List of Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni

For Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty, lecturers, or researchers, see List of Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty. For fictional characters related to MIT, see MIT in popular culture.
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This list of Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni includes students who studied as undergraduates or graduate students at MIT's School of Engineering; School of Science; MIT Sloan School of Management; School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences; School of Architecture and Planning; or Whitaker College of Health Sciences. Since there are more than 120,000 alumni (living and deceased), this listing cannot be comprehensive. Instead, this article summarizes some of the more notable MIT alumni, with some indication of the reasons they are notable in the world at large. All MIT degrees are earned through academic achievement, in that MIT has never awarded honorary degrees in any form.[1]

The MIT Alumni Association defines eligibility for membership as follows:[2]

The following persons are Alumni/ae Members of the Association:

All persons who have received a degree from the Institute; and All persons who have been registered as students in a degree-granting program at the Institute for (i) at least one full term in any undergraduate class which has already graduated; or (ii) for at least two full terms as graduate students.

Politics and public service

Alicia Caban Wheeler, Ed.D. Harvard University

United States

Name Degree Degree Year Notability Notes
LtGen James A. Abrahamson (USAF Ret'd) SB – Aeronautical Engineering 1955 Director of President Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative
U.S. Air Force general		 [3]
Ben Bernanke PhD – Economics 1979 Chair of the Federal Reserve Bank [4]
Samuel Bodman ScD – Chemical Engineering 1965 Secretary of Energy (2005–2009) [5]
Jun Choi SB – Aeronautical/Astronautical Engineering 1994 Mayor of Edison, New Jersey
Henry Cohen SM – Urban Planning 1949 Director of Föhrenwald Displaced Persons camp in the American sector of post-World War II Germany
Leighton I. Davis SM – Aeronautical Engineering 1941 U.S. Air Force general
John M. Deutch SB – Chemical Engineering, PhD – Chemistry 1961, 1966 Director of Central Intelligence and United States Deputy Secretary of Defense under President Bill Clinton
Jimmy Doolittle SM, ScD – Aeronautical Engineering 1924, 1925 U.S. Air Force general
Herbert W. Ehrgott SB – Mechanical Engineering 1930 U.S. Air Force general
Luis A. Ferré SB, SM – Mechanical Engineering 1924, 1925 3rd Governor of Puerto Rico
Julius A. Furer SM 1905 U.S. Navy admiral
J. Michael Gilmore SB – Physics Director of the Operational Test and Evaluation Directorate
Frank Kowalski SM – Mechanical Engineering 1937 United States Representative from Connecticut
Herbert B. Loper BS – Civil Engineering 1922 U.S. Army general
N. Gregory Mankiw PhD – Economics 1984 Chairman of President Bush's Council of Economic Advisors
Mark McClellan PhD – Economics 1993 Head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration
Jonathan Gruber SB – Economics 1987 Director of the Health Care Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research, Professor of economics at MIT
Katharine Dexter McCormick SB – Biology 1904 Suffragette, funded research for the Pill
David Nolan SB – Political Science 1965 Founder of United States Libertarian Party
John Olver PhD – Chemistry 1961 US House of Representatives for Massachusetts
John Birdsell Oren MD – Marine Engineering U.S. Coast Guard admiral
Joseph J. Romm SB – Physics, PhD – Physics 1982, 1987 Assistant Secretary of the U. S. Department of Energy
Francis Sargent Dropped out; studied architecture 1939 64th Governor of Massachusetts
George Schultz PhD – Economics 1949 Secretary of State
Phillips Waller Smith SM – Ordnance Engineering 1935 U.S. Air Force general
Pete Stark SB – General Engineering 1956 US House of Representatives for California
John E. Sununu SB, SM – Mechanical Engineering 1987, 1987 United States Senator from New Hampshire
John H. Sununu SB, SM, PhD – Mechanical Engineering 1961, 1963, 1966 White House Chief of Staff under President George H.W. Bush, Governor of New Hampshire, host of Crossfire
Tom Wolf PhD – Political Science 1981 47th Governor of Pennsylvania [6]

International

Name Degree Year Notability Notes
Tadatoshi Akiba PhD – Mathematics 1970 Mayor of Hiroshima; recipient of Ramon Magsaysay Award
Kofi Annan SM – Management 1972 Former Secretary-General of the United Nations
Asim Dasgupta PhD-

Economics

 1975 Former Finance Minister of the Indian state of West Bengal.
Pedro Aspe Armella PhD – Economics 1978 Mexican Secretary of Finance
Raghuram Rajan PhD – Economics 1991 23rd Governor of Reserve Bank of India
Youssef Boutros Ghali PhD – Economics 1981 Former Egyptian Minister of Finance
Virgilio Barco SB – Civil Engineering 1943 Colombian president
Ahmed Chalabi SB – Mathematics 1965 Controversial Iraqi politician; deputy prime minister of Iraq
Harold Demuren PhD – Aeronautical Engineering 1975 Director General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority; first African elected as President of ICAO General Assembly
Mario Draghi PhD – Economics 1977 President of the European Central Bank
José Figueres Ferrer 1926 President of Costa Rica
Pervez Hoodbhoy MS – Solid-State Physics,
PhD – Nuclear Physics		 1973, 1978 Faculty member at the Quaid-e-Azam University since 1973; renowned nuclear research scientist in Pakistan
C.D. Howe 1907 Canadian politician and cabinet minister
Janet Keeping S.B. - Architecture 1971 Lawyer; Faculty member at the University of Calgary; Leader of the Green Party of Alberta[7][8]
Mao Chi-kuo PhD 1982 Minister of Transport & Communications of the Republic of China (Taiwan) (2008–) [9]
David Miliband SM Political Science 1990 British politician, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
Mohammad Ali Najafi SM – Mathematics 1979 Former Vice President of Iran [10]
Benjamin Netanyahu SB – Architecture, SM – Management 1975, 1976 Prime Minister of Israel
Uzi Landau PhD – Engineering 1976 National Infrastructure Minister of Israel
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala MCP – City Planning,
PhD – Urban Studies & Planning		 1978, 1981 Finance Minister of Nigeria (2003–2006) (2011–present), Foreign Minister of Nigeria, (2006)
Rachid Mohamed Rachid PhD – Management 1993 Former Egyptian Minister of Trade and Industry
Milen Velchev SM – Management 1995 Bulgarian financial minister (2001–2005)
David Walter SM – Political Science circa 1970 British BBC and ITN correspondent and later political advisor
Robert Winters Canadian politician
Tony Tan Keng Yam SM – Operations Research 1964 President of the Republic of Singapore; held various cabinet positions
Lucas Papademos SB – Physics,
SM – Electrical Engineering,
PhD – Economics		 1970, 1972, 1978 Vice President of the European Central Bank (2002-2010) and Prime Minister of Greece (2011–2012)
Ali Akbar Salehi PhD – Nuclear Engineering 1977 Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iran (2012–present)

Architecture and design

Business and entrepreneurship

Computers and Internet

Engineering

Manufacturing and defense

Finance and consulting

Health care and biotechnology

Miscellaneous

Education

Humanities, arts, and social sciences

Science and technology

Sports

Miscellaneous

Nobel laureate alumni

As of April 2011, the MIT Office of the Provost says that 76 Nobel awardees had or currently have a formal connection to MIT.[35] Of this group, 29 have earned MIT degrees (MIT has never awarded honorary degrees in any form).[1]

Name Degree Degree Year Award Year Award Citation Notes
George Akerlof PhD 1966 2001 Economics "for their analyses of markets with asymmetric information" [36]
Sid Altman SB 1960 1989 Chemistry "for their discovery of catalytic properties of RNA" [37]
Kofi Annan SM 1972 2001 Peace "for their work for a better organized and more peaceful world" [38]
Robert Aumann SM 1952 2005 Economics "for having enhanced our understanding of conflict and cooperation through game-theory analysis" [39]
Elias James Corey SB, PhD 1948, 1951 1990 Chemistry "for his development of the theory and methodology of organic synthesis" [40]
Eric Cornell PhD 1990 2001 Physics "for the achievement of Bose-Einstein condensation in dilute gases of alkali atoms, and for early fundamental studies of the properties of the condensates" [41]
Peter Diamond PhD 1963 2010 Economics "for [the] analysis of markets with search frictions" [42]
Richard Feynman SB 1939 1965 Physics "for their fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics, with deep-ploughing consequences for the physics of elementary particles" [43]
Andrew Z. Fire PhD 1983 2006 Medicine/Physiology "for their discovery of RNA interference – gene silencing by double-stranded RNA" [44]
Murray Gell-Mann PhD 1951 1969 Physics "for his contributions and discoveries concerning the classification of elementary particles and their interactions" [45]
Leland H. Hartwell PhD 1964 2001 Medicine/Physiology "for their discoveries of key regulators of the cell cycle" [46]
H. Robert Horvitz SB 1968 2002 Medicine/Physiology "for their discoveries concerning 'genetic regulation of organ development and programmed cell death'" [47]
Henry W. Kendall SB, PhD 1948, 1951 1990 Physics "for their pioneering investigations concerning deep inelastic scattering of electrons on protons and bound neutrons, which have been of essential importance for the development of the quark model in particle physics" [48]
Lawrence Klein PhD 1944 1980 Economics "for the creation of econometric models and the application to the analysis of economic fluctuations and economic policies" [49]
Paul Krugman PhD 1977 2009 Economics "for developing new trade theory and" [42]
Robert B. Laughlin PhD 1979 1998 Physics "for their discovery of a new form of quantum fluid with fractionally charged excitations" [50]
Robert C. Merton PhD 1970 1997 Economics "for a new method to determine the value of derivatives" [51]
Robert S. Mulliken SB 1917 1966 Chemistry "for his fundamental work concerning chemical bonds and the electronic structure of molecules by the molecular orbital method" [52]
Robert Mundell PhD 1956 1999 Economics "for his analysis of monetary and fiscal policy under different exchange rate regimes and his analysis of optimum currency areas" [53]
Charles Pedersen SM 1927 1987 Chemistry "for their development and use of molecules with structure-specific interactions of high selectivity" [54]
William D. Phillips PhD 1976 1997 Physics "for development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light" [55]
Burton Richter SB, PhD 1952, 1956 1976 Physics "for their pioneering work in the discovery of a heavy elementary particle of a new kind" [56]
Adam Riess SB 1992 2011 Physics "for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae" [57]
John Robert Schrieffer SB 1953 1972 Physics "for their jointly developed theory of superconductivity, usually called the BCS-theory" [58]
William Shockley PhD 1936 1956 Physics "for their researches on semiconductors and their discovery of the transistor effect" [59]
George F. Smoot SB, PhD 1966, 1970 2006 Physics "for their discovery of the blackbody form and anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation" [60]
Joseph Stiglitz PhD 1966 2001 Economics "for their analyses of markets with asymmetric information" [36]
Carl E. Wieman SB 1973 2001 Physics "for the achievement of Bose-Einstein condensation in dilute gases of alkali atoms, and for early fundamental studies of the properties of the condensates" [41]
Robert Burns Woodward SB 1936 1965 Chemistry "for his outstanding achievements in the art of organic synthesis" [61]

Astronaut alumni

Name Degree Year Mission
James Alan Abrahamson SB – Aeronautics/Astronautics 1955 Manned Orbital Laboratory (selected but program canceled)
Buzz Aldrin ScD - Aeronautics/Astronautics 1963 Gemini 12, Apollo 11
Dominic Antonelli SB – Aeronautics/Astronautics 1989 STS-119
Jerome Apt PhD – Physics 1976 STS-37, STS-47, STS-59, STS-79
Kenneth Cameron SB, SM – Aeronautics/Astronautics 1978, 1979 STS-37, STS-56, STS-74
Gregory Chamitoff PhD – Aeronautics/Astronautics 1992 STS-124, Expedition 17, Expedition 18, STS-126
Franklin Chang-Diaz ScD – Nuclear Engineering 1977 STS-61-C, STS-34, STS-46, STS-60, STS-75, STS-91, STS-111
Philip K. Chapman SM, PhD 1964, 1967 1967
Catherine "Cady" Coleman SB – Chemistry 1983 STS-73, STS-93
Timothy Creamer SM 1992
Charles Duke SM – Aeronautics/Astronautics 1964 Apollo 16
Anthony W. England SB, SM, PhD – Earth, Atmosphere, and Planetary Sciences 1965, 1965, 1970 STS-51-F
Mike Fincke SB – Aeronautics/Astronautics; SB Earth, Atmosphere, and Planetary Sciences 1989 Soyuz TMA-4, Expedition 9, Soyuz TMA-13, Expedition 18, STS-134
John Grunsfeld SB – Physics 1980 STS-67, STS-81, STS-103, STS-109, STS-125
Terry Hart SM – Mechanical Engineering 1969 STS-41-C
Frederick Hauck SM – Nuclear Engineering 1966 STS-7, STS-51-A, STS-26
Wendy Lawrence SM – Ocean Engineering 1988 STS-67, STS-86, STS-91, STS-114
Mark C. Lee SM – Mechanical Engineering 1980 STS-30, STS-47, STS-64, STS-81
William B. Lenoir SB, SM, PhD – Electrical Engineering 1961, 1962, 1965 STS-5
Michael Massimino SM - Technology Policy, SM - Mechanical Engineer, PhD - Mechanical Engineering 1988, 1988, 1990, 1992 STS-109, STS-125
Ronald McNair PhD – Physics 1976 STS-41-B, STS-51-L
Pamela Ann Melroy SM – Earth, Atmosphere, and Planetary Sciences 1984 STS-92, STS-112, STS-120
Edgar Mitchell ScD – Aeronautics/Astronautics 1964 Apollo 14
Nicholas Patrick SM, PhD – Mechanical Engineering 1990, 1996 STS-116
Albert Sacco PhD – Chemical Engineering 1977 STS-73
Russell Schweickart SB, SM – Aeronautics/Astronautics 1956, 1963 Apollo 9
David Scott SM, Engineer in Aeronautics/Astronautics 1962, 1962 Gemini 8, Apollo 9, Apollo 15
William Shepherd SM, Ocean Engineer 1978, 1978 STS-27, STS-41, STS-52, Soyuz TM-31, Expedition 1, STS-102
Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper SB, SM – Mechanical Engineering 1984, 1985 STS-115, STS-126
Daniel Tani SB, SM – Mechanical Engineering 1984, 1985 STS-108, STS-120, Expedition 16, STS-122
Robert Thirsk SM, MS – Mechanical Engineering, Management 1978, 1998 STS-78, Soyuz TMA-14, Expedition 19, STS-127
Janice Voss SM, PhD – Electrical Engineering, Aeronautics/Astronautics 1977, 1978 STS-57, STS-63, STS-83, STS-94, STS-99
Stephen Robinson Postdoc at Man-Vehicle Lab, Aeronautics/Astronautics 1993 STS-85, STS-95, STS-114
Neil Woodward SB 1984

References

  1. 1 2 "No honorary degrees is an MIT tradition going back to… Thomas Jefferson". MIT News Office. June 8, 2001. Retrieved 2011-04-18. MIT's founder, William Barton Rogers, regarded the practice of giving honorary degrees as 'literary almsgiving …of spurious merit and noisy popularity.'
  2. ↑ MIT Alumni Association. "Constitution". MITAA. Retrieved 2011-04-14.
  3. ↑ "Lt Gen James A. Abrahamson". United States Air Force. Retrieved 2014-01-30.
  4. ↑ "Bernanke's Ph.D. thesis" (PDF). Retrieved 2008-04-12.
  5. ↑ Dunn, Peter (December 17, 2013). "Samuel Bodman, ScD '65". MIT Technology Review.
  6. ↑ O'Toole, James (13 March 2014). "York's Wolf spending own fortune in his bid for governor". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved 30 July 2015.
  7. ↑ http://www.cbc.ca/news/elections/alberta-votes/janet-keeping-green-party-of-alberta-leader-1.3006570
  8. ↑ http://greenpartyofalberta.ca/leader/
  9. ↑ http://www.motc.gov.tw/mocwebGIP/wSite/ct?xItem=4266&ctNode=203&mp=2
  10. ↑ "Professor Najafi homepage". Retrieved 2007-05-22.
  11. ↑ Union Station, Kansas City, National Register of Historic Places Inventory, United States Department of the Interior
  12. ↑ United States Patent 6854046 (2005-02-08). "Configurable memory management unit". U.S. Patents Online. Retrieved 2010-11-26. Inventors: Evans, Marc A. (San Jose, CA, US) Killian, Earl A. (Los Altos Hills, CA, US) Konas, Pavlos (Mountain View, CA, US)
  13. ↑ "S-1 Supercomputer Alumni: Earl Killian". Clemson University. June 28, 2005. Retrieved 2010-11-26. Earl Killian's early work was in the software industry on networking, compilers, operating systems, and binary translation. In the last sixteen years, he has put his system software experience to work in computer architecture, designing instruction-set architectures, pipelines and performance models for microprocessors. As MIPS's Director of Architecture, he designed the MIPS III 64-bit instruction-set extension, and led the work on the R4000 microarchitecture. He was a cofounder of QED, which created the R4600 and R5000 MIPS processors. Most recently he was chief architect at Tensilica working on configurable/extensible processors.
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  19. ↑ "Muere el empresario Bernardo Garza Sada". El Universal (Mexico City). 2009-11-07. Retrieved 2009-11-28.
  20. ↑ KING C. GILLETTE Disposable-Blade Safety Razor
  21. ↑ "ARTHUR OBERMAYER". Legatum Center for Technology and Development. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved January 13, 2016.
  22. ↑ http://www.linkedin.com/in/nitinrao
  23. ↑ http://leverageddabbler.com/
  24. ↑ "Saint Louis University Announces New Dean of Parks College of Engineering, Aviation and Technology". Retrieved 2013-09-04.
  25. ↑ "Dennis N. Assanis Appointed Provost And Senior Vice President For Academic Affairs At Stony Brook University, VP For Brookhaven Affairs". Stony Brook University. Retrieved 2013-09-04.
  26. ↑ 'The University of Delaware: A History : Chapter 7: The Women's College and the Renascence of Delaware College'
  27. ↑ Nunn, Jack H. (October 1979). "MIT: A University's Contributions to National Defense". Military Affairs. 43 (3): 120–125. doi:10.2307/1986870. JSTOR 1986870.
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  30. ↑ Weiss, Shari. "Exclusive: James Eckhouse Looks Back on Beverly Hills 90210". Retrieved 2013-09-04.
  31. ↑ "Edison Family Album: Theodore Miller Edison". National Park Service. Archived from the original on 2006-10-12. Retrieved 2013-09-04.
  32. 1 2 American Physical Society – J. J. Sakurai Prize Winners
  33. ↑ University of Rochester – C.R. Hagen Wins 2010 J. J. Sakurai Prize for Theoretical Particle Physics
  34. ↑ "MIT alums to row for Team USA".
  35. ↑ Office of the Provost. "Nobel Prize". MIT. Retrieved 2011-04-18.
  36. 1 2 "Economics 2001". Retrieved 2007-04-02.
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  38. ↑ "Peace 2001". Retrieved 2007-04-02.
  39. ↑ "Economics 2005". Retrieved 2007-04-02.
  40. ↑ "Chemistry 1990". Retrieved 2007-04-02.
  41. 1 2 "Physics 2001". Retrieved 2007-04-02.
  42. 1 2 "Economics 2009". Retrieved 2009-04-02.
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  44. ↑ "Medicine 2006". Retrieved 2007-04-02.
  45. ↑ "Physics 1969". Retrieved 2007-04-02.
  46. ↑ "Medicine 2001". Retrieved 2007-04-02.
  47. ↑ "Medicine 2002". Retrieved 2007-04-02.
  48. ↑ "Physics 1990". Retrieved 2007-04-02.
  49. ↑ "Economics 1980". Retrieved 2007-04-02.
  50. ↑ "Physics 1998". Retrieved 2007-04-02.
  51. ↑ "Economics 1997". Retrieved 2007-04-02.
  52. ↑ "Chemistry 1966". Retrieved 2007-04-02.
  53. ↑ "Economics 1999". Retrieved 2007-04-02.
  54. ↑ "Chemistry 1987". Retrieved 2007-04-02.
  55. ↑ "Physics 1997". Retrieved 2007-04-02.
  56. ↑ "Physics 1976". Retrieved 2007-04-02.
  57. ↑ "Physics 2011". Retrieved 2007-04-02.
  58. ↑ "Physics 1972". Retrieved 2007-04-02.
  59. ↑ "Physics 1956". Retrieved 2007-04-02.
  60. ↑ "Physics 2006". Retrieved 2007-04-02.
  61. ↑ "Chemistry 1965". Retrieved 2007-04-02.
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