10 Facts About Walter Alvarez

Walter Alvarez is most widely known for the theory that dinosaurs were killed by an asteroid impact, developed in collaboration with his father, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Luis Alvarez.

Walter Alvarez's grandfather was the famed physician Walter C Alvarez and his great-grandfather, Spanish-born Luis F Alvarez, worked as a doctor in Hawaii and developed a method for the better diagnosis of macular leprosy.

Walter Alvarez's great-aunt Mabel Alvarez was a noted California artist and oil painter.

Walter Alvarez worked for American Overseas Petroleum Limited in the Netherlands, and in Libya at the time of Colonel Gaddafi's revolution.

Walter Alvarez then moved to Lamont–Doherty Geological Observatory of Columbia University, and began studying the Mediterranean tectonics in the light of the new theory of plate tectonics.

Related searches

Alvarez and his father Luis W Alvarez are most widely known for their discovery that a clay layer occurring right at the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary was highly enriched in the element iridium.

Walter Alvarez's course is open to all majors and grade levels and seeks to provide a broad understanding of the past, present and future.

Walter Alvarez helped organize a meeting of Big Historians at the Geological Observatory at Coldigioco in Italy in 2010 which resulted in the establishment of the International Big History Association.

Walter Alvarez was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1983, and elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1991.

Walter Alvarez was awarded the 2006 Nevada Medal, the 2008 Vetlesen Prize, and the Penrose Medal from the Geological Society of America.