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.
Presidents of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute NameYearsPrevious 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 1868Troy 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.; 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
Business John J. Albright (1868), businessman and philanthropist Marshall Brain (1983), founder of HowStuffWorks.com Dan Buckley (1991), president of Marvel Entertainment Gary Burrell, founder of Garmin 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 Meaney (1982), president & CEO of Iron Mountain William Mow (1959), founded apparel maker Bugle Boy in 1977 Sean O’Sullivan (1985), along with three other RPI students (Laszlo Bardos, Andrew Dressel, and John Haller), founded MapInfo on the RPI campus Nicholas T. Pinchuk (1968), chairman & CEO of Snap-on Curtis Priem (1982), NVIDIA co-founder; architect of the first PC video processor and many that followed; trustee 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 (1968), former CEO of Motorola
Humanities, arts, and social sciences Zachary Barth, video game designer (founder of Zachtronics), creator of Infiniminer Felix Bernard, composer of the Christmas song "Winter Wonderland" Julie Berry, children's author Charles Amos Cummings, architect and historian Warren Davis (1977), video game designer/programmer (co-creator of Q*bert) David Duquette, philosophy professor 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) Tyler Hinman (2006), multiple winner of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament Erin Hoffman, game designer and author 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 Mary Pride (1974), Christian author Samuel Wells Williams, 19th-century linguist
Invention and engineering Truman H. Aldrich (1869), civil engineer, also briefly a US State Representative B. Jayant Baliga (1971, 1974), inventor of the insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) Garnet Baltimore (1881), first African-American engineer and Garnet D. Baltimore Lecture Series honoree Virgil Bogue (1868), chief engineer of Union Pacific Railroad and Western Maryland Railway constructions Peter Bohlin 1958, architect of the famous 5th Avenue Apple Store 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), 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), first woman to serve as president of any scientific society in the US, elected president of American Vacuum Society in 1974 Frank Hursey (1977), inventor of QuikClot 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 David L. Noble (1940), inventor of the floppy disk 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 set up 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 John F. Schenck (1961), physician and co-inventor of the first clinically viable high-field MRI scanner at General Electric Massood Tabib-Azar, chemical engineer Raymond Tomlinson (1963), inventor of the email system 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
Military Harold J. Greene (1980), major general, U.S. Army, highest ranking casualty of the War in Afghanistan William L. Haskin (1861), U.S. Army brigadier general 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; led SeaBee program and led 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
Politics and public service J. Frank Aldrich (1877), U.S. representative from Illinois Truman H. Aldrich (1869), U.S. representative from Alabama (1896–1897) William Beidelman, Union Army second lieutenant, second mayor of Easton, Pennsylvania 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 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 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
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