Davisson was born in Bloomington, Illinois, on October 22, 1881. After graduation from Bloomington High School in 1902, he entered the University of Chicago. During his sophomore year, financial problems forced him to leave Chicago and take a job with a telephone company. The following year he was appointed to a teaching position at Purdue University. A year later, still without a bachelor's degree, he accepted an assignment as instructor in physics at Princeton University. He continued his studies at Chicago during the summer and finally earned his B.S. degree in 1908. He then embarked on a doctoral program at Princeton, from which he received his Ph.D. degree in physics in 1911.

In the same year, Davisson was appointed assistant professor of physics at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh. He remained at that post until World War I intervened. In 1917, Davisson refused enlistment in the army and, instead, took...