Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein revolutionized our concepts of space, time, gravity, and energy, dismantling the Newtonian framework that had reigned for centuries. His Annus Mirabilis papers of 1905 introduced special relativity (E=mc²) and the photon theory of light, challenging absolute space and time and laying groundwork for quantum mechanics. His masterwork, general relativity (1915), redefined gravity not as a force but as the curvature of spacetime caused by mass and energy. This theory predicted phenomena like gravitational lensing and black holes, and underpins modern cosmology and GPS technology.

Although a founder of quantum theory, he famously critiqued its probabilistic nature. His intellectual courage in pursuing thought experiments and theoretical elegance over empirical data alone marks a pinnacle of human reasoning. His legacy is the modern understanding of the universe at its largest and most fundamental scales.