 Born into a traditional Jewish family in Rymanów , Galicia , in what was then part of Austria @-@ Hungary , Rabi came to the United States as a baby and was raised in New York 's Lower East Side . He entered Cornell University as an electrical engineering student in 1916 , but soon switched to chemistry . Later , he became interested in physics . He continued his studies at Columbia University , where he was awarded his doctorate for a thesis on the magnetic susceptibility of certain crystals . In 1927 , he headed for Europe , where he met and worked with many of the finest physicists of the time . 
