Colleagues in Genius

Albert Einstein (1879-1955) was born in Germany and became an American citizen in 1934. A world-famous theoretical physicist, he was awarded the 1921 Nobel Prize for Physics and is renowned for his Theory of Relativity. In addition to his scientific work, Einstein was an influential humanist who spoke widely about politics, ethics, and social causes. After leaving Europe, Einstein taught at Princeton University. His theories were instrumental in shaping the atomic age.
Max (Karl Ernst Ludwig) Planck was a German physicist and philosopher known for his quantum theory, for which he won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918. Planck was born in Kiel, Germany, in 1858 to an academic family, and valued education from a young age. He attended the Universities of Munich and Berlin to study physics under the great scientific leaders Kirchhoff and Helmholtz. His early work focused on the study of thermodynamics, and in 1900 he published a paper on his quantum theory that would change the face of modern physics. Planck worked as a professor at Berlin University his entire career, and served as the president of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society for the Promotion of Science. During World War II, Planck experienced great hardships while he remained in Germany but openly opposed the Nazi regime. One of his two sons was executed during this time for an unsuccessful attempt on Hitler's life, and Planck's home in Berlin was eventually bombed. He continued to write about physics and philosophy until his death in 1947.
A controversial WWII figure, Werner Heisenberg was a German physicist. Born in 1901 to an academic family, Heisenberg was interested in scientific and philosophical pursuits from a young age. After graduating from the University of Munich, where he studied under physicist Arthur Sommerfield, Heisenberg went on to establish a career in the study of atomic and particle theory. He won the Nobel Prize in 1932 for his Uncertainty Principle. Heisenberg was one of the top German scientists during World War II, and he worked as the director of the German Uranium Project developing an atomic bomb for Germany. He did not succeed in this effort, however, before the end of the war. He was incarcerated from 1945-46 for his role in the Nazi regime, but in the '50s and '60s, Heisenberg continued to contribute his research to the field of nuclear physics. He retired in 1970 and resided in Munich until his death in 1973.