Isaac Isidor RABI (1898-1988)
He was raised in New-York and became a professor at
Columbia University in 1929. He improved the the molecular beam method
discovered by O. Stern. This allowed him to detect the nuclear spin of
the sodium (1933) and determine the nuclear magnetic moment and
hyperfine structure of the spectral lines. His paper
on the spin flop oscillations was written in 1937. In 1939 with is
colleagues, they used the first resonance method to determine the
magnetic properties of atomic nuclei (Lithium). In 1944, he was
awarded the Nobel prize in physics. During the second world war, Rabi
was working at the MIT radiation laboratory where he participated in
the development of the radar.
References:
John S. Ridgen, Rabi, scientist and
citizen, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, USA, 2000.
John. S. Ridgen, Hydrogen: the
essential element, Harvard University Press, Cambridge,
Cambridge, 2002.
Gerald Holton, "I. I. Rabi as Educator and Science Warrior", Physics
Today, September 1999, pp. 37-42.
©2004,2006, Alain Michaud