Berkeley Writers at Work: 2009
Fall 2009: Walter Alvarez, Professor of Geology
Walter Alvarez is best known for his discovery—with his father Luis W. Alvarez— of a thin layer of iridium at the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) boundary. This discovery led them to postulate that the layer was the result a large asteroid colliding with the Earth; this impact was, in their theory, likely the cause of the extinction of the dinosaurs.
Alvarez has written extensively. Among his books are T. rex and the Crater of Doom, published in 1997, and, most recently, The Mountains of Saint Francis: Discovering the Geologic Events That Shaped Our Earth, a highly readable introduction to geology. Additionally, he has published more than 150 scientific articles in journal and monographs. T. rex, which was a New York Times Notable Book of 1997, was lauded by the Kirkus Review as “appealing and accessible, an excellent introduction to the subject.” Timothy Ferris in his review for The New York Times calls the book “deft and readable.” And Charles Petit of the San Francisco Chronicle considers it “a first rate, swiftly paced tale of how science can propel its participants down avenues of surprising discovery to breathtaking conclusions.”
Writing in the esteemed journal Nature, Ted Nield praised Alvarez’s book The Mountains of Saint Francis as “compelling and engagingly told…I would make it required background reading for students of Earth science.”
Walter Alvarez is a Guggenheim Fellow and the recipient of a number of distinguished awards and honors.
