Watson Lecture - Einstein in Pasadena: Between Two Worlds

For months prior to Albert Einstein's arrival in California on December 31, 1930, newspapers across the United States and Europe reported breathlessly on his upcoming visit to Caltech: "Noted Guest Is Nearing Pasadena. Hundreds of Flower-Laden Schoolgirls and Boys' Choir to Greet Scientist on Arrival Today. Privacy Guarded While in City. Mathematical Wizard to Meet Theory Testers." At the time, the young science-and-engineering institute was already notable for its accomplished faculty and its association with the Mount Wilson Observatory. Nonetheless, the voyage from Berlin to Pasadena meant a monthlong journey, spanning 8,000 miles by ship through the Panama Canal. How and why did the then 51-year-old Einstein decide to make the visit? The Einstein Papers Project at Caltech is delving into Einstein's massive written legacy of more than 500,000 pages that contain his correspondence, notebooks, diaries, lectures, calculations, speeches, and interviews. The project's ongoing work-one of the most ambitious scholarly publishing ventures in science-aims to present the first complete picture of Einstein's writings in a printed series, The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein. Sixteen volumes have been published to date. In this talk, Diana K. Buchwald, director and general editor of The Einstein Papers Project and Caltech's Robert M. Abbey Professor of History, will share recent insights into Einstein's scientific work and private life during the late 1920s and the early 1930s, when the physicist visited Caltech for three winters in the California sunshine.

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