TIME.com: Person of the Century -- January 3, 2000

Albert Einstein: Person of the Century

He was the iconic 20th century scientist, the bumbling professor with the German accent, a comic cliché in a thousand films. Instantly recognizable, like Charlie Chaplin's Little Tramp, Albert Einstein's shaggy haired visage was as familiar to ordinary people as to the matrons who fluttered about him in salons from Berlin to Hollywood. Yet he was unfathomably profound — the genius among geniuses who discovered, merely by thinking about it, that the universe was not as it seemed. Read the full story by Frederic Golden

Who Mattered ... And Why TIME Managing Editor Walter Isaacson reviews the century's leading figures

Photo Essay: A photographic tour of the life and times of Albert Einstein

	The Runners-Up:
		Franklin Roosevelt: The Statesman		Mohandas Gandhi: The Soldier of Peace

In His Own Words:
Listen to Albert Einstein in Real Audio

Test Your Knowledge:
How much do you know about Albert Einstein?

Behind the Choice:
TIME Managing Editor Walter Isaacson explains why Einstein was selected. (Requires Quicktime movie player. Also available in Real Video or Real Audio). Poll:
Do you believe Albert Einstein should be Person of the Century?

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Web Resources
NOVA: Einstein Revealed
PBS online special about the 20th century's greatest physicist, with games to illustrate his theories

Einstein: Image and Impact
An interactive timeline charting the life and achievements of Einstein from the American Institute of Physicists

Einstein's Letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt
See and read the August 2, 1939, letter from Einstein to President Roosevelt that launched U.S. development of an atomic bomb

Albert Einstein Online
Detailed web directory to Einstein's life and scientific theories

The Einstein Ring
This ring of web sites offers information from Einstein devotees on everything from black holes to the possibility of time travel

The Einstein Papers Project
Information on Boston University's attempt to assemble a 25-volume series of Einstein's correspondence and published and unpublished writings

Gravity Probe B
This site, run by Stanford University, is part of an ongoing project to "test Einstein with orbiting gyroscopes" and offers a variety of Q&A on relativity, FAQ and technical results of experiments.

ILLUSTRATION CREDIT | TIM O'BRIEN

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