I. I. Rabi as Educator and Science Warrior

Abstract

Isi dor Isaac (known to the world simply as I. I.) Rabi was, first of all, a superb physicist. He headed a marvel ously productive laboratory at Columbia University, with brilliant students and postdocs. During World War II, he was associate director of the MIT Radiation Laboratory and a senior adviser to J. Robert Oppenheimer at Los Alamos, After the war, he continued to work as a physicist, and as a consultant to government, laboratories, and international organizations. He became a most respected senior statesman of science. Always the voice of reason and of moral authority, he sometimes succeeded in hiding his commitment behind his down‐to‐earth humor.