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.
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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 Dorr-Oliver Incorporated, a chemical engineering firm |
| Shirley Ann Jackson | (1999–2022) | Chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission |
| Martin A. Schmidt, 1981 | (2022–present) | Provost of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Notable alumni
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Business
- William Gurley (1839), and Lewis E. Gurley, brothers and founders of Gurley Precision Instruments.
- John J. Albright (1868), businessman and philanthropist
- William H. Wiley (1866), Civil War artillery commander, co-founder of publisher John Wiley and Sons, and US State Representative
- J. Erik Jonsson (1922), co-founder and former president of Texas Instruments Incorporated, and mayor of Dallas
- George Lewis Capwell Cronin (1925), businessman and founder of the Ecuadorian baseball & soccer team Club Sport Emelec
- Joseph Gerber (1947), founder of Gerber Scientific[1]
- Sheldon Roberts (1948), member of the "traitorous eight" who created Silicon Valley; co-founder of Fairchild Semiconductor and Amelco
- John Rigas, co-founder of Adelphia Communications
- William Mow (1959), founded apparel maker Bugle Boy in 1977.
- Nicholas M. Donofrio (1967), director of research at IBM, trustee
- Nicholas T. Pinchuk (1968) Chairman & CEO of Snap-on
- Edward Zander (1968), former CEO of Motorola
- Gary Burrell, founder of Garmin
- Curtis Priem (1982), NVIDIA co-founder; architect of the first PC video processor and many that followed; trustee
- William Meaney (1982) President & CEO of Iron Mountain
- Marshall Brain (1983), founder of HowStuffWorks.com
- Sean O’Sullivan (1985), along with three other RPI students (Laszlo Bardos, Andrew Dressel, and John Haller), founded MapInfo on the RPI campus
- Bert Sutherland, manager of Sun Microsystems laboratories
- Dan Buckley (1991), president of Marvel Entertainment
Humanities, arts, and social sciences
- Felix Bernard, composer of a Christmas song, Winter Wonderland
- Julie Berry, children's author
- Charles Amos Cummings, architect and historian
- Bobby Farrelly, film director, writer and producer, Dumb and Dumber, Shallow Hal, There's Something About Mary
- Fitzedward Hall (1901), Orientalist
- David Hayter, Canadian voice actor
- Ned Herrmann, creator of the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument
- Lily Hevesh, YouTuber and domino artist (attended RPI for less than a year before dropping out to pursue domino art full time)[2]
- Erin Hoffman, game designer and author
- Tyler Hinman (2006), multiple winner of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament[3]
- Joe Howard, Jr. (1857), reporter and war correspondent
- Jennifer & Kevin McCoy (1994), artists who both graduated from RPI[4]
- Meera Nanda, writer, philosopher of science, and faculty Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
- Mary Pride (1974), Christian author
- Samuel Wells Williams, 19th century linguist
- Warren Davis (1977), video game designer/programmer (co-creator of Q*bert)[5]
- Zachary Barth, video game designer (founder of Zachtronics), creator of Infiniminer
Invention and engineering
- Truman H. Aldrich (1869), civil engineer, also briefly a US State Representative
- Karthik Bala, co-founder of Vicarious Visions and Velan Studios
- 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
- Henry Wilson Hodge (1885), Director of railroads for the American Expeditionary Force during World War I
- 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
- Mortimer Rogoff (1943), first to patent an Electronic navigational chart and setup industry standards
- 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), Union Army veteran who attained the rank of brigadier general by brevet
- 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)
- Franklin Guest Smith, Union Army veteran who attained the rank of brigadier general[12]
- 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.
- Peter D. Vroom (1862), Inspector General of the U.S. Army[13][14]
- 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
- Christopher E. van Avery, Commander, U.S. Navy, geopolitical analyst and writer. Critic of and contributor to the U.S. military's current Principles of War.
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
- William Beidelman, Union Army Second Lieutenant, Second Mayor of Easton, Pennsylvania
- 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[15]
- John Hammond, US Representative from New York, iron manufacturer[16]
- 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[17]
- 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
- Mike ter Maat, 2024 Libertarian Party Vice Presidential Nominee
- 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[18]
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; elected to U.S. House of Representatives 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
- John Carter (1986), NHL forward 1986–1993
- Kevin Constantine (1980), NHL head coach of the San Jose Sharks 1993–1995, the Pittsburgh Penguins 1997–2000, and the New Jersey Devils 2001–2002; recipient of USA Hockey's Distinguished Achievement Award
- Erin Crocker (2003), NASCAR driver
- Don Cutts (1974), NHL and International Hockey League (1945–2001) goaltender 1974–1984
- Oren Eizenman (born 1985), Israeli-Canadian ice hockey player
- Andrew Franks (2015), NFL placekicker for the Miami Dolphins since 2015.
- Tim Friday (1985), NHL defenseman for the Detroit Red Wings 1985–1986
- Ken Hammond (1985), NHL defenseman 1985–1993
- Michael E. Herman (1962), President of the Kansas City Royals of Major League Baseball 1992–2000
- Joé Juneau (1991), NHL forward 1991–2004, selected to the 1993 NHL All-Rookie Team, top scorer at the 1992 Winter Olympics while playing for the Canadian Olympic hockey team
- Jason Kasdorf (2016), NHL goalie for the Buffalo Sabres since 2016.
- Neil Little (1994), NHL scout for the Philadelphia Flyers organization; Goaltending Coach for the Philadelphia Phantoms of the American Hockey League 2007–2008; AHL goaltender 1994–2005; won the '97–98 and '04-05 Calder Cup with the Philadelphia Phantoms; inducted into the Philadelphia Phantoms Hall of Fame in 2006
- Andrew Lord (2008), professional ice hockey player
- Mike McPhee (1982), NHL forward 1983–1994; won the '85–86 Stanley Cup with the Montreal Canadiens; played in the 1989 NHL All Star Game
- Matt Murley (2002), NHL forward 2003–2008
- Kraig Nienhuis (1985), NHL forward 1985–1988
- Adam Oates (1985), co-head coach of the New Jersey Devils 2014–2015; Head Coach of the Washington Capitals 2012–2014; Assistant Coach for the Tampa Bay Lightning 2009–2010 and the New Jersey Devils 2010–2012; NHL forward 1985–2004; played in the 1991–1994 and 1997 NHL All Star Games; inducted into the NHL Hockey Hall of Fame as a player in 2012
- Matt Patricia (1996), Senior football advisor New England Patriots
- Brian Pothier (2000), NHL defenseman 2000–2010
- Daren Puppa (1985), NHL goaltender 1985–2000, played in the 1990 NHL All Star Game
- Brad Tapper (2000), head coach of the Adirondack Thunder of the ECHL; NHL forward for the Atlanta Thrashers 2000–2003
- Graeme Townshend (1989), head coach of the Jamaican Men's National Ice Hockey Team; Player Development Coordinator for the San Jose Sharks 2004–2008, NHL forward 1990–1994
Faculty
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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
- Richard DiPrima (1957–1984): Fluid dynamics
- 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
- Robert J. Linhardt (-2025) : Bioengineering
- 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
- Pauline Oliveros : Music
- Robert Resnick (1956–1993): Physics
- George Rickey : Architecture
- Neil Rolnick : Music, founder of iEAR
- David Rosowsky : Civil Engineering
- Henry Augustus Rowland (1870?–1876) : Physics
- Lee Segel (1960–1973) : Mathematics
- Stephen Van Rensselaer : founder of the institute
- William A. Wallace (1935-2025) : Decision Sciences and Engineering Systems
- 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
- 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
- Juergen Hahn : Biomedical Engineering
- James Hendler : Computer Science
- Xavier Intes : Biomedical Engineering
- Nikhil Koratkar : Nanotechnology
- Deborah McGuinness : Computer Science
- Don Millard : Electrical Engineering, Electronic Media
- David Musser : Computer Science
- Leik Myrabo : Spacecraft Propulsion
- Satish Nambisan : Management
- Heidi Jo Newberg : Astrophysics
- Sal Restivo : Science and Technology Studies
- Morgan Schaller : Earth and Environmental Science
- Michael Shur : Semiconductor Electronics
- Ron Sun : Cognitive Science
- Boleslaw Szymanski : Computer Science
- Jeff Trinkle : Computer Science
- Ge Wang (scientist) : Biomedical Engineering
- E. Bruce Watson : Earth and Environmental Science
- 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
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