 In 1922 Rabi returned to Cornell as a graduate chemistry student , and began studying physics . In 1923 he met , and began courting , Helen Newmark , a summer @-@ semester student at Hunter College . In order to be near her when she returned home , Rabi continued his studies at Columbia University , where his supervisor was Albert Wills . In June 1924 Rabi landed a job as a part @-@ time tutor at the City College of New York . Wills , whose specialty was magnetism , suggested that Rabi write his doctoral thesis on the magnetic susceptibility of sodium vapor . The topic did not appeal to Rabi , but after William Lawrence Bragg gave a seminar at Columbia about the electric susceptibility of certain crystals called Tutton 's salts , Rabi decided to research their magnetic susceptibility , and Wills agreed to be his supervisor . 
