- Person
- Isidor Isaac Rabi
- Lived
- 1898–1988
- Field
- Physics
- From
- Polish-born American
The story
By the 1950s Isidor Isaac Rabi was one of the most respected scientists in American public life. A Nobel laureate in physics, he had led research at the MIT Radiation Laboratory during the Second World War, served on the Atomic Energy Commission's General Advisory Committee from 1946, and chaired it from 1952 to 1956. In 1952 he also joined the Science Advisory Committee of the Office of Defense Mobilization, a body set up under President Truman to advise on science and defence, and he became its chairman in 1956.
Rabi already knew Dwight Eisenhower well from Eisenhower's years as president of Columbia University, where Rabi taught. The two men trusted each other.
In October 1957 the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, followed soon after by Sputnik 2. Americans were shocked to find themselves apparently behind in science and technology. On 15 October Eisenhower met Rabi's committee to ask how the United States should respond. Rabi was the first to speak and put forward a series of proposals, one of which was to strengthen the committee so that it could give the President timely scientific advice directly.
Eisenhower acted on the idea. On 21 November 1957 the committee was moved into the White House as the President's Science Advisory Committee, with James R. Killian appointed as its first director. Rabi himself also served as Science Advisor to Eisenhower. He continued to bring science into international affairs as the US representative on the NATO Science Committee, where his complaints that large software projects were running late helped lead to the first conference on software engineering.
The committee brought physicists, chemists, biologists and engineers into the highest levels of policy. Over the following years its members advised presidents on defence, space and science education, and in 1965 its panel on environmental pollution produced an early government report on the subject. The tradition of an independent science adviser close to the head of government, which Rabi helped launch, continues in the United States and many other countries.
Why it matters
Rabi helped establish the tradition of independent scientific advice at the top of the American government, a model many countries followed.
About Isidor Isaac Rabi
Galician-born physicist who discovered nuclear magnetic resonance in molecular beams, won the 1944 Nobel Prize, and helped found Brookhaven and CERN, the root of today’s MRI and atomic clocks.
More about Isidor Isaac Rabi
- Rabi helped found Brookhaven National LaboratoryIsidor Isaac Rabi and Norman Ramsey rallied nine universities to found Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, established in 1947.
- Rabi's team found the deuteron is not roundPrecise measurements by Isidor Isaac Rabi's group in the late 1930s showed the deuteron has an electric quadrupole moment, a key clue to the nuclear force.
- I. I. Rabi discovered how to make atomic nuclei 'ring'In 1937 Isidor Isaac Rabi's Columbia team invented the molecular-beam magnetic resonance method, winning him the 1944 Nobel Prize in Physics.
- Rabi led research on wartime microwave radarAt MIT's Radiation Laboratory during the Second World War, Isidor Isaac Rabi led research that pushed radar to sharper 3-centimetre wavelengths.
- I. I. Rabi opposed the hydrogen bomb on moral groundsIn 1949 Isidor Isaac Rabi joined Enrico Fermi on the AEC's advisory committee in opposing the hydrogen bomb on moral as well as technical grounds.
- I. I. Rabi planted the idea that became CERNAt a UNESCO meeting in Florence in June 1950, Isidor Isaac Rabi called for regional laboratories to rebuild European science; in 1952 European nations created CERN’s provisional council.
- I. I. Rabi proposed the atomic clock in 1945In a 1945 lecture Isidor Isaac Rabi proposed using the magnetic resonance of atoms to keep time; his colleagues soon built the first atomic clocks.
- Rabi's discovery is the root of the MRI scannerIsidor Isaac Rabi's magnetic resonance research led to MRI; in his final illness he was examined in a scanner descended from his own experiments.
Sources
- Isidor Isaac Rabi Wikipedia
- President's Science Advisory Committee Wikipedia
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