Isidor Isaac Rabi was born in
Raymanov, Austria, on July 29, 1898, the son of David Rabi and
Janet Teig. He was brought to the United States by his family, in
1899, and his early education was in New York City (Manhattan and
Brooklyn). In 1919 he graduated Bachelor of Chemistry at Cornell University
(New York). After three years in non-scientific occupation, he
started postgraduate studies in physics at Cornell in 1921, which
he later continued at Columbia University. In 1927 he received his Ph.D.
degree for work on the magnetic properties of crystals. Aided by
fellowships, he spent two years in Europe, working at different
times with Sommerfeld, Bohr,
Pauli, Stern, and Heisenberg. On his
return in 1929 he was appointed lecturer in Theoretical Physics
at Columbia University, and after promotion through the various
grades became professor in 1937.
In 1940 he was granted leave from Columbia to work as Associate
Director of the Radiation Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology on the development of radar and the atomic bomb.
In 1945 he returned to Columbia as executive officer of the
Physics Department. In this capacity he is also concerned with
the Brookhaven
National Laboratory for Atomic Research, Long Island, an
organization devoted to research into the peaceful uses of atomic
energy.
His early work was concerned with the magnetic properties of
crystals. In 1930 he began studying the magnetic properties of
atomic nuclei, developing Stern's molecular beam method to great
precision, as a tool for measuring these properties. His
apparatus was based on the production of ordinary electromagnetic
oscillations of the same frequency as that of the Larmor
precession of atomic systems in a magnetic field. By an ingenious
application of the resonance principle he succeeded in detecting
and measuring single states of rotation of atoms and molecules,
and in determining the mechanical and magnetic moments of the
nuclei.
Prof. Rabi has published his most important papers in The
Physical Review, of which he was an Associate Editor for two
periods. In 1939 he received the Prize of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science and, in 1942, the
Elliott Cresson Medal of the Franklin Institute. He was awarded the Medal for
Merit, the highest civilian award in World War II, in 1948, the
King's Medal for Service in the Cause of Freedom the same year,
and is an Officer of the Legion of Honour.
He is an honorary D. Sc. of Princeton, Harvard, and Birmingham
Universities. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society (was its President
in 1950) and a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American
Philosophical Society, and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
In 1959 he was appointed a member of the Board of Governors of
the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovoth, Israel. He holds
foreign memberships of the Japanese and Brazilian Academies, and
is a member of the General Advisory Committee to the Arms Control
and Disarmament Agency, and of the United States National
Commission for UNESCO. At the International Conference on Peaceful
Uses of Atomic Energy (Geneva, 1955) he was the United States
delegate and Vice-President. He is also a member of the Science
Advisory Committee of the International Atomic Energy
Agency.
Dr. Rabi married Helen Newmark in 1926. They have two daughters.
His recreations are travel, walking, and the theatre.
From Nobel Lectures, Physics 1942-1962, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1964
This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and first published in the book series Les Prix Nobel. It was later edited and republished in Nobel Lectures. To cite this document, always state the source as shown above.
Isidor Isaac Rabi died on January 11, 1988.
Copyright © The Nobel Foundation 1944
Isidor Isaac Rabi
