1881-1958. US physicist. With Lester Germer 
(1896-1971), he discovered that electrons can 
undergo diffraction, so proving Louis de 
Broglie's theory that electrons, and 
therefore all matter, can show wavelike 
structure. G P Thomson carried through the 
same research independently, and in 1937 the 
two men shared the Nobel Prize for Physics. 
Born in Illinois, Davisson worked under O W
Richardson at Princeton before joining Bell
Telephone Labs in 1917.