When was walter alvarez born

Walter Alvarez. The basics. The details from wikipedia. Impact theory Alvarez and his father Luis W. Awards and honors Alvarez is the recipient of numerous awards and honors. Works T. Norton, ISBN View Walter Alvarez 's image gallery. Reference sources. United States of America. Academia Biology Science Social science.

Luis Walter Alvarez. Princeton University. His main efforts have been concentrated on the development and use of large liquid hydrogen bubble chambers, and on the development of high-speed devices to measure and analyze the millions of photographs produced each year by the bubble-chamber complex. The net result of this work has been the discovery by Dr. Since Dr. Alvarez has devoted most of this time to the study of cosmic rays, using balloons and superconducting magnets.

In he was awarded the John Scott Medaland Prize, by the city of Philadelphia, for the same work. In he was awarded the Medal for Merit. In he was awarded the Einstein Medal for his contribution to the physical sciences. He has received the following honorary de grees: Sc. It was later edited and republished in Nobel Lectures. To cite this document, always state the source as shown above. For more updated biographical information, see: Alvarez, Luis W. Basic Books, New York, Tucky received his B.

From to , he traveled widely in China and the Philippines, doing geological exploration for the Standard Oil Company under the direction of the late Professor Louderback.

In , as Junior Engineer in the U. Bureau of Mines, he was engaged in war-minerals investigations. Then, between and , he was one of two instructors who, along with Professors Lawson, Louderback, and Eakle, and a Teaching Fellow, constituted the entire Department of Geology at Berkeley.

He was awarded the Ph. Tucky had already begun a lifelong and successful career as a consulting geologist, specializing in oil exploration, while still an Instructor. After receiving his doctorate, he left the campus for six years to devote full time to this work, chiefly in the western states, but also in Mexico and Alaska.

Oil geologists were in great demand in those days and the ones immediately thereafter; accordingly, Professors Lawson and Louderback invited Tucky to return to Berkeley to take charge of instruction in field mapping and in structural and non-metalliferous economic geology.

He was appointed Associate Professor in and served in that capacity for a decade. From until he retired in , he was Professor of Geology, and between and he also served as Chairman of the Department. Tucky was first and foremost a field geologist and few, if any, equalled or excelled him in this role. His devotion to mapping was passionate; no sooner had he finished one quadrangle than he had immediately to start on the next.

Mapping became for him as much an end in itself as a means to an end. He loved the geologic hunt; he cared much less for skinning, cooking, and serving the quarry. He mapped no less than twenty-six quadrangles in the State, covering more than 6, square miles, and in doing so he walked across the California hills for well over 50, miles!

Interpretations inevitably become modified, but the lines he drew on his maps and the structure-sections he made from them will long continue to be valuable guides for future work.

Tucky's important contributions to our understanding of the geological history of California were greatly augmented by the rigorous field training he gave to more than a thousand students, many of whom have since risen to high positions in oil and mining companies and in State and Federal surveys. For thirty-three years he ran the Geology Summer Camp, a record unlikely ever to be equalled, and much of the fine standing now enjoyed by the department is attributable to the splendid training he gave in field geology.

It was there, in the field, that he was at his best; he worked the students hard and long, yet only the slackers fail to recall him with feelings of respect and affection.

He was gruff at times, and his vocabulary could be salty, but always those who liked him best were those who got to know him best. Tucky was not a voluminous writer, and most of his important papers were published between and , but when he took pencil in hand he wrote easily and clearly, filling unfilled bluebooks by the dozen! Invariably, however, another unmapped quadrangle beckoned, so that many sheets he mapped were left without an explanatory statement. His principal published contributions deal with the geology of the Coast Ranges of California, for while he did an immense amount of work in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, little of what he discovered there reached the printed page.

New dating techniques and additional field work have led to modification of some of Tucky's cherished views, especially concerning the Franciscan Formation and the amount of lateral movement that has taken place along the San Andreas Fault, but the vast accumulation of carefully collected data that he left on the geology of California will always be a rich mine for others to exploit.

Just as Tucky's main contributions to geology were concentrated within the State, so his main contributions to the University were concentrated in his department.

He took little part in general University affairs and cared little for administration and committee work, for which he was temperamentally unsuited. He was sincere and emotional, and in all that he did he was forthright, quite incapable of sham. One always knew where Tucky stood on any issue; his likes and dislikes were pronounced. He greatly enjoyed the role of host and raconteur, and he entertained his guests bounteously, with a delightful, warm, southern hospitality.

His wife, Ann F. Watson, whom he married in , and their son, Anthony, survive him; so does his son Nicholas, by his first wife, Dorothy Gebhardt Fagan, who died in Memorial written by Howell Williams, R.

Kleinpell, and E. He received the degree of Bachelor of Arts from the University of Colorado in In the summers of and he had been a field assistant on the Colorado Geological Survey, thus early adopting geology as a career. Upon graduation he became assistant geologist on the Survey, where he remained until He then entered Harvard University as an Assistant in Geology and Geography, but his student career was interrupted by the war. He served as second lieutenant in the Air Force in France during Returning to Harvard, he received his master's degree in He then proceeded to the Hawaiian Islands to make field studies for his doctor's thesis.

Returning to Harvard in , he became Instructor in Geology and Geography for a year, and received the Ph. In he became Assistant Professor of Geology at the University of California, where he remained until his retirement as Professor of Geology, Emeritus, in Professor Hinds' great interests were in the fields of geomorphology and pre-Cambrian geology. The latter was an outgrowth of his extreme interest in the Grand Canyon region.

He was widely known as a fluent and clear writer, and all his works were beautifully illustrated. But it is as a teacher that most people always thought of him. He was a magnetic lecturer. The size of his classes in Geology 1 was limited only by the capacity of Wheeler Auditorium--and not completely by that, for he could count on fifty absences a day and enroll fifty more than the room can seat.

He liked to speak for the first ten minutes of the hour's lecture on the state of the nation or on athletics. He was most liberal of his time in advising students; after an examination in Geology 1 there would be lines of students at his door. As the result of generations of large classes, enthralled by Hinds, he was widely known throughout the State. When other members of the Geology Department travel about, they frequently are asked by businessmen and housewives, "How is Professor Hinds?

He gave me a lifelong interest in the landscape about me. He advised them on water problems, represented them in contacts with the government, and helped with the knotty problem of their ages during the draft in World War II. He was initiated into membership of the Tesuque Tribe and was a member of the tribal council, which gave him the privilege of "descending into the kiva," a signal honor in the tribe.

In middle life he became a Roman Catholic, and, although he never married, he adopted a son from the Tesuque Tribe. His son resided with him in Berkeley. Professor Hind's happy times were in the summers when he roamed the southwest. But in winters the card table at the Faculty Club gave him much pleasure, and if one were to believe him, some profit.

Professor Hinds had been troubled by his heart for the last few years, and on June 26, , succumbed to it. He is survived by his son, Patrick, and two grandchildren. Memorial written by P. Byerly, C. Higgins, L. For 38 years he had supervised the University's network of seismographic stations, keeping track of earthquakes in central and northern California. All his great-grandparents as well as his grandparents and parents were born in the United States, moving west with the frontier.

Perry first attended the University of Redlands and the University of Southern California, as a mathematics major. At the end of his junior year, Byerly was told by his professor that he should transfer to a university offering more mathematics, so in the Fall of , he entered the University of California at Berkeley. He received his A. He then spent a year as instructor at the University of Nevada.

The University had established in , at Berkeley and at Mount Hamilton, the first seismographic stations in the Western Hemisphere on a permanent basis. However, in , Professor Andrew C. Lawson, then Chairman of Geology, asked Byerly to join the Department and make the siesmographic stations his life work. As a professor of seismology with a responsibility to develop a graduate research program, he was, of course, breaking new ground. The award of one of the new Guggenheim Fellowships in to opportunely broadened his horizons and he went to Cambridge University, England, where he began a lifetime friendship with Sir Harold Jeffreys.

At Cambridge his first wife, Ardis nee Gehring died of Hodgkin's disease, then incurable. Back at Berkeley, Byerly's relations with Professor Lawson were lively but ultimately close. Byerly was Lawson's last appointment to the Department staff before he became Emeritus, but Lawson remained active for almost another twenty years.

Later in Byerly's career, the mix of geologists and geophysicists in the Department of Geological Sciences became normal and, in due course, Byerly had a turn as chairman of the Department. This provided an opportunity to request his own appointment as Director of the Seismographic Stations September 21, Townley of Stanford.

He retained this influential post until , but into the late sixties he was often asked to give advice on the welfare of the Society.

After his research achievements of the s, Byerly became increasingly widely known. He also served on many National Research Council and government panels, being chairman of the Panel on Seismology and Gravity for the International Geophysical Year He was a fellow and, for a term, president of the Section of Seismology of the American Geophysical Union. He was Condon lecturer in Oregon in Byerly, He was awarded a second Guggenheim fellowship in to and was Smith-Mundt lecturer at the University of Mexico in , and had a Fulbright scholarship that took him back to Cambridge, England in to At the University of California, he was at times a member of various Senate committees -- Courses of Instruction, Graduate Council, Memorial Resolutions -- but he did not regard himself as a good committee man, being too impatient.

One proud accomplishment was on the Committee on Public Ceremonies, where he persuaded the administration to lend caps and gowns to the faculty without charge on days of public ceremonies.

Socially, he partook in a number of University clubs, including the Faculty Club, of which he was voted an Honorary Member in His contributions at Berkeley were marked by the naming of the seismographic station Strawberry Canyon as the Byerly Station, and the award of the Honorary LL. A substantial part of Byerly's seismological work, particularly after his becoming Emeritus in , involved consultations on geophysical and seismological questions.

He was consultant also for the U. Air Corps and in the sixties for the Atomic Energy Commission on seismic safety considerations for the underground nuclear testing in Nevada and the Aleutians. He took a "conservative" position regarding these nuclear tests and held that the national interest would be harmed if those obstructing them were successful.

In contrast to some of his seismological contemporaries who concentrated on research, Byerly taught a large number of graduate and undergraduate students over the years, not only seismology majors but also geology and engineering students.

He supervised many master's and twenty-one doctoral theses. His distinctive pedagogical method combined elements of irony and paradox with anecdotes so that more was left behind than mere technical knowledge. This large group of students constitutes at the present time an important professional base in American seismology and earthquake engineering. During World War II, to assist the Physics Department from which many of the faculty had left for war work elsewhere, Byerly taught Physics A-B, the upper division course in analytic mechanics.

He was as well qualified as many of the physics faculty to teach such a course. The schedule was one of year-round operation, and the number of students was large because of service groups; but he enjoyed it and taught from through In , Perry Byerly had married Elsie Gillmor and there were two sons.

Divorce occurred in In , he married Lillian Nuckolls, to whom he was devoted. Byerly was a man of wide knowledge and much practical wisdom. He played a germinal role in the growth of seismology in the United States during its formative years as a separate discipline. His influence will live on through his students and the Seismological Society of America, which he nurtured for some forty years.

Those who knew Perry Byerly well were much influenced by him. In casual encounters his kindliness and humor were sometimes hidden by a crusty manner of speaking. In fact, he had an abiding love of words, exemplified in his wide reading and knowledge of poetry.

His anecdotal abilities were well known, both at the University and in the geophysics community and many Byerly stories and wise sayings have circulated widely.

Lillian and three sons, Perry Edward, David, and Donald survive him. Memorial written by Bruce A. Bolt, Carl Helmholz, Don Tocher, and Howel Williams Howel Williams Professor of Geology, Emeritus Howel Williams, world-famous volcanologist and distinguished member of the University faculty for nearly fifty years, died in Berkeley on January 12, , as the consequence of a stroke.

Williams was born of Welsh parents in Liverpool, England, on October 12, He studied at the University of Liverpool, receiving a B.

His first publications were in archeology and it was because of his field work in this area that he changed to geology. After a few years of study at the Imperial College of Science and Technology in London, he came to Berkeley in the summer of on a three-year appointment as a Commonwealth Fund fellow. In California, Williams immediately took up field studies in areas of volcanic activity which were to be his dominating interest throughout his career.

His report on "A recent volcanic eruption near Lassen Peak, California," the first of many to appear in the University of California Publications in the Geological Sciences, was issued May 19, Even before that he had finished his first major work in volcanology which was reported at the twenty-seventh annual meeting of the Cordilleran Section of the Geological Society of America, held in Berkeley in March, For this Williams received instant recognition and was awarded a prize, provided by Professor Lawson, for "Geology of the Marysville Buttes, California," for having contributed "the most satisfactory and the most important paper setting forth the results of his own research in geology.

In , he also received the degree of D. In , after three years in California and also studies in Tahiti, Williams returned to England, where he held a post at the Royal School of Mines in London for one year. He so impressed Professor G. When Williams returned to the department it had only seven other members, six of whom were California Ph. His arrival was a blessing, bringing fresh stimulus to a department that had been criticized for inbreeding.

He took charge of instruction in microscopic petrography from the start and taught the basic course in this subject, a mainstay of the department, for thirty-six years.

The laboratory work was based entirely on thin sections of rocks, and students were required to make sketches and colored drawings to record their observations. At the same time Williams participated in teaching the rigorous full-year field course required for all major students, which had been instituted by Lawson as an innovation a generation earlier.

In volcanology he not only started a seminar but gained disciples among his younger colleagues. One of these, Charles Anderson later to become chief geologist of the U. Geological Survey , turned from economic geology to volcanology and carried out a number of independent volcanological studies in northern California. After definitive studies of the most notable California volcanoes, Mt. Lassen and Mt. Shasta, Williams first extended his work to Oregon. Press book on Crater Lake intended for the general public, he became known and appreciated in ever wider circles.

To most, the recognition of the collapse or engulfment of the mountain peak of Crater Lake, and his subsequent survey of calderas and their formation throughout the world are his greatest works, but Williams' own greatest love was Sutter Buttes, the study of which began his career in California and ironically, ended it when he returned "to correct the mistakes I made there a half century ago.

His ability to go into a new volcanic area and with miraculous swiftness identify the major units, lava flows, ash flows, volcanic domes, and establish their chronology accurately was a talent that awed and amazed those privileged to accompany him. His genius in this respect was recognized early in his career by the great British field geologist, Edward Greenly, who chose Williams to co-author a book on methods in geological surveying In contrast to Greenly, however, who always worked alone in the field to maintain his concentration, Williams enjoyed having field companions and delighted in both pointing out the salient features of the geology to his associates and keeping up a commentary on his developing geologic hypotheses.

His detailed field maps, meticulously and artfully drafted and colored, would grow magically before his companions' eyes. Nothing escaped Williams' keen eyes in the field, including the maidenly blush on the cheeks of the farmer's daughter upon whose land he found himself. During protracted field work in foreign lands, Howel steeped himself in the lore and culture of the countries, often singing and drinking with the local people and collecting their art.

His main mission, however, was never far from his mind, and evenings were frequently spent in reconnaissance geology by car: his enthusiams for geologic discovery never flagged. One observes in awe the tremendous area carefully studied by Williams during his career. His published geologic maps total over 10, square miles. Only some of the early giants of western reconnaissance geology, Powell, Gilbert and King, published more, but not nearly in the detail of Williams.

Williams was a master of the art of field sketching, formerly practiced by many naturalists. Many of his papers were illustrated with his meticulously done pen and ink drawings. Such drawings of the microscopic features of rocks of all types, done by Williams, were used exclusively in the very successful textbook, Petrography, by Williams, Turner, and Gilbert.

Williams' publications were equally characterized by his lucid and elegant prose; he greatly relished reviewing student manuscripts, and his skill at reducing their length substantially while increasing the information they contained was valued by students until his death. He was a founding member of the Associates in Tropical Biogeography. One of us remembers fondly the picture of Howel and paleontologist R. Stirton kneeling in the desert sand of Baja California, amiably assisting the beleaguered botanist of the biogeographers' expedition in preparation of plant specimens.

Williams' accomplishments include numerous studies with current and former students in geology, as well as those with Robert Heizer anthropology on Mexican archaeology, particularly in tracing the sources of megaliths. Willie was especially noted for his relaxed civility and complete imperturbability in all situations and on all occasions. During the period of his able chairmanship of the department, , the faculty was increased from seven to eleven members.

More importantly, by the addition of Turner and Verhoogen to the faculty in and , the transformation of the department had been initiated. Within a few years the department was represented in the National Academy of Sciences by four members, whereas previously the department had never had more than one member in the Academy. He was married twice, both marriages ending in divorce. In his later years his stepdaughter, Tony Ray, and her son, Geoffrey, moved in with him and cared for him, becoming his true family and heirs.

He is survived by his twin brother, David, in Britain, also a geologist of world renown. Memorial written by A. Pabst, I. Carmichael, L.

Constance, and G. He graduated with honors from the University of Illinois in , his education having been interrupted by the First World War. He was elected to Phi Beta Kappa in his junior year and, following graduation, came to Berkeley to study geology under A.

Lawson and George D. Louderback, and mineralogy under Arthur S. Eakle was aging and about to retire and could not have been much of an inspiration to Pabst; so it is not surprising that Pabst, under Louderback's guidance, chose a petrologic rather than a purely mineralogic subject for his thesis, which was an investigation of the inclusions in the granitic plutons of the Sierra Nevada.

As with all of his work, this thesis was based on careful field observations coupled with chemical analyses made by himself and accurate mineralogic and petrographic descriptions, and still serves today as the basic reference on this subject. His Ph. Even before its completion and at Louderback's suggestion, Pabst applied for and won an American-Scandinavian Foundation Fellowship to do postdoctoral studies with V.

There he met and married Gudrun Lisabeth Bert, who, after over 40 years, predeceased him. He returned to Berkeley as an Instructor in and was appointed Assistant Professor in and Full Professor in After his retirement in he was recalled as Research Geologist to the Department of Geology and Geophysics for many years.

Until he published yearly at least one and sometimes as many as five papers, together with book reviews and commentaries. After his wife died, he moved to an apartment a mile from campus, walking to and from his office, where he worked five to 10 hours every day. He was still in good health at the time of his 90th birthday three months before his death, at which time he enjoyed the acclaim of his friends and former students who had come from all over the world to celebrate the occasion at The Faculty Club.

He died in Alta Bates Hospital on April 3, , from complications following a fall in his apartment in early February. The outstanding quality and importance of all of Pabst's research was recognized by his peers when he was awarded the Roebling Medal in This medal is the preeminent mark of distinction in American mineralogy, indeed, probably in the entire mineralogical world, and is based not on one important contribution to this field but on the importance of the entire scientific output of the recipient over his professional career.

The outstanding characteristic of his research was great attention to detail. He never failed, for example, to correct all errors in his publications by meticulous corrigenda. At that time, only about six other scientists had been awarded this medal, including Backlund, Eskola, and Machatschki. In addition, he held memberships in seven other important mineralogical societies.

In the National Research Council he served as a member of the U. National Committee for Crystallography. He was a long-time member of the Herbert Evans History of Science Dinner Club and took much interest in the roots of geology. He was indefatigable in his efforts to promote the study of mineralogy all over the world.

He served on the editorial board of the Mineralogical Society of America for many years, was Associate Editor of the American Mineralogist, served as contributor and as abstractor for Chemical Abstracts, also as contributor and abstractor for Mineralogical Abstracts.

Anecdotes about Adolf are many and generally fall into two diverse categories. The first and largest category is that of his extraordinary help to others, both mineralogically and in other ways--he never stinted in his efforts to help students and friends with mineralogical problems, and he always gave generously to help students.

For many years he worked with geologists from the State Division of Mines and Geology, opening his laboratory facilities to their use. One of the fruits of this cooperation was the naming of seven new minerals from the Sierra Nevada in Fresno County. On another occasion, State geologists found a new limestone-metamorphic mineral which proved to be an analogue of the barium titanium mineral benitoite, tin replacing titanium.

In his honor the new mineral was named pabstite, after Pabst had visited the field location and confirmed the properties of the new mineral himself. Pabst was consulted over many years in the identification and properties of rare minerals by the mineralogy curators at the California Academy of Sciences. He was elected a Fellow of this Academy in The second category concerns his rebellion against Department and University authority.

Department chairmen were his particular targets for sharply worded notes about rules, regulations, doors left unlocked, lights left on at night, and personal behavior of his colleagues. But although somewhat gruff in appearance, he was always courteous and kind. He was totally devoted to his science, to his teaching, to his students, colleagues, and friends, and to his university. Memorial written by Garniss H. Curtis, Bruce A. Bolt, and John Verhoogen.

Everest slammed into the Earth, causing an explosion equivalent to the detonation of a hundred million hydrogen bombs. Vaporized impactor and debris from the impact site were blasted out through the atmosphere, falling back to Earth all around the globe. Terrible environmental disasters ensued, including a giant tsunami, continent-scale wildfires, darkness, and cold, followed by sweltering greenhouse heat. When conditions returned to normal, half the genera of plants and animals on Earth had perished.

This horrific story is now widely accepted as the solution to a great scientific murder mystery what caused the extinction of the dinosaurs? It is a saga of high adventure in remote parts of the world, of patient data collection, of lonely intellectual struggle, of long periods of frustration ended by sudden breakthroughs, of intense public debate, of friendships made or lost, of the exhilaration of discovery, and of delight as a fascinating story unfolded.

The Chicxulub Crater was found by Mexican geologists in but remained almost unknown to scientists elsewhere until , when it was recognized as the largest impact crater on this planet, dating precisely from the time of the great extinction sixty-five million years ago.

Geology and paleontology, sciences that long held that all changes in Earth history have been calm and gradual, have now been forced to recognize the critical role played by rare but devastating catastrophes like the impact that killed the dinosaurs. Reviews: "Appealing and accessible, an excellent introduction to the subject. In fitting together the puzzle of dino demise, Alvarez excitingly shapes the story for the widest audience.

But it's also solid science, a clear and efficient exposition that conveys plenty of cogent detail while keeping an eye on the subtle interplay of thought, action, and personality that makes scientific research such arresting human behavior. It is a wonderful adventure in science. Once considered absurd, the idea that extraterrestrial factors were involved in some of the great crises in the history of life has become widely accepted.

WalterAlvarez and his team made one of the most astonishing scientific discoveries of the twentieth century —that an asteroid smashed into theEarth 65 million years ago, exterminating the dinosaurs.

Alvarez hadthe first glimmer of that amazing insight when he noticed something oddin a rock outcrop in central Italy. Alvarez now returns to that richterrain, this time to take the reader on an excavation of the Earth's distant past.

We encounter the volcanoes that formed the Seven Hills ofRome; the majestic limestone Apennine mountains that started to developmillions of years ago under water ; the evidence that theMediterranean Sea completely evaporated to a sunken desert, perhapsseveral times; and the proof that continental plates once overran oneanother to form the Alps.

In Alvarez's telling, all major geologicepisodes are as dramatic as the great impact that killed the dinosaurs,even when they happen over eons and without huge creatures to witnessthem. Walter Alvarez is a professor of geology at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of the best-selling T. Rex and the Crater of Doom. He lives in Berkeley, California.