Portrait of Luis Alvarez

Luis Walter Alvarez (June 13, 1911 – September 1, 1988) of San Francisco, California, USA, was a famed physicist of Spanish descent, who worked at the University of California, Berkeley. courtesy of http://www. ... June 13 is the 164th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (165th in leap years), with 201 days remaining. ... 1911 (MCMXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar). ... September 1 is the 244th day of the year (245th in leap years). ... 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Flag Seal Nickname: The City by the Bay; The City That Knows How; Golden Mountain (historic Chinese name) Location Location of the City and County of San Francisco, California Coordinates , Government City-County San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom Geographical characteristics Area     City 600. ... The first few hydrogen atom electron orbitals shown as cross-sections with color-coded probability density. ... The University of California, Berkeley (also known as UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, and by other names, see below) is the oldest and flagship campus of the ten-campus University of California system. ...

He is the son of famed physician Walter C. Alvarez and grandson of Luis F. Alvarez, who worked as a doctor in Hawaii and developed a method for the better diagnosis of macular leprosy. His aunt was Califiornia artist and oil painter Mabel Alvarez. His sister is Bernice Alvarez Brownson and his son is Walter Alvarez, the noted Professor of Geology at the University of California, Berkeley. Walter Clement Alvarez (1884 - 1978) was an American doctor. ... Luis F. Alvarez circa 1895 Luis F. Alvarez (April 1, 1853 - May 24, 1937) was born in La Puerta, a village near Oviedo, Asturias, Spain. ... Self Portrait, Mabel Alvarez, 1923 Mabel Alvarez (born November 28, 1891 - died March 13, 1985) was an artist and oil painter. ... Bernice Alvarez Brownson (1913- ) was born in San Francisco, California and is an American writer, photographer and poet. ... Walter Alvarez (born 1940), son of Nobel Prize winner Luis Alvarez, is a professor in the geology and geophysics department at the University of California, Berkeley. ...

Alvarez attended the University of Chicago, where he received his bachelor's degree in 1932, his master's degree in 1934, and his PhD in 1936. The University of Chicago is a private university located principally in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. ... The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ... 1932 (MCMXXXII) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link will take you to a full 1932 calendar). ... A masters degree is an academic degree usually awarded for completion of a postgraduate or graduate course of one to three years in duration. ... 1934 (MCMXXXIV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... PhD usually refers to the academic title Doctor of Philosophy PhD can also refer to the manga Phantasy Degree This is a disambiguation page — a list of pages that otherwise might share the same title. ... 1936 (MCMXXXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Alvarez won the 1968 Nobel Prize in Physics for "the discovery of a large number of resonance states, made possible through his development of the technique of using hydrogen bubble chamber and data analysis". Specifically, his research made it possible to record and study the short lived particles created in particle accelerators. 1968 (MCMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1968 calendar). ... Hannes Alfvén (1908–1995) accepting the Nobel Prize for his work on magnetohydrodynamics [1]. List of Nobel Prize laureates in Physics from 1901 to the present day. ... A 1960s single stage 2MeV linear Van de Graaff accelerator, here opened for maintenance A particle accelerator is a device that uses electric and/or magnetic fields to propel electrically charged particles to high speeds. ...

Alvarez's ID badge photo from Los Alamos.

During World War II, Alvarez was a key participant in the Manhattan Project and in war projects in general. Alvarez and his student Lawrence Johnston designed the detonators for the spherical implosives used on the Trinity and Nagasaki bombs. Image File history File links Luis_Alvarez_ID_badge. ... Los Alamos National Laboratory, aerial view from 1995. ... Combatants Allies: Soviet Union United Kingdom United States and others Axis Powers: Germany Japan Italy and others Commanders Winston Churchill, Josef Stalin, Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Hideki Tojo Casualties Military dead: 17 million Civilian dead: 33 million Total dead: 50 million Military dead: 8 million Civilian dead: 4... The Manhattan Project resulted in the development of the first nuclear weapons, and the first-ever nuclear detonation at the Trinity test of July 16, 1945. ... A post-war Fat Man model. ...

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He additionally did important work relating to radar and aviation, and designed a system by which airplanes could land safely in low visibility conditions, useful both to bombers and commercial aviation. After the war he went on to invent the synchotron. He flew as a scientific observer at the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. This long range radar antenna, known as ALTAIR, is used to detect and track space objects in conjunction with ABM testing at the Ronald Reagan Test Site on the Kwajalein atoll[1]. Radar is a system that uses radio waves to detect, determine the distance of, and map, objects such... A synchrotron is a particular type of cyclic particle accelerator in which the magentic field (to turn the particles so they circulate) and the electric field (to accelerate the particles) are carefully synchronized with the travelling particle beam. ... This page may meet Wikipedias criteria for speedy deletion. ...

In 1980, with his son Walter Alvarez, a geologist, Luis proposed the asteroid-impact theory to explain the iridium anomaly of the K-T extinction boundary, the observed increased abundance of iridium in strata of that time. Ten years later, highly convincing evidence was presented showing that a huge impact crater called Chicxulub was, in fact, the "smoking gun" of the K-T boundary. This impact by an extraterrestrial body is now widely accepted as causing the extinction that killed the dinosaurs. 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday. ... Walter Alvarez (born 1940), son of Nobel Prize winner Luis Alvarez, is a professor in the geology and geophysics department at the University of California, Berkeley. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Badlands near Drumheller, Alberta where erosion has exposed the KT boundary. ... General Name, Symbol, Number iridium, Ir, 77 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 9, 6, d Appearance silvery white Atomic mass 192. ... Tycho crater on Earths moon. ... Radar topography reveals the 180 kilometer (112 mile) wide ring of the crater (image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech) Chicxulub Crater is an ancient impact crater buried underneath the Yucatan peninsula, with its center located approximately underneath the town of Chicxulub, Yucatán, Mexico. ...

Alvarez also proposed a jet-recoil theory for the Kennedy assassination to explain why John F. Kennedy's head jerked backwards if Lee Harvey Oswald, shooting from behind the president, was the assassin. John F. Kennedy The assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the thirty-fifth President of the United States, took place on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas, USA at 12:30 PM Central Standard Time (18:30 UTC). ... John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to as John F. Kennedy, JFK or Jack Kennedy, was the 35th President of the United States. ... Lee Harvey Oswald (October 18, 1939 – November 24, 1963) was, according to four US government investigations, the assassin of US President John F. Kennedy. ...

In 1978, he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1978 calendar). ... The National Inventors Hall of Fame is an organization that honors important inventors from the United States. ...

Further reading

• Alvarez, Luis W. Alvarez: Adventures of a Physicist, New York: Basic Books, 1987, ISBN 04650011

See also

• Asteroid deflection strategies

Artists impression of a major impact event. ...

External links

• Nobel biography
• About Luis Alvarez
• Prelude to the Ultimate Secret: The JFK Medical Paradox
• IEEE interview with Johnston, patentholder of the exploding-bridgewire detonator
• Eric W. Weisstein, Alvarez, Luis W. (1911-1988) at ScienceWorld.
• Annotated bibliography for Luis Alvarez from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues