Alvarez, Luis W., 1911-1988
Name Entries
person
Alvarez, Luis W., 1911-1988
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Name Components
Surname :
Alvarez
Forename :
Luis W.
Date :
1911-1988
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Alvarez, Luis Walter, 1911-1988
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Name Components
Surname :
Alvarez
Forename :
Luis Walter
Date :
1911-1988
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Biographical History
Luis W. Alvarez (b. June 13, 1911, San Francisco, CA–d. September 1, 1988, Berkely, CA) was an American experimental physicist, inventor, and professor who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1968. After receiving his PhD from the University of Chicago in 1936, Alvarez went to work for Ernest Lawrence at the Radiation Laboratory at the University of California in Berkeley. Alvarez devised a set of experiments to observe K-electron capture in radioactive nuclei, predicted by the beta decay theory but never before observed. He produced tritium using the cyclotron and measured its lifetime. In collaboration with Felix Bloch, he measured the magnetic moment of the neutron.
In 1940 Alvarez joined the MIT Radiation Laboratory where he contributed to a number of World War II radar projects, from early improvements to Identification friend or foe (IFF) radar beacons, now called transponders, to a system known as VIXEN for preventing enemy submarines from realizing that they had been found by the new airborne microwave radars. The radar system for which Alvarez is best known and which has played a major role in aviation, most particularly in the post war Berlin airlift, was Ground Controlled Approach (GCA). Alvarez spent a few months at the University of Chicago working on nuclear reactors for Enrico Fermi before coming to Los Alamos to work for Robert Oppenheimer on the Manhattan project. Alvarez worked on the design of explosive lenses, and the development of exploding-bridgewire detonators.
After the war Alvarez was involved in the design of a liquid hydrogen bubble chamber that allowed his team to take millions of photographs of particle interactions, develop complex computer systems to measure and analyze these interactions, and discover entire families of new particles and resonance states. This work resulted in his being awarded the Nobel Prize in 1968. He was involved in a project to x-ray the Egyptian pyramids to search for unknown chambers. With his son, geologist Walter Alvarez, he developed the Alvarez hypothesis which proposes that the extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs was the result of an asteroid impact.
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External Related CPF
https://id.loc.gov/authorities/n85280938
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/10569738
https://viaf.org/viaf/30988204
https://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n85280938
https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q178344
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Languages Used
eng
Latn
Subjects
Particle accelerators
Betatrons
Bubble chambers
Cloud chamber
Cyclotrons
Dipole moments
Electrostatics
Ionization chambers
Leaflets dropped from aircraft
Neutrons
Neutron sources
Nuclear fission
Nuclear physics
Nuclear warfare
Particles (Nuclear physics)
Particles (Nuclear physics)
Physicists
Physicists
Physics
Physics
Positrons
Quarks
Research grants
Transuranium elements
World War, 1939-1945
Nationalities
Americans
Activities
Occupations
College teachers
Physicists
Legal Statuses
Places
United States
00, US
AssociatedPlace
San Francisco
CA, US
AssociatedPlace
Birth
Berkeley
CA, US
AssociatedPlace
Death
Convention Declarations
<conventionDeclaration><citation>VIAF</citation></conventionDeclaration>