About the namesake Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein and ETH Zurich

ETH Zurich founded the Einstein School in 2025 to strengthen work at the interface between science and society. Its roots go back to ETH's long tradition as a place of excellent research and interdisciplinary thinking. Albert Einstein once studied and taught here, and his scientific legacy continues to shape the university to this day. Albert Einstein studied at ETH Zurich from 1896 to 1900 and worked as a professor of theoretical physics here from 1912 to 1914.

In addition to his groundbreaking scientific achievements, Einstein also left a significant political legacy: he was not only a committed democrat, pacifist, and advocate of civil rights, but also helped shape the discourse on the responsibility of science in politics and society. As Einstein said in a speech at the California Institute of Technology in 1931:

The Political Instrumentalization of His Research

Einstein's scientific work was subject to political instrumentalization during his own lifetime. Following the Nazi rise to power in 1933, the theory of relativity was denounced as "Jewish physics", an attack ideological rather than scientific in nature. Einstein himself was forced to leave Germany permanently and was expelled from the Prussian Academy of Sciences in 1934. This example illustrates how scientific knowledge can become the target of political discreditation.²

Significance of Albert Einstein as Namesake for our School

Einstein was also one of the century's most outspoken political activist and prolific political writer, taking stands against nationalism, militarism, anti-semitism and racism.³

The Einstein School carries this engagement into the future: it connects public policy with science and technology and fosters mutual trust between science and politics. It also promotes effective knowledge exchange between researchers and policy actors.