List of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute people

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This is a list of people associated with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, including Presidents, Institute leaders, Trustees, Alumni, Professors and Researchers. For a list of the highest elected student leaders at RPI see List of RPI Grand Marshals.

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by with reliable sources.

Presidents of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute[]

Name Years Previous Position
Rev. Dr. Samuel Blatchford (1824–1828) Pastor of the Lansingburgh and Waterford Church
John Chester (1828–1829) Pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church in Albany
Eliphalet Nott (1829–1845) Pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Albany
Nathan S.S. Beman (1845–1865) Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Troy
John F. Winslow (1865–1868) Businessman and iron manufacturer
Thomas C. Brinsmade 1868 Troy physician
James Forsyth (1868–1886) Attorney and banker
William Gurley, 1839 (1886–1887) (acting) Businessman, co-founder of Gurley Precision Instruments
Albert E. Powers (1887–1888) (acting) Banker
John H. Peck (1888–1901) Attorney and judge
Palmer C. Ricketts (1901–1934) Professor of rational and technical mechanics and academic director of RPI
William O. Hotchkiss (1935–1943) President of the Michigan Mining School
Livingston W. Houston, 1913 (1943–1958) President and board chairman of the Ludlow Valve Manufacturing Co. and treasurer of RPI
Richard G. Folsom (1958–1971) Director of the Engineering Research Institute at the University of Michigan
Richard J. Grosh (1971–1976) Dean of the School of Engineering at Purdue University
George M. Low, 1948 (1976–1984) Deputy administrator of NASA
Daniel Berg (1984–1985) (acting) (1985–1987) Vice-President and Provost of RPI
Stanley I. Landgraf, 1946 (1988–1988) (acting) Chairman of Mohasco Corporation
Roland W. Schmitt (1988–1993) Senior vice president for science and technology for General Electric
R. Byron Pipes (1993–1998) Provost and professor of engineering at the University of Delaware
Cornelius J. Barton, 1958 (1998–1999) (acting) CEO of , a chemical engineering firm
Shirley Ann Jackson (1999–) Chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Notable alumni[]

Main category: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute alumni

Business[]

Humanities, arts, and social sciences[]

Invention and engineering[]

  • Truman H. Aldrich (1869), civil engineer, also briefly a US State Representative
  • Karthik Bala, co-founder of Vicarious Visions
  • Garnet Baltimore (1881), first African-American engineer and Garnet D. Baltimore Lecture Series honoree
  • Peter Bohlin 1958, architect of the famous 5th Avenue Apple Store
  • Virgil Bogue (1868), chief engineer of Union Pacific Railroad and Western Maryland Railway constructions
  • Bimal Kumar Bose (1932), electrical engineer
  • Leffert L. Buck (1968), civil engineer and a pioneer in the use of steel arch bridge structures, including the Williamsburg Bridge in NYC
  • Alexander Cassatt (1859), civil engineer and railroad executive
  • George Hammell Cook (1839), state geologist of New Jersey
  • Dr. Allen B. Dumont (1924), perfected the cathode ray tube; the "father of modern TV"
  • Theodore N. Ely (1896), railroad executive
  • George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. (1881), inventor of the Ferris wheel
  • Lois Graham (1946), the first woman to receive an engineering degree from RPI, and the first woman in the U.S. to receive a PhD in mechanical engineering
  • Frederick Grinnell (1855), inventor of the modern fire sprinkler
  • Walter Lincoln Hawkins (1931), African-American inventor of plastic telephone wire
  • Beatrice Hicks (1965), co-founder of Society of Women Engineers
  • Marcian Hoff (1958), "father of the microprocessor"
  • Dorothy Hoffman (1949), the first woman to serve as president of any scientific society in the US, elected president of American Vacuum Society in 1974
  • J. Christopher Jaffe (1949), leader in architectural acoustic design; taught acoustics at the Juilliard School, City University of New York, and Rensselaer
  • Theodore Judah (1837), visionary of the transcontinental railroad
  • Robert Loewy (1947), aeronautical engineer
  • William Metcalf (1858), steel manufacturing pioneer
  • Keith D. Millis (1938), metallurgical engineer and inventor of ductile iron
  • Ralph Peck (1937), geotechnical engineer
  • Emil H. Praeger (1915), designer of Shea and Dodger Stadiums, Tappan Zee Bridge, Arecibo Telescope and a renovation of the White House[6]
  • George Brooke Roberts (1849), civil engineer, 5th president of the Pennsylvania Railroad
  • Washington Roebling (1857), chief engineer of the Brooklyn Bridge
  • James Salisbury (1844), physician and inventor of the Salisbury Steak
  • Steven Sasson (1973), engineer and inventor of the digital camera
  • Robert "RJ" Scaringe (2005), CEO & Founder of Rivian[7]
  • Massood Tabib-Azar, chemical engineer
  • Raymond Tomlinson (1963), inventor of the email system
  • David L. Noble (1940), inventor of the floppy disk
  • Alan M. Voorhees (1947), city planner and traffic forecaster; former Rensselaer trustee; principal supporter for the Voorhees Computing Center at Rensselaer
  • John Alexander Low Waddell (1871), civil engineer and prolific bridge builder
  • Robert H. Widmer (1938), aeronautical engineer and designer of the B-58 supersonic bomber[8][9]
  • John F. Schenck (1961), physician and co-inventor of the first clinically viable high-field MRI scanner at General Electric[10]

Military[]

  • William L. Haskin (1861), U.S. Army brigadier general[11]
  • Harold J. Greene (1980), major general, U.S. Army, highest ranking casualty of War in Afghanistan
  • Arthur L. McCullough, U.S. Air Force general
  • Ario Pardee, Jr. (1858), commander during the civil war
  • L. Scott Rice (1980), major general, U.S. Air Force; commander of Massachusetts Air National Guard
  • Thomas R. Sargent III, vice admiral, U.S. Coast Guard; Vice Commandant 1970–1974
  • Walter L. Sharp, General, U.S. Army; Commander of United Nations Command, Commander of ROK-US Combined Forces Command and Commander of U.S. Forces Korea (2008–2011); former Director of the Joint Staff (2005–2008)
  • Blake Wayne Van Leer, (1953), Commander and Captain in the U.S. Navy. Lead SeaBee program and lead the nuclear research and power unit at McMurdo Station during Operation Deep Freeze.
  • Arthur E. Williams, lieutenant general, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; Chief of Engineers in 1992
  • Ronald J. Zlatoper (1963), Chief of Naval Personnel; Battle Group Commander in Desert Storm and Desert Shield; former Military Assistant to the Secretary of Defense; trustee

Politics and public service[]

  • J. Frank Aldrich (1877), U.S. Representative from Illinois
  • Truman H. Aldrich (1869), U.S. Representative from Alabama (1896–1897)
  • Myles Brand (1964), president of the National Collegiate Athletic Association
  • George R. Dennis, United States Senator from Maryland
  • Francis Collier Draper (1854), Toronto lawyer, Toronto Police Chief
  • Thomas Farrell (1912), Deputy Commanding General of the Manhattan Project
  • Nariman Farvardin (1983), Provost of the University of Maryland
  • Lincoln D. Faurer (1964), director of the National Security Agency and chief, Central Security Service, 1981–1985
  • Richard Franchot, U.S. Representative from New York (1861–1863)
  • Arthur J. Gajarsa (1962), Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, trustee
  • Naeem Gheriany, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Libya
  • Thomas J. Haas (1983), current president of Grand Valley State University[12]
  • John Hammond, US Representative from New York, iron manufacturer[13]
  • Walter F. Lineberger, U.S. State Representative of California, 1917–1921
  • Richard Linn (1965), Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
  • George Low, manager of NASA's Apollo 11 project; President of RPI (1976–1984); namesake of RPI's Low Center for Industrial Innovation
  • Hani Al-Mulki (MA, PhD), former Prime Minister of Jordan
  • John Olver (1958), Massachusetts State Representative (D) since 1991
  • Ely S. Parker, Civil War statesman, author of Appomattox Courthouse agreement
  • Clarkson Nott Potter (1843), U.S. Representative from New York, surveyor, lawyer, and President of the American Bar Association[14]
  • Mark Shepard (1994), Vermont State Senator
  • Clement Hall Sinnickson, U.S. State Representative from New Jersey, 1875–1879
  • Peter G. Ten Eyck, New York State Representative
  • Tony Tether (1964), director of DARPA, 2001–2009
  • W. Aubrey Thomas, U.S. State Representative from Ohio, 1900–1911
  • De Volson Wood (1857), first president of the American Society for Engineering Education[15]

Science and technology[]

  • David Adler (1956), physicist
  • Don L. Anderson (1955), geophysicist
  • James Curtis Booth (1832), chemist
  • James Cantor (1988), neuroscientist, sex researcher
  • Ronald Collé (1972), nuclear physicist at NIST
  • George Hammell Cook (1839), state geologist of New Jersey
  • Edgar Cortright (1949), former NASA official
  • Ebenezer Emmons (1826), geologist, author of Natural History of New York (1848) and American Geology
  • Asa Fitch (1827), entomologist
  • Alan Fowler (1951), physicist, NAS member
  • David Ferrucci (1994), computer scientist, developed IBM Watson AI Jeopardy player
  • Claire M. Fraser (1977), President and Director of The Institute for Genomic Research
  • Jeffrey M. Friedman, discovered leptin, a key hormone in the area of human obesity
  • Ivar Giaever (1964), shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physics for discoveries on tunneling phenomena in semiconductors; Institute Professor of Science
  • Morton Gurtin (1955), mathematical physicist
  • James Hall (1832), geologist and paleontologist
  • Jon Hall (1977), Executive Director of Linux International
  • Peter E. Hart, group senior vice president of the Ricoh company; artificial intelligence innovator
  • Edward C. Harwood, economist
  • Hermann A. Haus (1951), optical communications researcher, pioneer of quantum optics
  • Eben Norton Horsford (1838), "father of food science" and author, discovered baking powder
  • Douglass Houghton (1829), Michigan's first state geologist; namesake of a Michigan city, county, and lake
  • Robert Kennicutt (1973), astronomer
  • Nimai Mukhopadhyay, physics
  • Richard Klein (1966), astronomer
  • David Korn (1965), computer programmer who created the Korn Shell
  • Richard Mastracchio (1987), NASA astronaut, flew on STS-106 Atlantis, 2000
  • Mark T. Maybury, Chief Scientist of U.S. Air Force
  • Pat Munday (1981), environmentalist
  • Heidi Jo Newberg (1987), professor of astrophysics at RPI
  • James "Kibo" Parry, satirist, Usenet personality, and typeface designer
  • Henry Augustus Rowland (1870), first president of the American Physical Society; Johns Hopkins University's first physics professor
  • Mark Russinovich, Windows software engineer
  • Peter Schwartz, futurist and writer
  • Robert C. Seacord, computer security specialist and author
  • Kip Siegel (1948), physicist, professor of physics at the University of Michigan
  • Andrew Sears, computer science professor at UMBC
  • Marlan Scully, physicist known for work in quantum optics
  • George Soper (1895), managing director of the American Society for the Control of Cancer, later the American Cancer Society
  • Chauncey Starr (1935), pioneer in nuclear energy
  • John L. Swigert Jr. (1965), astronaut, member of Apollo 13; recipient of 1970 Presidential Medal of Freedom; State Representative for Colorado, 1982
  • Dennis Tito (1964), millionaire and the first space tourist to pay for his own ticket
  • Michael Tuomey (1835), state geologist of South Carolina and Alabama
  • Chris Welty (1995), computer scientist
  • Gregory R. Wiseman, NASA astronaut
  • Chris Wysopal, also known as Weld Pond (1987), member of the hacker think tank L0pht Heavy Industries, founder of Veracode

Sports[]

Faculty[]

Main category: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute faculty

Past[]

  • Sharon Anderson-Gold : Science and Technology Studies
  • George C. Baldwin (1967–1977) : Nuclear Engineering
  • Bimal Kumar Bose (1971–1976) : Electrical Engineering
  • George Hammell Cook (1842–1846) : senior professor, Geology
  • Amos Eaton (1824–1842) : first professor, Geology
  • Michael James Gaffey (1984–2001) : Planetary Science
  • Sorab K. Ghandhi (1963–1992): Electronic Materials, Microelectronics
  • Benjamin Franklin Greene (1846–1859) : third senior professor and first director of RPI
  • James Hall (1833–1850) : Geology and Chemistry
  • Granville Hicks (1929–1935) : English
  • Matthew A. Hunter : Metallurgy, first to isolate titanium metal
  • Annette Kolodny : English
  • Matthew Koss (1990–2000) : Physics
  • Edith Hirsch Luchins : Mathematics
  • James D. Meindl (1986–1993) : Microelectronics
  • Henry Bradford Nason : Chemistry
  • E. Bruce Nauman (1981–2009) : Chemical Engineering
  • Gina O'Connor (1988–2018) : Business
  • Robert Resnick (1956–1993): Physics
  • George Rickey : Architecture
  • Neil Rolnick : Music, founder of iEAR
  • Henry Augustus Rowland (1870?–1876) : Physics
  • Lee Segel (1960–1973) : Mathematics
  • Stephen Van Rensselaer : founder of the institute
  • Robert H. Wentorf, Jr. : Chemical Engineering

Current[]

  • Robert A. Baron : Psychology
  • Laura K. Boyer : Science and Technology Studies
  • Selmer Bringsjord : Artificial Intelligence, Logic
  • Linnda R. Caporael : Science and Technology Studies
  • Jonathan Dordick : Biochemical Engineering
  • Evan Douglis: Architecture
  • Faye Duchin : Economics
  •  : Architecture [16]
  • Ron Eglash : Science and Technology Studies
  • Peter Fox : Earth and Environmental Science, Computer Science, Cognitive Science
  • Ivar Giaever : Physics Professor Emeritus
  • Wayne D. Gray : Cognitive Science
  • James Hendler : Computer Science
  • Nikhil Koratkar : Nanotechnology
  • Robert J. Linhardt : Bioengineering
  • Deborah McGuinness : Computer Science
  • Vincent Meunier : Physics
  • Don Millard : Electrical Engineering, Electronic Media
  • David Musser : Computer Science
  • Leik Myrabo : Spacecraft Propulsion
  • Satish Nambisan : Management
  • Heidi Jo Newberg : Astrophysics
  • Pauline Oliveros : Music
  • Sal Restivo : Science and Technology Studies
  • David Rosowsky : Civil Engineering
  • Michael Shur : Semiconductor Electronics
  • Ron Sun : Cognitive Science
  • Boleslaw Szymanski : Computer Science
  • Jeff Trinkle : Computer Science
  • William A. Wallace : Decision Sciences and Engineering Systems
  • Langdon Winner : Science and Technology Studies
  • Houman Younessi : Systems Engineering (Hartford)
  • George Xu : Mechanical, Aerospace and Nuclear
  • Xi-Cheng Zhang : Physics and Terahertz Technology

References[]

  1. ^ "Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) Alumni Hall of Fame". www.rpi.edu.
  2. ^ "Dominoes as an art – and a job". All Over Albany. 2018-10-12. Retrieved 2020-08-05.
  3. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2007-12-19. Retrieved 2008-05-28.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. ^ http://www.postmastersart.com/archive/mccoy06/mccoy06_bio.pdf[bare URL]
  5. ^ "Games at the American Classic Arcade Museum – Q*Bert". www.classicarcademuseum.org.
  6. ^ "Emil H. Praeger". RPI: Alumni Hall of Fame: Emil H. Praeger. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Retrieved 2 July 2011.
  7. ^ Tannert, Chuck (February 8, 2019). "Meet R.J. Scaringe, Founder Of Rivian Automotive—And Tesla's Worst Nightmare". Forbes Wheels.
  8. ^ "Robert H. Widmer". RPI Alumni Hall of Fame: Robert H. Widmer. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Retrieved 2 July 2011.
  9. ^ Martin, Douglas (2 July 2011). "Robert H. Widmer, Designer of Military Aircraft, Dies at 95". The New York Times. Retrieved 2 July 2011.
  10. ^ Cline HE, Schenck JF, Hynynen K, Watkins RD, Souza SP, Jolesz FA (1992). "MR-guided focused ultrasound surgery". J Comput Assist Tomogr. 16 (6): 956–65. doi:10.1097/00004728-199211000-00024. PMID 1430448.
  11. ^ Nason, Henry B., ed. (1887). Biographical Record of the Officers and Graduates of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 1824–1886. Troy, NY: William H. Young. pp. 341–342 – via Google Books.
  12. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-10-14. Retrieved 2007-06-18.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  13. ^ "HAMMOND, John – Biographical Information".
  14. ^ "POTTER, Clarkson Nott – Biographical Information".
  15. ^ Matz, F. P. (1 January 1895). "Biography: De Volson Wood". The American Mathematical Monthly. 2 (9/10): 253–256. doi:10.2307/2969269. JSTOR 2969269.
  16. ^ "Anna Dyson". faculty.rpi.edu. Retrieved 2021-03-30.
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