Work unveils some surprises about Einstein

If one had to choose a golden age of physics at Caltech, the 1930s would be a strong contender.

It was a time when Caltech leader Robert Millikan invited top scholars and physicists to the Pasadena campus. One of the most notable visitors, Albert Einstein, accepted the invitation three winters in a row, from 1931 to 1933.

Einstein’s presence in Southern California boosted the university’s reputation and paved the way for Caltech to become one of the top science institutes in the United States. But before his visits to Pasadena, the German physicist traveled to several countries, including Japan and Spain, while contemplating his place in the academic world.

The travel diaries and papers he penned during his time abroad are contained in the latest installment of “The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein,” which is produced by the Caltech-based Einstein Papers Project.

“Volume 13: The Berlin Years: Writings & Correspondence, January 1922 - March 1923,” comes out 25 years after the first volume in what is expected to be a 30-volume examination of Einstein’s writings.

Diana Kormos-Buchwald, Caltech professor and general editor of “The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein,” said this volume unveils many surprises about Einstein.

He was told he would win the 1922 Nobel Prize before it was announced to the public and was advised to stay in Berlin, but instead hopped on a boat to Japan, she said.

“We did a lot of research to understand how this long voyage came about, what Einstein was hoping and what Einstein wanted from this trip,” said Kormos-Buchwald. “He made his final decision, we believe, because the situation in Berlin was quite unpleasant. There was a lot of international right-wing violence.”

Letters from the time show the physicist wanted a quiet life and a break from academia, she said. “Einstein himself was rumored to be on a hit list. He was accused of being a traitor to Germany.”

Einstein found solace in Japan, where he gave long lectures and wrote two to three papers a month.

He was attracted to Caltech years later, partially because of the school’s powerful observatory and its ties to other theoretical physicists, said Kormos-Buchwald. During his first term, he lived on South Oakland Avenue in Pasadena. Later, he lived at the Athenaeum.

The Einstein Papers project is sponsored by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Princeton University Press. Einstein’s papers were collected shortly after his death in 1955 by his estate, and the Einstein Papers project was established in the 1970s at Boston University. It moved to Caltech in 2000.

Iris Liu, a 21-year-old computer science and business undergraduate student at Caltech, was hired to work on the project’s website a year and a half ago. She said students benefit from having the project at the university. “It definitely relates to our ideals at Caltech.”

Liu is one of a handful of Caltech students who work on the project every year. It’s a challenge to produce the volumes and requires an editorial staff knowledgeable about history, science and technology, said Kormos-Buchwald. In addition, editors must be fluent in German, Hebrew and other languages.

Kormos-Buchwald also encourages students not associated with the project to delve into Einstein’s papers.

“They’re always happy to see Einstein’s papers in his own writing,” she said. “He writes very good expert opinions. There is a practical Einstein, and this is almost always overlooked.”

For more information, visit www.einstein.caltech.edu.

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