In this seminar, biographer Alec Nevala-Lee invites us into the brilliant and tumultuous mind of Luis W. Alvarez—the physicist who played a key role in the Manhattan Project, served as the lead scientific observer at the bombing of Hiroshima, and won the Nobel Prize for the development of the hydrogen bubble chamber. As a self-styled “scientific detective,” Alvarez investigated topics ranging from the Kennedy assassination to the Pyramids of Giza, teaming up with his son at the end of his life to prove that an asteroid impact caused the extinction event that killed the dinosaurs. A story of ambition, ingenuity, and impact across multiple disciplines, Nevala-Lee’s biography Collisions reveals how Alvarez's restless intellect took him to the frontiers of history and science. From UFO sightings to the Oppenheimer hearing, the talk explores how Alvarez’s life can shape our understanding of the world around us, as well as the possibilities—and limitations—of genius itself.
Speaker
Alec Nevala-Lee