American experimental physicist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for
Physics in 1968 for work that included the discovery of many resonance
particles (subatomic particles having extremely short lifetimes and
occurring only in high-energy nuclear collisions).
Alvarez worked on microwave radar research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge (1940-43), and participated in the development of the atomic bomb at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, Los Alamos, N.M., in 1944-45. He suggested the technique for detonating the implosion type of atomic bomb. He also participated in the development of microwave beacons, linear radar antennas, the ground-controlled landing approach system, and a method for aerial bombing using radar to locate targets. After World War II Alvarez helped construct the first proton linear accelerator and developed the liquid hydrogen bubble chamber in which subatomic particles and their reactions are detected.
In about 1980 Alvarez helped his son, the geologist Walter Alvarez, publicize Walter's discovery of a worldwide layer of clay that has a high iridium content and which occupies rock strata at the geochronological boundary between the Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras; i.e., about 66.4 million years ago. They postulated that the iridium had been deposited following the impact on Earth of an asteroid or comet and that the catastrophic climatic effects of this massive impact caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. Though initially controversial, this widely publicized theory gradually gained support as the most plausible explanation of the abrupt demise of the dinosaurs.
Alvarez's autobiography, Alvarez: Adventures of a Physicist, was published
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