Clarence Melvin Zener (born 1.12.1905) was an American physicist and a member of the National Academy of Sciences (1959). He was born in Indianapolis. He graduated from Stanford University (1926) and in 1929 received the degree of Doctor of Physics at Harvard University. In 1930—32 he worked at Princeton University, in 1932 —34 at Bristol, in 1935 — 37 at George Washington University, in 1937 40 at the City College of New York and in 1940-42 at Washington University. In 1945-51 he was professor at the University of Chicago, in 1951—56 deputy director of the research laboratories of the Westinghouse Electric Corporation, in 1956—62 their director and in 1962— 65 their scientific director. From 1968 he was professor at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh.
His research was in the field of solid-state physics. He is known for the Zener effect in the physics of semiconductors and for Zener diodes, or avalanche-breakdown diodes. In 1951 he developed the s-d exchange model of ferromagnetic metals.