September is Hispanic Heritage Month
Spotlight Scientists
Luis Walter Alvarez (1911 - 1988)
Luis Alvarez earned his PhD from the University of Chicago in 1936 and went on to work at UC Berkeley and later MIT in their radiation laboratories. During World War II, he made contributions to the Manhattan Project and also helped develop microwave early warning systems. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics in 1968 for his involvement in the creation of the liquid hydrogen bubble chamber. The chamber allowed for taking photographs and developing computer measurement systems to study intricate interactions between particles, particularly resonance states. Also of note was his involvement with his son (a geologist) in the “Alvarez hypothesis”, which proposed the extinction of dinosaurs to be caused by an asteroid impact.
Franklin Chang-Díaz (1951 - Present)
Franklin Chang-Díaz is a Costa Rican-American immigrant of both Costa Rican and Chinese descent. He earned his B.S. degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Connecticut and then went to MIT to earn his PhD in plasma physics in 1977. He has worked as a physicist, mechanical engineer, and NASA astronaut, being the first Latin American immigrant chosen to go to space. In fact, currently he has tied the record for the most space shuttle missions with Jerry L. Ross, at 7, which has earned him a place in the NASA Astronaut Hall of Fame. Chang-Díaz has since left NASA to found the Ad Astra Rocket Company, which develops plasma rocket propulsion technology.
Albert Báez (1912 - 2007)
Albert Báez was a Mexican-American physicist who earned his PhD from Stanford University in 1950. Around the time he earned his PhD, the Cold War was intensifying, leading to him receiving many offers for positions in the defense industry. However, Báez turned down all of these offers due to his family beliefs of pacifism, and instead focused on teaching and humanitarianism. His research focused on X-ray optics, and he developed designs for X-ray telescopes during his time at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. He also made developments in X-ray microscopes, co-inventing the X-ray reflection microscope with his PhD advisor at Stanford. He is also the father of the singer-songwriter Joan Báez.
The men and women in our spotlight changed the course of science over and over. However, there are uncountable more that accelerated our progress further.
To learn more about these incredible people, follow the links below:
Ellen Ochoa: NASA, Britannica, NSF
Mario Molina: Nobel Prize, Nature, MIT
France A. Córdova: NSF, Science Philanthropy Alliance, Purdue
Juan M. Maldacena: IAS, Institute for Advanced Study
Carlos Noriega: NASA, Department of Defense
Jorge Moreno Soto: SACNAS
Ted Taylor: AIP, Manhattan Project Voices