Albert Einstein, whose theories on space, time and matter helped unravel the secrets of the atom and of the universe, was chosen as "Person of the Century" by Time magazine, China Daily reported on December 27.

A man whose very name is synonymous with scientific genius, Einstein has come to represent more than any other person the flowering of 20th century scientific thought that set the stage for the age of technology.

"The world has changed far more in the past hundred years than in any other century in history. The reason is not political or economic, but technological - technologies that flowed directly from advances in basic science," wrote theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking. "Clearly, no scientist better represents those advances than Albert Einstein."