 Salmon attended Wayne State University, then received a master's degree in 1947 from the University of Chicago.At UCLA, under Hans Reichenbach, Salmon earned a PhD in philosophy in 1950.He was on Brown University's faculty from 1955 until 1963, when he joined the History and Philosophy of Science Department of Indiana University Bloomington where Norwood Russell Hanson was Professor until he and his wife Merilee moved to Arizona in 1973.