Rabi, Isidor Isaac [key], 1898–1988, American physicist, b. Austria, grad. Cornell, 1919, Ph.D. Columbia, 1927. A teacher at Columbia from 1929, he became professor of physics in 1937. He is known for his work in magnetism, molecular beams, and quantum mechanics. For his discovery and measurement of the radio-frequency spectra of atomic nuclei whose magnetic spin has been disturbed, he was awarded the 1944 Nobel Prize in Physics. From 1952 to 1956 he was chairman of the general advisory committee to the Atomic Energy Commission. He was appointed (1957) chairman of the President's Science Advisory Committee and served as consultant to many national and international organizations.
See his autobiography (1960); Science: The Center of Culture (ed. by R. N. Anshen, 1970).
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