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The Man Who Stalked Einstein:
A Tale of Scientific Differences, Envy, and Ethnic Prejudice
Presented by Bruce J. Hillman, MD
The Man Who Stalked Einstein details the antagonistic relationship between Philipp Lenard – the 1905 Nobel Prize winner for physics – and Time Magazine’s ‘Man of the 20th Century,’ Albert Einstein. The two men were antipodes in nearly every regard. Lenard was an experimentalist, who believed the theoretical physics of Einstein was calculated charlatanry. He was a strident German nationalist, whose personal financial reversals and the death of his son led him to believe the popular Nazi shibboleth that the Jews were at fault for Germany’s problems. Lenard personalized Einstein as ‘the Jew.’ Over time, his writings and speeches attacking Einstein reversed the public’s perception of the once popular Einstein and had much to do with Einstein’s fleeing Europe in 1933. Following Hitler’s consolidation of authority, Lenard and his protégé, Johannes Stark - empowered by newly enacted anti-Semitic laws – led the dismissal of all Jewish scientists from German universities.
Bruce J. Hillman, MD, is Professor and former Chair of the Department of Radiology at the University of Virginia. He has published more than 300 articles in the medical literature, as well as the 2010 book, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice – How Medical Imaging is Changing Health Care, explaining medical imaging for a lay audience. He has edited three medical journals, including his current role as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the American College of Radiology. The Man Who Stalked Einstein: How Nazi Scientist Phillip Lenard Changed the Course of History is his first work of creative non-fiction.
