Remembering Einstein's groundbreaking contributions on his anniversary

March 14 is a big date in the world of science. Scientists celebrate Pi Day, the mathematical constant pi (3.14.), and the anniversary of the birth of Albert Einstein – an occasion to remember and celebrate his groundbreaking contributions to physics.

Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who is widely held to be one of the greatest and most influential scientists of all time.

For Thibault Damour, professor emeritus at the Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifique (IHES) and an expert in the theories of relativity, Einstein was certainly the greatest physicist of the 20th century.

Speaking about the enormous impact of the two theories of relativity which Einstein discovered in the early 20th century, Damour said the theory of special relativity was the basis of all the developments in particle physics.

As for the theory of general relativity, Damour said that it was first considered by many people like a beautiful object of art, but not something useful.

"It has turned out to be an extremely important element of our description of the Universe because the Big Bang, gravitational waves, black holes and many discoveries in astrophysics are based on Einstein's theory of general relativity."

Einstein 'was right'

Einstein's mass–energy equivalence formula E = mc2, which arises from relativity theory, has been called "the world's most famous equation"

Besides the two theories of relativity, Einstein made other significant contributions to physics.

"Einstein was the one to introduce the quantisation of many aspects of matter, of oscillators and the quantisation of light. He outlined the concept of quantum light.

His work also influenced the philosophy of science.

Read more on RFI English

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