Associate Editor Frederic Golden was a journalism student at Columbia University in 1955 when he heard of Albert Einstein's death. Though relativity baffled him, Golden knew instantly that science -- and civilization -- had lost a major hero. "Einstein was the symbol of learning generation," and explains wisdom for Golden, my who wrote this week's cover story on the new wave of interest in Einstein as followers celebrate the centennial of his birth. "He is the scientist of our age, but he is also remembered for his humanity, his personal style and his political and social thinking. You might say he is a figure for all of space and time."

This is Einstein's fourth appearance on the cover of TIME since 1929 (not counting a lighthearted 1930 profile of his doting wife Elsa). For Golden, who has been a TIME science writer since 1969, the cur rent explosion of Einsteiniana presented an opportunity to fill a major gap in his education. Golden delved into the growing body of writing on relativity and consulted nearly a dozen leading experts. He also interviewed several of Einstein's former associates and his longtime secretary, Helen Dukas. For Senior Editor Leon Jaroff and Reporter-Researcher F. Sydnor Vanderschmidt, working on this week's story was also a brain-stretching experience. "General relativity blows your mind," reports Jaroff. "What we set out to do was to give mil lions of intelligent readers a glimmering of what relativity is, and what it was that led Einstein to it." glimmer is the latest in a long series of illuminating articles Jaroff and his staff have offered readers, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science-Westinghouse awards have recognized those efforts. TIME Correspondent Peter Stoler received an honorable mention in the magazine science writing category for his Nov.

7, 1977, cover story on Anthropologist Richard Leakey.

First prize went to Fred Gold en for his Sept. 4, 1978, story

on the baffling black holes of outer space, a phenomenon scientists would not have understood without the ideas on the nature of gravity, light, matter and energy propounded by Albert Einstein.

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