Germer, Lester Halbert (10.10.1896–3.10.1971) was an American physicist and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Born in Chicago. Graduated from Cornell University (1917). In 1917–25 he worked at the Western Electric Company, in 1925–61 at the Bell Telephone Laboratories, and from 1961 at Cornell University.
His research dealt with thermionic phenomena, the physics of crystals and atomic physics. In 1927, together with C. Davisson (independently of G. P. Thomson), he discovered the diffraction of electrons by a single crystal of nickel. He improved the apparatus for obtaining a diffraction pattern with low-energy electrons.