Isidor Rabi

Born on 29 July 1898 in Rymanów, Austria, Nobel Prize–winning physicist Isidor Rabi discovered nuclear magnetic resonance. He grew up in New York City, where his family immigrated in 1899. Rabi earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Cornell University in 1919 and a PhD in physics from Columbia University in 1927. The next two years he spent in Europe, working with such pioneers in the field of quantum mechanics as Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, and Otto Stern. In 1929 Rabi returned to the US to teach physics at Columbia, attaining full professorship in 1937. At Columbia, he improved on Stern’s molecular-beam method of measuring the magnetic properties of atomic nuclei. When the US became involved in World War II, Rabi left Columbia temporarily to join MIT’s Radiation Laboratory and collaborate on critical radar research. In 1944 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on nuclear magnetic resonance, which led to the development of magnetic resonance imaging. Once the war ended, Rabi returned to Columbia, where he was appointed physics department chair and worked to make the department one of the best in the world. In 1964 Columbia named Rabi its first University Professor, the institution’s greatest academic distinction. He also served on the Atomic Energy Commission and helped found both Brookhaven National Laboratory and CERN. Rabi died at 89 years of age in 1988.

Date in History: 29 July 1898