Dr. Walter Alvarez is a geologist whose work has rewritten the story of Earth’s past. Best known for his role in uncovering the asteroid impact hypothesis that explains the mass extinction of the dinosaurs, he has spent a lifetime unearthing the forces that have shaped our planet, both the cataclysmic and the imperceptibly slow.
I had the privilege of spending a day with Alvarez in September 2024, an experience as layered and rich as the strata he studies. Having just finished his book, T. Rex and the Crater of Doom, I arrived eager not only to discuss his scientific discoveries but also to understand the man behind them. There is a particular joy in meeting a scientist whose work has reshaped an entire field, and Alvarez carries the weight of his contributions with the ease of someone still delighting in the search for answers.
He welcomed me into his warm, wood-paneled home, a place that felt more like a retreat than the residence of a world-famous scientist. There, I met his wife and his beloved traveling companion, Milly. Their shared passion for trains was evident not just in conversation but in their surroundings, they had built a replica of a train seating area, complete with timetables and a working train whistle. It was not an affectation but an invitation to possibility, a way to imagine the next adventure even while sitting still.
Over a caprese salad lunch in the garden, we spoke of extinction events and the detective work of geology, of how one can read time itself in the layers of rock. Later, we walked through the Berkeley campus, stopping at the office where his father, the Nobel-winning physicist Luis Alvarez, once worked, and where Oppenheimer had wrestled with the atom. Walter spoke with deep admiration about his father’s influence, not just his scientific brilliance, but his connections to physicists who helped confirm the presence of iridium in the K-T boundary layer. This thin band of clay, barely distinguishable to the untrained eye, held the key to a planetary catastrophe, its unusual iridium content providing the first clear evidence of an asteroid impact that forever altered life on Earth.
Alvarez is a man who sees time not in years or even centuries, but in epochs. And yet, for all his grand discoveries, he is grounded in the present, radiating warmth and an easy enthusiasm. He speaks not to impress but to share, to ignite curiosity, to bring others along for the journey of uncovering Earth’s secrets. With his contagious smile and boundless fascination, he continues to inspire not just scientists, but storytellers, those who seek to translate the slow, grinding work of deep time into something we can all grasp and wonder at.
