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{{Short description|American nuclear physicist (1898–1988)}}
{{Featured article}}
{{Use American English|date=July 2022}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2024}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name                = Isidor Rabi
| native_name         = איזידאָר ראַבי
| native_name_lang    = yi
| image               = II Rabi.jpg
| caption             = Rabi in 1944
| birth_name          = Israel Isaac Rabi
| birth_date          = {{Birth date|1898|07|29}}
| birth_place         = [[Rymanów]], Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, Austria-Hungary
| death_date          = {{Death date and age|1988|01|11|1898|07|29}}
| death_place         = New York City, US
| resting_place       = [[Riverside Cemetery (Saddle&nbsp;Brook,&nbsp;New&nbsp;Jersey)]]
| nationality         = American
| alma_mater          = {{Plain list|
* [[Cornell University]] ([[Bachelor of Science|BS]])
* [[Columbia University]] ([[Doctor of Philosophy|PhD]])
}}
| known_for           = Measuring [[nuclear magnetic resonance]] (1938)
| spouse              = {{Marriage|Helen Newmark|1926}}
| children            = 2
| awards              = {{Collapsible list|title={{Nobold|''See list''}}
 | [[Newcomb Cleveland Prize]] (1939)
 | [[Elliott Cresson Medal]] (1942)
 | [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] (1944)
 | [[Medal for Merit]] (1948)
 | [[King's Medal for Service in the Cause of Freedom]] (1948)
 | [[Legion of Honour]] (Officer, 1956)
 | [[Barnard&nbsp;Medal&nbsp;for&nbsp;Meritorious Service to Science]] (1960)
 | [[Atoms for Peace Award]] (1967)
 | [[Oersted Medal]] (1982)
 | [[Public Welfare Medal]] (1985)
 | [[Vannevar Bush Award]] (1986)
 }}
| fields            = [[Nuclear physics]]
| work_institutions = Columbia University<br/>(1929–67)
| thesis_title      = On the Principal Magnetic Susceptibilities of Crystals{{-}}
| thesis_url        = https://journals.aps.org/pr/abstract/10.1103/PhysRev.29.174
| thesis_year       = 1927
| doctoral_advisor  = [[Albert Wills]]
| academic_advisors = {{Plain list|
* [[Niels Bohr]]
* [[Arnold Sommerfeld]]
* [[Otto Stern]]
}}
| doctoral_students = {{Plain list|
* [[Lloyd Motz]] (1936)<ref name=MGP>{{Cite web|title=Isidor Rabi - The Mathematics Genealogy Project|url=https://www.genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu/id.php?id=84659|website=genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu|access-date=2025-06-04}}</ref>
* [[Julian Schwinger]] (1939)
* [[Norman Ramsey]] (1940)
* [[Vernon Hughes]] (1950)<ref name=MGP/>
* [[Herbert Zeiger]] (1952)<ref name=MGP/>
* [[Martin Perl]] (1955)<ref name=MGP/>
}}
| notable_students  = {{Plain list|
* [[Arthur Kantrowitz]]<ref name=PhysicsTree>{{Cite web|title=Isidor Isaac Rabi - Physics Tree|url=https://academictree.org/physics/peopleinfo.php?pid=24618|website=academictree.org|access-date=2025-08-08}}</ref>
* [[Robert Ledley]]<ref name=PhysicsTree/>
* [[William Nierenberg]]<ref name=PhysicsTree/>
}}
| signature         = I. I. Rabi signature.jpg
}}

'''Israel {{Nobold|"}}Isidor{{Nobold|"}} Isaac Rabi''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|r|ɑː|b|i}}; {{Langx|yi|איזידאָר יצחק ראַבי|Izidor Yitzkhok Rabi}};<ref>{{Cite web|title=Isidor Isaac Rabi in Yiddish|url=https://itranslate.com/translate/english-to-yiddish/Isidor%20Isaac%20Rabi|website=itranslate.com|access-date=2025-06-04}}</ref> July 29, 1898 – January 11, 1988) was an American [[nuclear 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 oven]]s.

Born into a traditional [[Polish-Jewish]] family in [[Rymanów]], 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]]. Later, he became interested in [[physics]]. He continued his studies at [[Columbia University]], where he was awarded his doctorate for a thesis on the [[magnetic susceptibility]] 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]], he developed the [[Breit–Rabi equation]] and predicted that the [[Stern–Gerlach experiment]] could be modified to confirm the properties of the [[atomic nucleus]]. His techniques for using nuclear magnetic resonance to discern the [[magnetic moment]] and [[nuclear spin]] 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 (MRI) from it has also made it important to the field of medicine.

During World War II he worked on [[radar]] at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] (MIT) [[Radiation Laboratory]] (RadLab) and on the [[Manhattan Project]]. After the war, he served on the General Advisory Committee (GAC) of the [[United States Atomic Energy Commission|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]] and the Army's [[Ballistic Research Laboratory]], and was [[President's Science Advisory Committee|Science Advisor]] to President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]]. He was involved with the establishment of the [[Brookhaven National Laboratory]] in 1946, and later, as United States delegate to [[UNESCO]], with the creation of [[CERN]] 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 life and education==
Israel Isaac Rabi was born on July 29, 1898, into a Polish [[Orthodox Judaism|Orthodox Jewish]] family in [[Rymanów]], then located in [[Austria-Hungary]] (now Poland). The following year, his family emigrated to the United States and moved into a two-room apartment on the [[Lower East Side]] of [[Manhattan]]. At home the family spoke [[Yiddish]]. When Rabi was enrolled in school, his mother 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]], 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 by his last name. In 1907, the family moved to [[Brownsville, Brooklyn]], where they ran a grocery store.{{sfn|Rigden|1987|pp=17–21}}

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—written on the design of a [[Microphone#Condenser microphone|radio condenser]]—was published in ''[[Modern Electrics]]'' when he was in elementary school.{{sfn|Rigden|1987|p=27}}{{sfn|Ramsey|1993|p=312}} After reading about [[Copernican heliocentrism]], he became an atheist. "It's all very simple", he told his parents, adding, "Who needs God?"{{sfn|Rigden|1987|p=23}} 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]] in Brooklyn, from which he graduated in 1916.{{sfn|Rigden|1987|pp=27–28}} Later that year, he entered [[Cornell University]] as an [[electrical engineering]] student, but soon switched to [[chemistry]]. After the [[American entry into World War I]] in 1917, he joined the [[Student Army Training Corps]] at Cornell. For his senior thesis, he investigated the [[oxidation state]]s of [[manganese]]. 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]], and then as a [[bookkeeper]].{{sfn|Rigden|1987|pp=33–34}}

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]]. To be near her when she returned home, he continued his studies at [[Columbia University]], 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]]. Wills, whose specialty was magnetism, suggested that Rabi write his doctoral thesis on the [[magnetic susceptibility]] of [[sodium]] vapor. The topic did not appeal to Rabi, but after [[William Lawrence Bragg]] gave a seminar at Columbia about the [[electric susceptibility]] of certain crystals called [[Tutton's salt]]s, Rabi decided to research their magnetic susceptibility, and Wills agreed to be his supervisor.{{sfn|Rigden|1987|pp=35–40}}

Measuring the magnetic resonance of crystals first involved [[crystal growth|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]]'s 1873 ''[[A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism]]'', which inspired an easier method. He lowered a crystal on a glass fiber attached to a [[torsion balance]] 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, titled ''On the Principal Magnetic Susceptibilities of Crystals'', to ''[[Physical Review]]'' 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]], who used the method in his own investigations of crystals. Rabi concluded that he needed to promote his work as well as publish it.{{sfn|Rigden|1987|pp=41–45}}{{sfn|Rabi|1927|pp=174–185}}

Like many other young physicists, Rabi was closely following momentous events in Europe. He was astounded by the [[Stern–Gerlach experiment]], which convinced him of the validity of [[quantum mechanics]]. With [[Ralph Kronig]], [[Francis Bitter]], [[Mark Zemansky]] and others, he set out to extend the [[Schrödinger equation]] to [[Rotational–vibrational spectroscopy#Symmetric top molecules|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]]. Rabi found the answer in [[Ludwig Schlesinger]]'s ''Einführung in die Theorie der Differentialgleichungen (Introduction to the theory of differential equations)'', which describes a method originally developed by [[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.{{sfn|Rigden|1987|pp=50–53}}{{sfn|Kronig|Rabi|1928|pp=262–269}}

==Studies in Europe==
In May 1927, Rabi was appointed a Barnard Fellow. This came with a [[stipend]] of $1,500 (${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|1500|1927|r=-3}}}} in {{Inflation-year|US}} dollars{{Inflation-fn|US}}) 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]], where he hoped to work for [[Erwin Schrödinger]], he met two fellow Americans, [[Julius Adams Stratton]] and [[Linus Pauling]]. They found that Schrödinger was leaving, as he had been appointed head of the Theoretical Institute at [[Humboldt University of Berlin|Friedrich Wilhelm University]] in Berlin. Rabi therefore decided to seek a position with [[Arnold Sommerfeld]] at the [[University of Munich]] instead. In Munich, he found two more Americans, [[Howard Percy Robertson]] and [[Edward Condon]]. Sommerfeld accepted Rabi as a postdoctoral researcher. German physicists [[Rudolf Peierls]] and [[Hans Bethe]] were also working with Sommerfeld at the time, but the three Americans became especially close.{{sfn|Rigden|1987|pp=55–57}}

On Wills' advice, Rabi traveled to [[Leeds]] for the 97th annual meeting of the [[British Association for the Advancement of Science]], where he heard [[Werner Heisenberg]] present a paper on quantum mechanics. Afterwards, Rabi moved to [[Copenhagen]], where he volunteered to work for [[Niels Bohr]]. Bohr was on vacation, but Rabi went straight to work on calculating the magnetic susceptibility of molecular [[hydrogen]]. After Bohr returned in October, he arranged for Rabi and [[Yoshio Nishina]] to continue their work with [[Wolfgang Pauli]] at the [[University of Hamburg]].{{sfn|Rigden|1987|pp=57–59}}

Although he came to [[Hamburg]] to work with Pauli, Rabi found [[Otto Stern]] 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]] experiments,{{sfn|Rigden|1987|pp=60–62}} for which Stern would receive the [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] in 1943.{{sfn|Toennies|Schmidt-Böcking|Friedrich|Lower|2011|p=1066}} 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 (journal)|Nature]]'',{{sfn|Rigden|1987|pp=60–62}} which published it in February 1929,{{sfn|Rabi|1929|pp=163–164}} followed by a paper entitled ''Zur Methode der Ablenkung von Molekularstrahlen'' ("On the method of deflection of molecular beams") to ''Zeitschrift für'' ("Journal of Physics"), where it was published in April.{{sfn|Rabi|1929b|pp=190–197}}

By this time the Barnard Fellowship had expired, and Rabi and Helen were living on a $182 (${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|182|1929|r=-2}}}} in {{Inflation-year|US}} dollars{{Inflation-fn|US}}) per month stipend from the [[Rockefeller Foundation]]. They left Hamburg for [[Leipzig]], where he hoped to work with Heisenberg. In Leipzig, he found [[Robert Oppenheimer]], 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]], 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]], [[Walter Heitler]], [[Fritz London]], [[Francis Wheeler Loomis]], [[John von Neumann]], [[John C. Slater|John Slater]], [[Leó Szilárd]] and [[Eugene Wigner]].{{sfn|Rigden|1987|pp=65–67}}

==Molecular Beam Laboratory==
[[File:Atomic physicists Ernest O. Lawrence, Enrico Fermi, and Isidor Rabi - NARA - 558595.jpg|thumb|left|Rabi (right) with fellow Nobel Prize laureates [[Ernest O. Lawrence]] and [[Enrico Fermi]]|alt=Three men talking. The one on the left is wearing a tie and leans against a wall. He stands head and shoulders above the other two. The one in the center is smiling, and wearing an open-necked shirt. The one on the right wears a shirt and lab coat. All three have photo ID passes.]]

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]], was looking for a theoretical physicist to teach [[statistical mechanics]] 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 {{SS|President Roosevelt|1921|6}}.{{sfn|Rigden|1987|pp=66–69}} Rabi became the only Jewish faculty member at Columbia at the time.{{sfn|Rigden|1987|p=104}}

Rabi was a poor instructor. [[Leon Lederman]] recalled that after a lecture, students would head to the library to try to work out what Rabi had been talking about. [[Irving Kaplan (chemist)|Irving Kaplan]] rated Rabi and [[Harold Urey]] as "the worst teachers I ever had".{{sfn|Rigden|1987|p=71}} [[Norman Ramsey]] considered Rabi's lectures "pretty dreadful",{{sfn|Rigden|1987|p=71}} while [[William Nierenberg]] felt that he was "simply an awful lecturer".{{sfn|Rigden|1987|p=72}} 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.{{sfn|Rigden|1987|pp=71–72}}

Rabi's first daughter, Helen Elizabeth, was born in September 1929.{{sfn|Rigden|1987|p=70}} A second girl, Margaret Joella, followed in 1934.{{sfn|Rigden|1987|p=83}} 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.{{sfn|Rigden|1987|p=70}} He became a professor in 1937.<ref name="Nobel">{{cite web|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1944/rabi-bio.html|title=Isidor Isaac Rabi – Biographical|access-date=August 17, 2012|publisher=Nobel Media}}</ref>

In 1931 Rabi returned to particle beam experiments. In collaboration with [[Gregory Breit]], he developed the [[Breit-Rabi equation]], and predicted that the Stern–Gerlach experiment could be modified to confirm the properties of the [[atomic nucleus]].{{sfn|Rigden|1987|p=80}} The next step was to do so. With the help of Victor W. Cohen,<ref>{{cite journal|title=Obituary: Victor William Cohen|journal=[[Physics Today]]|issn=0031-9228|date=January 1975|volume=28|issue=1|pages=111–112|url=http://www.physicstoday.org/resource/1/phtoad/v28/i1/p111_s2?bypassSSO=1|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130927191536/http://www.physicstoday.org/resource/1/phtoad/v28/i1/p111_s2?bypassSSO=1|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 27, 2013|doi=10.1063/1.3068792|bibcode=1975PhT....28a.111.|url-access=subscription}}</ref> 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]] of sodium. When the experiment was conducted, four beamlets were found, from which they deduced a nuclear spin of {{frac|3|2}}.{{sfn|Rigden|1987|pp=84–88}}

Rabi's Molecular Beam Laboratory began to attract others, including [[Sidney Millman]], a graduate student who studied [[lithium]] for his doctorate.{{sfn|Millman|1977|p=87}}{{sfn|Rigden|1987|pp=88–89}} Another was [[Jerrold Zacharias]] who, believing that the sodium nucleus would be too difficult to understand, proposed studying the simplest of the elements, hydrogen. Its [[deuterium]] isotope had only recently been discovered at Columbia in 1931 by Urey, who received the 1934 [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]] 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.{{sfn|Goldstein|1992|pp=21–22}} Urey also helped in another way; he gave Rabi half his prize money to fund the Molecular Beam Laboratory.{{sfn|Rigden|1987|p=90}} Other scientists whose careers began at the Molecular Beam Laboratory included Norman Ramsey, [[Julian Schwinger]], [[Jerome Kellogg]] and [[Polykarp Kusch]].{{sfn|Goldstein|1992|p=23}} 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.{{sfn|Rigden|1987|p=116}}

At the suggestion of [[C. J. Gorter]], the team attempted to use an oscillating field.{{sfn|Goldstein|1992|pp=33–34}} This became the basis for the [[nuclear magnetic resonance]] method. In 1937, Rabi, Kusch, Millman and Zacharias used it to measure the [[magnetic moment]] of several lithium compounds with molecular beams, including [[lithium chloride]], [[lithium fluoride]] and [[dilithium]].{{sfn|Rabi|Millman|Kusch|Zacharias|1939|pp=526–535}} Applying the method to hydrogen, they found that the moment of a [[proton]] was 2.785±0.02 [[nuclear magneton]]s,{{sfn|Kellogg|Rabi|Ramsey|Zacharias|1939|p=728}} and not 1 as predicted by the then-current theory,{{sfn|Rigden|1987|p=115}}{{sfn|Breit|Rabi|1934|pp=230–231}} while that of a deuteron was 0.855±0.006 nuclear magnetons.{{sfn|Kellogg|Rabi|Ramsey|Zacharias|1939|p=728}} This provided more accurate measurements of what Stern's team had found, and Rabi's team had confirmed, in 1934.{{sfn|Rabi|Kellogg|Zacharias|1934a|pp=157–163}}{{sfn|Rabi|Kellogg|Zacharias|1934b|pp=163–165}} Since a deuteron is composed of a proton and a [[neutron]] with aligned spins, the [[neutron magnetic moment|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 [[quadrupole|electric quadrupole moment]].{{sfn|Rigden|1987|pp=112–113}}{{sfn|Rabi|Zacharias|Millman|Kusch|1938|p=318}}{{sfn|Rabi|Zacharias|Millman|Kusch|1992|pp=131–133}} This discovery meant that the physical shape of the deuteron was not symmetric, which provided valuable insight into the nature of the [[nuclear force]] binding nucleons. For the creation of the molecular-beam magnetic-resonance detection method, Rabi was awarded the [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] in 1944.{{sfn|Goldstein|1992|p=36}}

==World War II==
[[File:Original cavity magnetron, 1940 (9663811280).jpg|thumb|right|[[Anode]] block of an original cavity magnetron, showing the resonant cavities, developed by [[John Randall (physicist)|John Randall]] and [[Harry Boot]] at [[Birmingham University]]]]
In September 1940, Rabi became a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the U.S. Army's [[Ballistic Research Laboratory]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://ftp.arl.army.mil/~mike/comphist/40sac/index.html|title=BRL's Scientific Advisory Committee, 1940|publisher=U.S. Army Research Laboratory|access-date=July 26, 2016|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161201052108/http://ftp.arl.army.mil/~mike/comphist/40sac/index.html|archive-date=December 1, 2016}}</ref> That month, the British [[Tizard Mission]] brought a number of new technologies to the United States, including a [[cavity magnetron]], a high-powered device that generates [[microwave]]s using the interaction of a stream of [[electron]]s with a [[magnetic field]]. This device promised to revolutionize [[radar]], so [[Alfred Lee Loomis]] of the [[National Defense Research Committee]] decided to establish a new laboratory at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] (MIT) to develop this radar technology. The name [[Radiation Laboratory]] was chosen as both unremarkable and a tribute to the [[Berkeley Radiation Laboratory]]. Loomis recruited [[Lee DuBridge]] to run it.{{sfn|Conant|2002|pp=209–213}}

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.{{sfn|Rigden|1987|pp=131–134}} 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&nbsp;cm to 10&nbsp;cm, and then to 3&nbsp;cm. The laboratory went on to develop air-to-surface radar to detect submarines, the [[SCR-584 radar]] for [[fire-control system|fire control]], and [[LORAN]], a long-range radio navigation system.{{sfn|Rigden|1987|pp=135–135}} At Rabi's instigation, a branch of the Radiation Laboratory was located at Columbia, with Rabi in charge.{{sfn|Rigden|1987|p=143}}

In 1942 [[Robert Oppenheimer]] attempted to recruit Rabi and [[Robert Bacher]] to work at the [[Los Alamos Laboratory]] 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]] under contract from the [[United States Department of War|War Department]]. In the end, Rabi still did not go west, but did agree to serve as a consultant to the [[Manhattan Project]].{{sfn|Hewlett|Anderson|1962|pp=230–232}} Rabi attended the [[Trinity test]] 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]] (kt). Rabi arrived late and found the only entry left was for 18 kilotons, which he purchased.{{sfn|Rhodes|1986|p=656}} Wearing welding goggles, he waited for the result with Ramsey and [[Enrico Fermi]].{{sfn|Rigden|1987|pp=155–156}} The blast was rated at 18.6 kilotons, and Rabi won the pool.{{sfn|Rhodes|1986|p=656}}

==Later life==
In 1945, Rabi delivered the Richtmyer Memorial Lecture, held by the [[American Association of Physics Teachers]] in honor of [[Floyd K. Richtmyer]], wherein he proposed that the magnetic resonance of atoms might be used as the basis of a clock. [[William L. Laurence]] wrote it up for ''[[The New York Times]]'', under the headline "'Cosmic pendulum' for clock planned".<ref>Isidor I. Rabi, "Radiofrequency spectroscopy" ([[Floyd K. Richtmyer|Richtmyer Memorial Lecture]], delivered at Columbia University in New York, on January 20, 1945).</ref><ref>"Meeting at New York, January 19 and 20, 1945" ''Physical Review'', vol. 67, pp. 199–204 (1945).</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Laurence|first=William|author-link=William L. Laurence|title='Cosmic pendulum' for clock planned|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=January 21, 1945|page=34|url=http://tf.nist.gov/general/pdf/2039.pdf|access-date=June 15, 2012}}</ref> Before long Zacharias and Ramsey had built such [[atomic clock]]s.{{sfn|Rigden|1987|pp=170–171}} Rabi actively pursued his research into magnetic resonance until about 1960, but he continued to make appearances at conferences and seminars until his death.{{sfn|Ramsey|1993|p=319}}{{sfn|Rigden|1987|p=15}}

[[File:Bardeen, Rabi, Heisenberg 1962.jpg|thumb|left|Rabi with fellow Nobel Prize laureates [[John Bardeen]] (left) and [[Werner Heisenberg]] (right) in 1962]]
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]], [[Maria Goeppert-Mayer]], [[James Rainwater]], Norman Ramsey, [[Charles Townes]] and [[Hideki Yukawa]]), a research scientist ([[Aage Bohr]]), a visiting professor (Hans Bethe), a doctoral student (Leon Lederman) and an undergraduate ([[Leon Cooper]]).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.columbia.edu/cu/physics/about/main/one/columbianobels.html|title=Columbia Nobels|publisher=Columbia University|access-date=June 16, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121029054230/http://www.columbia.edu/cu/physics/about/main/one/columbianobels.html|archive-date=October 29, 2012}}</ref> [[Martin L. Perl]], a doctoral student of Rabi's, won the Nobel Prize in 1995.<ref>{{cite web|work=Nobel prize|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1995/perl-bio.html|title=Martin L. Perl – Biographical|publisher=Nobel Media|access-date=March 19, 2016}}</ref> Rabi was the [[Eugene Higgins professor of physics]] 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.{{sfn|Rigden|1987|p=68}} He retired from teaching in 1967 but remained active in the department and held the title of University Professor Emeritus until his death.<ref name="ACAP">{{cite web|url=http://www.aip.org/history/acap/biographies/bio.jsp?rabii|access-date=June 16, 2012|title=Isidor Isaac "I. I." Rabi|publisher=Array of Contemporary American Physicists|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121017092906/http://www.aip.org/history/acap/biographies/bio.jsp?rabii|archive-date=October 17, 2012}}</ref> A special chair was named after him in 1985.<ref name="Obit"/>

A legacy of the Manhattan Project was the network of [[United States Department of Energy National Laboratories|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]]. Rabi had discussions with [[Major General (United States)|Major General]] [[Leslie R. Groves Jr.]], 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 University|Johns Hopkins]], MIT, [[Princeton]], [[University of Pennsylvania|Pennsylvania]], [[University of Rochester|Rochester]] and [[Yale]]) came together, and on January 31, 1947, a contract was signed with the [[United States Atomic Energy Commission|Atomic Energy Commission]] (AEC), which had replaced the Manhattan Project, that established the [[Brookhaven National Laboratory]].{{sfn|Rigden|1987|pp=182–185}}

[[File:HD.3F.010 (11086446676).jpg|thumb|right|Rabi (seated R) with fellow Nobel Prize laureates [[Chen-Ning Yang]] (seated L) and [[Val Fitch]], [[James Cronin]], and [[Samuel Chao Chung Ting]] (standing L–R)]]
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 [[United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization]] (UNESCO). At a UNESCO meeting at the [[Palazzo Vecchio]] in [[Florence]] 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]] or European Organization for Nuclear Research). 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.{{sfn|Rigden|1987|pp=235–237}}

===Military matters===
The [[Atomic Energy Act of 1946]] 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.{{sfn|Hewlett|Anderson|1962|p=648}} The GAC was enormously influential throughout the late 1940s, but in 1950 the GAC unanimously opposed the development of the [[hydrogen bomb]]. Rabi went further than most of the other members, and joined Fermi in opposing the hydrogen bomb on moral as well as technical grounds.{{sfn|Hewlett|Duncan|1969|pp=380–385}} However, President [[Harry S. Truman]] overrode the GAC's advice, and ordered development to proceed.{{sfn|Hewlett|Duncan|1969|pp=403–408}} Rabi later said:

{{blockquote|I never forgave Truman for buckling under the pressure. He simply did not understand what it was about. As a matter of fact, after he stopped being President he still didn't believe that the [[Soviet atomic bomb project|Russians had a bomb]] in 1949. He said so. So for him to have alerted the world that we were going to make a hydrogen bomb at a time when we didn't even know how to make one was one of the worst things he could have done. It shows the dangers of this sort of thing.{{sfn|Rigden|1987|p=246}}}}

Oppenheimer was not reappointed to the GAC when his term expired in 1952, and Rabi succeeded him as chairman, serving until 1956.{{sfn|Hewlett|Duncan|1969|p=665}} Rabi later testified on Oppenheimer's behalf at the Atomic Energy Commission's [[Oppenheimer security hearing|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:

{{blockquote|So it didn't seem to me the sort of thing that called for this kind of proceeding... against a man who has accomplished what Dr. Oppenheimer has accomplished. There is a real positive record... We have an A-bomb and a whole series of it, and we have a whole series of super bombs, and what more do you want, mermaids?{{sfn|Rigden|1987|p= 227}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/2015/01/16/oppenheimer-unredacted-part-ii/|title=Oppenheimer, Unredacted: Part II|last=Wellerstein|first=Alex|author-link=Alex Wellerstein|date=January 16, 2015|publisher=Restricted Data: the Nuclear Secrecy Blog|access-date=February 1, 2015}}</ref>}}

Rabi was appointed a member of the Science Advisory Committee (SAC) of the [[Office of Defense Mobilization]] in 1952, serving as its chairman from 1956 to 1957.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.aip.org/history/acap/institutions/psac.jsp|access-date=June 16, 2012|title=White House Science Advisers|publisher=Array of Contemporary American Physicists|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130722150238/http://www.aip.org/history/acap/institutions/psac.jsp|archive-date=July 22, 2013}}</ref> This coincided with the [[Sputnik crisis]]. President [[Dwight Eisenhower]] met with the SAC on October 15, 1957, to seek advice on possible US responses to the [[Soviet space program|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]] a few weeks later. He also became Eisenhower's Science Advisor.{{sfn|Rigden|1987|pp=248–251}} In 1956 Rabi attended the [[Project Nobska]] [[anti-submarine warfare]] conference, where discussion ranged from [[oceanography]] to nuclear weapons.{{sfn|Friedman|1994|pp=109–114}} He served as the US Representative to the [[NATO]] 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.{{sfn|MacKenzie|2001|p=34}}

===Honors===
In the course of his life, Rabi received many honors in addition to the Nobel Prize. These included the [[Elliott Cresson Medal]] from the [[Franklin Institute]] in 1942,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.fi.edu/laureates/isidor-isaac-rabi|title=Isidor Isaac Rabi|publisher=The Franklin Institute|access-date=March 19, 2016|date=January 15, 2014}}</ref> the [[Medal for Merit]] and the [[King's Medal for Service in the Cause of Freedom]] from Great Britain in 1948,<ref name="Nobel"/> the officer in the French [[Legion of Honour]] in 1956,{{sfn|Ramsey|1993|p=320}} Columbia University's [[Barnard Medal for Meritorious Service to Science]] in 1960,<ref>{{cite journal|journal=[[Physics Today]]|issn=0031-9228|title=Rabi Awarded Barnard Medal|date=August 1960|volume=13|issue=8|page=52|doi=10.1063/1.3057088|bibcode=1960PhT....13h..52.}}</ref> the [[Niels Bohr International Gold Medal]] and the [[Atoms for Peace Award]] in 1967, the [[Oersted Medal]] from the American Association of Physics Teachers in 1982, the [[Four Freedoms Award]] from the [[Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute]] and the [[Public Welfare Medal]] from the [[National Academy of Sciences]] in 1985, the Golden Plate Award of the [[American Academy of Achievement]]<ref>{{cite web|title= Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement |website=www.achievement.org|publisher=[[American Academy of Achievement]]|url=https://achievement.org/our-history/golden-plate-awards/#science-exploration}}</ref> and the [[Vannevar Bush Award]] from the [[National Science Foundation]] in 1986.{{sfn|Ramsey|1993|p=320}}<ref name=PublicWelfare>{{cite web|title=Public Welfare Award|url=http://www.nasonline.org/programs/awards/public-welfare-medal.html|publisher=National Academy of Sciences|access-date=February 18, 2011}}</ref> He was a Fellow (elected 1931)<ref>{{cite web|title=APS Fellow Archive|website=American Physical Society|url=https://www.aps.org/programs/honors/fellowships/archive-all.cfm?initial=&year=1931&unit_id=&institution=Columbia+University}} (search on year 1931 and institution Columbia University)</ref> of the [[American Physical Society]], serving as its president in 1950, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the [[American Philosophical Society]], and the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]]. 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]] in Israel.<ref name="Nobel"/> The most valuable of Columbia University's undergraduate research scholarships, designed to motivate and support promising young scientists, is named after him,<ref name=columbia>{{Cite web |title=I.I. Rabi Scholars Program {{!}} Undergraduate Research and Fellowships |url=https://urf.columbia.edu/urf/research/rabi |access-date=September 21, 2022 |website=Columbia University}}</ref> as is the street, [[List of streets at CERN|Route Rabi]] at [[CERN]], on the [[Prévessin]] site in France.<ref>{{cite web |title=UNESCO microcar's journey to CERN |publisher=CERN |url=https://home.cern/news/news/cern/unesco-microcars-journey-cern |access-date=8 October 2025}}</ref> [[Columbia University]]'s I. I. Rabi Scholars program assists "some of Columbia College's most promising science students at the point of admission into the College."<ref name=columbia/>

===Death===
Rabi died at his home on [[Riverside Drive (Manhattan)|Riverside Drive]] in Manhattan from cancer on January 11, 1988.<ref name="Obit">{{cite news|newspaper=The New York Times|date=January 12, 1988|title=Isidor Isaac Rabi, a Pioneer in Atomic Physics, Dies at 89|last=Berger|first=Marilyn|pages=A1, A24}}</ref>{{sfn|Ramsey|1993|p=319}} His wife, Helen, survived him and died at the age of 102 on June 18, 2005.<ref>{{cite news|title=Rabi, Helen Newmark|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/21/classified/paid-notice-deaths-rabi-helen-newmark.html|newspaper=The New York Times|date=June 21, 2005|access-date=January 23, 2016|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> In his last days, he was reminded of his greatest achievement when his physicians examined him using [[magnetic resonance imaging]], 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."{{sfn|Rigden|1987|pp=xxi–xxii}}

===In popular culture===
Rabi was portrayed by [[Barry Dennen]] in the 1980 television miniseries ''[[Oppenheimer (TV series)|Oppenheimer]]'',<ref>{{cite web |title=Barry Dennen |publisher= BFI |url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2ba144130f |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171001043749/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2ba144130f |url-status=dead |archive-date=October 1, 2017 |access-date= August 31, 2023}}</ref> and by [[David Krumholtz]] in the 2023 film ''[[Oppenheimer (film)|Oppenheimer]]''.<ref>{{cite magazine |first= Clark |last=Collis |date=July 21, 2023 |title=Oppenheimer cast: Who plays who in Christopher Nolan's real-life drama |magazine=Entertainment Weekly |url=https://ew.com/movies/oppenheimer-who-plays-who-biopic-christopher-nolan/ |access-date=July 24, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |first1=Molly |last1=Moss |first2=Lewis |last2=Knight |date=July 22, 2023 |title=Oppenheimer cast: Full list of actors in Christopher Nolan film |magazine=Radio Times |url=https://www.radiotimes.com/movies/oppenheimer-cast-christopher-nolan-murphy/ |access-date=July 24, 2023}}</ref>

==Books==
* {{cite book |last=Rabi |first=Isidor Isaac |title=My Life and Times as a Physicist |date=1960 |location=Claremont, California |publisher=[[Claremont McKenna College|Claremont College]] |oclc=1071412 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last1=Rabi |first1=Isidor Isaac |last2=Serber |first2=Robert |authorlink2=Robert Serber |last3=Weisskopf |first3=Victor F. |authorlink3=Victor Weisskopf |last4=Pais |first4=Abraham |authorlink4=Abraham Pais |last5=Seaborg |first5=Glenn T. |authorlink5=Glenn T. Seaborg |title=Oppenheimer: The Story of One of the Most Remarkable Personalities of the 20th Century |date=1969 |publisher=[[Scribner's]] |oclc=223176672 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Rabi |first=Isidor Isaac |title=Science: The Center of Culture |location=New York |date=1970 |publisher=[[World Publishing Co.]] |oclc=74630 |ref=none}}

==Notes==
{{reflist|30em}}

==References==
{{refbegin}}
{{div col}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Breit |author-link=Gregory Breit |first1=G. |last2=Rabi |first2=I.I. |year=1934 |title=On the interpretation of present values of nuclear moments |doi=10.1103/PhysRev.46.230 |journal=Physical Review |volume=46 |issue=3 |pages=230–231|bibcode=1934PhRv...46..230B}}
* {{cite book |last=Conant |first=Jennet |author-link=Jennet Conant |title=Tuxedo Park: A Wall Street Tycoon and the Secret Palace of Science That Changed the Course of World War II |date=2002 |location=New York |publisher=Simon & Schuster |isbn=0-684-87287-0 |oclc=48966735|url=https://archive.org/details/tuxedopark00jenn }}
* {{cite book |last=Friedman |first=Norman |author-link=Norman Friedman |title=US Submarines Since 1945: An Illustrated Design History |publisher=United States Naval Institute |date=1994 |location=Annapolis, MD |isbn=1-55750-260-9 |oclc=29477981}}
* {{cite book |last=Goldstein |first=Jack S. |title=A Different Sort of Time: The Life of Jerrold R. Zacharias |location=Cambridge, MA |publisher=MIT Press |date=1992 |isbn=0-262-07138-X |oclc=24628294|url=https://archive.org/details/differentsortoft0000gold }}
* {{cite book |last1=Hewlett |first1=Richard G. |author-link=Richard G. Hewlett |last2=Anderson |first2=Oscar E. |title=The New World, 1939–1946 |location=University Park |publisher=Pennsylvania State University Press |date=1962 |oclc=637004643}}
* {{cite book |last1=Hewlett |first1=Richard G.|author-link=Richard G. Hewlett |last2=Duncan |first2=Francis |title=Atomic Shield, 1947–1952 |series=A History of the United States Atomic Energy Commission |publisher=Pennsylvania State University Press |location=University Park |date=1969 |isbn=0-520-07187-5 |oclc=3717478}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Kellogg |first1=J.M.B. |last2=Rabi |first2=I.I. |last3=Ramsey |first3=N.F. Jr. |author-link3=Norman Ramsey Jr. |last4=Zacharias |first4=J.R. |author-link4=Jerrold R. Zacharias |title=The Magnetic Moment of the Proton and the Deuteron. The Radiofrequency Spectrum of 2H in Various Magnetic Fields |journal=Physical Review |volume=56 |issue=8 |pages=728–743 |date=October 1939 |doi=10.1103/PhysRev.56.728|bibcode=1939PhRv...56..728K}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Kronig |first1=R. de L. |last2=Rabi |first2=I.I. |title=The Symmetrical Top in the Undulatory Mechanics |journal=Physical Review |volume=29 |issue=2 |pages=262–269 |date=February 1928 |doi=10.1103/PhysRev.29.262|bibcode=1927PhRv...29..262K|s2cid=4000903 }}
* {{cite book |last=MacKenzie |first=Donald |title=Mechanizing Proof: Computing, Risk, and Trust |url=https://archive.org/details/mechanizingproof0000mack |url-access=registration |location=Cambridge, MA |publisher=MIT Press |date=2001 |oclc=45835532 |isbn=0-262-13393-8}}
* {{cite journal |last=Millman |first=S. |date=1977 |title=Recollections of a Rabi Student of the Early Years in the Molecular Beam Laboratory |journal=Transactions of the New York Academy of Sciences |volume=38 |pages=87–105 |doi=10.1111/j.2164-0947.1977.tb02951.x}}
* {{cite journal |last=Rabi |first=I.I. |date=January 1927 |title=On the Principal Magnetic Susceptibilities of Crystals |journal=Physical Review |volume=29 |issue=1 |pages=174–185 |doi=10.1103/PhysRev.29.174|bibcode=1927PhRv...29..174R}}
* {{cite journal |last=Rabi |first=I.I. |date=February 2, 1929 |title=Refraction of Beams of Molecules |journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]] |volume=123 |issue=3092 |pages=163–164 |doi=10.1038/123163b0 |bibcode=1929Natur.123..163R |s2cid=4113129}}
* {{cite journal |last=Rabi |first=I.I. |date=March 1929b |issue=3–4 |title=Zur Methode der Ablenkung von Molekularstrahlen |language=de |journal=[[Zeitschrift für Physik]]|volume=54 |pages=190–197 |doi=10.1007/BF01339837 |bibcode=1929ZPhy...54..190R |s2cid=123202872}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Rabi |first1=I.I. |last2=Kellogg |first2=J.M. |last3=Zacharias |first3=J.R. |author-link3=Jerrold R. Zacharias |year=1934a |title=The magnetic moment of the proton |doi=10.1103/PhysRev.46.157 |journal=Physical Review |volume=46 |issue=3 |pages=157–163|bibcode=1934PhRv...46..157R}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Rabi |first1=I.I. |last2=Kellogg |first2=J.M. |last3=Zacharias |first3=J.R. |author-link3=Jerrold R. Zacharias |year=1934b |title=The magnetic moment of the deuton |journal=Physical Review |doi=10.1103/PhysRev.46.163 |volume=46 |issue=3 |pages=163–165|bibcode=1934PhRv...46..163R}}
* {{cite journal |title=A New Method of Measuring Nuclear Magnetic Moment |last1=Rabi |first1=I.I. |last2=Zacharias |first2=J.R. |author-link2=Jerrold R. Zacharias |last3=Millman |first3=S. |last4=Kusch |first4=P. |journal=Physical Review |volume=53 |issue=4 |page=318 |date=1938 |doi=10.1103/PhysRev.53.318|bibcode=1938PhRv...53..318R|doi-access=free }}
* {{cite journal |title=The Molecular Beam Resonance Method for Measuring Nuclear Magnetic Moments. The Magnetic Moments of 3Li6, 3Li7 and 9F19 |last1=Rabi |first1=I.I. |last2=Millman |first2=S. |last3=Kusch |first3=P. |last4=Zacharias |first4=J.R. |author-link4=Jerrold R. Zacharias |journal=Physical Review |volume=55 |issue=6 |pages=526–535 |date=1939 |doi=10.1103/PhysRev.55.526|bibcode=1939PhRv...55..526R|s2cid=27209454 }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Rabi |first1=I.I. |last2=Zacharias |first2=J.R. |author-link2=Jerrold R. Zacharias |last3=Millman |first3=S. |last4=Kusch |first4=P. |date=1992 |title=Milestones in Magnetic Resonance: 'A new method of measuring nuclear magnetic moment'. 1938 |volume=2 |issue=2 |journal=Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging |pages=131–133 |pmid=1562763 |doi=10.1002/jmri.1880020203|s2cid=73238886 }}
* {{cite book |last=Ramsey |first=Norman |author-link=Norman Ramsey Jr. |title=I. I. Rabi 1898–1988 |date=1993 |series=Biographical memoirs |volume=62 |location=Washington, DC |publisher=National Academies Press |isbn=0-585-14673-X |oclc=45729831}}
* {{cite book |last=Rhodes |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Rhodes |title=The Making of the Atomic Bomb |location=New York |publisher=Simon & Schuster |date=1986 |isbn=0-671-44133-7 |oclc=13793436|title-link=The Making of the Atomic Bomb }}
* {{cite book |last=Rigden |first=John S. |author-link=John S. Rigden |date=1987 |title=Rabi, Scientist and Citizen |location=New York |series=Sloan Foundation Series |publisher=Basic Books |isbn=0-465-06792-1 |oclc=14931559|url=https://archive.org/details/rabiscientistcit00rigd }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Toennies |first1=J.P. in |last2=Schmidt-Böcking |first2=H. |last3=Friedrich |first3=B. |last4=Lower |first4=J.C.A. |date=2011 |title=Otto Stern (1888–1969): The Founding Father of Experimental Atomic Physics |journal=Annalen der Physik |volume=523 |issue=12 |pages=1045–1070 |doi=10.1002/andp.201100228|bibcode=2011AnP...523.1045T |arxiv=1109.4864|s2cid=119204397 }}
{{div col end}}
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
{{Wikiquote}}
* {{cite web |url=http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_7E62DED261394CEDBB3A79E9260DB791 |series=War and Peace in the Nuclear Age |title=Interview with Isidor Isaac Rabi |year=1986 |access-date=March 22, 2016}}
* [https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/24205-1 Interview of I. I. Rabi by Stephen White on 1980 February 11], Niels Bohr Library & Archives, American Institute of Physics
* {{Find a Grave}}
* {{MathGenealogy|id=84659}}
* {{Nobelprize}}

{{s-start}}
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{{s-bef|before=[[Lee DuBridge]]}}
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{{Nobel Prize in Physics Laureates 1926–1950}}
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