federal Polytechnic Institute in Zurich, today the ETH Zurich, and then at the patent office in Bern...
on the motion of the perihelion of Mercury
Mercury (planet)
Mercury is the innermost and smallest planet in the Solar System, orbiting the Sun once every 87.969 Earth days. The orbit of Mercury has the highest eccentricity of all the Solar System planets, and it has the smallest axial tilt. It completes three rotations about its axis for every two orbits...
, etc.
- The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, Volume 4, The Swiss Years: Writings, 1912-1914.
- Editors: Martin J. KleinMartin J. KleinMartin J. Klein was a science historian of 19th and 20th century physics. At Yale University, he was the Eugene Higgins emeritus professor of the history of physics and an emeritus professor of physics...
et al. ISBN 0-691-03705-1, 1995.
Volume 5 - Correspondence 1902-1914
Includes more than five hundred previously unpublished letters to and from Einstein in his early adulthood, from his first employment at the SwissSwitzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
patent office
Patent office
A patent office is a governmental or intergovernmental organization which controls the issue of patents. In other words, "patent offices are government bodies that may grant a patent or reject the patent application based on whether or not the application fulfils the requirements for...
in 1902 through his appointment to the Prussian Academy of Sciences
Prussian Academy of Sciences
The Prussian Academy of Sciences was an academy established in Berlin on 11 July 1700, four years after the Akademie der Künste or "Arts Academy", to which "Berlin Academy" may also refer.-Origins:...
in 1914. Correspondents included Max von Laue
Max von Laue
Max Theodor Felix von Laue was a German physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1914 for his discovery of the diffraction of X-rays by crystals...
, Paul Ehrenfest
Paul Ehrenfest
Paul Ehrenfest was an Austrian and Dutch physicist, who made major contributions to the field of statistical mechanics and its relations with quantum mechanics, including the theory of phase transition and the Ehrenfest theorem.- Biography :Paul Ehrenfest was born and grew up in Vienna in a Jewish...
, Alfred Kleiner
Alfred Kleiner
Alfred Kleiner was a professor of Experimental Physics at the University of Zürich, and was Albert Einstein's doctoral advisor or Doktorvater. Initially Einstein's advisor was H. F. Weber...
, Fritz Haber
Fritz Haber
Fritz Haber was a German chemist, who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1918 for his development for synthesizing ammonia, important for fertilizers and explosives. Haber, along with Max Born, proposed the Born–Haber cycle as a method for evaluating the lattice energy of an ionic solid...
, Walther Nernst
Walther Nernst
Walther Hermann Nernst FRS was a German physical chemist and physicist who is known for his theories behind the calculation of chemical affinity as embodied in the third law of thermodynamics, for which he won the 1920 Nobel Prize in chemistry...
, etc.
- The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, Volume 5, The Swiss Years: Correspondence, 1902-1914.
- Editors: Martin J. KleinMartin J. KleinMartin J. Klein was a science historian of 19th and 20th century physics. At Yale University, he was the Eugene Higgins emeritus professor of the history of physics and an emeritus professor of physics...
et al. ISBN 0-691-03322-6, 1993.
Volume 6 - Writings 1914-1917
Includes papers describing Einstein's only experimental physicsExperimental physics
Within the field of physics, experimental physics is the category of disciplines and sub-disciplines concerned with the observation of physical phenomena in order to gather data about the universe...
investigation, a study of André-Marie Ampère
André-Marie Ampère
André-Marie Ampère was a French physicist and mathematician who is generally regarded as one of the main discoverers of electromagnetism. The SI unit of measurement of electric current, the ampere, is named after him....
's molecular current theory of electromagnetism
Electromagnetism
Electromagnetism is one of the four fundamental interactions in nature. The other three are the strong interaction, the weak interaction and gravitation...
with Wander Johannes de Haas
Wander Johannes de Haas
Wander Johannes de Haas was a Dutch physicist and mathematician. He is best known for the Shubnikov–de Haas effect, the de Haas–van Alphen effect and the Einstein–de Haas effect.-Personal life:...
; etc.
- The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, Volume 6, The Berlin Years: Writings, 1914-1917.
- Editors: A. J. Kox et al. ISBN 0-691-01086-2, 1996.
Volume 7 - Writings 1918-1921
- The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, Volume 7, The Berlin Years: Writings, 1918-1921.
- Editors: Michel Janssen et al. ISBN 0-691-05717-6, 2002.
Volume 8 - Correspondence 1914-1918
- The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, Volume 8, The Berlin Years: Correspondence, 1914-1918.
- Editors: R. Schulmann et al. In two volumes. ISBN 0-691-04849-5, 1997.
Volume 9 - Correspondence January 1919-April 1920
- The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, Volume 9, The Berlin Years: Correspondence, January 1919 - April 1920.
- Editors: Diana Kormos Buchwald et al. ISBN 0-691-12088-9, 2004.
Volume 10 - Correspondence May-December 1920, Supplementary Correspondence 1909-1920
- The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, Volume 10, The Berlin Years: Correspondence, May-December 1920, and Supplementary Correspondence, 1909-1920.
- Editors: Diana Kormos Buchwald et al. ISBN 0-691-12825-1, 2006.
Trustees
The trustees of Einstein's literary estate were:- Otto NathanOtto NathanOtto Nathan was an economist who taught at Princeton University , New York University , Vassar College , and Howard University .Dr...
: executor and co-trustee, professor of economicsEconomicsEconomics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
, author and friend. - Helen DukasHelen DukasHelen Dukas was Albert Einstein's secretary. She also co-authored Einstein: Creator and Rebel and co-edited Albert Einstein: The Human Side with Dr. Banesh Hoffmann...
: co-trustee, Einstein's secretary for nearly thirty years.
External links
- The Einstein Papers Project at the California Institute of TechnologyCalifornia Institute of TechnologyThe California Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech has six academic divisions with strong emphases on science and engineering...
. - Einstein Archives Online at the Hebrew University of JerusalemHebrew University of JerusalemThe Hebrew University of Jerusalem ; ; abbreviated HUJI) is Israel's second-oldest university, after the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. The Hebrew University has three campuses in Jerusalem and one in Rehovot. The world's largest Jewish studies library is located on its Edmond J...
.