Memorial Tributes Volume 5 (1992) / Chapter Skim
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Luis W. Alvarez
Luis W. Alvarez
Pages 6-13
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From page 7... ...
from 1940 to 1943, and then worked at Los Alamos in 1944 and 1945. Luis Alvarez was a consultant over the years to numerous agencies of the United States government and was a member of the President's Science Advisory Committee in 1973.
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From page 8... ...
He received the Collier Trophy (aviation) in 1946, the Mecial for Merit in 194S, the John Scott Medal in 1953, the Einstein Medal in 1961, the National Mecial of Science in 1964, the Michelson Award in 1965, the Nobel Prize in Physics in 196S, the Dudley Wright Prize (Interdisciplinary Science)
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From page 9... ...
Studying optics, workingwith Michelson's own instruments, taking twelve physics courses in five quarters, Alvarez soon read in the physics library every word Michelson had published. Thus he began his long and tremendously facile acquaintanceship with the literature, exercising an excellent memory for the substance, presentation, and even the location of articles he had react many years before.
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From page 10... ...
The discovery of the K-capture process, of He3, the extraordinary development of the liquid hydrogen bubble chamber, and the work on the comet-impact origin of the extinction of species are evidence of a person of extraordinary experimental talent. But Luis was much more, in driving himself to fins} the most important application of his capabilities.
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From page 11... ...
Alvarez thought of reducing the radar power output inversely as the cube of the range to the submarine. As the aircraft approached, the submarine would detect decreasing radar signal and have no fear of impending attack, while the aircraft would receive a continuously increasing radar reflection (returned signal energy goes as the inverse fourth power of range)
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From page 12... ...
Recognizing that he had drifted far from experimental physics, he recast himself as research assistant to two of his own research assistants. This discipline and redirection obviously bore fruitin the Alvarez work on particle physics with hydrogen bubble chambers for which he won the 1968 Nobel Prize, and in his commitment to technical work and avoidance of formal management roles.
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From page 13... ...
I especially enjoyed learning in great detail from William Friedman how the United States broke the Japanese diplomatic codes before Woric} War II." Luis W Alvarez was a consummate engineer and technologist who contributed greatly to the evolution of productive and effective civil and military aviation.
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