Rabin was born in what was then known as Breslau, Germany (it became Wroclav, and part of Poland, after the Second World War). His father was a rabbi. He received an M. Sc. from Hebrew University in 1953, and a PhD from Princeton University in 1956.
The citation, awarded jointly to Rabin and Dana Scott, states that the award was granted:
Nondeterministic machines have become a key concept in computational complexity theory, particularly with the description of complexity classes P and NP, as the most well-known example.
In 1975, Rabin also invented a randomized algorithm that could determine very quickly, but with a tiny probability of error, whether a number was a prime number. Fast primality testing is key in the successful implementation of most public-key cryptography.
Rabin's more recent research has concentrated on computer security.
He is currently the Thomas J. Watson Sr. Professor of Computer Science at Harvard University.