Born Nov. 22, 1881, in Bloomington, 111.; died Feb. 1, 1958, in Charlottesville, Va. American physicist.
Davisson received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Chicago and his doctorate degree from Princeton University (1911). From 1917 to 1946 he worked at the Bell Telephone laboratories in New York City. In 1946 he became a professor at the University of Virginia. In 1927 he and L. H. Germer discovered the diffraction of electrons by a single crystal of nickel. Davisson also conducted research in thermal radiation, thermoelectronic and thermionic emissions, and electron optics. He received a Nobel Prize in 1937.