PASADENA, Calif.- Albert Einstein, who was a visiting scientist at the California Institute of Technology in the early 1930s, is probably the best-known scientist of all time. Nevertheless, an ongoing scholarly project that publishes his collected correspondence, scientific manuscripts, and political writings has revealed numerous novel findings on Einstein's scientific thought, his career, and personal life.
On Wednesday, May 22, Diana Kormos Buchwald, general editor and director of the Einstein Papers Project and an associate professor of history at Caltech, will share some of these new findings in her talk "Einstein at Caltech: Publishing the Collected Papers of Albert Einstein." Her talk is part of the ongoing Earnest C. Watson Lecture Series that takes place on the Caltech campus.
When completed, The Collected Papers will provide the first complete picture of a massive written legacy that ranges from Einstein's first work on the special and general theories of relativity, to expressions of his profound concern with civil liberties, education, Zionism, and disarmament. The series will contain over 14,000 documents and will fill 25 volumes. Buchwald will present the work of the project, which is a major collaborative research effort into Einstein's impressive scientific and personal legacy.
Caltech has offered the Watson Lecture Series for almost 80 years, since it was conceived by the late Caltech physicist Earnest Watson as a way to explain science to the local community. Seating is available on a free, no-ticket-required, first-come, first-served basis. The lecture will take place on Wednesday, May 22, at 8 p.m. in Beckman Auditorium, which is located near Michigan Avenue south of Del Mar Boulevard, on Caltech's campus in Pasadena.