List of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute people

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.

Business

 * John J. Albright (1868), businessman and philanthropist
 * Marshall Brain, founder of HowStuffWorks.com
 * Gary Burrell, founder of Garmin
 * Dan Buckley (1991), president of Marvel Entertainment
 * George Lewis Capwell Cronin (1925), businessman and founder of the Ecuadorian baseball & soccer team Club Sport Emelec
 * Nicholas M. Donofrio (1967), director of research at IBM, trustee
 * Joseph Gerber (1947), founder of Gerber Scientific
 * William Gurley (1839), and Lewis E. Gurley, brothers and founders of Gurley Precision Instruments.
 * J. Erik Jonsson (1922), co-founder and former president of Texas Instruments Incorporated, and mayor of Dallas
 * William Mow (1959), founded apparel maker Bugle Boy in 1977.
 * Nicholas T. Pinchuk Chairman & CEO of Snap-on
 * Curtis Priem (1982), NVIDIA co-founder; architect of the first PC video processor and many that followed; trustee
 * Sean O’Sullivan (1985), along with three other RPI students (Laszlo Bardos, Andrew Dressel, and John Haller), founded MapInfo on the RPI campus
 * William Meaney President & CEO of Iron Mountain
 * John Rigas, co-founder of Adelphia Communications
 * Sheldon Roberts (1948), member of the "traitorous eight" who created Silicon Valley; co-founder of Fairchild Semiconductor and Amelco
 * Bert Sutherland, manager of Sun Microsystems laboratories
 * William H. Wiley (1866), Civil War artillery commander, co-founder of publisher John Wiley and Sons, and US State Representative
 * Edward Zander, former CEO of Motorola
 * Keith Raniere, American felon, convicted sex trafficker and the founder of NXIVM, a multi-level marketing company and cult based near Albany, New York.

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)
 * Erin Hoffman, game designer and author
 * Tyler Hinman (2006), multiple winner of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament
 * Joe Howard, Jr. (1857), reporter and war correspondent
 * Jennifer & Kevin McCoy (1994), artists who both graduated from RPI
 * Meera Nanda, writer, philosopher of science, and faculty Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
 * Luis Francisco Peraza (1985), television producer and executive, International Emmy winner
 * Mary Pride (1974), Christian author
 * Samuel Wells Williams, 19th century linguist
 * Warren Davis (1977), video game designer/programmer (co-creator of Q*bert)
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * John F. Schenck (1961), physician and co-inventor of the first clinically viable high-field MRI scanner at General Electric

Military

 * William L. Haskin (1861), U.S. Army brigadier general
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * John Hammond, US Representative from New York, iron manufacturer
 * 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
 * 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

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

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
 * Edith Hirsch Luchins : Mathematics
 * James D. Meindl (1986–1993) : Microelectronics
 * Vincent Meunier (2010-2022) : Physics
 * 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
 * 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
 * Anna Dyson : Architecture
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * Georges Belfort: Chemical and Biological Engineering