The School of Engineering and Applied Science celebrates its ties and affiliations with at least 8 alumni
Nobel Laureates. Alumni of Columbia Engineering have gone on to numerous fields of profession. Many have become prominent scientists, astronauts, architects, government officials, pioneers, entrepreneurs, company CEOs, financiers, and scholars. File:Hollerith.jpg|
Herman Hollerith, Founded a company that merged with other companies to become IBM File:EdwinHowardArmstrong.jpg|
Edwin Armstrong, developer of
FM Radio File:CAPABLANCA, JOSE R. CUBAN CHESS PLAYER; WORLD CHAMPION LCCN2016866175 (cropped).jpg|
José Raúl Capablanca,
Chess prodigy and the highest ranked chess player on the
Elo rating system File:Mihajlo Pupin.jpg|
Mihaljo Pupin,
Serbian-American physicist and winner of the
Pulitzer Prize, namesake of
Pupin Hall at
Columbia University File:William Barclay Parsons, Pach Brothers photo portrait.jpg|
William Barclay Parsons, American civil engineer, founder of
Parsons Brinckerhoff, designed and constructed the first section of the
New York City Subway File:IrvingLangmuir.jpg|
Irving Langmuir, winner of the
Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1932 File:Edward Calvin Kendall 1940s.jpg|
Edward Calvin Kendall, winner of the
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1950 File:Woodin2.jpg|
William H. Woodin,
United States Secretary of the Treasury under
Franklin D. Roosevelt File:Hyman Rickover 1955.jpg|
Hyman G. Rickover, admiral of the
United States Navy, "Father of the Nuclear Navy" File:Michael Massimino.jpg|
Michael Massimino,
NASA astronaut File:Alvin E. Roth 3 2012.jpg|
Alvin E. Roth, Economist, Winner of 2012
Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences File:Robert Grubbs Royal Society.jpg|
Robert H. Grubbs, winner of the
Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2005 File:Robert C. Merton.jpg|
Robert C. Merton, Winner of 1997
Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences File:StephenHSchneiderJI1.jpg|
Stephen Schneider, climatologist and
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate (he contributed to the work that earned the
IPCC the
2007 Nobel Peace Prize; he was not a named recipient) File:Rocco B. Commisso.jpg|
Rocco B. Commisso, American billionaire businessman, founder of
Mediacom, chairman of
New York Cosmos and
ACF Fiorentina File:Leonard Blavatnik, February 2018 (4568) (cropped).jpg|
Leonard Blavatnik, Ukrainian-British billionaire businessman, founder of
Access Industries File:TNW USA 2013 - Day 1 (10327022886) (cropped).jpg|
Jon Oringer, American billionaire businessman, founder of
Shutterstock File:Douglas Leone in 2013.jpg|
Douglas Leone, American billionaire
venture capitalist and managing partner of
Sequoia Capital File:Vikram Pandit in WEF, 2011.jpg|
Vikram Pandit, Indian-American banker, former CEO of
Citibank File:Ursula-Burns.jpg|
Ursula Burns, former CEO of
Xerox, first African American woman to lead a
Fortune 500 company •
Albert Huntington Chester (E.M. 1868, Ph.D. 1876), geologist and mining engineer, professor at
Hamilton College and
Rutgers College and the namesake of
Chester Peak •
Henry Smith Munroe (E.M. 1869, Ph.D. 1877),
Foreign advisor to Meiji Japan •
Roland Duer Irving (E.M. 1869, Ph.D. 1879),
geologist, pioneer in
petrography •
Eben Erskine Olcott (1874), president of the
American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers from 1901 to 1902 •
Frederick Remsen Hutton (E.M. 1876), secretary of the
American Society of Mechanical Engineers from 1883 to 1906 •
Marcus Benjamin (Ph.B. 1878), editor •
William Hamilton Russell (1878), architect who founded firm
Clinton and Russell; designed the
American International Building,
Hotel Astor,
Graham Court,
The Langham and other New York landmarks •
William L. Ward (1878),
United States Congressman from
New York •
Nathaniel Lord Britton (1879), co-founder of the
New York Botanical Garden •
Hamilton Castner (1879), American industrial
chemist famous for developing the
Castner–Kellner process •
Graeme Hammond (1879), American
neurologist,
Olympic fencer; founding president of the
Amateur Fencers League of America •
Herman Hollerith (1879), founded a company that merged with other companies to become IBM •
Charles Buxton Going (1882), engineer, author, editor •
William Parsons (1882), Chief Engineer of New York City's subway system •
Mihajlo Idvorski Pupin (B.S. 1883),
Serbian physicist and
physical chemist whose inventions include the
Pupin coil, winner of
Pulitzer Prize for his autobiography •
Edward Chester Barnard (1884), American
topographer with the
United States Geological Survey •
James Furman Kemp (1884),
geologist; president of the
Geological Society of America •
Joseph Harvey Ladew Sr. (1885), founder of leather manufacturer
Fayerweather & Ladew •
Frederick James Hamilton Merrill (1885), geologist and former director of the
New York State Museum •
Edward Pearce Casey (1886), architect known for designing the
Taft Bridge and
Ulysses S. Grant Memorial •
Walter Hull Aldridge (1887), President and Chairman of the
Texas Gulf Sulphur Company; recipient of the
John Fritz Medal and the
William Lawrence Saunders Gold Medal •
Jennings Cox (1887), mining engineer credited with inventing the cocktail
Daiquiri •
Graham Lusk (1887), American
physiologist and
nutritionist •
Allen Tucker (1887), architect and artist •
Edwin Gould I (1888), American investor and railway official; son of financier
Jay Gould •
F. Augustus Heinze (1889), copper magnate and founder of
United Copper; one of the three "
Copper Kings" of
Butte, Montana •
Winifred Edgerton Merrill (PhD. 1889), first American woman to receive a Ph.D. in mathematics •
James Monroe Hewlett (1890), American architect who created the mural on the ceiling of the
Grand Central Terminal •
George Oakley Totten Jr. (1891), prolific architect in
Washington, D.C., who designed
Meridian Hall, the
Embassy of Turkey, Washington, D.C., and the
Embassy of Ecuador in Washington, D.C. •
John Stone Stone (1890s), early
telephone engineer •
Herschel Clifford Parker (PhB. 1890), physicist and mountaineer •
William H. Woodin (1890), American industrialist, 51st
United States Secretary of the Treasury •
Gano Dunn (1891), former president of
Cooper Union and recipient of
IEEE Edison Medal; former chairman and CEO of the
National Research Council •
Gonzalo de Quesada y Aróstegui (1891), Cuban revolutionary, minister to the
United States, signer of the
Hay-Quesada Treaty •
Heinrich Ries (1892), American
economic geologist; professor at
Cornell University •
Chester Holmes Aldrich (PhB. 1893), former director of
American Academy in Rome and architect who designed the
Kykuit •
V. Everit Macy (PhB, 1893), American industrialist, former president of the
National Civic Federation, major benefactor to
Teachers College, Columbia University •
Kenneth MacKenzie Murchison (1894), American architect who designed the
Havana Central railway station,
Pennsylvania Station in Baltimore, and the
Murchison Building in
Wilmington, North Carolina •
Gustavus Town Kirby (1895), president of the
Amateur Athletic Union and member of the
United States Olympic Committee from 1896 to 1956 •
Leon Moisseiff (1895), American engineer and designer of the
Manhattan Bridge •
George Gustav Heye (EE. 1896), investment banker and founder of the
National Museum of the American Indian in New York, and namesake of the
George Gustav Heye Center •
Ambrose Monell (1896), American industrialist, first president of
International Nickel Company, namesake of the
Monel alloy •
Alfred Chester Beatty (E.M. 1898), mining magnate and millionaire, often referred to as "King of Copper", founder of the
Chester Beatty Library in
Dublin •
Albertson Van Zo Post (1899), fencer and writer •
Hugh Auchincloss Brown (E.E. 1900), electrical engineer and conspiracy theorist, proponent of the
cataclysmic pole shift hypothesis, member of the
Auchincloss family •
Reno H. Sales (E. M. 1900), Chief Geologist of
Anaconda Copper, "father of mining geology" •
Richard E. Dougherty (C.E. 1901), vice president of
New York Central System and president of the
American Society of Civil Engineers •
Irving Langmuir (1903), Winner of the 1932
Nobel Prize in Chemistry, produced gas-filled incandescent lamp, explorer of the vacuum •
Don Gelasio Caetani (1903), mayor of
Rome and Italian ambassador to the United States •
Stephen J. Pigott (1903), American marine engineer, managing director of
John Brown & Company •
Robert Stangland (1904),
Olympic athlete; bronze medalist in
Athletics at the 1904 Summer Olympics •
Peter Cooper Hewitt (1906), engineer who invented the first
Mercury-vapor lamp in 1901, the
Hewitt-Sperry Automatic Airplane, and the
Mercury-arc valve, son of New York mayor and philanthropist
Abram Hewitt •
Reginald J. S. Pigott (1906), former president of the
Society of Automotive Engineers and the
American Society of Mechanical Engineers •
Edward Calvin Kendall (1908), Winner of 1950
Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine •
Edmund Prentis (B.S. 1906), former president of the
American Standards Association, art collector •
Roger W. Toll (B.S. 1906), mountaineer, former superintendent of
Mount Rainier,
Rocky Mountain, and
Yellowstone National Parks •
James Kip Finch (B.S. 1906), American engineer and educator, dean of Columbia Engineering from 1941 to 1950 •
Maurice L. Sindeband (E.E. 1907), American electrical engineer, former president of the
Ogden Corporation •
Kingdon Gould Sr. (E.M. 1909), financier and polo player; father of ambassador
Kingdon Gould Jr. •
Grover Loening (M.S. 1910), American aircraft manufacturer, designer of first successful
monoplane •
José Raúl Capablanca (1910), one of the
greatest chess players of all time •
Alfonso Valdés Cobián (E.E. 1911), Puerto Rican industrialist, co-founder of
Compañía Cervecera de Puerto Rico •
Eugene Dooman (1912), counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo vital in the negotiations between the U.S. and Japan before
World War II •
David Steinman (PhD. 1911), director of the reconstruction of
Brooklyn Bridge •
Harry Babcock (1912), 1912 Olympic champion in
pole vaulting •
Harvey Seeley Mudd (B.S. 1912), Metallurgical Engineer, president of
Cyprus Mines Corporation, co-founder of
Claremont McKenna College and namesake of
Harvey Mudd College of Engineering •
Richard Cunningham Patterson Jr. (E.M. 1912),
United States Ambassador to Yugoslavia,
United States Ambassador to Switzerland,
United States Ambassador to Guatemala •
Edwin Armstrong (E.E. 1913), inventor of the
frequency modulation transmission method •
Willard F. Jones (M.S. 1916),
naval architect, head of
National Safety Council's marine section and Vice President of
Gulf Oil •
Seeley G. Mudd (B.S. 1917), American physician, professor and major philanthropist to academic institutions; namesake of the
Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library of
Princeton University •
Philip Sporn (E.E. 1917), Austrian engineer and recipient of
IEEE Edison Medal; former president and CEO of
American Electric Power •
Allen Carpé (E.E. 1919), first person to have climbed
Mount Bona,
Mount Fairweather, and
Mount Logan •
Radu Irimescu (1920), former Romanian ambassador to the United States •
Langston Hughes (1922), poet of the
Harlem Renaissance •
Arthur Loughren (M.S. 1925),
Pioneer in
radio engineering and
television engineering •
Edward Lawry Norton (M.S. 1925),
Bell Lab engineer, developer of
Norton equivalent circuit •
Hyman Rickover (M.S. 1928), Father of the Nuclear
U.S. Navy • Hugh Alessandroni (Columbia College: B.A. 1929, SEAS: 1931), member of the
US Fencing Hall of Fame, 2-time Olympian, 2-time US foil champion, 7 team national championships •
Raymond D. Mindlin (B.S. 1931), researcher and professor known for his contributions to
applied mechanics,
applied physics, and
Engineering Sciences, recipient of
National Medal of Science •
Helmut W. Schulz (B.S. 1933, M.S. 1934), President Dynecology, developed uranium centrifugation (
gas centrifuge), laser analysis, safe waste conversion •
Robert D. Lilley (B.S. 1934), former president of the
AT&T from 1972 to 1976 •
Herbert L. Anderson (B.S. 1935), established
Enrico Fermi Institute and nuclear physicist in the
Manhattan Project •
Daniel C. Drucker (PhD. 1939), American engineer and recipient of
National Medal of Science •
Antoine Marc Gaudin (E.M. 1921), professor at
MIT and a founding member of
National Academy of Engineering •
John R. Ragazzini (PhD. 1941), pioneered the development of the
z-transform method in
discrete-time signal processing and analysis. •
Arthur Hauspurg (B.S. 1943, M.S. 1947), chairman of
Consolidated Edison •
Samuel Higginbottom (B.S. 1943), former CEO of
Eastern Air Lines and
Rolls-Royce North America, chairman of Columbia's
board of trustees •
Richard Skalak (B.S. 1943), pioneer in
Biomedical engineering •
Elmer L. Gaden (B.S. 1944), Father of
Biochemical Engineering •
William F. Schreiber (B.S. 1945), electrical engineer and developer of
optical recognition machine •
Sheldon E. Isakoff (B.S. 1945, M.S. 1947, PhD. 1951), chemical engineer and former director of
DuPont •
Henry S. Coleman (B.S. 1946), acting dean of
Columbia College, Columbia University who was held hostage during the
Columbia University protests of 1968. •
Joseph F. Engelberger (B.S. 1946, M.S. 1949), Father of
Industrial robotics •
Edward A. Frieman (B.S. 1946), former director of the
Scripps Institution of Oceanography •
Wilmot N. Hess (B.S. 1946), former director of the
National Center for Atmospheric Research from 1980 to 1986 •
Ira Millstein (B.S. 1947), antitrust expert, partner at
Weil, Gotshal & Manges and oldest big law partner in practice •
Bernard Spitzer (M.S. 1947),
real estate developer and
philanthropist, father of
Eliot Spitzer, 54th
governor of New York •
James H. Mulligan Jr. (PhD. 1948), American electrical engineer, former executive officer of
National Academy of Engineering and president of
IEEE •
Lotfi Asker Zadeh (PhD. 1949), Iranian mathematician,
electrical engineer, and computer scientist •
Henry Michel (B.S. 1949), Civil Engineer, President of
Parsons Brinckerhoff •
Anna Kazanjian Longobardo (B.S. 1949), founder of the
National Society of Women Engineers •
Edward Jaworski (B.S. 1949), Olympic water polo player who represented the
United States in the
1952 Summer Olympics •
Edmund DiGiulio (B.S. 1950), founder of the
Cinema Products Corporation, five-time
Academy Awards winner, inventor of the
CP-16 •
Eliahu I. Jury (PhD. 1953), Initiated field of discrete time systems, pioneered
z-transform (the discrete time equivalent of the
Laplace Transform), and created
Jury stability criterion test •
Sheldon Weinig (M.S. 1953, PhD. 1955), CEO of
Materials Research Corporation, Vice chairman for Engineering and Manufacturing for
SONY America •
Robert Spinrad (B.S. 1953, M.S. 1954), American computer engineer and former director of
Xerox Palo Alto Research Center •
Ferdinand Freudenstein (PhD. 1954), mechanical engineer, professor, and widely considered the "Father of Modern Kinematics" •
Donald R. Olander (B.S. 1954), professor at
University of California, Berkeley •
Donald E. Ross (B.S. 1954), managing partner of
Jaros, Baum & Bolles •
Saul Amarel (PhD. 1955), computer scientist and pioneer in
artificial intelligence •
Sheldon M. Wiederhorn (B.S. 1956), material scientist at
National Institute of Standards and Technology •
Robert Moog (M.S. 1957), pioneer of
electronic music, inventor of the
Moog synthesizer •
Rudolf Emil Kálmán (PhD. 1957), electrical engineer and recipient of
National Medal of Science •
Bernard J. Lechner (B.S. 1957), electronics engineer and vice president of
RCA Laboratories •
Edward Botwinick (B.S. 1958), IT entrepreneur and former president of
Unisys Networks •
Joseph F. Traub (PhD. 1959), prominent
computer scientist; head of the
Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science from 1971 to 1979 and founder of the
Computer science department at
Columbia University •
Richard G. Newman (M.S. 1960), chairman and former CEO of world-leading engineering firm
AECOM •
Masanobu Shinozuka (PhD. 1960), probabilistic mechanics,
structural stability, and risk assessment •
Lynn Conway (B.S. 1962, M.S. 1963), professor of electrical engineering and computer science at
University of Michigan, pioneer in
VLSI microchip design, and early activist for transgender rights •
Jeffrey Bleustein (PhD. 1962), former chairman and CEO of
Harley-Davidson •
Roy Mankovitz (B.S. 1963), scientist, inventor, health strategist •
Jeffrey Ullman (B.S. 1963), professor at
Stanford University and winner of the 2020
Turing Award •
Richard D. Gitlin (M.S. 1965, PhD. 1969) – engineer, co-invention of DSL at
Bell Labs •
Robert C. Merton (B.S. 1966), Winner of the 1997
Nobel Prize in Economics and co-author of the
Black–Scholes pricing model •
Stephen Schneider (B.S. 1966, Ph.D. 1971), environmental scientist at
Stanford University who shared the
Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 •
Harry L. Tuller (B.S. 1966, M.S. 1967, Ph.D. 1973), professor of materials science at
Massachusetts Institute of Technology •
Dorian M. Goldfeld (B.S. 1967), American mathematician and editor of the
Journal of Number Theory •
Robert H. Grubbs (PhD 1968),
California Institute of Technology professor and 2005
Nobel Prize laureate •
Lewis A. Sanders (B.S. 1968), co-founder, chairman, and CEO of
AllianceBernstein •
Ira Fuchs (B.S. 1969), co-founder of
BITNET, creator of
LISTSERV, and
JSTOR, former vice-president of
Princeton University •
Jae-Un Chung (B.S. 1964, M.S. 1969), Former president, Vice chairman of
Samsung Electronics and honorary chairman of
Shinsegae Group, husband of
Lee Myung-hee,
Samsung heiress •
Feisal Abdul Rauf (B.S. 1969),
imam, author, activist; sponsor and director of
Park51 •
Eugene H. Trinh (B.S. 1972),
Vietnamese-American scientist and
astronaut •
Eduardo M. Ochoa (M.S. 1976), President of
California State University, Monterey Bay •
Kevin P. Chilton (M.S. 1977), engineer, the current commander,
U.S. Strategic Command, former
NASA astronaut •
Rocco B. Commisso (B.S. 1971), Italian-American billionaire, founder and CEO of
Mediacom, the 8th largest cable television company in the United States •
James L. Manley (B.S. 1971), professor of life sciences at
Columbia University •
Alvin E. Roth (B.S. 1971), economist, 2012
Nobel Prize Laureate in Economics •
David Marquardt (B.S. 1973), venture capitalist and founder of
August Capital •
James Albaugh (M.S. 1974), Current president and CEO of
Boeing Commercial Airplanes, EVP of its parent company,
The Boeing Company. •
Vikram Pandit (B.S. 1976), former CEO of
Citigroup •
Ralph Izzo (B.S. 1978, M.S. 1979, Ph.D. 1981), chairman, president, and CEO of
Public Service Enterprise Group •
James R. Scapa (B.S. 1978),
Greek American billionaire, Chairman and CEO of
Altair Engineering •
Ken Bowersox (M.S. 1979), engineer, United States
Naval officer and a former
NASA astronaut •
William G. Gregory (M.S. 1980),
NASA astronaut •
Len Blavatnik (M.S. 1981), billionaire, founder of
Access Industries •
Peter Livanos (B.S. 1981), Greek shipping tycoon, billionaire, owner of
Ceres Hellenic Shipping Enterprises and Chairman of
Euronav; former major shareholder of
Aston Martin •
Anrika Rupp (B.S. 1981), artist •
Joshua Bloch (B.S. 1982), software engineer, chief Java architect at
Google •
Jay Mehta (B.S. 1983), Indian businessman, owner of the conglomerate
Mehta Group and Indian
cricket team
Kolkata Knight Riders; husband of Indian actress
Juhi Chawla •
Vincent Sapienza (B.S. 1982), commissioner of the
New York City Department of Environmental Protection •
Ted Rall (dropped out 1984),
Political cartoonist, president of the
Association of American Editorial Cartoonists •
Wayne Goodman (B.S. 1984), psychiatrist who developed the
Yale–Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale, chair of psychiatry at
Baylor College of Medicine •
Michael Massimino (B.S. 1984), current engineer and
astronaut—mission specialist,
STS-109,
STS-125 •
Gregory H. Johnson (M.S. 1985), current
colonel, engineer,
astronaut for
International Space Station.
STS-109, support for
STS-125. •
Amr Aly (B.S. 1985), winner of the 1985
Hermann Trophy and
Olympic soccer player •
Robert Bakish (B.S. 1985), current president and CEO of
Viacom •
Marshall Nicholson (B.S. 1985), managing director at
China International Capital Corp •
Chuck Hoberman (M.S. 1985), inventor and architect; designer of the
Hoberman sphere •
Douglas Leone (M.S. 1986), billionaire venture capitalist and partner at
Sequoia Capital •
Jon Normile (B.S. 1988), American
Olympic fencer •
Angeliki Frangou (M.S. 1988), Greek businesswoman, chairman and CEO of
Navios Maritime Holdings •
Jelena Kovacevic (M.S. 1988, PhD 1991), first female dean of the
New York University Tandon School of Engineering •
Moti Yung (PhD. 1988), cryptographer; information security and privacy scientist
Google •
Alan E. Willner (PhD. 1988), professor of electrical engineering at the
University of Southern California, president of
The Optical Society •
Semyon Dukach (B.S. 1989), former chairman of
SMTP and managing director of
Techstars •
David Eppstein (PhD. 1989), developer of
computational geometry,
graph algorithms, and
recreational mathematics •
Ursula Burns (M.S. 1991), Current CEO of
Xerox Corporation, the first woman African-American
Fortune 500 company CEO; Xerox is also the largest company a woman African American CEO is running. •
Peter DiMaggio (B.S. 1992), co-CEO of
Thornton Tomasetti •
Azmi Mikati (B.S. 1994), CEO of
M1 Group; nephew of
Lebanese prime minister and billionaire
Najib Mikati •
Neil Daswani (B.S. 1996), founder of
Dasient •
Feryal Özel (B.S. 1996), professor of astronomy at the
University of Arizona •
Judy Joo (B.S. 1997), American chef and TV personality, starred in the show
Iron Chef UK; •
David Yeung (B.S. 1998), Hong Kong entrepreneur; founder of
Green Monday •
Jon Oringer (M.S. 1999), billionaire founder and CEO of
Shutterstock •
Andy Ross (B.S. 2001),
Ok Go band member: guitarist, keyboard, backup vocals •
Regina Barzilay (PhD. 2003), professor at
Massachusetts Institute of Technology and
MacArthur Fellowship recipient in 2017 •
Jennifer Yu Cheng (B.S. 2003), Hong Kong businesswoman, educator, and philanthropist, wife of
New World Development CEO
Adrian Cheng •
Nullsleep (B.S. 2003),
8-bit musician and founder of the
8bitpeoples collective. •
Miloš Tomić (B.S. 2005), Olympic rower representing
Serbia and Montenegro •
Samantha John (B.S. 2009), American computer engineer, founder of
Hopscotch •
Chris Chyung (B.S. 2016), real-estate businessman, member of the
Indiana House of Representatives •
Mortimer Rogoff (M.S.E.E. 1948), first to patent an
Electronic navigational chart and standardized the industry •
Alva T. Matthews (Eng.Sc.D. 1965) research engineer in shock analysis at
Weidlinger ==Affiliates of the school==