A major focus of Clinton Davisson's research at Bell Telephone Laboratories (formerly Western Electric Company) was the scattering of electrons by crystals . In 1927, while working with a colleague named Lester Germer, Davisson accidentally discovered evidence to support the earlier hypothesis of Prince Louis Victor de Broglie that a beam of electrons has wave properties. For this discovery, Davisson was awarded a share of the 1937 Nobel Prize in physics. He remained at Bell until his retirement in 1946.

Clinton Joseph Davisson was born in Bloomington, Illinois, on October 22, 1881. His father, Joseph Davisson, was a veteran of the Union Army who worked as a contract painter; his mother was the former Mary Calvert, a schoolteacher before her marriage. The Davissons also had one daughter, Carrie. Young Clinton attended local schools and graduated from Bloomington High School in 1902. He entered the University of Chicago on a scholarship, as a physics major.

Davisson's...