PHYSICIST

Luis Walter Alvarez

1911 - 1988

Photo of Luis Walter Alvarez

Icon of person Luis Walter Alvarez

Luis Walter Alvarez (June 13, 1911 – September 1, 1988) was an American experimental physicist, inventor, and professor who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1968 for his discovery of resonance states in particle physics using the hydrogen bubble chamber. In 2007 the American Journal of Physics commented, "Luis Alvarez was one of the most brilliant and productive experimental physicists of the twentieth century." After receiving his PhD from the University of Chicago in 1936, Alvarez went to work for Ernest Lawrence at the Radiation Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley. Alvarez devised a set of experiments to observe K-electron capture in radioactive nuclei, predicted by the beta decay theory but never before observed. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Luis Walter Alvarez has received more than 1,293,898 page views. His biography is available in 73 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 67 in 2019). Luis Walter Alvarez is the 327th most popular physicist (up from 354th in 2019), the 1,746th most popular biography from United States (up from 2,337th in 2019) and the 68th most popular American Physicist.

Memorability Metrics

  • 1.3M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 58.94

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 73

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 2.63

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 6.85

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Among PHYSICISTS

Among physicists, Luis Walter Alvarez ranks 327 out of 851. Before him are Kenneth G. Wilson, Henri Pitot, Samuel C. C. Ting, Thomas Johann Seebeck, Bruno Pontecorvo, and John B. Goodenough. After him are Daniel C. Tsui, Félix Savart, Joseph Swan, Pierre Louis Dulong, Ami Argand, and Donna Strickland.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1911, Luis Walter Alvarez ranks 72. Before him are Lina Heydrich, Karl Silberbauer, Alfonso García Robles, Feodor Lynen, Lee J. Cobb, and Princess Isabelle of Orléans-Braganza. After him are Jussi Björling, William Stuart-Houston, George Stigler, Maria Reiter, Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock, and Roberto Matta. Among people deceased in 1988, Luis Walter Alvarez ranks 46. Before him are Willem Drees, Chico Mendes, Muzafer Sherif, Trường Chinh, Khalil al-Wazir, and Paul Grice. After him are Yevgeny Mravinsky, Renato Salvatori, Karl August Wittfogel, René Char, Bacha Khan, and Isamu Noguchi.

Others Born in 1911

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Others Deceased in 1988

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In United States

Among people born in United States, Luis Walter Alvarez ranks 1,746 out of 20,380. Before him are Ving Rhames (1959), Sol LeWitt (1928), Henry Ford II (1917), John Fogerty (1945), Barbara Bel Geddes (1922), and Martin Rodbell (1925). After him are Stephen Lang (1952), Aaron Copland (1900), George Gaylord Simpson (1902), Margaret Keane (1927), Robert Moog (1934), and Emilio Estevez (1962).

Others born in United States

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Among PHYSICISTS In United States

Among physicists born in United States, Luis Walter Alvarez ranks 68. Before him are David Gross (1941), John Robert Schrieffer (1931), Robert B. Laughlin (1950), John C. Mather (1946), Kenneth G. Wilson (1936), and Samuel C. C. Ting (1936). After him are Frank Wilczek (1951), Frank Oppenheimer (1912), Philip Abelson (1913), Walter A. Shewhart (1891), Carl Wieman (1951), and John Mauchly (1907).

American born Physicists

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