Clarence Zener

Clarence Melvin Zener ( ; December 1, 1905 – July 2, 1993) was an American physicist who in 1934 was the first to describe the property concerning the breakdown of electrical insulators. These findings were later exploited by Bell Labs in the development of the Zener diode, which was duly named after him.

Zener was also a theoretical physicist with a background in mathematics who conducted research in a wide range of subjects including: superconductivity, metallurgy, ferromagnetism, elasticity, fracture mechanics, diffusion, and geometric programming. Provided by Wikipedia