"for his resonance method for recording the
magnetic properties of atomic nuclei"
Isidor Isaac Rabi
USA
Columbia University
New York, NY, USA
1898 - 1988
ISIDOR ISAAC RABI
Consultant to the Project
Project "Y"
Isidor Isaac
Rabi was born in Raymanov, Austria, on July 29, 1898, the son of David Rabi
end 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.
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.
Prof. Rabi died in 1988
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