"If any 600-page book about relativity can be described as a page-turner, Einstein: His Life and Universe is it." So wrote Corey S. Powell, the executive editor of Discover magazine, in his New York Times review of Walter Isaacson's new biography of the genius, Albert Einstein.

Isaacson, a Rhodes Scholar and former managing editor of Time magazine and chairman of CNN, will deliver the annual J. Roderick Davis Lecture in the first public program scheduled for the new Pete Hanna Center at Samford University. His topic will be "Einstein's Creativity."

Isaacson, president of the Aspen Institute in Washington, D.C., will speak Thursday, Oct. 18, at 7:30 p.m. in Samford's new multi-purpose facility. The program–free and open to the public–is part of a four-day Homecoming program that celebrates the 50th anniversary of Samford's Lakeshore Drive campus.

Isaacson's Einstein biography was released in April and has garnered positive reviews. A day after it was published, it already had jumped to No. 3 on Amazon.com's Web site. Isaacson wrote a best-selling biography of Henry Kissinger that appeared in 1992, and a biography of Benjamin Franklin that was a hit in 2003.

Born in New Orleans, Isaacson is a graduate of Harvard College and Oxford University. He began his career with the Sunday Times of London and worked for the New Orleans Times-Picayune/States-Item before joining Time as a political correspondent.