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

{| class="wikitable"

!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.; 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
  • David Ferrucci (1994), computer scientist, developed IBM Watson AI Jeopardy player
  • Asa Fitch (1827), entomologist
  • Alan Fowler (1951), physicist, NAS member
  • 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
  • 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
  • Nimai Mukhopadhyay, physics
  • 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
  • Marlan Scully, physicist known for work in quantum optics
  • Robert C. Seacord, computer security specialist and author
  • Andrew Sears, computer science professor at UMBC
  • Kip Siegel (1948), physicist, professor of physics at the University of Michigan
  • 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
  • Reid Wiseman, NASA astronaut, commander of the 2026 Artemis II mission (first crewed near-Moon mission since 1972)
  • 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

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, 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