Nobel Prize Recipient. Luis Walter Alvarez, an American experimental physicist, received international recognition after being awarded the 1968 Nobel Prize in Physics. According to the Nobel Prize committee, he received the covet award "for his decisive contributions to elementary particle physics, in particular the discovery of a large number of resonance states, made possible through his development of the technique of using hydrogen bubble chamber and data analysis." His nominations are closed to the public. Early in his career researching the fields of optics and cosmic rays, he was co-discoverer of the "East-West effect" in cosmic rays and a method for producing beams of very slow neutrons. This would be the first of many discoveries he made that would be called "Luie's Gadgets." In 1937 he gave the first experimental demonstration of the existence of the phenomenon of K-electron capture by nuclei. He further developed the bubble chamber by using liquid hydrogen. Born the oldest son into a family with a Spanish heritage, his father and grandfather were physicians. His father, Walter C. Alvarez, was a medical specialist at the Mayo Clinic and authored or co-authored several medical text books. Today, his father is honored by the American Medical Writer Association with the annual presentation of the Walter C. Memorial Award to a worthy author. His grandfather, a Spanish immigrant, Luis F. Álvarez, had received notoriety for his research with leprosy. He received his B.Sc. from the University of Chicago in 1932, a M.Sc. in 1934, and his Ph.D. in 1936. After graduation, he joined as a research fellow the Radiation Laboratory of the University of California, working under 1939 Nobel Prize in Physics recipient Ernest Lawrence. During World War II, he joined with the Radiation Laboratory at Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1940 to 1943 researching radar; the Metallurgical Laboratory of the University of Chicago from 1943 to 1944, and at the Los Alamos Laboratory of the Manhattan District from 1944 to 1945. He developed the detonators which initiated the plutonium bomb, and as a scientific observer, he flew over both the Almagordo and Hiroshima explosions. After the war he returned to the University of California at Berkeley as Professor of Physics from 1945 to 1978, and Professor Emeritus from 1978. He was Associate Director of the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory from 1949 to 1959 and 1975 to 1978. He was responsible for the design and construction of the Berkeley 40-foot proton linear accelerator, which was completed in 1947. In 1951 he published the first suggestion for charge exchange acceleration that quickly led to the development of the "Tandem Van de Graaf accelerator." Besides the 1968 Nobel Prize, he was awarded the Medal of Merit in 1947, Einstein Medal in 1961, the National Medal of Science in 1963, Michelson Award in 1965, and in 1987 the Enrico Fermi Award from the United States President and the National Energy Commission for his life-time scientific achievement. He had been a consultant for several federal agencies. In 1960 he was named California scientist of the year. With his long involvement with aviation, he was a pilot for over 50 years, flying thousands of miles. For the development of Ground-Controlled Approach, he was awarded the Collier Trophy by the National Aeronautical Association in 1946 and the John Scott Medal and Prize in 1953, by the city of Philadelphia. He was a member in a host of professional societies and received an honorary doctorate degree from three American universities, including the University of Chicago. The "American Journal of Physics" commented, "Luis Alvarez was one of the most brilliant and productive experimental physicists of the twentieth century." He died at home from complications related to a succession of recent operations for esophageal cancer. He married twice and had two children with each wife. Receiving numerous awards, his son Walter was a Professor of Geology at the University of California with one of his interest being how extinction of animals was caused by asteroid impacts. He published in 1987 an autobiography "Alvarez: Adventures of a Physicist" and in 1992 a detailed obituary was published in the "Memorial Tributes," "National Academy of Engineering," Volume 5. His papers have been archived at the Bancroft Library at the University of California at Berkeley.