1911-1988
Physicist

Background.

Luis Alvarez, winner of the 1968 Nobel Prize for physics, was born in San Francisco on 13 June 1911. A graduate of the University of Chicago, Alvarez's intellectual interests spanned a variety of scientific fields. During World War II Alvarez was a group leader among scientists who developed the atomic bomb, and he was one of a select few observers who flew in a companion aircraft with the Enola Gay to witness the detonation of the atomic bomb over Hiroshima on 6 August 1945. During the early years of the war Alvarez, then working at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, developed a radar system that assisted aircraft in landing during heavy fog and other low-visibility circumstances. In 1946 Alvarez developed the proton linear accelerator known as LINEAC using tubular wave guides and other components. Using his invention, scientists were able to accelerate protons to a speed of 32 MeV...