‹The template Infobox_Scientist has been proposed for deletion here.› 
Alfred Kleiner

Source: Image Archive ETH-Bibliothek Zurich.
Born	April 24, 1849 <pls insert place>
Died	July 3, 1916 <pls insert place>
Residence	Switzerland
Nationality	Swiss
Field	Physicist
Institution	University of Zürich
Alma Mater	<pls insert>
Doctoral Advisor	<pls insert>
Doctoral Students	Albert Einstein
‹The template Infobox_Scientist has been proposed for deletion here.›  April 24 is the 114th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (115th in leap years). ... 1849 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... July 3 is the 184th day of the year (185th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 181 days remaining. ... 1916 (MCMXVI) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... Physicists working in a government lab A physicist is a scientist who is a practitioner of physics. ... The University of Zurich (in German: Universität Zürich) is the largest university of Switzerland, in the city of Zurich. ... Albert Einstein, photographed in 1947 by Oren J. Turner. ...

Alfred Kleiner (April 24, 1849-July 3, 1916) was Professor of Experimental Physics at the University of Zürich, and was Albert Einstein's doctoral advisor or Doktorvater. Initially Einstein's advisor was in fact H. F. Weber, but they had a major fall out and Einstein switched to Kleiner. April 24 is the 114th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (115th in leap years). ... 1849 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... July 3 is the 184th day of the year (185th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 181 days remaining. ... 1916 (MCMXVI) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... The University of Zurich (in German: Universität Zürich) is the largest university of Switzerland, in the city of Zurich. ... Albert Einstein, photographed in 1947 by Oren J. Turner. ...

Career

Alfred Kleiner was professor of physics at the University of Zurich, Privatdozent 1870, Ausserordentlicher Professor (Associate Professor) 1880, Ordentlicher Professor (Full Professor) 1885, Rektor (Chancellor) 1908-1910, "Honorarprofessor" (Emeritus Professor) 1915, and Privatdozent 1875-1885 at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ("Polytechnikum", also at Zurich). Privatdozent (PD or Priv. ... ETH Zurich (from its German name Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich, ETHZ) is the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich, Switzerland. ...

Einstein and Kleiner

In the period of transition from Weber to Kleiner, Einstein’s controversy with Paul Drude took place in the middle of 1901, and this accompanied a shift of his dissertation topic in spring 1901 from thermoelectricity to molecular kinetics. Paul Karl Ludwig Drude (1863–1906) was a German physicist. ...

Until 1909 the ETH was not authorized to grant doctoral degrees. For this reason a special arrangement enabled ETH students to obtain doctorates from the University of Zurich. At the time most dissertations in physics by ETH students were carried out under the supervision of H.F. Weber, Einstein’s former teacher at the Polytechnikum as it was then called. The University of Zürich had only one physics chair, held by Alfred Kleiner. His main research was focused on measuring instruments, but he had an interest in the foundations of physics. The ETH Zurich, often called Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, is a science and technology university in the city of Zürich, Switzerland. ... The University of Zurich (in German: Universität Zürich) is the largest university of Switzerland, in the city of Zurich. ...

From letters to Mileva Maric one can see that Einstein often had discussions with Kleiner on a wide range of topics. Einstein also showed him his first PhD thesis dissertation in November 1901. This dissertation has not survived, and it is not really clear what it contained. At any rate, Einstein withdrew his dissertation in February 1902. One year later he was giving up his plan to obtain a doctorate. To his friend Michele Besso he wrote: "the whole comedy has become tiresome for me." Mileva Marić (1875 - 1948) was a Serbian mathematician, and Albert Einsteins first wife. ... Michele Angelo Besso (May 25, 1873 - 15 March 1955) was a Swiss engineer, and a close friend of Albert Einstein during his years at the Federal Polytechnic Institute in Zurich, today the ETH Zurich, and then at the patent office in Bern. ...

By March 1903 he seems to have changed his mind. Indeed, a letter to Besso contains some of the central ideas of the 1905 dissertation. Kleiner was, of course, one of the two faculty reviewers of the dissertation, submitted by Einstein to the University on 20 July, 1905. His judgement was very positive: "the arguments and calculations to be carried out are among the most difficult in hydrodynamics." The other reviewer, Heinrich Burkhardt, Professor for Mathematics at the University, added: "the mode of treatment demonstrates fundamental mastery of the relevant mathematical methods."

In his biography of Einstein, Carl Seelig reports: "Einstein later laughingly recounted that his dissertation was first returned by Kleiner with the comment that it was too short. After he had added a single sentence, it was accepted without further comment."

Einstein's statistical papers, from 1902 to 1904, developed the foundations of a theoretical approach that he applied to concrete problems in 1905 and in subsequent years. It combined skepticism about classical mechanics with a firm belief in molecules and a confidence in statistical principles. However, Einstein's PhD thesis does not follow this statistical approach. It has been argued that Einstein avoided his own theoretical ideas to win the approval of his PhD advisor, Alfred Kleiner.^[1]

Notes