Raymond Davis Jr.
American scientist
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“Raymond Davis Jr.” thisDay, thisday.info/people/raymond-davis-jr/. Accessed 14 Oct. 2026.
Raymond Davis Jr. (n.d.). thisDay. Retrieved October 14, 2026, from https://thisday.info/people/raymond-davis-jr/
“Raymond Davis Jr.” thisDay. Accessed October 14, 2026. https://thisday.info/people/raymond-davis-jr/.
Who was Raymond Davis Jr.?
Raymond Davis Jr. (October 14, 1914 – May 31, 2006) was an American chemist and physicist. Davis was born in Washington, D.C., where his father was a photographer for the National Bureau of Standards. He spent several years as a choirboy to please his mother, although he could not carry a tune. His brother Warren, 14 months younger than he, was his constant companion in boyhood. He received his B.S. from the University of Maryland in 1938 in chemistry, which is part of the University of Maryland College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences. He also received a master's degree from that school and a Ph.D. from Yale University in physical chemistry in 1942. He enjoyed attending the concerts at the Watergate before air traffic was loud enough to drown out the music.
Historical significance
He is best known as the leader of the Homestake experiment in the 1960s-1980s, which was the first experiment to detect neutrinos emitted from the Sun; for this he shared the 2002 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Cite this page
“Raymond Davis Jr.” thisDay, thisday.info/people/raymond-davis-jr/. Accessed 14 Oct. 2026.
Raymond Davis Jr. (n.d.). thisDay. Retrieved October 14, 2026, from https://thisday.info/people/raymond-davis-jr/
“Raymond Davis Jr.” thisDay. Accessed October 14, 2026. https://thisday.info/people/raymond-davis-jr/.