Isidor Isaac Rabi

American physicist

Born: July 29, 1898 · Died: January 11, 1988

Famous Persons

Who was Isidor Isaac Rabi?

Israel Isaac "Isidor" Rabi (; Yiddish: איזידאָר יצחק ראַבי, romanized: Izidor Yitzkhok Rabi; July 29, 1898 – January 11, 1988) was an American physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1944 "for his resonance method for recording the magnetic properties of atomic nuclei." He was also one of the first scientists in the United States to work on the cavity magnetron, which is used in microwave radar and microwave ovens. Born into a traditional Polish-Jewish family in Rymanów, Austria-Hungary, Rabi came to the United States as an infant and was raised in New York's Lower East Side. He entered Cornell University as an electrical engineering student in 1916, but soon switched to chemistry. He continued his studies at Columbia University, where he was awarded his doctorate for a thesis on the magnetic susceptibility of certain crystals. Later, he became interested in physics.

Rabi (right) with fellow Nobel Prize laureates Ernest O. Lawrence and Enrico Fermi

Historical significance

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.

Rabi with fellow Nobel Prize laureates John Bardeen (left) and Werner Heisenberg (right) in 1962

Sources and further reading

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