Luis Alvarez
Nobel physicist; member of the CIA's 1953 UFO panel
- Born
- June 13, 1911, San Francisco
- Died
- September 1, 1988
- Award
- Nobel Prize in Physics, 1968
- Manhattan Project
- Developed detonators for the plutonium bomb
- UFO link
- Robertson Panel member, 1953
Berkeley physicist and 1968 Nobel laureate who flew as an observer at Hiroshima and sat on the CIA's 1953 Robertson Panel.
What is Luis Alvarez known for?
Luis W. Alvarez was an American physicist at the University of California, Berkeley. At Los Alamos during World War II he developed the detonators for the plutonium bomb and flew as a scientific observer at both the Trinity test and the Hiroshima explosion. After the war he built a proton linear accelerator and used bubble chambers to find many short-lived particles, work recognized with the 1968 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Later, with his son Walter Alvarez, he proposed that an asteroid impact caused the extinction of the dinosaurs, now the mainstream explanation.
In January 1953 Alvarez was one of the scientists on the CIA-sponsored Robertson Panel, described by the CIA as a high-energy physicist. The panel found no evidence that UFO reports showed a threat to national security or extraterrestrial craft.
Member of the CIA's 1953 Robertson Panel on UFOs.
Mentioned on these pages
- Rabbit holeThe Robertson Panel
Sources
- NobelPrize.org, 'Luis W. Alvarez – Biographical'Reference
- Gerald K. Haines, 'CIA's Role in the Study of UFOs, 1947-90', Studies in Intelligence (CIA)Primary text
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