Einstein: His Life and Universe

May 2, 2007
Walter Isaacson | President and CEO, the Aspen Institute

Albert Einstein is a great icon of our age: the kindly refugee from oppression whose wild halo of hair, twinkling eyes, engaging humanity, and extraordinary brilliance made his face a symbol and his name a synonym for genius. In 2006, all of his (published and unpublished) papers were unsealed, and with this new information we can get a deeper understanding of the man and his place in history. What role did Einstein’s “rebellious nature” play in his creativity? What were his thoughts about the existence of God? Why were the seven years he worked at a patent office the most creative years of his life? Why did the Nobel Committee wait for 17 years to award him the Nobel Prize and not for the idea of relativity? What role did music play in the mind of Einstein?

Finally we have the material necessary to begin to understand the mind and legacy of this great scientist.

Speaker Details

Walter Isaacson is the President and CEO of the Aspen Institute. He has been the Chairman and CEO of CNN and the Managing Editor of Time Magazine. He is the author of Benjamin Franklin: An American Life; Kissinger: A Biography and the coauthor of Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made. Isaacson is a graduate of Harvard College and Pembroke College of Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. Born in New Orleans in 1952, he currently serves as vice-chairman of the Louisiana Recovery Authority (post-Hurricane Katrina) and is also the Chairman of the Board of Teach for America.