List of Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni

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.

The MIT Alumni Association defines eligibility for membership as follows:

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.

As a celebration of the new MIT building dedicated to nanotechnology laboratories in 2018, a special silicon wafer was designed and fabricated with an image of the Great Dome. This One.MIT image is composed of more than 270,000 individual names, comprising all the students, faculty, and staff at MIT during the years 1861–2018. A special website was set up to document the creation of a large wall display in the building, and to facilitate the location of individual names in the image.

Politics and public service

Architecture and design

• Christopher Charles Benninger (MCP 1971) – award-winning architect and urban planner in India, Sri Lanka, prepared capital plan of Bhutan
• Walter Danforth Bliss – architect from California, with many buildings on the National Register of Historic Places
• George Burnap (SB, 1906) – landscape architect of Meridian Hill Park and the first White House Rose Garden in Washington, D.C.
• Gordon Bunshaft (BArch 1933, MArch 1935) – architect of Lever House (New York City), Beinecke Library (Yale), Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (Washington DC); Pritzker Prize (1988)
• Vishaan Chakrabarti (MCP 1993) – architect and dean of UC Berkeley's College of Environmental Design
• Ogden Codman, Jr. (1884) – Beaux-Arts domestic architect, interior designer
• Walter S. Davis (BArch 1910, MArch 1911) – designed numerous buildings in Los Angeles, California
• John Desmond (MArch) – designed numerous public buildings in Baton Rouge, including the River Center
• Daniel Chester French (1871, one year) – sculptor of Abraham Lincoln (Lincoln Memorial), John Harvard (Harvard Yard), Minute Man (Concord, Massachusetts)
• Cass Gilbert (1880) – architect of the US Supreme Court Building, Woolworth Building (New York City)
• Greta Gray (1880–1961) – Bachelor of Architecture, home economist at UCLA, author and academic
• Charles Sumner Greene (1891) – partner in Greene and Greene, domestic architects of Arts & Crafts style, Gamble House (Pasadena)
• Henry Mather Greene (1891) – partner in Greene and Greene, domestic architects of Arts & Crafts style, Gamble House (Pasadena)
• Marion Mahony Griffin (1894) – co-designer of the master plan for Canberra, Australia
• Nathanael Herreshoff (B.S. 1870) – naval architect-engineer, yacht designer
• Raymond Hood (1903) – architect of Rockefeller Center (New York City), Tribune Tower (Chicago)
• Lois Lilley Howe (B.S. 1890) – second woman in the US to found an architecture firm
• Jarvis Hunt – Chicago architect
• Myron Hunt (B.S. 1893) – architect of Huntington Art Gallery, Rose Bowl (Pasadena)
• Piotr Kowalski (B.S. 1952) – artist, sculptor, architect, professor
• Roger K. Lewis (BArch 1964; MArch 1967) – architect, urban planner, professor, author
• Austin W. Lord (1888) – architect of the administration buildings, Isthmian Canal Commission, Panama; director of the School of Architecture at Columbia University
• Kevin A. Lynch (B.S. 1947) – urban planner, author of the seminal book The Image of the City
• John O. Merrill (B.S. 1921) – structural engineer, architect, leader of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill
• Eleanor Manning O'Connor (B.S. 1906) – architect, educator, public housing advocate
• Neri Oxman (1976– ) – Ph.D. Architectural Design (2010)
• I. M. Pei (BArch 1940) – architect, Louvre Pyramid (Paris), Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (Cleveland), Bank of China (Hong Kong), MIT Buildings 18, 54, 66, E15; AIA Gold Medal (1979), Pritzker Prize (1983)
• Frank M. Riley (1900) – architect
• Donald W. Southgate (1887–1953) – architect in Nashville, Tennessee
• Sumner Spaulding (1892–1952) – architect, graduated in 1916, designed many buildings in California
• Louis Sullivan (one year) – influential founder of the Chicago School; "father of skyscrapers"; "father of modernism"; AIA Gold Medal (1944)
• James Knox Taylor (1880) – supervisory architect of Denver Mint, Philadelphia Mint, many post offices, court houses, other federal buildings
• Robert Taylor (1892) – MIT's first black graduate, architect of the Tuskegee Institute
• Harry Mohr Weese (BArch 1938) – architect, historic preservation advocate, designed first group of stations for Washington Metro system

Business and entrepreneurship

See also List of companies founded by Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni

Education

• Muhammad M. Al-Saggaf (M.S. 1996, PhD 2000 in Geophysics) – president of King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals
• Theodosios Alexander (M.S. in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering 1982; M.S. in Ocean Systems Management; M.S. in Mechanical Engineering; ScD in Mechanical Engineering 1987) – dean of Parks College of Engineering, Aviation and Technology of Saint Louis University; professor and chair of Energy Engineering, Queen Mary, University of London; former James Watt Professor at the University of Glasgow, Scotland; former Mechanical Engineering professor at Washington University in St. Louis
• Joseph E. Aoun (PhD 1982) – president of Northeastern University, linguist, author
• Andrew Armacost (M.S. 1995, PhD 2000) – dean of the United States Air Force Academy
• Dennis Assanis (M.S. in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering 1983, M.S. in Mechanical Engineering 1983, M.S. in Management 1986, PhD in Power and Propulsion 1986) – former Jon R. and Beverly S. Holt Professor and Arthur F. Thurnau Professor at the University of Michigan; provost and senior VP for Academic Affairs at Stony Brook University
• Larry Bacow (B.S. 1972) – president of Harvard University, former president of Tufts University, lawyer, economist, author
• Merrill J. Bateman (PhD 1965) – former president of Brigham Young University; Mormon Presiding Bishop
• Scott C. Beardsley – dean of the University of Virginia Darden School of Business
• Lawrence Berk (B.S. Architectural Engineering 1932) – founder and former president of Berklee College of Music (1945–1978)
• William R. Brody (B.S. 1965, M.S. 1966) – former president of Johns Hopkins University, current president of Salk Institute
• Emily Calandrelli (M.S. 2013) – aerospace engineer and STEM communicator
• Marion Hamilton Carter (1893) – educator, journalist, author
• Jared Cohon (M.S. 1972, PhD 1973) – former president of Carnegie Mellon University
• William Cooper (PhD 1976) – president of University of Richmond
• Dianna Leilani Cowern (2011) – physics alumnus and STEM educator and communicator on YouTube and elsewhere as a YouTuber and similar as "Physics Girl" collaborating often with fellow MIT graduate Emily Calandrelli and many other people associated with many other organizations
• Allan Cullimore – former president of New Jersey Institute of Technology (1920–1947)
• Woodie Flowers (M.S. 1968, ME 1971, PhD 1973) – MIT professor, created Introduction to Design (2.70), founder of FIRST Robotics Competition, starting host of Scientific American Frontiers (1990–93)
• Philip Friedman (PhD 1972) – president of Golden Gate University
• Thomas P. Gerrity – former dean of Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania
• Hollis Godfrey (1889) – former president of Drexel University
• Eric Grimson (PhD Mathematics 1980) – computer scientist and chancellor of MIT
• Michelle S. Hoo Fatt (B.S 1987, M.S. 1990 and Ph.D. 1992) – professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Akron
• Amos Horev (B.S., M.S.) – former president of Technion
• Shirley Jackson (B.S. 1968, PhD 1973) – president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, physicist
• Martin C. Jischke (M.S., PhD 1968) – former president of Purdue University
• Theodora J. Kalikow (Sc.M. 1970) – former president of the University of Maine at Farmington and the University of Southern Maine
• Salman Khan – founder and executive director of Khan Academy
• Joseph Klafter – chemical physics professor, the eighth president of Tel Aviv University
• Martin C. Libicki (B.S. Mathematics) – professor at the Frederick S. Pardee RAND Graduate School in Santa Monica, California
• John Maeda (B.S., M.S. 1989) – former president of Rhode Island School of Design (2008–2013), graphic designer, computer scientist, author, venture capitalist
• Modesto Maidique (B.S. 1962, M.S. 1964, EE 1966, PhD 1970) – former president of Florida International University
• Julianne Malveaux (PhD 1980) – president of Bennett College
• Alan Marcus (PhD 1981) – economist; professor at the Carroll School of Management, Boston College; first recipient of the Mario Gabelli Endowed Professorship
• David McClain (PhD 1974) – president of University of Hawaii
• Frederic Mishkin (B.S. 1973, PhD 1976) – economist; professor at Columbia Business School; Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (2006–2008); appeared in the documentary Inside Job
• Leo E. Morton (M.S. 1987) – chancellor of University of Missouri-Kansas City
• Gretchen Ritter (Ph.D.) – dean of the Cornell University College of Arts and Sciences
• Richard Santagati (M.S. 1979) – former president of Merrimack College
• Rahmat Shoureshi – researcher, professor, and provost of New York Institute of Technology (NYIT)
• Reed Shuldiner (Ph.D. 1985) – Alvin L. Snowiss Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School
• Nam-Pyo Suh (B.S. 1959, M.S. 1961) – president of KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology)
• Lawrence H. Summers (B.S. 1975) – former president of Harvard University, economist, former presidential advisor
• Subra Suresh (ScD 1981) – former president of Carnegie Mellon University, former Director of the National Science Foundation, former dean of the School of Engineering at MIT
• Demetri Terzopoulos FRS FRSC (PhD 1984) – Academy Award-winning computer scientist, university professor, author, and entrepreneur
• Ahmed Tewfik (PhD 1987) – IEEE Signal Processing Society president, former chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Cockrell School of Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin
• Lee T. Todd, Jr. (M.S. 1970, EE 1971, PhD 1974) – president of University of Kentucky
• Laura Tyson (PhD 1974) – chairman of the CEA under Clinton; former dean of the Haas School of Business; former dean of the London Business School
• Hal Varian (B.S. 1969) – chief economist at Google, founding dean of the School of Information at UC Berkeley
• Patrick Henry Winston (B.S. 1965, M.S. 1967, PhD 1970) – author of standard textbooks on artificial intelligence and programming languages, MIT professor, co-founded Ascent Technology
• Elisabeth Zinser (M.S. 1982) – president of Southern Oregon University

Humanities, arts, and social sciences

Science and technology

• 15 – computer scientist and software engineer, creator of 15.ai
• Colin Adams – mathematician, knot theory expert, teacher, writer, math humorist
• Rakesh Agrawal – National Medal of Technology and Innovation laureate, professor of Chemical Engineering at Purdue University
• Buzz Aldrin – combat pilot, astronaut, second man to walk on the Moon
• Hillary Diane Andales – astrophysicist and science communicator
• Pauline Morrow Austin – meteorologist, Director of Weather Radar at MIT, research staff in Radiation Laboratory
• Milo Backus – geophysicist, Dave P. Carlton Centennial Professor of geophysics
• Adrian Bejan – professor of mechanical engineering, namesake of the Bejan number
• Gordon Bell – computer engineer and manager, designer of DEC PDP, manager of the VAX project
• Danilo M Maceda Jr. – Pin testing Expert Drop out for Hacking CIA server. Band in USA, Computer Programmer Listed as Blackhat
• Marc Blank – computer game designer and programmer, developed Zork adventure game
• Manuel Blum – computer scientist, received Turing Award (1995) for studies in computational complexity theory
• Katie Bouman – computer scientist and electrical engineer involved in developing the algorithm used in filtering the first images of a black hole taken by the Event Horizon Telescope
• Dan Bricklin – co-inventor of Visicalc, the first WYSIWYG PC spreadsheet program
• Alice G. Bryant – otolaryngologist and inventor of surgical tools
• Dixie Lee Bryant – geologist and educator
• Edward M. Burgess – chemist, inventor of the Burgess reagent
• Christopher Chen – William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Boston University
• David D. Clark – led the development of TCP/IP (the protocol that underlies the Internet)
• Wesley A. Clark – computing pioneer, creator of the LINC (the first minicomputer)
• Fernando Corbató – retired MIT professor, Turing Award (1990), co-founder of the Multics project
• Shiladitya DasSarma (PhD 1985) – pioneering microbiologist and professor at University of Maryland School of Medicine who deciphered genetic code for Halobacterium NRC-1
• Peter J. Denning (M.S. 1965, PhD 1968) – computer scientist, professor, co-founder of the Multics project, pioneered virtual memory
• Jack Dennis – retired MIT professor, co-founder of the Multics project
• Peter Diamandis – founder and chairman of the X PRIZE Foundation, co-founder and chairman of Singularity University, and co-author of New York Times bestseller Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think
• Whitfield Diffie – pioneer of public-key cryptography and the Diffie-Hellman protocol, Turing Award (2015)
• K. Eric Drexler – pioneer nanotechnologist, author, co-founded Foresight Institute
• Harold Eugene "Doc" Edgerton (M.S. 1927, ScD 1931) – former MIT Institute professor; co-founder, and the "E", of EG&G; stroboscope photography pioneer; Oscar winner 1940
• Theodore Miller Edison (1898–1992) – only child of Thomas Alva Edison who graduated from college; inventor with over 80 patents
• Farouk El-Baz – supervisor of Lunar Science Planning, Apollo Program, NASA
• Aprille Ericsson (B.S. Aero/Astro 1986) – aerospace engineer
• Kelly Falkner (PhD 1989) – oceanographer, Antarctic researcher
• Bran Ferren (Class of 1974) – designer, technologist, engineer, entertainment technology expert, prolific inventor, Academy Award nominee
• Carl Feynman – computer scientist; son of the physicist Richard Feynman
• Michael Fincke (B.S. Aero/Astro 1989, SB EAPS 1989) – NASA astronaut, ISS commander and former record-holder for time in space
• Marron William Fort (B.S. 1926, M.S. 1927, PhD 1933) – first African-American to earn a PhD in engineering
• Bob Frankston (B.S. 1970, M.S. EE 1974) – co-inventor of Visicalc (first WYSIWYG PC spreadsheet program); critic of telecommunications public policy
• Limor Fried – open-source hardware pioneer, founder of Adafruit Industries
• Simson Garfinkel – journalist, author, computer security researcher, entrepreneur, computer science professor
• Ivan Getting (S.B. Physics, 1933) – co-inventor of the Global Positioning System (GPS), Draper Prize (2003)
• Jim Gettys – an original developer of X Window, former director of GNOME
• Yoshimi Goda – coastal engineer and recipient of the Order of the Sacred Treasure; undertook research at MIT with Arthur Ippen
• Kenneth E. Goodson – mechanical engineer and faculty at Stanford University
• Martha Goodway – archaeometallurgist at the Smithsonian Institution
• Bill Gosper (B.S. 1965) – mathematician, a founder of the original hacker community, pioneer of symbolic computing, originator of hashlife
• Julia R. Greer (B.S. 1997) – materials science professor at Caltech, pioneer in the fields of nanomechanics and architected materials, CNN 2020 Visionary
• Gerald Guralnik (B.S. 1958) – professor of Physics, Brown University; co-discoverer of Higgs mechanism and Higgs boson in 1964 with C.R. Hagen; awarded J. J. Sakurai Prize for Theoretical Particle Physics in 2010
• C. R. Hagen (B.S., M.S. 1958, PhD. 1963) – professor of Physics, University of Rochester; co-discoverer of Higgs mechanism and Higgs boson in 1964 with Gerald Guralnik; awarded J. J. Sakurai Prize for Theoretical Particle Physics in (2010)
• George Ellery Hale – astronomer, founded several astronomical observatories, developed Throop College of Technology into Caltech
• Heidi Hammel (B.S. 1982) – planetary astronomer who has extensively studied Neptune and Uranus
• Karen Hao (B.S. 2015), award-winning AI journalist
• William W. Happ (M.S.) – silicon transistor pioneer at Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory, and Professor at Arizona State University
• Guadalupe Hayes-Mota (B.S. 2008, M.S. 2016, MBA 2016) – biotechnologist and business director
• Asegun Henry (M.S., PhD 2009) – mechanical engineer
• Caroline Herzenberg (B.S. 1953) – physicist
• Julian W. Hill (PhD 1928) – inventor of nylon
• C.-T. James Huang (PhD 1982) – generative linguist, Professor and Director of Graduate Studies at Harvard, Fellow of the Linguistic Society of America (2015), recipient of the Linguistic Society of Taiwan's Lifetime Achievement Award (2014)
• David A. Huffman – computer scientist known for Huffman coding used in lossless data compression
• Jerome C. Hunsaker (M.S. 1912, ScD 1923) – pioneering aeronautical engineer, airship designer, former head of MIT Mechanical Engineering Department
• Anya Hurlbert (PhD, 1989) – visual neuroscientist
• William Jeffrey – defense technology expert, former director of National Institute of Standards and Technology
• Thomas Kailath – entrepreneur, retired Stanford professor, IEEE Medal of Honor (2007)
• Rudolf E. Kálmán – electrical engineer, theoretical mathematician, co-inventor of Kalman Filter algorithm, Draper Prize (2008)
• Jordin Kare – high energy laser physicist, developer of "mosquito laser zapper"
• Gregor Kiczales – computer scientist, professor at the University of British Columbia, Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery
• Leonard Kleinrock (M.S. Electrical Engineering 1959, PhD Computer Science 1963) – computing and Internet pioneer, one of the key group of designers of the original ARPANET
• Henry Kloss (1953, dropped out) – audio engineer; entrepreneur; founder of Acoustic Research, KLH, Advent, Kloss Video, Cambridge SoundWorks, Tivoli Audio
• Loren Kohnfelder – introduced the term "public key certificate" for public key cryptography in secure network communication
• Raymond Kurzweil (B.S. 1970) – inventor, entrepreneur in music synthesizers, OCR and speech-to-text processing
• Leslie Lamport (B.S. 1960) – computing pioneer in temporal logic, developer of LaTeX, winner of the Turing Award (2013)
• Robert S. Langer – biochemical engineer, biomedical researcher, MIT professor, inventor, entrepreneur, Draper Prize (2002)
• Norman Levinson (B.S., M.S. 1934, ScD 1935) – theoretical mathematician, former Institute Professor at MIT, developed Levinson recursion
• Daniel Levitin – neuroscientist, music producer, author of This Is Your Brain on Music
• Soung Chang Liew (B.S. 1984, M.S. 1986, PhD 1988) – information engineering professor
• Steven R. Little (PhD 2005) – chemical engineer, pharmaceutical scientist, and department chair of Chemical Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering
• Maureen D. Long (PhD 2006) – observational seismologist
• Edward Norton Lorenz – mathematician, meteorologist, MIT professor emeritus, invented chaos theory, discovered Lorenz attractor
• Joseph Lykken (PhD 1982) – theoretical physicist, proposed "weak scale superstring" theory
• Luz Martinez-Miranda – physicist and professor at the University of Maryland; first female president of the National Society of Hispanic Physicists
• Hiram Percy Maxim – inventor of the "Maxim Silencer" and founder of the American Radio Relay League
• John F. McCarthy Jr. (B.S. 1950, M.S. 1951) – director of MIT Center for Space Research and director of Lewis Research Center, NASA
• Douglas McIlroy (PhD 1959) – mathematician, software engineer, professor, developed component-based software engineering, an original developer of Unix, member of National Academy of Engineering
• Diane McKnight (B.S. 1975, M.S. 1978, PhD 1979) – engineering professor, limnologist, biogeochemist, Antarctic researcher
• Anne McNeil (Postdoc 2005–2007) – chemist and professor at University of Michigan
• Faye McNeill (PhD 2005) – atmospheric chemist and Professor of Chemical Engineering at Columbia University
• Parisa Mehrkhodavandi (PhD 2002) – chemist
• Fulvio Melia (PhD 1985) – theoretical astrophysicist, professor, author, editor, general educator
• Holly Michael (PhD 2005) – hydrogeologist and professor
• Arnold Mindell (MSc 1961) – physicist, author, psychologist – developer of Process Oriented Psychology
• Daniel Mindiola – professor of chemistry at University of Pennsylvania
• Douglas J. Mink (B.S. 1973, M.S. 1974) – astronomer, software developer, co-discovered rings around Uranus, bicycling activist
• Bill Parker – artist, engineer, inventor of the modern plasma lamp
• Bradford Parkinson – co-inventor of the Global Positioning System (GPS), Draper Prize (2003)
• Robert A. "Bob" Pease (B.S. 1961) – analog integrated circuit design expert, technical author
• Irene Pepperberg (B.S. 1969) – Brandeis University professor, researcher in animal cognition, trained Alex (parrot)
• Alan Perlis (M.S. 1949, PhD 1950) – computer scientist, professor, pioneer of programming languages, winner of the first Turing Award (1966)
• Radia Perlman (B.S. 1973, M.S. 1976, PhD 1988) – computer scientist, network engineer, invented numerous data network technologies, "mother of the Internet"
• David Pesetsky (PhD 1982) – generative linguist, Ferrari P. Ward Professor of Modern Languages and Linguistics, head of the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at MIT
• Harry Melville Pope (1881) – gunsmith noted for precision rifling of gun barrels
• Ronald T. Raines (B.S. Chemistry 1980, B.S. Biology 1980) – chemical biologist, entrepreneur, and MIT professor
• Edward Rebar (PhD 1997) – biologist, senior vice president, and chief technology officer at Sangamo Therapeutics
• ChoKyun Rha (B.S. 1962, M.S. 1964, M.S. 1966, SCD 1967) – food technologist, professor at MIT
• Adam Riess (B.S. 1992) – physicist, Nobel Prize winner in Physics awarded in 2011 for demonstrating the acceleration of the universe's rate of expansion
• Louis W. Roberts (PhD 1946) – microwave physicist, chief of the Microwave Laboratory at NASA's Electronics Research Center, director of the John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
• Jerome Saltzer – retired MIT professor, timesharing computing pioneer, co-founder of the Multics project, Director of Project Athena
• Frederick P. Salvucci (B.S. 1961, M.S. 1962) – civil engineer, transportation planner, MIT professor, former Massachusetts secretary of transportation, public transit advocate, Big Dig advocate
• George W. Santos – pioneer in bone marrow transplantation
• David G. Schaeffer (PhD 1968) – mathematician, James B. Duke Professor at Duke University
• Bob Scheifler – computer scientist, leader of the X Window System project, architect of Jini
• Julie Segre – epithelial biologist, Chief of the Human Genome Research Institute
• Oliver Selfridge – computer scientist, father of machine perception
• Claude Shannon – mathematician, electrical engineer, and cryptographer known as the "father of information theory"
• Reuben Shaw (PhD 1999) – cancer researcher at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and director of one of the National Cancer Institute's seven basic laboratory cancer centers in the US
• Philip J. Siemens (B.S. 1965) – theoretical physicist
• Amy B. Smith (B.S. 1984, M.S. 1995) – mechanical engineer, inventor, former Peace Corps volunteer, MIT senior lecturer and researcher in appropriate technology, MacArthur Fellow (2004)
• Oliver R. Smoot – namesake of the smoot unit of measurement, former chair of ANSI; former president of ISO
• Richard M. Stallman (grad student, dropped out) – computer programmer; Free Software activist; creator of EMACS editor, GNU; MacArthur Fellow (1990)
• Guy L. Steele, Jr. (M.S. 1977, PhD 1980) – computer scientist, programming language expert, an original editor of the Jargon File (Hacker's Dictionary)
• Richard Stratt (B.S. 1975) – professor of physical chemistry at Brown University
• Mahmooda Sultana (PhD 2010) – NASA research engineer
• Bert Sutherland (M.S., PhD) – managed research laboratories, including Sun Microsystems Laboratories (1992–1998), the Systems Science Laboratory at Xerox PARC (1975–1981), and the Computer Science Division of Bolt, Beranek and Newman
• Ivan Sutherland (PhD 1963) – computer graphics pioneer, former professor, ARPAnet and Internet pioneer, co-founded Evans & Sutherland, Turing Award (1988)
• Lynne Talley (PhD 1982) – physical oceanographer, professor
• Badri Nath Tandon (1961) – gastroenterologist, textbook author, Sasakawa WHO Health Prize and Padma Bhushan winner
• Andrew S. Tanenbaum (B.S. 1965) – computer scientist, professor, textbook author (operating systems), creator of Minix (the precursor to Linux)
• Frederick Terman – electrical engineer; former provost of Stanford University; "father of Silicon Valley"
• Ray Tomlinson – innovator of email systems, pioneered the use of the "@" symbol for email
• Leonard H. Tower Jr. (B.S. Biology 1971) – early Free Software activist, software hacker
• John Trump – electrical engineer, inventor, and physicist; professor at MIT 1936–1973, directed MIT High Voltage Research Laboratory 1946–1980
• Kay Tye – neuroscientist, MIT assistant professor
• Ann M. Valentine – chemist, professor at Yale and Temple University
• Manuel Sandoval Vallarta – MIT professor, founder of the Physics Institute at UNAM; mentor of Nobel laureate Richard Feynman
• Denisa Wagner – vascular biologist at Harvard Medical School
• Susie Wee – Women in Technology International laureate; CTEO of Collaboration at Cisco
• Robert Williams Wood – optical physicist, developed "black light", ultraviolet and infrared photography
• Joshua Wurman – meteorologist, inventor, developed the Doppler On Wheels, Bistatic Weather Radar Networks, founder and president of Flexible Array for Radar and Mesonets (FARM), formerly CSWR
• Jenny Y Yang (PhD 2007) – chemist
• Edward Yourdon – computer pioneer, author, lecturer, popularized the term "Y2K Bug"
• Gregorio Y. Zara – inventor of the first two-way videophone; National Scientist of the Philippines
• Günter M. Ziegler – mathematician, Free University of Berlin professor, ex-president of the German Mathematical Society, recipient of the Chauvenet and Leroy P. Steele prizes

Sports

• Jimmy Bartolotta (2009) – professional basketball player
• Charles Butt, Jr. (1941) – rowing coach
• Adam Edelman (2014) – American-born Israeli Olympic skeleton athlete
• Johan Harmenberg (dropped out in 1975; drafted by Sweden) – épée fencer, gold medal winner in the 1980 Olympics, world champion
• Larry Kahn – tiddlywinks champion
• Dave Lockwood (1975) – tiddlywinks champion
• Jeff Sagarin (1970) – sports statistician
• Zeke Sanborn – Olympic gold medalist
• Jason Szuminski (2000) – major league pitcher
• Steve Tucker (1991) – two-time member of the US Olympic rowing team

Miscellaneous

• Katy Croff Bell (B.S. Ocean Engineering 2000) – National Geographic explorer
• Sylvester Q. Cannon (B.S. Mining Engineering) – apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
• Csaba Csere (1978 B.S., 2 Mechanical Engineering) – automotive journalist, editor of Car and Driver
• Lynn Yamada Davis (1977 B.S., Civil Engineering) – celebrity chef, TikToker
• Janet Hsieh (2001) – Taiwanese-American television personality, violinist, author, and model; host of Fun Taiwan
• Jeff Hwang – US Air Force fighter pilot, 1999 winner of Mackay Trophy
• J. Kenji López-Alt (2002 B.S., 4, Architecture) – celebrity chef, author of The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science
• Ray Magliozzi (1972 B.S., 21B, Humanities and Science) – radio personality, Car Talk
• Tom Magliozzi (1958 B.S., 14A, Economic Policy and Engineering) – radio personality, Car Talk
• Lalit Pande (1972 M.S., 2 Mechanical Engineering) – environmentalist and Padma Shri awardee
• Randal Pinkett – chairman and CEO of BCT Partners; winner of television show The Apprentice
• Ubol Ratana (1973 B.S., 18 Mathematics) – princess of Thailand
• Aafia Siddiqui (1995 B.S., 7 Biology / Life Science) – neuroscientist; alleged Al-Qaeda operative; convicted of assaulting with a deadly weapon and attempting to kill US soldiers and FBI agents
• Ellen Spertus (1990 B.S., 1992 M.S., 1998 PhD, Computer Science) – professor, computer scientist, 2001's "Sexiest Geek Alive"
• Kelvin Teo (M.S. 2006) – young entrepreneur and season 1 winner of Malaysian reality show Love Me Do
• Robert Varkonyi (1983 B.S., 15 Management, 1983 SB, 6 Computer Science and Engineering) – winner of the 2002 World Series of Poker Main Event

Fictional

• Gordon Freeman, the silent protagonist of Half-Life, graduated at MIT with a Ph.D. degree in Theoretical Physics
• Lex Luthor, diabolical genius and supervillain of the DC Universe
• Tim McGee, field agent specializing in cybersecurity and computer crime on NCIS, portrayed by Sean Murray
• Tony Stark, alter ego of Iron Man, portrayed by Robert Downey Jr. in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films
• Howard Wolowitz, character on The Big Bang Theory, portrayed by Simon Helberg

Nobel laureate alumni

As of April 2011^[update], the MIT Office of the Provost said that 76 Nobel awardees had or currently have a formal connection to MIT. Of this group, 32 have earned MIT degrees (MIT has never awarded honorary degrees in any form).

Astronaut alumni

References