
Physicist who proposed why the dinosaurs went extinct.
Luis Walter Alvarez was a physicist who worked on many projects, from particle physics to inventions. With his son, a geologist, he proposed that a giant asteroid impact helped cause the extinction of the dinosaurs. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on subatomic particles.
Era
1900s
Field
Physics
Physicist who proposed why the dinosaurs went extinct.
Science · Physics · 1900s · Latino/Hispanic Heritage
Luis Walter Alvarez was a physicist who worked on many projects, from particle physics to inventions. With his son, a geologist, he proposed that a giant asteroid impact helped cause the extinction of the dinosaurs. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on subatomic particles.
Co-proposed the asteroid impact theory for the dinosaur extinction and advanced experimental physics.
His asteroid theory shapes how scientists study mass extinctions and the risks from space objects today.
Wilkinson STEM Education Foundation · 251 American Innovators · wilkinsonstemfoundation.org