Davisson, Clinton J.

Davisson, Clinton J. (Joseph) (1881–1958) physicist; born in Bloomington, Ill. He taught at the Carnegie Institution (1911–17), then joined Bell Telephone Laboratories (1917–46). In 1927 he demonstrated that electrons could behave as waves as well as particles; for this breakthrough, he shared the 1937 Nobel Prize in physics with G. P. Thomson. After leaving Bell, Davisson became a visiting professor at the University of Virginia until 1954. He continued research in electron optics and contributed to the development of the electron microscope.