Rabi, I. I.

Rabi, I. I. (Isidor Isaac) (1898–1988) physicist; born in Rymanow, Austria (now Poland). Brought to the U.S.A. in infancy, he tutored at City College of New York (1924–27), studied in Europe (1927–29), then joined Columbia University (1929–67). He performed most of his pioneering research in radar and the magnetic moment associated with electron spin in the 1930s and 1940s. He won the 1944 Nobel Prize in physics for his method of measuring magnetic properties of atoms, molecules, and atomic nuclei which led to the invention of the laser, the atomic clock, and diagnostic uses of nuclear magnetic resonance. Although he observed the first atomic bomb test, he declined practical work on the Manhattan Project, believing that radar offered more advantage to the war effort. A government adviser and proponent of nuclear arms control, he originated the idea for the CERN nuclear research center in Geneva (founded 1954).