NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSICS 111 



Subsequently, Mr. Brattain engaged in the study of electrical con- 

 ductivity and rectification phenomena in semiconductors. During World 

 War II, he was associated with the National Defense Research Com- 

 mittee at Columbia Fni\'ersity ^\■here he worked on magnetic detection 

 of submarines. 



Mr. Brattain has received honorary Doctor of Science degrees from 

 Whitman College, Union College and Portland University. His many 

 awards include the John Scott Medal and the Stuart Ballantine INIedal, 

 both of which he received jointl^y with John Bardeen. Mr. Brattain is a 

 Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 



Dr. Bardeen received the B.S. in E.E. and M.S. in E.E. degrees 

 from the University of Wisconsin in 1928 and 1929 respectively, and his 

 Ph.D. degree in Mathematics and Physics from Princeton University 

 in 1930. After serving as an Assistant Professor of Physics at the Uni- 

 versity of Minnesota from 1938 to 1941, he worked with the Naval Ord- 

 nance Laboratory as a physicist during World War II. In 1945 he joined 

 the Laboratories as a research physicist, and was primarily concerned 



Clinton J . JJuvisson Previous Laburatories Nobel Laureate 



In December, J 937, Di'. Clinton J. Davisson of the Laboratories was 

 awarded the Xobel Prize in Piiysics for his discovery of electron tliffrac- 

 tion and the wave properties of electrons. 



He shared the jDrize with Professor G. P. Thompson of London, who 

 worked in the same field, though there was little in common between their 

 techniques. Dr. Davisson's work on electron diffraction started as an at- 

 tempt to understand the characteristics of secondary emission in multi- 

 grid electron tubes. In this work he discovered patterns of emission from 

 the surface of single crystals of nickel. By studying these patterns, Dr. 

 Davisson, with Dr. L. H. Germer and their associates, proved that reflected 

 electrons have the properties of trains of waves. 



Dr. Davisson was awarded the B.S. degree in physics from the Univer- 

 sity of Chicago in 1908 and the Ph.D. degree from Princeton in 191L 

 From September, 1911, until June, 1917, he was an instructor m physics 

 at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, coming to the Laboratories on a 

 wartime leave of absence. He found the climate of the Laboratories 

 conducive to basic research, however, and remained until his retirement 

 in 1946. Besides his work on electron diffraction. Dr. Davisson did much 

 significant work in a varietj^ of fields, particularly electron optics, mag- 

 netrons, and crystal physics. 



