PATHS OF INNOVATORS/ Rabi (1898-1988): Physicist and educator

ISIDOR ISAAC Rabi (known to the world simply as I.I.) was born on July 29, 1898 at Rymanov in the then Austria-Hungary empire and was brought as an infant to the U.S. He was raised in an impoverished family of orthodox Jews.

Rabi began attending religious school at the age of three. About his early education, he said in an interview: `` ....... perhaps my scientific interest came from the religious influence, (especially) the first chapter of Genesis. My favourite reading and my pet subject in high school was history, in which I got very high grades very easily, without any work at all; history was in that sense my top subject, although my interest was in science. .... My first reading of the Copernican theory left me with a scientific interest which never flagged.'' What a mixture of Genesis, History and Science!

At Cornell university

Rabi enrolled in 1916 as a student in electrical engineering, Rabi graduated with a degree in chemistry (1919). After working for three years as a chemist, he returned to Cornell to pursue studies in chemistry, but he discovered that physics was his true interest. ``Physics brought me closer to God,'' he said fervently. Reminiscing about how he could continue his widespread interests on his own in the undergraduate course, he gave the secret, ``If you decide you don't have to get A's, you can learn an enormous amount in college'' (John Rigden: Rabi, Scientist and Citizen, Basic Books, New York 1987).

Transferring to Columbia University in 1923 for the doctorate degree, he carried out his thesis work on the magnetic properties of crystals. Shortly after getting his Ph.D., he discovered that new physics was coming from Europe.

So he arrived in Europe in 1927 and spent two years. He met the most productive scientists of the time: Bohr, Schroedinger, Dirac, Heisenberg, Sommerfeld, and others. Thus he learned the hard way - taste and insight, standards to guide research in physics.

This realisation spurred him to action, for putting an end to the second-class status towards American physics that he encountered. He and other Americans made a pact ``when they returned home, they would not only do important physics in the proper style, but they would also undertake to become leaders of the field.''

``Rabi's decision released an immense amount of energy that propelled American laboratories to do superb work,'' observes. Gerald Holton, Professor of physics and History of Science, Har Vard University. Rabi was ideally positioned to inspire and set standards for a whole new generation of top-flight scientists. (Physics Today September 1999).

On return to the U.S. in 1929, Rabi accepted a position as lecturer in physics at Columbia. He and his student Cohen exploited the atomic and molecular-beam techniques that Rabi had developed in Otto Stern's laboratory in Germany. Rabi provided an experimental technique for measuring nuclear spin by counting the splitting of the nuclear beam.

The resonance method developed by Rabi found numerous applications: in the highly precise time measurements associated with ``atomic clocks'', in precise measurement of magnetic fields, and in the development of the laser. For his discovery of the resonance method, Rabi was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1940 and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1944.

Award ceremonies were suspended during the war years and Rabi did not deliver a Nobel lecture. The Royal Swedish Academy of sciences, in their citation, observed, "Rabi's solution to the problem of how the atom reacts to the magnetic field as both simple and brilliant. Rabi has literally established radio relations with the most subtle particles of matter, with the world of electron and of the atomic nucleus". In 1940 Rabi took a leave of absence of serve as associate director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was responsible for the development of microwave sources for radar system. This work was closely related to his past researches. He received in 1948 the U.S. Medal of Merit and the King's Medal for service in the cause of Freedom.

In 1945 Rabi returned to Columbia University. As most of the senior physicists had taken up war-time assignments, he rebuilt the department. He started working on atomic spectra. Willis Lamb and Poly Karp Kusch, in particular, extended the measurements of atomic spectra, inspired by Rabi's earlier work. He served in the rank of professor till 1964, when he became Professor Emiritus.

Work on peaceful uses of atomic energy

Rabi helped to establish the Bookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island (1945) for research on peaceful uses of atomic energy which was operated by several universities under contract to the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. He organised a number of U.N. conferences on the peaceful uses of atomic energy and worked unrelentingly to find the means to ensure that the bomb would be never used again. Rabi received a number of awards and medals: Niels Bohr Medal, Atoms for Peace Award, Elliott Cresson Medal of the Franklin Institute, the Legion of Honour of France. He is a fellow and former President of the American Physical society (1950)

R. Parthasarathy

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