100 Notable alumni of
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Updated:

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Massachusetts Institute of Technology is 18th in the world, 11th in North America, and 11th in the United States by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 100 notable alumni from Massachusetts Institute of Technology sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff. 26 individuals affiliated with Massachusetts Institute of Technology won Nobel Prizes in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, and Economics.

  1. Benjamin Netanyahu

    Benjamin Netanyahu
    Born in
    Israel Flag Israel
    Years
    1949-.. (age 76)
    Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    1972-1975 graduated with Bachelor of Science in architectural engineering
    Occupations
    politiciandiplomatpolitical scientistmilitary personnelstatesperson
    Biography

    Benjamin Netanyahu is an Israeli politician who has been serving as the prime minister of Israel since 2022, having previously held the office from 1996 to 1999 and from 2009 to 2021. Netanyahu is the longest-serving prime minister in Israel's history, having served a total of over 17 years.

  2. Noam Chomsky

    Noam Chomsky
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1928-.. (age 97)
    Occupations
    writeranthropologistlinguistopinion journalistpolitical writer
    Biography

    Avram Noam Chomsky is an American professor and public intellectual known for his work in linguistics, political activism, and social criticism. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is also a major figure in analytic philosophy and one of the founders of the field of cognitive science. He is a laureate professor of linguistics at the University of Arizona and an institute professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Among the most cited living authors, Chomsky has written more than 150 books on topics such as linguistics, war, and politics. In addition to his work in linguistics, since the 1960s Chomsky has been an influential voice on the American left as a consistent critic of U.S. foreign policy, contemporary capitalism, and corporate influence on political institutions and the media.

  3. Buzz Aldrin

    Buzz Aldrin
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1930-.. (age 95)
    Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    Graduated with Doctor of Science in astronautics
    Occupations
    air force officerbusinesspersonastronautautobiographerscience fiction writer
    Biography

    Buzz Aldrin is an American former astronaut, engineer and fighter pilot. He made three spacewalks as pilot of the 1966 Gemini 12 mission, and was the Lunar Module Eagle pilot on the 1969 Apollo 11 mission. He was the second person to walk on the Moon after mission commander Neil Armstrong. Following the deaths of Armstrong in 2012 and pilot Michael Collins in 2021, he is the last surviving Apollo 11 crew member.

  4. Richard Feynman

    Richard Feynman
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1918-1988 (aged 70)
    Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    1935-1939 graduated with bachelor's degree
    Occupations
    inventorpoliticianuniversity teacherphysicistwriter
    Biography

    Richard Phillips Feynman was an American theoretical physicist. He is best known for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics, the physics of the superfluidity of supercooled liquid helium, and in particle physics, for which he proposed the parton model. For his contributions to the development of quantum electrodynamics, Feynman received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965 jointly with Julian Schwinger and Shin'ichirō Tomonaga.

  5. James Woods

    James Woods
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1947-.. (age 78)
    Occupations
    poker playeractor
    Biography

    James Howard Woods is an American actor. Known for fast-talking, intense roles on screen and stage, he has received numerous accolades, including three Emmy Awards, and a Golden Globe Award, as well as nominations for two Academy Awards and three Screen Actors Guild Awards. He started his career in minor roles on and off-Broadway before making his Broadway debut in The Penny Wars (1969), followed by Borstal Boy (1970), The Trial of the Catonsville Nine (1971) and Moonchildren (1972). Woods' early film roles include The Visitors (1972), The Way We Were (1973) and Night Moves (1975). He starred in the NBC miniseries Holocaust (1978) opposite Meryl Streep.

  6. Mario Draghi

    Mario Draghi
    Born in
    Italy Flag Italy
    Years
    1947-.. (age 78)
    Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    In 1977 graduated with Doctor of Philosophy
    Occupations
    university teacherpoliticianeconomistbanker
    Biography

    Mario Draghi OMRI is an Italian economist, academic, banker, statesman and civil servant who served as the prime minister of Italy from February 2021 to October 2022. Prior to his appointment as prime minister, he served as the president of the European Central Bank (ECB) between 2011 and 2019. Draghi was also the chair of the Financial Stability Board between 2009 and 2011, and governor of the Bank of Italy between 2006 and 2011.

  7. Kofi Annan

    Kofi Annan
    Born in
    Ghana Flag Ghana
    Years
    1938-2018 (aged 80)
    Occupations
    politiciandiplomateconomist
    Biography

    Kofi Atta Annan was a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh secretary-general of the United Nations from 1997 to 2006. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize. He was the founder and chairman of the Kofi Annan Foundation, as well as chairman of The Elders, an international organisation founded by Nelson Mandela.

  8. Bridgit Mendler

    Bridgit Mendler
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1992-.. (age 33)
    Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    2018-2020 graduated with Master of Science in media science
    Occupations
    recording artistsingertelevision actorbusiness executivefilm actor
    Biography

    Bridgit Claire Mendler is an American entrepreneur and former actress and singer. She first became known as a child actress and continued acting into adulthood, which overlapped with a musical career in the 2010s. After enrolling at MIT and Harvard, from 2017 to 2024, she co-founded a satellite data startup, which is cited as an example of a successful career reinvention.

  9. Elaine Chao

    Elaine Chao
    Born in
    Taiwan Flag Taiwan
    Years
    1953-.. (age 72)
    Occupations
    politicianeconomist
    Biography

    Elaine Lan Chao is an American businesswoman and former government official who served as United States secretary of labor in the administration of George W. Bush from 2001 to 2009 and as United States secretary of transportation in the administration of Donald Trump from 2017 to 2021. A member of the Republican Party, Chao was the first Asian American woman to serve in a presidential cabinet. She resigned as transportation secretary after the January 6 United States Capitol attack.

  10. Bob Lazar

    Bob Lazar
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1959-.. (age 66)
    Occupations
    conferencierwriterphysicistentrepreneur
    Biography

    Robert Scott Lazar is an American conspiracy theorist. In 1989, Lazar claimed to have been part of a classified US government project concerned with the reverse engineering of extraterrestrial technology; he also purported to have read government briefing documents that described alien involvement in human affairs over the past 10,000 years. A self-proclaimed physicist, Lazar supposedly worked at a secret site near the United States Air Force facility popularly known as Area 51. His story brought additional public attention to the facility and spawned conspiracy theories regarding government knowledge of extraterrestrial life.

  11. Claude Shannon

    Claude Shannon
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1916-2001 (aged 85)
    Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    1936-1940 studied electrical engineering
    Occupations
    geneticistcryptographeruniversity teacherengineermathematician
    Biography

    Claude Elwood Shannon was an American mathematician, electrical engineer, computer scientist, cryptographer and inventor known as the "father of information theory" and as the "father of the Information Age". Shannon was the first to describe the Boolean gates (electronic circuits) that are essential to all digital electronic circuits, and was one of the founding fathers of artificial intelligence. Shannon is credited with laying the foundations of the Information Age.

  12. Shiva Ayyadurai

    Shiva Ayyadurai
    Born in
    India Flag India
    Years
    1963-.. (age 62)
    Occupations
    inventorscientistanti-vaccine activistpoliticianbusinessperson
    Biography

    V. A. Shiva Ayyadurai is an Indian-American engineer, entrepreneur, and anti-vaccine activist. He has become known for promoting conspiracy theories, pseudoscience, and unfounded medical claims. Ayyadurai holds four degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), including a PhD in biological engineering, and is a Fulbright grant recipient.

  13. Richard Stallman

    Richard Stallman
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1953-.. (age 72)
    Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    Graduated with Doctor of Philosophy
    Occupations
    inventordocumentary participantactivistprogrammerblogger
    Biography

    Richard Matthew Stallman, also known by his initials, rms, is an American free software movement activist and programmer. He campaigns for software to be distributed in such a manner that its users have the freedom to use, study, distribute, and modify that software. Software which ensures these freedoms is termed free software. Stallman launched the GNU Project, founded the Free Software Foundation (FSF) in October 1985, developed the GNU Compiler Collection and GNU Emacs, and wrote all versions of the GNU General Public License.

  14. Carly Fiorina

    Carly Fiorina
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1954-.. (age 71)
    Occupations
    businesspersonpolitician
    Biography

    Cara Carleton "Carly" Fiorina is an American businesswoman and politician, known primarily for her tenure as chief executive officer (CEO) of Hewlett-Packard (HP) from 1999 to 2005. Fiorina was the first woman to lead a Fortune Top-20 company.

  15. Subramanian Swamy

    Subramanian Swamy
    Born in
    India Flag India
    Years
    1939-.. (age 86)
    Occupations
    politicianauthoreconomist
    Biography

    Subramanian Swamy is an Indian politician, economist and statistician. Before joining politics, he was a professor of Mathematical Economics at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. He is known for his Hindu nationalist views. Swamy was a member of the Planning Commission of India and was a Cabinet Minister in the Chandra Shekhar government. Between 1994 and 1996, Swamy was Chairman of the Commission on Labour Standards and International Trade under former Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao. Swamy was a long-time member of the Janata Party, serving as its president until 2013 when he joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He has written on foreign affairs of India dealing largely with China, Pakistan and Israel. He was nominated to Rajya Sabha on 26 April 2016 for a six-year term, ending on 24 April 2022.

  16. Charles Koch

    Charles Koch
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1935-.. (age 90)
    Occupations
    businessperson
    Biography

    Charles de Ganahl Koch is an American billionaire businessman. As of February 2024, he was ranked as the 23rd richest man in the world on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, with an estimated net worth of $64.9 billion. Koch has been co-owner, chairman, and chief executive officer of Koch Industries since 1967, while his late brother David Koch served as executive vice president. Charles and David each owned 42% of the conglomerate. The brothers inherited the business from their father, Fred C. Koch, then expanded the business. Koch Industries is the largest privately held company by revenue in the United States, according to Forbes.

  17. Raghuram Rajan

    Raghuram Rajan
    Born in
    India Flag India
    Years
    1963-.. (age 62)
    Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    Graduated with Doctor of Philosophy
    Occupations
    university teachereconomistbankerprofessor
    Biography

    Raghuram Govind Rajan is an Indian economist and the Katherine Dusak Miller Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business. Between 2003 and 2006 he was Chief Economist and director of research at the International Monetary Fund. From September 2013 through September 2016 he was the 23rd Governor of the Reserve Bank of India. In 2015, during his tenure at the RBI, he became the Vice-Chairman of the Bank for International Settlements.

  18. I. M. Pei

    I. M. Pei
    Born in
    China Flag China
    Years
    1917-2019 (aged 102)
    Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    Graduated with Bachelor of Architecture
    Occupations
    architect
    Biography

    Ieoh Ming Pei FAIA RIBA was a Chinese-American architect. Born in Guangzhou into a Chinese family, Pei drew inspiration at an early age from the garden villas at Suzhou, the traditional retreat of the scholar-gentry to which his family belonged. In 1935, he moved to the United States and enrolled in the University of Pennsylvania's architecture school, but quickly transferred to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Unhappy with the focus on Beaux-Arts architecture at both schools, he spent his free time researching emerging architects, especially Le Corbusier.

  19. Paul Krugman

    Paul Krugman
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1953-.. (age 72)
    Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    Studied in 1974-1977
    Occupations
    journalistpunditcolumnistprofessorwriter
    Biography

    Paul Robin Krugman is an American New Keynesian economist who is the Distinguished Professor of Economics at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He was a columnist for The New York Times from 2000 to 2024. In 2008, Krugman was the sole winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to new trade theory and new economic geography. The Prize Committee cited Krugman's work explaining the patterns of international trade and the geographic distribution of economic activity, by examining the effects of economies of scale and of consumer preferences for diverse goods and services.

  20. Georges Lemaître

    Georges Lemaître
    Born in
    Belgium Flag Belgium
    Years
    1894-1966 (aged 72)
    Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    Studied in 1924-1927
    Occupations
    astrophysicistcosmologisttheologianCatholic priestphysicist
    Biography

    Georges Henri Joseph Édouard Lemaître was a Belgian Catholic priest, theoretical physicist, and mathematician who made major contributions to cosmology and astrophysics. He was the first to argue that the recession of galaxies is evidence of an expanding universe and to connect the observational Hubble–Lemaître law with the solution to the Einstein field equations in the general theory of relativity for a homogenous and isotropic universe. That work led Lemaître to propose what he called the "hypothesis of the primeval atom", now regarded as the first formulation of the Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe.

  21. David Koch

    David Koch
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1940-2019 (aged 79)
    Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    In 1962 graduated with bachelor's degree in chemical engineering
    In 1963 graduated with master's degree in chemical engineering
    Occupations
    politicianphilanthropistbusinesspersonentrepreneurchemist
    Biography

    David Hamilton Koch was an American businessman, political activist, philanthropist, and chemical engineer. In 1970, he joined the family business: Koch Industries, the second largest privately held company in the United States. He became president of the subsidiary Koch Engineering in 1979 and became a co-owner of Koch Industries (along with elder brother Charles) in 1983. Koch served as an executive vice president of Koch Industries until he retired due to health issues in 2018.

  22. Lisa Su

    Lisa Su
    Born in
    Taiwan Flag Taiwan
    Years
    1969-.. (age 56)
    Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    Graduated with Doctor of Philosophy
    Occupations
    entrepreneurelectrical engineerchief executive officer
    Biography

    Lisa Tzwu-Fang Su is an American billionaire business executive, computer scientist, and electrical engineer who is the president, chief executive officer (CEO), and chair of the semiconductor company Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).

  23. Ben Bernanke

    Ben Bernanke
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1953-.. (age 72)
    Occupations
    professoreconomistbankerteacherpolitician
    Biography

    Ben Shalom Bernanke is an American economist who served as the 14th chairman of the Federal Reserve from 2006 to 2014. After leaving the Federal Reserve, he was appointed a distinguished fellow at the Brookings Institution. During his tenure as chairman, Bernanke oversaw the Federal Reserve's response to the 2007–2008 financial crisis, for which he was named the 2009 Time Person of the Year. Before becoming Federal Reserve chairman, Bernanke was a tenured professor at Princeton University and chaired the Department of Economics there from 1996 to September 2002, when he went on public service leave. Bernanke was awarded the 2022 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, jointly with Douglas Diamond and Philip H. Dybvig, "for research on banks and financial crises", more specifically for his analysis of the Great Depression.

  24. Raymond Kurzweil

    Raymond Kurzweil
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1948-.. (age 77)
    Occupations
    entrepreneurfuturistscience fiction writerartificial intelligence researcherwriter
    Biography

    Raymond Kurzweil is an American computer scientist, author, entrepreneur, futurist, and inventor. He is involved in fields such as optical character recognition (OCR), text-to-speech synthesis, speech recognition technology and electronic keyboard instruments. He has written books on health technology, artificial intelligence (AI), transhumanism, the technological singularity, and futurism. Kurzweil is a public advocate for the futurist and transhumanist movements and gives public talks to share his optimistic outlook on life extension technologies and the future of nanotechnology, robotics, and biotechnology.

  25. Joseph E. Stiglitz

    Joseph E. Stiglitz
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1943-.. (age 82)
    Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    1966-1967 graduated with Doctor of Philosophy in economics
    Occupations
    writernon-fiction writercriticscience writereconomist
    Biography

    Joseph Eugene Stiglitz is an American New Keynesian economist, a public policy analyst, political activist, and a professor at Columbia University. He is a recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (2001) and the John Bates Clark Medal (1979). He is a former senior vice president and chief economist of the World Bank. He is also a former member and chairman of the US Council of Economic Advisers. He is known for his support for the Georgist public finance theory and for his critical view of the management of globalization, of laissez-faire economists (whom he calls "free-market fundamentalists"), and of international institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

  26. Jimmy Doolittle

    Jimmy Doolittle
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1896-1993 (aged 97)
    Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    Graduated with Doctor of Science in aeronautics
    Graduated with Master of Science
    Occupations
    aircraft pilotmilitary officerengineer
    Biography

    James Harold Doolittle was an American military general and aviation pioneer who received the Medal of Honor for his raid on Japan during World War II, known as the Doolittle Raid in his honor. He made early coast-to-coast flights and record-breaking speed flights, won many flying races, and helped develop and flight-test instrument flying.

  27. Morris Chang

    Morris Chang
    Born in
    China Flag China
    Years
    1931-.. (age 94)
    Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    1950-1952 graduated with bachelor's degree
    1952-1953 graduated with master's degree
    Occupations
    entrepreneurengineer
    Biography

    Morris Chung-Mou Chang is a Taiwanese-American billionaire businessman and electrical engineer who pioneered the foundry model of semiconductor fabrication. He is regarded as the founder of Taiwan's semiconductor industry.

  28. Aafia Siddiqui

    Aafia Siddiqui
    Born in
    Pakistan Flag Pakistan
    Years
    1972-.. (age 53)
    Occupations
    neuroscientist
    Biography

    Aafia Siddiqui is a Pakistani neuroscientist and educator who gained international attention following her conviction in the United States and is currently serving an 86-year sentence for attempted murder and other felonies at the Federal Medical Center, Carswell, in Fort Worth, Texas.

  29. Sal Khan

    Sal Khan
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1976-.. (age 49)
    Occupations
    YouTuberwriterentrepreneurtelevision producermathematician
    Biography

    Salman "Sal" Amin Khan is an American educator and the founder of Khan Academy, a free online non-profit educational platform with which he has produced over 6,500 video lessons teaching a wide spectrum of academic subjects, originally focusing on mathematics and science. He is also the founder of Khan Lab School, a private in-person school in Mountain View, California.

  30. Princess Ubol Ratana of Thailand

    Princess Ubol Ratana of Thailand
    Born in
    Switzerland Flag Switzerland
    Years
    1951-.. (age 74)
    Occupations
    politicianwritersocial workersailorfilm actor
    Biography

    Ubol Ratana Rajakanya is a member of the Thai royal family. She is the eldest child of King Bhumibol Adulyadej and Queen Sirikit, and the elder sister of King Vajiralongkorn.

  31. Alicia Nash

    Alicia Nash
    Born in
    El Salvador Flag El Salvador
    Years
    1933-2015 (aged 82)
    Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    In 1955 studied physics
    Occupations
    physicistactivist
    Biography

    Alicia Esther Nash was a Salvadoran-American physicist. The wife of mathematician John Forbes Nash Jr., she was a mental-health care advocate, who gave up her professional aspirations to support her husband and son, who were both diagnosed with schizophrenia.

  32. Lawrence Summers

    Lawrence Summers
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1954-.. (age 71)
    Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    In 1975 graduated with Bachelor of Science
    Occupations
    politicianbankereconomistprofessoruniversity teacher
    Biography

    Lawrence Henry Summers is an American economist who served as the 71st United States Secretary of the Treasury from 1999 to 2001 and as director of the National Economic Council from 2009 to 2010. He also served as president of Harvard University from 2001 to 2006, where he is the Charles W. Eliot University Professor and director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at Harvard Kennedy School. In November 2023, Summers joined the board of directors of artificial general intelligence company OpenAI.

  33. George Shultz

    George Shultz
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1920-2021 (aged 101)
    Occupations
    politicianbusinesspersonmilitary personnelentrepreneureconomist
    Biography

    George Pratt Shultz was an American economist, businessman, diplomat and statesman. He served in various positions under two different Republican presidents and is one of the only two persons to have held four different Cabinet-level posts, the other being Elliot Richardson. Shultz played a major role in shaping the foreign policy of the Ronald Reagan administration, and conservative foreign policy thought thereafter.

  34. Neri Oxman

    Neri Oxman
    Born in
    Israel Flag Israel
    Years
    1976-.. (age 49)
    Occupations
    university teacherarchitectdesignerartist
    Biography

    Neri Oxman is an Israeli-American designer and former professor known for art that combines design, biology, computing, and materials engineering. She coined the phrase "material ecology" to define her work.

  35. Philip Kotler

    Philip Kotler
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1931-.. (age 94)
    Occupations
    businesspersoneconomistuniversity teacherwritermathematician
    Biography

    Philip Kotler is an American marketing author, consultant, and professor emeritus; the S. C. Johnson & Son Distinguished Professor of International Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University (1962–2018). He is known for popularizing the definition of marketing mix. He is the author of over 80 books, including Marketing Management, Principles of Marketing, Kotler on Marketing, Marketing Insights from A to Z, Marketing 4.0, Marketing Places, Marketing of Nations, Chaotics, Market Your Way to Growth, Winning Global Markets, Strategic Marketing for Health Care Organizations, Social Marketing, Social Media Marketing, My Adventures in Marketing, Up and Out of Poverty, and Winning at Innovation. Kotler describes strategic marketing as serving as "the link between society's needs and its pattern of industrial response."

  36. Mai Thi Nguyen-Kim

    Mai Thi Nguyen-Kim
    Born in
    Germany Flag Germany
    Years
    1987-.. (age 38)
    Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    In 2012 studied chemistry
    Occupations
    science communicatortelevision presenterchemistscience journalistYouTuber
    Biography

    Mai Thi Nguyen-Kim is a German chemist, science communicator, television presenter and YouTuber. In June 2020 she was elected to the senate of the Max Planck Society.

  37. Selçuk Bayraktar

    Selçuk Bayraktar
    Born in
    Turkey Flag Turkey
    Years
    1979-.. (age 46)
    Occupations
    businesspersonpoliticianengineer
    Biography

    Selçuk Bayraktar is a Turkish pilot, engineer and businessman. He is the chairman of the board and the chief technology officer of the Turkish technology company Baykar. He is also known as the architect of Turkey's first indigenous unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) Bayraktar TB2 and first unmanned fighter jet Bayraktar Kızılelma. Bayraktar is also the founding chairman of the Turkish Technology Team Foundation.

  38. Abhijit Banerjee

    Abhijit Banerjee
    Awards
    Nobel Prize in Economics in 2019
    Born in
    India Flag India
    Years
    1961-.. (age 64)
    Occupations
    university teachereconomist
    Biography

    Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee is an Indian-born Bengali american economist who is currently the Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is co-founder and co-director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), an MIT based global research center promoting the use of scientific evidence to inform poverty alleviation strategies. In 2019, Banerjee shared the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer, "for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty." He and Esther Duflo are married, and became the sixth married couple to jointly win a Nobel or Nobel Memorial Prize.

  39. Andrew Y. Ng

    Andrew Y. Ng
    Born in
    United Kingdom Flag United Kingdom
    Years
    1976-.. (age 49)
    Occupations
    university teacherartificial intelligence researchercomputer scientistentrepreneur
    Biography

    Andrew Yan-Tak Ng is a British-American computer scientist and technology entrepreneur focusing on machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI). Ng was a cofounder and head of Google Brain and was the former Chief Scientist at Baidu, building the company's Artificial Intelligence Group into a team of several thousand people.

  40. Qian Xuesen

    Qian Xuesen
    Born in
    China Flag China
    Years
    1911-2009 (aged 98)
    Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    1935-1936 graduated with Master of Science
    Occupations
    engineerastronautical engineeruniversity teacher
    Biography

    Qian Xuesen was a Chinese aerospace engineer and cyberneticist who made significant contributions to the field of aerodynamics and established engineering cybernetics. He achieved recognition as one of America's leading experts in rockets and high-speed flight theory prior to his returning to China in 1955.

  41. Vannevar Bush

    Vannevar Bush
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1890-1974 (aged 84)
    Occupations
    inventorpoliticiancomputer scientistscience administratoruniversity teacher
    Biography

    Vannevar Bush was an American engineer, inventor and science administrator, who during World War II headed the U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD), through which almost all wartime military R&D was carried out, including important developments in radar and the initiation and early administration of the Manhattan Project. He emphasized the importance of scientific research to national security and economic well-being, and was chiefly responsible for the movement that led to the creation of the National Science Foundation.

  42. Esther Duflo

    Esther Duflo
    Awards
    Nobel Prize in Economics in 2019
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1972-.. (age 53)
    Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    Graduated with Doctor of Philosophy
    Occupations
    university teacherresearchereconomist
    Biography

    Esther Duflo, FBA is a French-American economist currently serving as the Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In 2019, she was jointly awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences alongside Abhijit Banerjee and Michael Kremer "for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty".

  43. Jon Kabat-Zinn

    Jon Kabat-Zinn
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1944-.. (age 81)
    Occupations
    writeruniversity teachermolecular biologist
    Biography

    Jon Kabat-Zinn is an American professor emeritus of medicine and the creator of the Stress Reduction Clinic and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Kabat-Zinn was a student of Zen Buddhist teachers such as Philip Kapleau, Thich Nhat Hanh, and Seung Sahn, and a founding member of Cambridge Zen Center. His practice of hatha yoga, Vipassanā and appreciation of the teachings of Soto Zen and Advaita Vedanta led him to integrate their teachings with scientific findings. He teaches mindfulness, which he says can help people cope with stress, anxiety, pain, and illness. The stress reduction program created by Kabat-Zinn, mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), is offered by medical centers, hospitals, and health maintenance organizations, and is described in his book Full Catastrophe Living.

  44. William Shockley

    William Shockley
    Born in
    United Kingdom Flag United Kingdom
    Years
    1910-1989 (aged 79)
    Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    In 1936 graduated with Doctor of Philosophy
    Occupations
    inventorphysicistuniversity teacher
    Biography

    William Bradford Shockley Jr. was an American inventor, physicist, and eugenicist. He was the manager of a research group at Bell Labs that included John Bardeen and Walter Brattain. The three scientists were jointly awarded the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics for "their researches on semiconductors and their discovery of the transistor effect".

  45. Ronald McNair

    Ronald McNair
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1950-1986 (aged 36)
    Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    In 1976 graduated with Doctor of Philosophy in physics
    Occupations
    karatekasaxophonistastronautphysicist
    Biography

    Ronald Erwin McNair was an American NASA astronaut and physicist. He died at the age of 35 during the launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger on mission STS-51-L, in which he was serving as one of three mission specialists in a crew of seven.

  46. Mario Molina

    Mario Molina
    Awards
    Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1995
    Born in
    Mexico Flag Mexico
    Years
    1943-2020 (aged 77)
    Occupations
    engineeruniversity teacherchemist
    Biography

    Mario José Molina-Pasquel Henríquez was a Mexican physical chemist. He played a pivotal role in the discovery of the Antarctic ozone hole, and was a co-recipient of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his role in discovering the threat to the Earth's ozone layer from chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) gases. He was the first Mexican-born scientist to receive a Nobel Prize in Chemistry and the third Mexican-born person to receive a Nobel prize.

  47. Chris Sununu

    Chris Sununu
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1974-.. (age 51)
    Occupations
    businesspersonpolitician
    Biography

    Christopher Thomas Sununu is an American politician and engineer who served as the 82nd governor of New Hampshire from 2017 to 2025.

  48. Alex Padilla

    Alex Padilla
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1973-.. (age 52)
    Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    In 1994 graduated with Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineer
    Occupations
    engineerpolitician
    Biography

    Alejandro "Alex" Padilla is an American politician serving as the senior United States senator from California, a seat he has held since 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, Padilla served as the 30th secretary of state of California from 2015 to 2021 and was a member of the California State Senate and the Los Angeles City Council.

  49. Beyoncé

    Beyoncé
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1974-.. (age 51)
    Occupations
    businessperson
    Biography

    Jonah H. Peretti is an American internet entrepreneur. He is a co-founder and CEO of BuzzFeed, a co-founder of The Huffington Post, and a developer of reblogging under the project "Reblog".

  50. William Clay Ford

    William Clay Ford
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1957-.. (age 68)
    Occupations
    entrepreneurbusiness executivetaekwondo athlete
    Biography

    William Clay Ford Jr. is an American businessman, serving as executive chair of Ford Motor Company. The great-grandson of company founder Henry Ford, Ford joined the board in 1988 and has served as chair since January 1999. Ford also served as the president, CEO, and COO until turning over those roles to former Boeing executive Alan Mulally in September 2006. Ford is also the vice chairman of the Detroit Lions NFL franchise. Ford serves as a chairman of the United States-Mexico Chamber of Commerce.

  51. Pita Limjaroenrat

    Pita Limjaroenrat
    Born in
    Thailand Flag Thailand
    Years
    1980-.. (age 45)
    Occupations
    businesspersonsingerpoliticianmodelwriter
    Biography

    Pita Limjaroenrat, nicknamed Tim (Thai: ทิม, RTGS: Thim), is a Thai businessman and politician. A former member of the House of Representatives, he previously served as leader of the Move Forward Party, the de facto successor to the dissolved Future Forward Party, from 2020 to 2023, and then as the advisory chair of the party from 2023 to 2024.

  52. Lotfi A. Zadeh

    Lotfi A. Zadeh
    Born in
    Azerbaijan Flag Azerbaijan
    Years
    1921-2017 (aged 96)
    Occupations
    university teachermathematiciancomputer scientistengineer
    Biography

    Lotfi Aliasker Zadeh was a mathematician, computer scientist, electrical engineer, artificial intelligence researcher, and professor of computer science at the University of California, Berkeley. Zadeh is best known for proposing fuzzy mathematics, consisting of several fuzzy-related concepts: fuzzy sets, fuzzy logic, fuzzy algorithms, fuzzy semantics, fuzzy languages, fuzzy control, fuzzy systems, fuzzy probabilities, fuzzy events, and fuzzy information. Zadeh was a founding member of the Eurasian Academy.

  53. Tom Wolf

    Tom Wolf
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1948-.. (age 77)
    Occupations
    entrepreneurpoliticianbusinessperson
    Biography

    Thomas Westerman Wolf is an American politician and businessman who served as the 47th governor of Pennsylvania from 2015 to 2023. He previously served as chairman and CEO of his business, The Wolf Organization, and later as secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue from April 2007 to November 2008.

  54. Tom Scholz

    Tom Scholz
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1947-.. (age 78)
    Occupations
    guitaristmusiciansongwriter
    Biography

    Donald Thomas Scholz is an American musician. He is the founder, main songwriter, primary guitarist, keyboardist and only remaining original member of the rock band Boston. He has appeared on every Boston release. Scholz, a multi-instrumentalist, plays guitar, bass, keyboards, and drums.

  55. Bill Koch

    Bill Koch
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1940-.. (age 85)
    Occupations
    art collectorentrepreneur
    Biography

    William Ingraham Koch is an American billionaire businessman, sailor, and collector. His boat was the winner of the America's Cup in 1992. Forbes estimated Koch's net worth at $1.8 billion in 2019, from oil and other investments.

  56. Sabrina Gonzalez Pasterski

    Sabrina Gonzalez Pasterski
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1993-.. (age 32)
    Occupations
    physicistauthor
    Biography

    Sabrina Gonzalez Pasterski is an American theoretical physicist from Chicago who studies high energy physics. She describes herself as "a proud first-generation Cuban-American and Chicago Public Schools alumna". Her first few months at Harvard's Center for the Fundamental Laws of Nature (2014) resulted in discovery of the spin memory effect which predates LIGO's reported discoveries and may be proven as an inexpensive way to detect as well as verify gravitational waves and their net effects during a very rare celestial gravitational lensing event the first week of May 2028 if not sooner via Advanced LIGO Since leaving Harvard, Pasterski has pioneered Celestial Holography. She completed her undergraduate studies in three years while still a teenager at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), earned her PhD from Harvard University and was a PCTS Postdoctoral Fellow at Princeton University before joining the faculty of the Perimeter Institute at age 27. According to Google Trends, Pasterski was the #3 Trending Scientist for all of 2017. In 2015, she was named to the Forbes 30 under 30 Science list, named a Forbes 30 under 30 All Star in 2017, and returned as a judge in 2018 as part of Forbes' first ever all-female Science category judging panel.

  57. Daron Acemoğlu

    Daron Acemoğlu
    Awards
    Nobel Prize in Economics in 2024
    Born in
    Turkey Flag Turkey
    Years
    1967-.. (age 58)
    Occupations
    university teacherauthoreconomist
    Biography

    Kamer Daron Acemoğlu is a Turkish-American economist who has taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology since 1993, where he is currently the Elizabeth and James Killian Professor of Economics, and was named an Institute Professor at MIT in 2019. He received the John Bates Clark Medal in 2005, and the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2024.

  58. David Miliband

    David Miliband
    Born in
    United Kingdom Flag United Kingdom
    Years
    1965-.. (age 60)
    Occupations
    politicianeconomistresearch fellowdiplomat
    Biography

    David Wright Miliband is the president and chief executive officer (CEO) of the International Rescue Committee and a former British Labour Party politician. He was the Foreign Secretary from 2007 to 2010 and the Member of Parliament (MP) for South Shields in North East England from 2001 to 2013. He and his brother, Ed, were the first siblings to sit in the Cabinet simultaneously since Edward, Lord Stanley and Oliver Stanley in 1938. He was a candidate for Labour Party leadership in 2010, following the departure of Gordon Brown, but was defeated by his brother and subsequently left politics.

  59. David Scott

    David Scott
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1932-.. (age 93)
    Occupations
    aircraft pilottest pilotastronautmilitary officer
    Biography

    David Randolph Scott is an American retired test pilot and NASA astronaut who was the seventh person to walk on the Moon. Selected as part of the third group of astronauts in 1963, Scott flew to space three times and commanded Apollo 15, the fourth lunar landing; he is one of four surviving Moon walkers and the only living commander of a spacecraft that landed on the Moon.

  60. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

    Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
    Born in
    Nigeria Flag Nigeria
    Years
    1954-.. (age 71)
    Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    Graduated with Doctor of Philosophy in economic development
    Occupations
    ministerpoliticianeconomistdiplomat
    Biography

    Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala GCON is a Nigerian economist, who has been serving as the Director-General of the World Trade Organization since March 2021. She is the first woman and first African to lead the World Trade Organization as Director-General.

  61. Edgar Mitchell

    Edgar Mitchell
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1930-2016 (aged 86)
    Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    Graduated with Doctor of Science in aeronautics and astronautics
    Occupations
    aircraft pilotbusinesspersonastronautairmanmilitary flight engineer
    Biography

    Edgar Dean "Ed" Mitchell was a United States Navy officer and aviator, test pilot, aeronautical engineer, ufologist, and NASA astronaut. As the Lunar Module Pilot of Apollo 14 in 1971 he spent nine hours working on the lunar surface in the Fra Mauro Highlands region, and was the sixth person to walk on the Moon. He was the second Freemason to set foot on the Moon, after Buzz Aldrin.

  62. Robert Noyce

    Robert Noyce
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1927-1990 (aged 63)
    Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    In 1953 graduated with Doctor of Philosophy
    Occupations
    computer scientistinventorphysicistbusinessperson
    Biography

    Robert Norton Noyce, nicknamed "the Mayor of Silicon Valley", was an American physicist and entrepreneur who co-founded Fairchild Semiconductor in 1957 and Intel Corporation in 1968. He was also credited with the realization of the first monolithic integrated circuit or microchip made with silicon, which fueled the personal computer revolution and gave Silicon Valley its name.

  63. Murray Gell-Mann

    Murray Gell-Mann
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1929-2019 (aged 90)
    Occupations
    researchertheoretical physicistphysicistnon-fiction writer
    Biography

    Murray Gell-Mann was an American theoretical physicist who played a preeminent role in the development of the theory of elementary particles. Gell-Mann introduced the concept of quarks as the fundamental building blocks of the strongly interacting particles, and the renormalization group as a foundational element of quantum field theory and statistical mechanics. He played key roles in developing the concept of chirality in the theory of the weak interactions and spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking in the strong interactions, which controls the physics of the light mesons. In the 1970s he was a co-inventor of quantum chromodynamics (QCD) which explains the confinement of quarks in mesons and baryons and forms a large part of the Standard Model of elementary particles and forces.

  64. Louis Sullivan

    Louis Sullivan
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1856-1924 (aged 68)
    Occupations
    architectdesigner
    Biography

    Louis Henry Sullivan was an American architect, and has been called a "father of skyscrapers" and "father of modernism". He was an influential architect of the Chicago School, a mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright, and an inspiration to the Chicago group of architects who have come to be known as the Prairie School. Along with Wright and Henry Hobson Richardson, Sullivan is one of "the recognized trinity of American architecture." The phrase "form follows function" is attributed to him, although the idea was theorised by Viollet le Duc and others, that is, structure and function in architecture should be the sole determinants of form. In 1944, Sullivan was the second architect to posthumously receive the AIA Gold Medal.

  65. Ricardo Rosselló

    Ricardo Rosselló
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1979-.. (age 46)
    Occupations
    politiciannaturalistgovernorscientist
    Biography

    Ricardo Antonio Rosselló Nevares is a Puerto Rican politician who served as Governor of Puerto Rico from 2017 until his resignation in 2019, after overwhelming protests related to the Telegramgate scandal. He is the son of former governor of Puerto Rico and pediatric surgeon Pedro Rosselló.

  66. George Akerlof

    George Akerlof
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1940-.. (age 85)
    Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    In 1966 graduated with Doctor of Philosophy
    Occupations
    professoreconomist
    Biography

    George Arthur Akerlof is an American economist and a university professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University and Koshland Professor of Economics Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. Akerlof was awarded the 2001 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, jointly with Michael Spence and Joseph Stiglitz, "for their analyses of markets with asymmetric information." He is the husband of United States Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen.

  67. Eric Ly

    Eric Ly
    Born in
    Vietnam Flag Vietnam
    Years
    1969-.. (age 56)
    Occupations
    businessperson
    Biography

    Eric Thich Vi Ly is a Vietnamese-American entrepreneur and investor. Ly was co-founder of LinkedIn, a social networking site designed specifically for the business community, where he served as its founding chief technology officer. He is currently the CEO and founder of a blockchain based trust protocol Hub, as well as the CEO and co-founder of KarmaCheck providing candidate's background checks.

  68. Charles Duke

    Charles Duke
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1935-.. (age 90)
    Occupations
    aircraft pilotbusinesspersonastronautflight instructorfighter pilot
    Biography

    Charles Moss Duke Jr. is an American former astronaut, United States Air Force (USAF) officer and test pilot. As Lunar Module pilot of Apollo 16 in 1972, he became the tenth and youngest person to walk on the Moon, at age 36 years and 201 days. He is one of four surviving Moon walkers, along with David Scott, Buzz Aldrin and Jack Schmitt.

  69. Henry Mintzberg Storch

    Henry Mintzberg Storch
    Born in
    Canada Flag Canada
    Years
    1939-.. (age 86)
    Occupations
    university teacherwritereconomistsociologist
    Biography

    Henry Mintzberg OC OQ FRSC is a Canadian academic and author on business and management. He is currently the Cleghorn Professor of Management Studies at the Desautels Faculty of Management of McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, where he has been teaching since 1968.

  70. Virgilio Barco Vargas

    Virgilio Barco Vargas
    Born in
    Colombia Flag Colombia
    Years
    1921-1997 (aged 76)
    Occupations
    civil engineerpoliticianengineerdiplomat
    Biography

    Virgilio Barco Vargas was a Colombian politician and civil engineer who served as the 27th President of Colombia serving from 7 August 1986 to 7 August 1990.

  71. Lee Boo-jin

    Lee Boo-jin
    Born in
    South Korea Flag South Korea
    Years
    1970-.. (age 55)
    Occupations
    businessperson
    Biography

    Lee Boo-jin is a South Korean businesswoman who is the president and chief executive of Hotel Shilla since 2010, one of Seoul's leading hotels and conference centers. Lee has been dubbed by the media as "Little Lee Kun-hee" and is regarded as a successful businesswoman for her work in Hotel Shilla. She is the younger sister of Samsung Electronics executive chairman Lee Jae-yong, and the older sister of Lee Seo-hyun, chairman of Samsung Welfare Foundation.

  72. Charlie Korsmo

    Charlie Korsmo
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1978-.. (age 47)
    Occupations
    lawyeractor
    Biography

    Charles Randolph Korsmo is an American lawyer and actor. He is best known for portraying the Kid from the film adaptation of Dick Tracy and Jack Banning in Hook.

  73. Janet Hsieh

    Janet Hsieh
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1980-.. (age 45)
    Occupations
    television presenterviolinisttaekwondo athlete
    Biography

    Janet Josephine Hsieh is a Taiwanese-American television personality, model, and violinist based in Taipei, Taiwan. She is the host of the Discovery Travel and Living Channel's long-running series Fun Taiwan. The program is currently in its 16th season and has expanded to include Fun Asia, Fun Taiwan Challenge, Fun Taiwan All Stars, and Aquachallenge. She has been nominated four times and won once for the Taiwanese Golden Bell Awards as Best Host of a Travel Program, and once for Best Host of a Variety Program.

  74. Sam Brinton

    Sam Brinton
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1980s
    Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    In 2013 graduated with master's degree in nuclear engineering
    Occupations
    nuclear engineerLGBTQ rights activist
    Biography

    Samuel Otis Brinton is an American nuclear engineer and LGBTQ activist. They served as the deputy assistant secretary of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition in the Office of Nuclear Energy from June to December 2022. Brinton was dismissed by the Office of Nuclear Energy after being charged with luggage theft on three occasions.

  75. Mansoor Khan

    Mansoor Khan
    Born in
    India Flag India
    Years
    20th Century
    Occupations
    screenwriterfilm directorfilm producer
    Biography

    Mansoor Hussain Khan is an Indian film director and producer known for his works in Hindi cinema.

  76. Raymond Tomlinson

    Raymond Tomlinson
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1941-2016 (aged 75)
    Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    In 1965 graduated with master's degree in electrical engineering
    Occupations
    inventorprogrammer
    Biography

    Raymond Samuel Tomlinson was an American computer programmer who implemented the first email program on the ARPANET system, the precursor to the Internet, in 1971; It was the first system able to send mail between users on different hosts connected to ARPANET. Previously, mail could be sent only to others who used the same computer. To achieve this, he used the @ sign to separate the user name from the name of their machine, a scheme which has been used in email addresses ever since. The Internet Hall of Fame in its account of his work commented "Tomlinson's email program brought about a complete revolution, fundamentally changing the way people communicate." He is credited with the invention of the TCP three-way handshake which underlies HTTP and many other key Internet protocols.

  77. John H. Sununu

    John H. Sununu
    Born in
    Cuba Flag Cuba
    Years
    1939-.. (age 86)
    Occupations
    television presenterpolitician
    Biography

    John Henry Sununu is an American politician who served as the 75th governor of New Hampshire from 1983 to 1989 and the fourteenth White House chief of staff under President George H. W. Bush from 1989 to 1991.

  78. Robert Solow

    Robert Solow
    Awards
    Nobel Prize in Economics in 1987
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1924-2023 (aged 99)
    Occupations
    professoruniversity teachereconomist
    Biography

    Robert Merton Solow, GCIH was an American economist and Nobel laureate whose work on the theory of economic growth culminated in the exogenous growth model named after him.

  79. Tony Tan Keng Yam

    Tony Tan Keng Yam
    Years
    1940-.. (age 85)
    Occupations
    businesspersonpoliticianmathematician
    Biography

    Tony Tan Keng Yam DUT GCB is a Singaporean banker and politician who served as the seventh president of Singapore from 2011 to 2017.

  80. Patrick M. Shanahan

    Patrick M. Shanahan
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1962-.. (age 63)
    Occupations
    engineerpoliticianbusiness executive
    Biography

    Patrick Michael Shanahan is an American businessman and the president and chief executive officer of Spirit AeroSystems. He is a former United States federal government official who served as the acting United States Secretary of Defense in 2019. President Donald Trump appointed Shanahan to the role after the resignation of Jim Mattis. Prior to that, Shanahan served as Deputy Secretary of Defense from 2017 to 2019. Before his government service, he previously spent 30 years at Boeing in a variety of roles.

  81. Patrick Collison

    Patrick Collison
    Born in
    Ireland Flag Ireland
    Years
    1988-.. (age 37)
    Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    Studied in 2006-2010
    Occupations
    programmer
    Biography

    Patrick Collison is an Irish entrepreneur. He is the co-founder and CEO of Stripe, which he started with his younger brother, John, in 2010. He won the 41st Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition in 2005 at the age of sixteen. In 2020, he founded Fast Grants to accelerate COVID-19-related science with Tyler Cowen.

  82. Aditya Vikram Birla

    Aditya Vikram Birla
    Born in
    India Flag India
    Years
    1943-1995 (aged 52)
    Occupations
    businessperson
    Biography

    Aditya Vikram Birla was an Indian industrialist and philanthropist. Born into one of the largest business families of India, he oversaw the diversification of his group into textiles, petrochemicals and telecommunications. He was one of the first Indian industrialists to expand abroad, setting up plants in Southeast Asia, the Philippines and Egypt. His net worth was estimated at £250 million by 1995. After his death at the age of 51, his son Kumar Mangalam Birla took charge of the group.

  83. James Kenji Lopez-Alt

    James Kenji Lopez-Alt
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1979-.. (age 46)
    Occupations
    cooktelevision producerrestaurateurchefcooking researcher
    Biography

    James Kenji López-Alt is an American chef and food writer. His first book, The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science, became a critical and commercial success, charting on the New York Times Bestseller list and winning the 2016 James Beard Foundation Award for the best General Cooking cookbook. The cookbook expanded on López-Alt's "The Food Lab" column on the Serious Eats blog. López-Alt is known for using the scientific method in his cooking to improve popular American recipes and to explain the science of cooking.

  84. John Urschel

    John Urschel
    Born in
    Canada Flag Canada
    Years
    1991-.. (age 34)
    Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    In 2021 graduated with Doctor of Philosophy
    Occupations
    mathematicianAmerican football player
    Biography

    John Cameron Urschel is a Canadian-American mathematician and former professional football guard. He played college football at Penn State and was drafted by the Baltimore Ravens in the fifth round of the 2014 NFL draft. Urschel played his entire NFL career with Baltimore before announcing his retirement on July 27, 2017, at 26 years old.

  85. Andrew S. Tanenbaum

    Andrew S. Tanenbaum
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1944-.. (age 81)
    Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    In 1965 graduated with Bachelor of Science in physics
    Occupations
    academicwriterprogrammerphysicistprofessor
    Biography

    Andrew Stuart Tanenbaum, sometimes referred to by the handle AST, is an American-born Dutch computer scientist and retired professor emeritus of computer science at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

  86. Robert J. Shiller

    Robert J. Shiller
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1946-.. (age 79)
    Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    In 1972 graduated with Doctor of Philosophy in economics
    Occupations
    university teacherwritereconomistpedagogue
    Biography

    Robert James Shiller is an American economist, academic, and author. As of 2022, he served as a Sterling Professor of Economics at Yale University and is a fellow at the Yale School of Management's International Center for Finance. Shiller has been a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) since 1980, was vice president of the American Economic Association in 2005, its president-elect for 2016, and president of the Eastern Economic Association for 2006–2007. He is also the co‑founder and chief economist of the investment management firm MacroMarkets LLC.

  87. Victor Vescovo

    Victor Vescovo
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1966-.. (age 59)
    Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    Studied in 1988-1989
    Occupations
    astronautexplorer
    Biography

    Victor Lance Vescovo is an American private equity investor, retired naval officer, sub-orbital spaceflight participant, and undersea explorer. He was a co-founder and managing partner of private equity company Insight Equity Holdings from 2000 to 2023. Vescovo achieved the Explorers Grand Slam by reaching the North and South Poles and climbing the Seven Summits. He visited the deepest points of all of Earth's five oceans during the Five Deeps Expedition of 2018–2019.

  88. Chadchart Sittipunt

    Chadchart Sittipunt
    Born in
    Thailand Flag Thailand
    Years
    1966-.. (age 59)
    Occupations
    politician
    Biography

    Chadchart Sittipunt is a Thai politician, engineer, and professor who is the incumbent Governor of Bangkok. He previously was Minister of Transport from 2012 to 2014.

  89. Yi Gu

    Yi Gu
    Born in
    Japan Flag Japan
    Years
    1931-2005 (aged 74)
    Occupations
    businessperson
    Biography

    Yi Ku was a Korean prince who was head of the House of Yi from 1970 until 2005. He was a grandson of Emperor Gojong of the Joseon dynasty. Through Kuni Asahiko his maternal great-grandfather, Ku was a second-cousin to Emperor Emeritus Akihito of Japan.

  90. Yoshua Bengio

    Yoshua Bengio
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1964-.. (age 61)
    Occupations
    information scientistartificial intelligence researchercomputer scientistprofessor
    Biography

    Yoshua Bengio OC FRS FRSC is a Canadian computer scientist, and a pioneer of artificial neural networks and deep learning. He is a professor at the Université de Montréal and scientific director of the AI institute MILA.

  91. Chan Chun Sing

    Chan Chun Sing
    Born in
    Singapore Flag Singapore
    Years
    1969-.. (age 56)
    Occupations
    politiciansoldier
    Biography

    Chan Chun Sing is a Singaporean politician and former major-general who has been serving as Minister for Education since 2021 and Minister-in-charge of Public Service since 2018. A member of the governing People's Action Party (PAP), he has been the Member of Parliament (MP) representing the Buona Vista division of Tanjong Pagar GRC since 2011.

  92. Ahmed Chalabi

    Ahmed Chalabi
    Born in
    Iraq Flag Iraq
    Years
    1944-2015 (aged 71)
    Occupations
    businesspersonpoliticianmathematician
    Biography

    Ahmed Abdel Hadi Chalabi was an Iraqi dissident politician, convicted fraudster and founder of the Iraqi National Congress (INC) who served as the President of the Governing Council of Iraq (37th Prime Minister of Iraq) and a Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq under Ibrahim al-Jaafari. He is believed to be an Iranian agent and having close ties with Iran.

  93. Lawrence M. Krauss

    Lawrence M. Krauss
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1954-.. (age 71)
    Occupations
    astrophysicistwriterastronomernon-fiction writertheoretical physicist
    Biography

    Lawrence Maxwell Krauss is a Canadian-American theoretical physicist and cosmologist who taught at Arizona State University (ASU), Yale University, and Case Western Reserve University. He founded ASU's Origins Project in 2008 to investigate fundamental questions about the universe and served as the project's director.

  94. Jim Simons

    Jim Simons
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1938-2024 (aged 86)
    Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    In 1958 graduated with Bachelor of Science
    Occupations
    scientistphilanthropistbusinesspersoncryptographeruniversity teacher
    Biography

    James Harris Simons was an American hedge fund manager, investor, mathematician, and philanthropist. At the time of his death, Simons' net worth was estimated to be $31.4 billion, making him the 55th-richest person in the world. He was the founder of Renaissance Technologies, a quantitative hedge fund based in East Setauket, New York. He and his fund are known to be quantitative investors, using mathematical models and algorithms to make investment gains from market inefficiencies. Due to the long-term aggregate investment returns of Renaissance and its Medallion Fund, Simons was described as the "greatest investor on Wall Street", and more specifically "the most successful hedge fund manager of all time".

  95. Steve Pieczenik

    Steve Pieczenik
    Born in
    Cuba Flag Cuba
    Years
    1943-.. (age 82)
    Occupations
    science fiction writerwriterpsychiatristnovelist
    Biography

    Steve R. Pieczenik is a Cuban-American psychiatrist, author, publisher, and conspiracy theorist. In 1976, he was made Deputy Assistant Secretary of State under Henry Kissinger, Cyrus Vance and James Baker. He was later a consultant of the United States Department of State.

  96. Greg Mankiw

    Greg Mankiw
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1958-.. (age 67)
    Occupations
    bloggereconomist
    Biography

    Nicholas Gregory Mankiw is an American macroeconomist who is currently the Robert M. Beren Professor of Economics at Harvard University. Mankiw is best known in academia for his work on New Keynesian economics.

  97. Jasmin Moghbeli

    Jasmin Moghbeli
    Born in
    Germany Flag Germany
    Years
    1983-.. (age 42)
    Occupations
    test pilothelicopter pilotastronautmilitary officer
    Biography

    Jasmin Moghbeli is an American U.S. Marine Corps test pilot and NASA astronaut. She is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Naval Postgraduate School, and Naval Test Pilot School. Moghbeli was a mission commander for SpaceX Crew-7 and a flight engineer aboard the International Space Station for Expedition 69/70.

  98. Leslie Lamport

    Leslie Lamport
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1941-.. (age 84)
    Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    Graduated with Bachelor of Science in mathematics
    Occupations
    engineerprogrammerwritercomputer scientistmathematician
    Biography

    Leslie B. Lamport is an American computer scientist and mathematician. Lamport is best known for his seminal work in distributed systems, and as the initial developer of the document preparation system LaTeX and the author of its first manual.

  99. Katie Bouman

    Katie Bouman
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1989-.. (age 36)
    Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    In 2013 graduated with Master of Science in computer science and electrical engineering
    In 2018 graduated with Doctor of Philosophy in computer science and electrical engineering
    Occupations
    computer scientistelectrical engineer
    Biography

    Katherine Louise Bouman is an American engineer and computer scientist working in the field of computational imaging. She led the development of an algorithm for imaging black holes, known as Continuous High-resolution Image Reconstruction using Patch priors (CHIRP), and was a member of the Event Horizon Telescope team that captured the first image of a black hole.

  100. George Lakoff

    George Lakoff
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1941-.. (age 84)
    Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    In 1962 graduated with Bachelor of Science
    Occupations
    writeruniversity teacherlinguist
    Biography

    George Philip Lakoff is an American cognitive linguist and philosopher, best known for his thesis that people's lives are significantly influenced by the conceptual metaphors they use to explain complex phenomena.