after having missed out on a national research fellowship in physics in 1932, he stayed at princeton as instructor. in 1933, he was awarded a national research fellowship in chemistry and went to massachusetts institute of technology (mit) for two years (1933–1935). while a fellow in mit's chemistry department, he spent much of his time working in the physics department where his collaborators included the trio john c. slater, philip m. morse (who had been a graduate student at princeton simultaneously with kimball, but in physics) and julius stratton.