 As a teacher , Rabi was underwhelming . Leon Lederman recalled that after a lecture , students would head to the library to try and figure out what Rabi had been talking about . Irving Kaplan rated Rabi and Harold Urey as " the worst teachers I ever had " . Norman Ramsey considered Rabi 's lectures " pretty dreadful " , while William Nierenberg felt that he was " simply an awful lecturer " . 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 . 
