Luis W' Alvarez

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Luis W. Alvarez

• By
• Amanda Lentz
• Sarah Steldt

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Often referred to as the wild idea man of
physics.
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Background Information

• Born on June 13, 1911 in San Francisco, CA.
• Family
• Father Dr. Walter C. Alvarez
• Mother Harriet Skidmore Smyth
• Siblings
• Brother (Robert)
• 2 Sisters (Gladys and Bernice)

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Childhood

• By age 10, he was not interested in biological
  work like his father.
• He was interested in wiring in electric circuits.
• In 1925, his father took a position at the Mayo
  Clinic in Rochester, MN, so the family relocated.

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Education

• He attended Rochester High School in MN and
  graduated in 1928.
• For two summers, he worked as an apprentice in
  the Mayo Clinics instrument shop.

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Education (continued)

• Entered the University of Chicago.
• Started with the intention of studying chemistry,
  but changed to physics.
• Because of his excellent grades in high school,
  he became a member of the Phi Beta Kappa and
  Sigma Xi, science honor societies.

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Education (continued)

• 1932 Earned a B.S.
• 1933 Started flying lessons.
• 1934 Earned M.S. and began flying for 50 years.
• 1936
• Earned Ph.D.
• Married Geraldine Smithwick (but the two later
  divorced).

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Career

• Joined the University of California at Berkleys
  Radiation Laboratory.
• 1937 gave first experimental demonstration of
  the existence of the phenomenon of K-electron
  capture by nuclei.

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Career (continued)

• 1940 1943 worked at MIT in the radiation
  laboratory
• He was responsible for 3 important radar systems
• The microwave early warning system
• The Eagle high altitude bombing system
• Blind landing system

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Career (continued)

• 1943 - Began work on the Manhattan Project.
• Flew as an observer at both Alamogordo and
  Hiroshima.
• 1947 Designed and constructed a 40-foot proton
  linear accelerator at Berkely.
• 1949-1959 served as Associate Director of the
  Lawrence radiation laboratory (Served again from
  1975-1978).
• 1958 Married Janet L. Landis.

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Career (continued)

• 1951 published first suggestion for charge
  exchange acceleration.
• 1960
• Director of Hewlett-Packard Company.
• Board chairman of Optical Research and
  Development.

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Career (continued)

• 1979 Along with his son Walter (a geology
  professor at Berkley), proposed the theory of a
  meteor causing dinosaur extinction.
• 1987 Published Alvarez Adventures of a
  Physicist.
• Died on September 1, 1988.

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Mentors/Influences

• Ernest Rutherford
• His father Walter
• Albert Einstein
• Don Gow
• Rowan Gathier

• Enrico Fermi
• Ernest Lawrence
• Arthur Compton
• Alfred Loomis

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Awards

• 1946 Collier Trophy
• By the National Aeronautical Association
• For his radar based blind landing system
• Was first used during the Battle of Britain
• 1947 - Medal for Merit
• 1953 John Scott Medaland Prize
• For his research work on high-energy physics
• 1960 Named California Scientist of the Year
• 1961 Einstein Medal
• For his contributions to the physical sciences
• 1963 Pioneer Award of the AIEEE

• 1964 National Medal of Science
• For contributions to high-energy physics
• 1965 Michelson Award
• 1968 Nobel Prize
• For the development and use of the liquid
  hydrogen bubble chamber to discover a number of
  short-lived resonance particles whose
  classification led to the quark description of
  matter.
• 1978 National Inventors Hall of Fame
• 1981 Dudley Wright Prize
• 1986 elected into the World Level of the Hall
  of Fame for Engineering, Science and Technology

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Society Member of

• National Academy of Sciences
• American Philosophical Society
• American Academy of Arts Sciences
• National Academy of Engineering
• American Physical Society
• President in 1969

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