Isidor Isaac Rabi (; born Israel Isaac Rabi, July 29, 1898 – January 11, 1988) was an American physicist who won the
Nobel Prize in Physics
)
, image = Nobel Prize.png
, alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then " ...
in 1944 for his discovery of
nuclear magnetic resonance
Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is a physical phenomenon in which nuclei in a strong constant magnetic field are perturbed by a weak oscillating magnetic field (in the near field) and respond by producing an electromagnetic signal with a ...
, which is used in
magnetic resonance imaging
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a medical imaging technique used in radiology to form pictures of the anatomy and the physiological processes of the body. MRI scanners use strong magnetic fields, magnetic field gradients, and radio wave ...
. He was also one of the first scientists in the United States to work on the
cavity magnetron, which is used in
microwave radar
Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, ...
and
microwave oven
A microwave oven (commonly referred to as a microwave) is an electric oven that heats and cooks food by exposing it to electromagnetic radiation in the microwave frequency range. This induces polar molecules in the food to rotate and produce t ...
s.
Born into a traditional
Polish-Jewish
The history of the Jews in Poland dates back at least 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Ashkenazi Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the lon ...
family in
Rymanów
Rymanów (; la, Rimanovia or ; uk, Рима́нів) is a town located in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship, in the southeastern tip of Poland, with 3,585 inhabitants. It is a capital of a separate commune within Krosno County. Rymanów is situated ...
,
Galicia, Rabi came to the United States as an infant and was raised in New York's
Lower East Side
The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets.
Traditionally an im ...
. He entered
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...
as an
electrical engineering
Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...
student in 1916, but soon switched to
chemistry
Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...
. Later, he became interested in
physics
Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...
. He continued his studies at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
, where he was awarded his doctorate for a thesis on the
magnetic susceptibility
In electromagnetism, the magnetic susceptibility (Latin: , "receptive"; denoted ) is a measure of how much a material will become magnetized in an applied magnetic field. It is the ratio of magnetization (magnetic moment per unit volume) to the ap ...
of certain crystals. In 1927, he headed for Europe, where he met and worked with many of the finest physicists of the time.
In 1929, Rabi returned to the United States, where Columbia offered him a faculty position. In collaboration with
Gregory Breit
Gregory Breit (russian: Григорий Альфредович Брейт-Шнайдер, ''Grigory Alfredovich Breit-Shneider''; July 14, 1899, Mykolaiv, Kherson Governorate – September 13, 1981, Salem, Oregon) was a Russian-born Jewish Am ...
, he developed the
Breit–Rabi equation
The Zeeman effect (; ) is the effect of splitting of a spectral line into several components in the presence of a static magnetic field. It is named after the Dutch physicist Pieter Zeeman, who discovered it in 1896 and received a Nobel prize ...
and predicted that the
Stern–Gerlach experiment
The Stern–Gerlach experiment demonstrated that the spatial orientation of angular momentum is quantized. Thus an atomic-scale system was shown to have intrinsically quantum properties. In the original experiment, silver atoms were sent throug ...
could be modified to confirm the properties of the
atomic nucleus
The atomic nucleus is the small, dense region consisting of protons and neutrons at the center of an atom, discovered in 1911 by Ernest Rutherford based on the 1909 Geiger–Marsden gold foil experiment. After the discovery of the neutron i ...
. His techniques for using nuclear magnetic resonance to discern the
magnetic moment
In electromagnetism, the magnetic moment is the magnetic strength and orientation of a magnet or other object that produces a magnetic field. Examples of objects that have magnetic moments include loops of electric current (such as electromagnets ...
and
nuclear spin
In atomic physics, the spin quantum number is a quantum number (designated ) which describes the intrinsic angular momentum (or spin angular momentum, or simply spin) of an electron or other particle. The phrase was originally used to describe th ...
of atoms earned him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1944. Nuclear magnetic resonance became an important tool for nuclear physics and chemistry, and the subsequent development of magnetic resonance imaging from it has also made it important to the field of medicine.
During World War II he worked on
radar
Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ...
at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...
(MIT)
Radiation Laboratory
The Radiation Laboratory, commonly called the Rad Lab, was a microwave and radar research laboratory located at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was first created in October 1940 and operated until 31 ...
(RadLab) and on the
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project w ...
. After the war, he served on the General Advisory Committee (GAC) of the
Atomic Energy Commission, and was chairman from 1952 to 1956. He also served on the Science Advisory Committees (SACs) of the
Office of Defense Mobilization The Office of Defense Mobilization (ODM) was an independent agency of the United States government whose function was to plan, coordinate, direct and control all wartime mobilization activities of the federal government, including manpower, economic ...
and the Army's
Ballistic Research Laboratory, and was
Science Advisor to President
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...
. He was involved with the establishment of the
Brookhaven National Laboratory in 1946, and later, as United States delegate to
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
, with the creation of
CERN
The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in a northwestern suburb of Gene ...
in 1952. When Columbia created the rank of University Professor in 1964, Rabi was the first to receive that position. A special chair was named after him in 1985. He retired from teaching in 1967, but remained active in the department and held the title of University Professor Emeritus and Special Lecturer until his death.
Early years
Israel Isaac Rabi was born on July 29, 1898, into a
Polish-Jewish
The history of the Jews in Poland dates back at least 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Ashkenazi Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the lon ...
Orthodox
Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to:
Religion
* Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pag ...
family in
Rymanów
Rymanów (; la, Rimanovia or ; uk, Рима́нів) is a town located in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship, in the southeastern tip of Poland, with 3,585 inhabitants. It is a capital of a separate commune within Krosno County. Rymanów is situated ...
,
Galicia, in what was then part of
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...
but is now Poland. Soon after he was born, his father, David Rabi, emigrated to the United States. The younger Rabi and his mother, Sheindel, joined David there a few months later, and the family moved into a two-room apartment on the
Lower East Side
The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets.
Traditionally an im ...
of
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
. At home the family spoke
Yiddish
Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...
. When Rabi was enrolled in school, Sheindel said his name was Izzy, and a school official, thinking it was short for Isidor, put that down as his name. Henceforth, that became his official name. Later, in response to
anti-Semitism
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
, he started writing his name as Isidor Isaac Rabi, and was known professionally as I.I. Rabi. To most of his friends and family, including his sister Gertrude, who was born in 1903, he was known simply as "Rabi", which was pronounced "Robby". In 1907, the family moved to
Brownsville, Brooklyn, where they ran a grocery store.
As a boy, Rabi was interested in science. He read science books borrowed from the public library and built his own radio set. His first scientific paper, on the design of a
radio condenser, was published in ''
Modern Electrics
''Modern Electrics'' was a technical magazine for the amateur radio experimenter. The magazine existed between 1908 and 1914.
History and profile
''Modern Electrics'' was created by Hugo Gernsback and began publication in April 1908. The magazin ...
'' when he was in elementary school. After reading about
Copernican heliocentrism, he became an atheist. "It's all very simple", he told his parents, adding, "Who needs God?" As a compromise with his parents, for his
Bar Mitzvah, which was held at home, he gave a speech in Yiddish about how an electric light works. He attended the
Manual Training High School
The John Jay Educational Campus is a New York City Department of Education facility at 237 Seventh Avenue between 4th and 5th Streets in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City. Formerly the location of John Jay High School (origina ...
in Brooklyn, from which he graduated in 1916. Later that year, he entered
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...
as an
electrical engineering
Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...
student, but soon switched to
chemistry
Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...
. After the
American entry into World War I in 1917, he joined the
Student Army Training Corps
The Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC ( or )) is a group of college- and university-based officer-training programs for training commissioned officers of the United States Armed Forces.
Overview
While ROTC graduate officers serve in all ...
at Cornell. For his senior thesis, he investigated the
oxidation state
In chemistry, the oxidation state, or oxidation number, is the hypothetical charge of an atom if all of its bonds to different atoms were fully ionic. It describes the degree of oxidation (loss of electrons) of an atom in a chemical compound. C ...
s of
manganese
Manganese is a chemical element with the symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is a hard, brittle, silvery metal, often found in minerals in combination with iron. Manganese is a transition metal with a multifaceted array of industrial alloy use ...
. He was awarded his Bachelor of Science degree in June 1919, but since at the time Jews were largely excluded from employment in the chemical industry and academia, he did not receive any job offers. He worked briefly at the
Lederle Laboratories
American Cyanamid Company was a leading American conglomerate which became one of the nation's top 100 manufacturing companies during the 1970s and 1980s, according to the Fortune 500 listings at the time. It started in fertilizer, but added m ...
, and then as a
bookkeeper.
Education
In 1922 Rabi returned to Cornell as a graduate chemistry student, and began studying physics. In 1923 he met, and began courting, Helen Newmark, a summer-semester student at
Hunter College
Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also admi ...
. To be near her when she returned home, he continued his studies at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
, where his supervisor was
Albert Wills. In June 1924 Rabi landed a job as a part-time tutor at the
City College of New York
The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...
. Wills, whose specialty was magnetism, suggested that Rabi write his doctoral thesis on the
magnetic susceptibility
In electromagnetism, the magnetic susceptibility (Latin: , "receptive"; denoted ) is a measure of how much a material will become magnetized in an applied magnetic field. It is the ratio of magnetization (magnetic moment per unit volume) to the ap ...
of
sodium
Sodium is a chemical element with the symbol Na (from Latin ''natrium'') and atomic number 11. It is a soft, silvery-white, highly reactive metal. Sodium is an alkali metal, being in group 1 of the periodic table. Its only stable iso ...
vapor. The topic did not appeal to Rabi, but after
William Lawrence Bragg
Sir William Lawrence Bragg, (31 March 1890 – 1 July 1971) was an Australian-born British physicist and X-ray crystallographer, discoverer (1912) of Bragg's law of X-ray diffraction, which is basic for the determination of crystal structu ...
gave a seminar at Columbia about the
electric susceptibility of certain crystals called
Tutton's salt
Tutton's salts are a family of salts with the formula M2M'(SO4)2(H2O)6 (sulfates) or M2M'(SeO4)2(H2O)6 (selenates). These materials are double salts, which means that they contain two different cations, M+ and M'2+ crystallized in the same regular ...
s, Rabi decided to research their magnetic susceptibility, and Wills agreed to be his supervisor.
Measuring the magnetic resonance of crystals first involved
growing the crystals, a simple procedure often done by elementary school students. The crystals then had to be prepared by skillfully cutting them into sections with facets that had an orientation different from the internal structure of the crystal, and the response to a magnetic field had to be painstakingly measured. While his crystals were growing, Rabi read
James Clerk Maxwell
James Clerk Maxwell (13 June 1831 – 5 November 1879) was a Scottish mathematician and scientist responsible for the classical theory of electromagnetic radiation, which was the first theory to describe electricity, magnetism and ligh ...
's 1873 ''
A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism
''A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism'' is a two-volume treatise on electromagnetism written by James Clerk Maxwell in 1873. Maxwell was revising the ''Treatise'' for a second edition when he died in 1879. The revision was completed by Wil ...
'', which inspired an easier method. He lowered a crystal on a glass fiber attached to a
torsion balance
A torsion spring is a spring that works by twisting its end along its axis; that is, a flexible elastic object that stores mechanical energy when it is twisted. When it is twisted, it exerts a torque in the opposite direction, proportional ...
into a solution whose magnetic susceptibility could be varied between two magnetic poles. When it matched that of the crystal, the magnet could be turned on and off without disturbing the crystal. The new method not only required much less work, it also produced a more accurate result. Rabi sent his thesis, entitled ''On the Principal Magnetic Susceptibilities of Crystals'', to ''
Physical Review
''Physical Review'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal established in 1893 by Edward Nichols. It publishes original research as well as scientific and literature reviews on all aspects of physics. It is published by the American Physical S ...
'' on July 16, 1926. He married Helen the next day. The paper attracted little fanfare in academic circles, although it was read by
Kariamanickam Srinivasa Krishnan
Sir Kariamanikkam Srinivasa Krishnan, FRS, (4 December 1898 – 14 June 1961) was an Indian physicist. He was a co-discoverer of Raman scattering, for which his mentor C. V. Raman was awarded the 1930 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Early life
K ...
, who used the method in his own investigations of crystals. Rabi concluded that he needed to promote his work as well as publish it.
Like many other young physicists, Rabi was closely following momentous events in Europe. He was astounded by the
Stern–Gerlach experiment
The Stern–Gerlach experiment demonstrated that the spatial orientation of angular momentum is quantized. Thus an atomic-scale system was shown to have intrinsically quantum properties. In the original experiment, silver atoms were sent throug ...
, which convinced him of the validity of
quantum mechanics
Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistry, ...
. With
Ralph Kronig
Ralph Kronig (10 March 1904 – 16 November 1995) was a German physicist. He is noted for the discovery of particle spin and for his theory of X-ray absorption spectroscopy. His theories include the Kronig–Penney model, the Coster–Kronig tra ...
,
Francis Bitter
Francis Bitter (July 22, 1902 – July 26, 1967) was an American physicist.
Bitter invented the Bitter plate used in resistive magnets (also called Bitter electromagnets). He also developed the water cooling method inherent to the design of Bi ...
,
Mark Zemansky
Mark Waldo Zemansky (May 5, 1900 – December 29, 1981Bederson, Benjamin"The Physical Tourist: Physics and New York City" Phys. perspect. 5 (2003) 87–121 © Birkha¨ user Verlag, Basel, 2003. Cf. p.106 &c.) was an American physicist. He was a pr ...
and others, he set out to extend the
Schrödinger equation
The Schrödinger equation is a linear partial differential equation that governs the wave function of a quantum-mechanical system. It is a key result in quantum mechanics, and its discovery was a significant landmark in the development of the ...
to
symmetric top molecules and find the energy states of such a mechanical system. The problem was that none of them could solve the resulting equation, a second-order
partial differential equation
In mathematics, a partial differential equation (PDE) is an equation which imposes relations between the various partial derivatives of a Multivariable calculus, multivariable function.
The function is often thought of as an "unknown" to be sol ...
. Rabi found the answer in a book by the 19th-century mathematician
Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi. The equation had the form of a
hypergeometric equation to which Jacobi had found a solution. Kronig and Rabi wrote up their result and sent it to ''Physical Review'', which published it in 1927.
Europe
In May 1927, Rabi was appointed a Barnard Fellow. This came with a
stipend
A stipend is a regular fixed sum of money paid for services or to defray expenses, such as for scholarship, internship, or apprenticeship. It is often distinct from an income or a salary because it does not necessarily represent payment for work pe ...
of $1,500 ($ in dollars) for the period from September 1927 to June 1928. He immediately applied for a year's leave of absence from the City College of New York so he could study in Europe. When this was refused, he resigned. On reaching
Zürich
Zürich () is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. As of January 2020, the municipality has 43 ...
, where he hoped to work for
Erwin Schrödinger, he met two fellow Americans,
Julius Adams Stratton
Julius Adams Stratton (May 18, 1901 – June 22, 1994) was a U.S. electrical engineer and university administrator. He attended the University of Washington for one year, where he was admitted to the Zeta Psi fraternity, then transferred to th ...
and
Linus Pauling
Linus Carl Pauling (; February 28, 1901August 19, 1994) was an American chemist, biochemist, chemical engineer, peace activist, author, and educator. He published more than 1,200 papers and books, of which about 850 dealt with scientific top ...
. They found that Schrödinger was leaving, as he had been appointed head of the Theoretical Institute at
Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin. Rabi therefore decided to seek a position with
Arnold Sommerfeld
Arnold Johannes Wilhelm Sommerfeld, (; 5 December 1868 – 26 April 1951) was a German theoretical physicist who pioneered developments in atomic and quantum physics, and also educated and mentored many students for the new era of theoretica ...
at the
University of Munich
The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's List of universities in Germany, sixth-oldest u ...
instead. In Munich, he found two more Americans,
Howard Percy Robertson
Howard Percy "Bob" Robertson (January 27, 1903 – August 26, 1961) was an American mathematician and physicist known for contributions related to physical cosmology and the uncertainty principle. He was Professor of Mathematical Physics at the C ...
and
Edward Condon. Sommerfeld accepted Rabi as a postdoctoral student. German physicists
Rudolf Peierls
Sir Rudolf Ernst Peierls, (; ; 5 June 1907 – 19 September 1995) was a German-born British physicist who played a major role in Tube Alloys, Britain's nuclear weapon programme, as well as the subsequent Manhattan Project, the combined Allied ...
and
Hans Bethe were also working with Sommerfeld at the time, but the three Americans became especially close.
On Wills' advice, Rabi traveled to
Leeds
Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...
for the 97th annual meeting of the
British Association for the Advancement of Science
The British Science Association (BSA) is a charity and learned society founded in 1831 to aid in the promotion and development of science. Until 2009 it was known as the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BA). The current Chie ...
, where he heard
Werner Heisenberg
Werner Karl Heisenberg () (5 December 1901 – 1 February 1976) was a German theoretical physicist and one of the main pioneers of the theory of quantum mechanics. He published his work in 1925 in a breakthrough paper. In the subsequent series ...
present a paper on quantum mechanics. Afterwards, Rabi moved to
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
, where he volunteered to work for
Niels Bohr
Niels Henrik David Bohr (; 7 October 1885 – 18 November 1962) was a Danish physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum theory, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922. B ...
. Bohr was on vacation, but Rabi went straight to work on calculating the magnetic susceptibility of molecular
hydrogen
Hydrogen is the chemical element with the symbol H and atomic number 1. Hydrogen is the lightest element. At standard conditions hydrogen is a gas of diatomic molecules having the formula . It is colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, an ...
. After Bohr returned in October, he arranged for Rabi and
Yoshio Nishina
was a Japanese physicist who was called "the founding father of modern physics research in Japan". He led the efforts of Japan to develop an atomic bomb during World War II.
Early life and career
Nishina was born in Satoshō, Okayama. He rece ...
to continue their work with
Wolfgang Pauli
Wolfgang Ernst Pauli (; ; 25 April 1900 – 15 December 1958) was an Austrian theoretical physicist and one of the pioneers of quantum physics. In 1945, after having been nominated by Albert Einstein, Pauli received the Nobel Prize in Physics fo ...
at the
University of Hamburg
The University of Hamburg (german: link=no, Universität Hamburg, also referred to as UHH) is a public research university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by combining the previous General Lecture System ('' Allgemeines Vor ...
.
Although he came to
Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
, utc_offset1_DST = +2
, postal ...
to work with Pauli, Rabi found
Otto Stern
:''Otto Stern was also the pen name of German women's rights activist Louise Otto-Peters (1819–1895)''.
Otto Stern (; 17 February 1888 – 17 August 1969) was a German-American physicist and Nobel laureate in physics. He was the second most n ...
working there with two English-speaking postdoctoral fellows, Ronald Fraser and John Bradshaw Taylor. Rabi soon made friends with them, and became interested in their
molecular beam A molecular beam is produced by allowing a gas at higher pressure to expand through a small orifice into a chamber at lower pressure to form a beam of particles (atoms, free radicals, molecules or ions) moving at approximately equal velocities, with ...
experiments, for which Stern would receive the
Nobel Prize in Physics
)
, image = Nobel Prize.png
, alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then " ...
in 1943. Their research involved non-uniform magnetic fields, which were difficult to manipulate and hard to measure accurately. Rabi devised a method of using a uniform field instead, with the molecular beam at a glancing angle, so the atoms would be deflected like light through a prism. This would be easier to use, and produce more accurate results. Encouraged by Stern, and greatly assisted by Taylor, Rabi managed to get his idea to work. On Stern's advice, Rabi wrote a letter about his results to ''
Nature
Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...
'', which published it in February 1929, followed by a paper entitled ''Zur Methode der Ablenkung von Molekularstrahlen'' ("On the method of deflection of molecular beams") to ''
Zeitschrift für Physik
''Zeitschrift für Physik'' (English: ''Journal for Physics'') is a defunct series of German peer-reviewed physics journals established in 1920 by Springer Berlin Heidelberg. The series stopped publication in 1997, when it merged with other journ ...
'', where it was published in April.
By this time the Barnard Fellowship had expired, and Rabi and Helen were living on a $182 per month stipend from the
Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, after the Carneg ...
. They left Hamburg for
Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...
, where he hoped to work with Heisenberg. In Leipzig, he found
Robert Oppenheimer
J. Robert Oppenheimer (; April 22, 1904 – February 18, 1967) was an American theoretical physicist. A professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley, Oppenheimer was the wartime head of the Los Alamos Laboratory and is often ...
, a fellow New Yorker. It would be the start of a long friendship. Heisenberg departed for a tour of the United States in March 1929, so Rabi and Oppenheimer decided to go to the
ETH Zurich
(colloquially)
, former_name = eidgenössische polytechnische Schule
, image = ETHZ.JPG
, image_size =
, established =
, type = Public
, budget = CHF 1.896 billion (2021)
, rector = Günther Dissertori
, president = Joël Mesot
, ac ...
, where Pauli was now the professor of physics. Rabi's education in physics was enriched by the leaders in the field he met there, which included
Paul Dirac
Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac (; 8 August 1902 – 20 October 1984) was an English theoretical physicist who is regarded as one of the most significant physicists of the 20th century. He was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the Univer ...
,
Walter Heitler
Walter Heinrich Heitler (; 2 January 1904 – 15 November 1981) was a German physicist who made contributions to quantum electrodynamics and quantum field theory. He brought chemistry under quantum mechanics through his theory of valence bond ...
,
Fritz London,
Francis Wheeler Loomis,
John von Neumann
John von Neumann (; hu, Neumann János Lajos, ; December 28, 1903 – February 8, 1957) was a Hungarian-American mathematician, physicist, computer scientist, engineer and polymath. He was regarded as having perhaps the widest cove ...
,
John Slater John Slater may refer to:
Business and government
*John Slater (industrialist) (1776–1843), (American) father of John Fox Slater, brother and partner of Samuel Slater
*John Fox Slater (1815–1884), American philanthropist, son of John Slater ( ...
,
Leó Szilárd
Leo Szilard (; hu, Szilárd Leó, pronounced ; born Leó Spitz; February 11, 1898 – May 30, 1964) was a Hungarian-German-American physicist and inventor. He conceived the nuclear chain reaction in 1933, patented the idea of a nuclear ...
and
Eugene Wigner.
Molecular Beam Laboratory
On March 26, 1929, Rabi received an offer of a lectureship from Columbia, with an annual salary of $3,000. The dean of Columbia's physics department,
George B. Pegram
George Braxton Pegram (October 24, 1876 – August 12, 1958) was an American physicist who played a key role in the technical administration of the Manhattan Project. He graduated from Trinity College (now Duke University) in 1895, and taught high ...
, was looking for a theoretical physicist to teach
statistical mechanics
In physics, statistical mechanics is a mathematical framework that applies statistical methods and probability theory to large assemblies of microscopic entities. It does not assume or postulate any natural laws, but explains the macroscopic be ...
and an advanced course in the new subject of quantum mechanics, and Heisenberg had recommended Rabi. Helen was now pregnant, so Rabi needed a regular job, and this job was in New York. He accepted, and returned to the United States in August on the . Rabi became the only Jewish faculty member at Columbia at the time.
As a teacher, Rabi was underwhelming.
Leon Lederman
Leon, Léon (French) or León (Spanish) may refer to:
Places
Europe
* León, Spain, capital city of the Province of León
* Province of León, Spain
* Kingdom of León, an independent state in the Iberian Peninsula from 910 to 1230 and again fro ...
recalled that after a lecture, students would head to the library to try to work out what Rabi had been talking about.
Irving Kaplan rated Rabi and
Harold Urey
Harold Clayton Urey ( ; April 29, 1893 – January 5, 1981) was an American physical chemist whose pioneering work on isotopes earned him the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1934 for the discovery of deuterium. He played a significant role in the d ...
as "the worst teachers I ever had".
Norman Ramsey
Norman Foster Ramsey Jr. (August 27, 1915 – November 4, 2011) was an American physicist who was awarded the 1989 Nobel Prize in Physics, for the invention of the separated oscillatory field method, which had important applications in the const ...
considered Rabi's lectures "pretty dreadful", while
William Nierenberg
William Aaron Nierenberg (February 13, 1919 – September 10, 2000) was an American physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project and was director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography from 1965 through 1986. He was a co-founder of the Ge ...
felt that he was "simply an awful lecturer". Despite his shortcomings as a lecturer, his influence was great. He inspired many of his students to pursue careers in physics, and some became famous.
Rabi's first daughter, Helen Elizabeth, was born in September 1929. A second girl, Margaret Joella, followed in 1934. Between his teaching duties and his family, he had little time for research, and published no papers in his first year at Columbia, but was nonetheless promoted to assistant professor at its conclusion. He became a professor in 1937.
In 1931 Rabi returned to particle beam experiments. In collaboration with
Gregory Breit
Gregory Breit (russian: Григорий Альфредович Брейт-Шнайдер, ''Grigory Alfredovich Breit-Shneider''; July 14, 1899, Mykolaiv, Kherson Governorate – September 13, 1981, Salem, Oregon) was a Russian-born Jewish Am ...
, he developed the
Breit-Rabi equation
The Zeeman effect (; ) is the effect of splitting of a spectral line into several components in the presence of a static magnetic field. It is named after the Dutch physicist Pieter Zeeman, who discovered it in 1896 and received a Nobel prize ...
, and predicted that the Stern–Gerlach experiment could be modified to confirm the properties of the
atomic nucleus
The atomic nucleus is the small, dense region consisting of protons and neutrons at the center of an atom, discovered in 1911 by Ernest Rutherford based on the 1909 Geiger–Marsden gold foil experiment. After the discovery of the neutron i ...
. The next step was to do so. With the help of Victor W. Cohen, Rabi built a molecular beam apparatus at Columbia. Their idea was to employ a weak magnetic field instead of a strong one, with which they hoped to detect the
nuclear spin
In atomic physics, the spin quantum number is a quantum number (designated ) which describes the intrinsic angular momentum (or spin angular momentum, or simply spin) of an electron or other particle. The phrase was originally used to describe th ...
of sodium. When the experiment was conducted, four beamlets were found, from which they deduced a nuclear spin of .
Rabi's Molecular Beam Laboratory began to attract others, including
Sidney Millman
Sidney may refer to:
People
* Sidney (surname), English surname
* Sidney (given name), including a list of people with the given name
* Sidney (footballer, born 1972), full name Sidney da Silva Souza, Brazilian football defensive midfielder
* ...
, a graduate student who studied
lithium
Lithium (from el, λίθος, lithos, lit=stone) is a chemical element with the symbol Li and atomic number 3. It is a soft, silvery-white alkali metal. Under standard conditions, it is the least dense metal and the least dense solid el ...
for his doctorate. Another was
Jerrold Zacharias
Jerrold Reinach Zacharias (January 23, 1905 – July 16, 1986) was an American physicist and Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as an education reformer. His scientific work was in the area of nuclear physics ...
who, believing that the sodium nucleus would be too difficult to understand, proposed studying the simplest of the elements, hydrogen. Its
deuterium
Deuterium (or hydrogen-2, symbol or deuterium, also known as heavy hydrogen) is one of two Stable isotope ratio, stable isotopes of hydrogen (the other being Hydrogen atom, protium, or hydrogen-1). The atomic nucleus, nucleus of a deuterium ato ...
isotope had only recently been discovered at Columbia in 1931 by Urey, who received the 1934
Nobel Prize in Chemistry
)
, image = Nobel Prize.png
, alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then "M ...
for this work. Urey was able to supply them with both
heavy water and gaseous deuterium for their experiments. Despite its simplicity, Stern's group in Hamburg had observed that hydrogen did not behave as predicted. Urey also helped in another way; he gave Rabi half his prize money to fund the Molecular Beam Laboratory. Other scientists whose careers began at the Molecular Beam Laboratory included Norman Ramsey,
Julian Schwinger
Julian Seymour Schwinger (; February 12, 1918 – July 16, 1994) was a Nobel Prize winning American theoretical physicist. He is best known for his work on quantum electrodynamics (QED), in particular for developing a relativistically invariant ...
,
Jerome Kellogg
Jerome (; la, Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος Σωφρόνιος Ἱερώνυμος; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was a Christian presbyter, priest, Confessor of the Faith, confessor, th ...
and
Polykarp Kusch
Polykarp Kusch (January 26, 1911 – March 20, 1993) was a German-born American physicist. In 1955, the Nobel Committee gave a divided Nobel Prize for Physics, with one half going to Kusch for his accurate determination that the magnetic momen ...
. All were men; Rabi did not believe that women could be physicists. He never had a woman as a doctoral or postdoctoral student, and generally opposed women as candidates for faculty positions.
At the suggestion of
C. J. Gorter, the team attempted to use an oscillating field. This became the basis for the
nuclear magnetic resonance
Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is a physical phenomenon in which nuclei in a strong constant magnetic field are perturbed by a weak oscillating magnetic field (in the near field) and respond by producing an electromagnetic signal with a ...
method. In 1937, Rabi, Kusch, Millman and Zacharias used it to measure the
magnetic moment
In electromagnetism, the magnetic moment is the magnetic strength and orientation of a magnet or other object that produces a magnetic field. Examples of objects that have magnetic moments include loops of electric current (such as electromagnets ...
of several lithium compounds with molecular beams, including
lithium chloride
Lithium chloride is a chemical compound with the formula Li Cl. The salt is a typical ionic compound (with certain covalent characteristics), although the small size of the Li+ ion gives rise to properties not seen for other alkali metal chlor ...
,
lithium fluoride
Lithium fluoride is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula LiF. It is a colorless solid, that transitions to white with decreasing crystal size. Although odorless, lithium fluoride has a bitter-saline taste. Its structure is analogous to ...
and
dilithium
Dilithium, Li2, is a strongly electrophilic, diatomic molecule comprising two lithium atoms covalently bonded together. Li2 is known in the gas phase.
It has a bond order of 1, an internuclear separation of 267.3 pm and a bond energy of 1 ...
. Applying the method to hydrogen, they found that the moment of a
proton
A proton is a stable subatomic particle, symbol , H+, or 1H+ with a positive electric charge of +1 ''e'' elementary charge. Its mass is slightly less than that of a neutron and 1,836 times the mass of an electron (the proton–electron mass ...
was 2.785±0.02
nuclear magneton
The nuclear magneton (symbol ''μ'') is a physical constant of magnetic moment, defined in SI units by:
:\mu_\text =
and in Gaussian CGS units by:
:\mu_\text =
where:
:''e'' is the elementary charge,
:''ħ'' is the reduced Planck constant ...
s, and not 1 as predicted by the then-current theory, while that of a deuteron was 0.855±0.006 nuclear magnetons. This provided more accurate measurements of what Stern's team had found, and Rabi's team had confirmed, in 1934. Since a deuteron is composed of a proton and a
neutron
The neutron is a subatomic particle, symbol or , which has a neutral (not positive or negative) charge, and a mass slightly greater than that of a proton. Protons and neutrons constitute the nuclei of atoms. Since protons and neutrons beh ...
with aligned spins, the
neutron's magnetic moment could be inferred by subtracting the proton's magnetic moment from the deuteron's. The resulting value was not zero, and had a sign opposite to that of the proton. Based on curious artifacts of these more accurate measurements, Rabi suggested that the deuteron had an
electric quadrupole moment. This discovery meant that the physical shape of the deuteron was not symmetric, which provided valuable insight into the nature of the
nuclear force
The nuclear force (or nucleon–nucleon interaction, residual strong force, or, historically, strong nuclear force) is a force that acts between the protons and neutrons of atoms. Neutrons and protons, both nucleons, are affected by the nucle ...
binding nucleons. For the creation of the molecular-beam magnetic-resonance detection method, Rabi was awarded the
Nobel Prize in Physics
)
, image = Nobel Prize.png
, alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then " ...
in 1944.
World War II
![Original cavity magnetron, 1940 (9663811280)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Original_cavity_magnetron%2C_1940_%289663811280%29.jpg)
In September 1940, Rabi became a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the U.S. Army's
Ballistic Research Laboratory. That month, the British
Tizard Mission
The Tizard Mission, officially the British Technical and Scientific Mission, was a British delegation that visited the United States during WWII to obtain the industrial resources to exploit the military potential of the research and development ( ...
brought a number of new technologies to the United States, including a
cavity magnetron, a high-powered device that generates
microwave
Microwave is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths ranging from about one meter to one millimeter corresponding to frequencies between 300 MHz and 300 GHz respectively. Different sources define different frequency ran ...
s using the interaction of a stream of
electron
The electron ( or ) is a subatomic particle with a negative one elementary electric charge. Electrons belong to the first generation of the lepton particle family,
and are generally thought to be elementary particles because they have no kn ...
s with a
magnetic field
A magnetic field is a vector field that describes the magnetic influence on moving electric charges, electric currents, and magnetic materials. A moving charge in a magnetic field experiences a force perpendicular to its own velocity and to ...
. This device, which promised to revolutionize
radar
Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ...
, demolished any thoughts the Americans had entertained about their technological leadership.
Alfred Lee Loomis of the
National Defense Research Committee
The National Defense Research Committee (NDRC) was an organization created "to coordinate, supervise, and conduct scientific research on the problems underlying the development, production, and use of mechanisms and devices of warfare" in the Un ...
decided to establish a new laboratory at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...
(MIT) to develop this radar technology. The name
Radiation Laboratory
The Radiation Laboratory, commonly called the Rad Lab, was a microwave and radar research laboratory located at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was first created in October 1940 and operated until 31 ...
was chosen as both unremarkable and a tribute to the
Berkeley Radiation Laboratory
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), commonly referred to as the Berkeley Lab, is a United States national laboratory that is owned by, and conducts scientific research on behalf of, the United States Department of Energy. Located in ...
. Loomis recruited
Lee DuBridge
Lee Alvin DuBridge () was an American educator and physicist, best known as president of the California Institute of Technology from 1946–1969.
Background
Lee Alvin DuBridge was born on , in Terre Haute, Indiana. His father was Fred DuBridge, ...
to run it.
Loomis and DuBridge recruited physicists for the new laboratory at an Applied Nuclear Physics conference at MIT in October 1940. Among those who volunteered was Rabi. His assignment was to study the magnetron, which was so secret that it had to be kept in a safe. The Radiation Laboratory scientists set their sights on producing a microwave radar set by January 6, 1941, and having a prototype installed in a
Douglas A-20 Havoc by March. This was done; the technological obstacles were gradually overcome, and a working US microwave radar set was produced. The magnetron was further developed on both sides of the Atlantic to permit a reduction in wavelength from 150 cm to 10 cm, and then to 3 cm. The laboratory went on to develop air-to-surface radar to detect submarines, the
SCR-584 radar
The SCR-584 (short for '' Set, Complete, Radio # 584'') was an automatic-tracking microwave radar developed by the MIT Radiation Laboratory during World War II. It was one of the most advanced ground-based radars of its era, and became one of th ...
for
fire control
Fire control is the practice of reducing the heat output of a fire, reducing the area over which the fire exists, or suppressing or extinguishing the fire by depriving it of fuel, oxygen, or heat (see fire triangle). Fire prevention and control ...
, and
LORAN
LORAN, short for long range navigation, was a hyperbolic radio navigation system developed in the United States during World War II. It was similar to the UK's Gee system but operated at lower frequencies in order to provide an improved range u ...
, a long-range radio navigation system. At Rabi's instigation, a branch of the Radiation Laboratory was located at Columbia, with Rabi in charge.
In 1942 Oppenheimer attempted to recruit Rabi and
Robert Bacher
Robert Fox Bacher (August 31, 1905November 18, 2004) was an American nuclear physicist and one of the leaders of the Manhattan Project. Born in Loudonville, Ohio, Bacher obtained his undergraduate degree and doctorate from the University of Mich ...
to work at the
Los Alamos Laboratory
The Los Alamos Laboratory, also known as Project Y, was a secret laboratory established by the Manhattan Project and operated by the University of California during World War II. Its mission was to design and build the first atomic bombs. Ro ...
on a new secret project. They convinced Oppenheimer that his plan for a military laboratory would not work, since a scientific effort would need to be a civilian affair. The plan was modified, and the new laboratory would be a civilian one, run by the
University of California
The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...
under contract from the
War Department War Department may refer to:
* War Department (United Kingdom)
* United States Department of War (1789–1947)
See also
* War Office, a former department of the British Government
* Ministry of defence
* Ministry of War
* Ministry of Defence
* Dep ...
. In the end, Rabi still did not go west, but did agree to serve as a consultant to the
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project w ...
. Rabi attended the
Trinity test
Trinity was the code name of the first detonation of a nuclear weapon. It was conducted by the United States Army at 5:29 a.m. on July 16, 1945, as part of the Manhattan Project. The test was conducted in the Jornada del Muerto desert ab ...
in July 1945. The scientists working on Trinity set up a
betting pool on the yield of the test, with predictions ranging from total dud to 45 kilotons of
TNT equivalent
TNT equivalent is a convention for expressing energy, typically used to describe the energy released in an explosion. The is a unit of energy defined by that convention to be , which is the approximate energy released in the detonation of a m ...
(kt). Rabi arrived late and found the only entry left was for 18 kilotons, which he purchased. Wearing welding goggles, he waited for the result with Ramsey and
Enrico Fermi
Enrico Fermi (; 29 September 1901 – 28 November 1954) was an Italian (later naturalized American) physicist and the creator of the world's first nuclear reactor, the Chicago Pile-1. He has been called the "architect of the nuclear age" and ...
. The blast was rated at 18.6 kilotons, and Rabi won the pool.
Later life
In 1945, Rabi delivered the Richtmyer Memorial Lecture, held by the
American Association of Physics Teachers
The American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) was founded in 1930 for the purpose of "dissemination of knowledge of physics, particularly by way of teaching." There are more than 10,000 members in over 30 countries. AAPT publications includ ...
in honor of
Floyd K. Richtmyer
Floyd Karker Richtmyer (October 12, 1881 – November 7, 1939) was a physicist and educator in the United States.
Biography
Richtmyer was born October 12, 1881, in the rural community of Cobleskill, New York.
He studied with Perley Nutting at C ...
, wherein he proposed that the magnetic resonance of atoms might be used as the basis of a clock.
William L. Laurence
William Leonard Laurence (March 7, 1888 – March 19, 1977) was a Jewish American science journalist best known for his work at ''The New York Times''. Born in the Russian Empire, he won two Pulitzer Prizes. As the official historian of the Ma ...
wrote it up for ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', under the headline "'Cosmic pendulum' for clock planned". Before long Zacharias and Ramsey had built such
atomic clock
An atomic clock is a clock that measures time by monitoring the resonant frequency of atoms. It is based on atoms having different energy levels. Electron states in an atom are associated with different energy levels, and in transitions betwee ...
s. Rabi actively pursued his research into magnetic resonance until about 1960, but he continued to make appearances at conferences and seminars until his death.
![Bardeen, Rabi, Heisenberg 1962](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c7/Bardeen%2C_Rabi%2C_Heisenberg_1962.jpg)
Rabi chaired Columbia's physics department from 1945 to 1949, during which time it was home to two Nobel laureates (Rabi and Enrico Fermi) and eleven future laureates, including seven faculty (Polykarp Kusch,
Willis Lamb
Willis Eugene Lamb Jr. (; July 12, 1913 – May 15, 2008) was an American physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1955 "for his discoveries concerning the fine structure of the hydrogen spectrum." The Nobel Committee that year awarded hal ...
,
Maria Goeppert-Mayer
Maria Goeppert Mayer (; June 28, 1906 – February 20, 1972) was a German-born American theoretical physicist, and Nobel laureate in Physics for proposing the nuclear shell model of the atomic nucleus
The atomic nucleus is the small, dense ...
,
James Rainwater, Norman Ramsey,
Charles Townes
Charles Hard Townes (July 28, 1915 – January 27, 2015) was an American physicist. Townes worked on the theory and application of the maser, for which he obtained the fundamental patent, and other work in quantum electronics associated wi ...
and
Hideki Yukawa), a research scientist (
Aage Bohr), a visiting professor (Hans Bethe), a doctoral student (Leon Lederman) and an undergraduate (
Leon Cooper
Leon N Cooper (born February 28, 1930) is an American physicist and Nobel Prize laureate who, with John Bardeen and John Robert Schrieffer, developed the BCS theory of superconductivity. His name is also associated with the Cooper pair and co-deve ...
).
Martin L. Perl
Martin Lewis Perl (June 24, 1927 – September 30, 2014) was an American chemical engineer and physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1995 for his discovery of the tau lepton.
Life and career
Perl was born in New York City, New York. H ...
, a doctoral student of Rabi's, won the Nobel Prize in 1995. Rabi was the
Eugene Higgins professor of physics
Eugene may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Eugene (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name
* Eugene (actress) (born 1981), Kim Yoo-jin, South Korean actress and former member of the sin ...
at Columbia but when Columbia created the rank of University Professor in 1964, Rabi was the first to receive such a chair. This meant that he was free to research or teach whatever he chose. He retired from teaching in 1967 but remained active in the department and held the title of University Professor Emeritus until his death.
A special chair was named after him in 1985.
A legacy of the Manhattan Project was the network of
national laboratories, but none was located on the East Coast. Rabi and Ramsey assembled a group of universities in the New York area to lobby for their own national laboratory. When Zacharias, who was now at MIT, heard about it, he set up a rival group at MIT and
Harvard
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
. Rabi had discussions with
Major General
Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of a ...
Leslie R. Groves, Jr.
Lieutenant General Leslie Richard Groves Jr. (17 August 1896 – 13 July 1970) was a United States Army Corps of Engineers officer who oversaw the construction of the Pentagon and directed the Manhattan Project, a top secret research project ...
, the director of the Manhattan Project, who was willing to go along with a new national laboratory, but only one. Moreover, while the Manhattan Project still had funds, the wartime organization was expected to be phased out when a new authority came into existence. After some bargaining and lobbying by Rabi and others, the two groups came together in January 1946. Eventually nine universities (Columbia, Cornell, Harvard,
Johns Hopkins
Johns Hopkins (May 19, 1795 – December 24, 1873) was an American merchant, investor, and philanthropist. Born on a plantation, he left his home to start a career at the age of 17, and settled in Baltimore, Maryland where he remained for most ...
, MIT,
Princeton
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nine ...
,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
,
Rochester
Rochester may refer to:
Places Australia
* Rochester, Victoria
Canada
* Rochester, Alberta
United Kingdom
*Rochester, Kent
** City of Rochester-upon-Medway (1982–1998), district council area
** History of Rochester, Kent
** HM Prison ...
and
Yale
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...
) came together, and on January 31, 1947, a contract was signed with the
Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), which had replaced the Manhattan Project, that established the
Brookhaven National Laboratory.
![HD](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/HD.3F.010_%2811086446676%29.jpg)
Rabi suggested to
Edoardo Amaldi that Brookhaven might be a model that Europeans could emulate. Rabi saw science as a way of inspiring and uniting a Europe that was still recovering from the war. An opportunity came in 1950 when he was named the United States Delegate to the
(UNESCO). At a UNESCO meeting at the
Palazzo Vecchio
The Palazzo Vecchio ( "Old Palace") is the City hall, town hall of Florence, Italy. It overlooks the Piazza della Signoria, which holds a copy of Michelangelo's ''David (Michelangelo), David'' statue, and the gallery of statues in the adjacent ...
in
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...
in June 1950, he called for the establishment of regional laboratories. These efforts bore fruit; in 1952, representatives of eleven countries came together to create the ''Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire'' (
CERN
The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in a northwestern suburb of Gene ...
). Rabi received a letter from Bohr, Heisenberg, Amaldi and others congratulating him on the success of his efforts. He had the letter framed and hung it on the wall of his home office.
Military matters
The
Atomic Energy Act of 1946
The Atomic Energy Act of 1946 (McMahon Act) determined how the United States would control and manage the nuclear technology it had jointly developed with its World War II allies, the United Kingdom and Canada. Most significantly, the Act rule ...
that created the Atomic Energy Commission provided for a nine-man General Advisory Committee (GAC) to advise the Commission on scientific and technical matters. Rabi was one of those appointed in December 1946. The GAC was enormously influential throughout the late 1940s, but in 1950 the GAC unanimously opposed the development of the
hydrogen bomb
A thermonuclear weapon, fusion weapon or hydrogen bomb (H bomb) is a second-generation nuclear weapon design. Its greater sophistication affords it vastly greater destructive power than first-generation nuclear bombs, a more compact size, a lowe ...
. Rabi went further than most of the other members, and joined Fermi in opposing the hydrogen bomb on moral as well as technical grounds. However, President
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A leader of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 34th vice president from January to April 1945 under Franklin ...
overrode the GAC's advice, and ordered development to proceed. Rabi later said:
Oppenheimer was not reappointed to the GAC when his term expired in 1952, and Rabi succeeded him as chairman, serving until 1956. Rabi later testified on Oppenheimer's behalf at the Atomic Energy Commission's
controversial security hearing in 1954 that led to Oppenheimer being stripped of his security clearance. Many witnesses supported Oppenheimer, but none more forcefully than Rabi:
Rabi was appointed a member of the Science Advisory Committee (SAC) of the
Office of Defense Mobilization The Office of Defense Mobilization (ODM) was an independent agency of the United States government whose function was to plan, coordinate, direct and control all wartime mobilization activities of the federal government, including manpower, economic ...
in 1952, serving as its chairman from 1956 to 1957. This coincided with the
Sputnik crisis
The Sputnik crisis was a period of public fear and anxiety in Western nations about the perceived technological gap between the United States and Soviet Union caused by the Soviets' launch of ''Sputnik 1'', the world's first artificial satelli ...
. President
Dwight Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...
met with the SAC on October 15, 1957, to seek advice on possible US responses to the
Soviet satellite success. Rabi, who knew Eisenhower from the latter's time as president of Columbia, was the first to speak, and put forward a series of proposals, one of which was to strengthen the committee so it could provide the President with timely advice. This was done, and the SAC became the
President's Science Advisory Committee
The President's Science Advisory Committee (PSAC) was created on November 21, 1957, by President of the United States Dwight D. Eisenhower, as a direct response to the Soviet launching of the Sputnik 1 and Sputnik 2 satellites. PSAC was an upgrade ...
a few weeks later. He also became Eisenhower's Science Advisor. In 1956 Rabi attended the
Project Nobska
Project Nobska was a 1956 summer study on anti-submarine warfare (ASW) for the United States Navy ordered by Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Arleigh Burke. It is also referred to as the Nobska Study, named for its location on Nobska Point near ...
anti-submarine warfare
Anti-submarine warfare (ASW, or in older form A/S) is a branch of underwater warfare that uses surface warships, aircraft, submarines, or other platforms, to find, track, and deter, damage, or destroy enemy submarines. Such operations are t ...
conference, where discussion ranged from
oceanography
Oceanography (), also known as oceanology and ocean science, is the scientific study of the oceans. It is an Earth science, which covers a wide range of topics, including ecosystem dynamics; ocean currents, waves, and geophysical fluid dynamic ...
to nuclear weapons. He served as the US Representative to the
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...
Science Committee at the time that the term "software engineering" was coined. While serving in that capacity, he bemoaned the fact that many large software projects were delayed. This prompted discussions that led to the formation of a study group that organized the first conference on software engineering.
Honors
In the course of his life, Rabi received many honors in addition to the Nobel Prize. These included the
Elliott Cresson Medal
The Elliott Cresson Medal, also known as the Elliott Cresson Gold Medal, was the highest award given by the Franklin Institute. The award was established by Elliott Cresson, life member of the Franklin Institute, with $1,000 granted in 1848. The ...
from the
Franklin Institute in 1942, the
Medal for Merit
The Medal for Merit was, during the period it was awarded, the highest civilian decoration of the United States. It was awarded by the President of the United States to civilians who "distinguished themselves by exceptionally meritorious conduct i ...
and the
King's Medal for Service in the Cause of Freedom
The King's Medal for Service in the Cause of Freedom is a British medal instituted by King George VI on 23 August 1945. It was awarded to civilian foreign nationals, mainly of allied countries, who had given meritorious service to further the int ...
from Great Britain in 1948,
the officer in the French
Legion of Honour
The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon, ...
in 1956, Columbia University's
Barnard Medal for Meritorious Service to Science in 1960, the
Niels Bohr International Gold Medal
The Niels Bohr International Gold Medal is an international engineering award. It has been awarded since 1955 for "outstanding work by an engineer or physicist for the peaceful utilization of atomic energy". The medal is administered by the Danish ...
and the
Atoms for Peace Award in 1967, the
Oersted Medal
The Oersted Medal recognizes notable contributions to the teaching of physics. Established in 1936, it is awarded by the American Association of Physics Teachers. The award is named for Hans Christian Ørsted. It is the Association's most prestig ...
from the American Association of Physics Teachers in 1982, the
Four Freedoms Award
The Four Freedoms Award is an annual award presented to "those men and women whose achievements have demonstrated a commitment to those principles which United States, US President of the United States, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt proclaime ...
from the
Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute
The Roosevelt Institute is a liberal American think tank. According to the organization, it exists "to carry forward the legacy and values of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt by developing progressive ideas and bold leadership in the service of rest ...
and the
Public Welfare Medal The Public Welfare Medal is awarded by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences "in recognition of distinguished contributions in the application of science to the public welfare." It is the most prestigious honor conferred by the academy. First awar ...
from the
National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...
in 1985, the Golden Plate Award of the
American Academy of Achievement and the
Vannevar Bush Award
The National Science Board established the Vannevar Bush Award ( ) in 1980 to honor Vannevar Bush's unique contributions to public service. The annual award recognizes an individual who, through public service activities in science and technology ...
from the
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...
in 1986.
He was a Fellow (elected 1931) of the
American Physical Society
The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of k ...
, serving as its president in 1950, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...
, and the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...
. He was internationally recognized with membership in the
Japan Academy and the
Brazilian Academy of Sciences, and in 1959 was appointed a member of the Board of Governors of the
Weizmann Institute of Science
The Weizmann Institute of Science ( he, מכון ויצמן למדע ''Machon Vaitzman LeMada'') is a public research university in Rehovot, Israel, established in 1934, 14 years before the State of Israel. It differs from other Israeli unive ...
in Israel.
The most valuable of Columbia University's undergraduate research scholarships, designed to motivate and support promising young scientists, is named after him.
Death
Rabi died at his home on
Riverside Drive in Manhattan from cancer on January 11, 1988.
His wife, Helen, survived him and died at the age of 102 on June 18, 2005.
In his last days, he was reminded of his greatest achievement when his physicians examined him using
magnetic resonance imaging
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a medical imaging technique used in radiology to form pictures of the anatomy and the physiological processes of the body. MRI scanners use strong magnetic fields, magnetic field gradients, and radio wave ...
, a technology that had been developed from his ground-breaking research on magnetic resonance. The machine happened to have a reflective inner surface, and he remarked: "I saw myself in that machine... I never thought my work would come to this."
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Rabi, Isidor Isaac
1898 births
1988 deaths
20th-century atheists
20th-century American physicists
Jewish American atheists
American Nobel laureates
American nuclear physicists
American people of Polish-Jewish descent
Atoms for Peace Award recipients
Austro-Hungarian emigrants to the United States
Austro-Hungarian Jews
Austro-Hungarian Nobel laureates
Columbia University faculty
Columbia University alumni
Cornell University alumni
Fellows of the American Physical Society
Jewish American scientists
Jewish physicists
Jews from Galicia (Eastern Europe)
Institute for Advanced Study visiting scholars
Manhattan Project people
Medal for Merit recipients
Niels Bohr International Gold Medal recipients
Nobel laureates in Physics
Office of Science and Technology Policy officials
People associated with CERN
People from Brownsville, Brooklyn
People from the Lower East Side
People from the Upper West Side
People from Rymanów
Polish atheists
Recipients of the Four Freedoms Award
Recipients of the King's Medal for Service in the Cause of Freedom
Recipients of the Legion of Honour
Scientists from New York City
Spectroscopists
Theoretical physicists
Vannevar Bush Award recipients
Yiddish-speaking people
Presidents of the American Physical Society