100 Notable alumni of
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Updated:
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.
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Benjamin Netanyahu
- Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- 1972-1975 graduated with Bachelor of Science in architectural engineering
- Occupations
- political scientistmilitary personnelstatespersonpolitical writerpolitician
- Biography
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Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu is an Israeli politician and diplomat who has served as Prime Minister of Israel since 2022. Having previously held office from 1996 to 1999 and from 2009 to 2021, Netanyahu is Israel's longest-serving prime minister.
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Dolph Lundgren
- Occupations
- bodybuilderengineerjudokamodelchemist
- Biography
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Hans "Dolph" Lundgren is a Swedish actor, filmmaker, and martial artist. He gained recognition for portraying the Soviet boxer Ivan Drago in his breakthrough role in Rocky IV (1985), a role he reprised in Creed II (2018).
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Noam Chomsky
- Occupations
- linguistopinion journalistpolitical writereducatorhuman rights defender
- Biography
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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.
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Buzz Aldrin
- Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Graduated with Doctor of Science in astronautics
- Occupations
- autobiographerscience fiction writerfighter pilotengineerair force officer
- Biography
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Buzz Aldrin is an American former astronaut, aeronautical 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. Following Jim Lovell's death in 2025, Aldrin became the oldest living astronaut.
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Richard Feynman
- Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- 1935-1939 graduated with bachelor's degree
- Occupations
- university teacherscience communicatorphysicistquantum physicistwriter
- Biography
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Richard Phillips Feynman was an American theoretical physicist. He shared the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physics with Julian Schwinger and Shin'ichirō Tomonaga "for their fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics (QED), with deep-ploughing consequences for the physics of elementary particles". He is also known for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of the physics of the superfluidity of supercooled liquid helium, and the parton model. Feynman developed a pictorial representation scheme for the mathematical expressions describing the behavior of subatomic particles, which later became known as Feynman diagrams and is widely used.
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James Woods
- Occupations
- poker playeractor
- Biography
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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.
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Mario Draghi
- Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- In 1977 graduated with Doctor of Philosophy
- Occupations
- economistbankeruniversity teacherpolitician
- Biography
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Mario Draghi OMRI is an Italian politician, economist, academic, banker, statesman, and civil servant, who served as the prime minister of Italy from 13 February 2021 to 22 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.
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Kofi Annan
- Occupations
- diplomateconomistpolitician
- Biography
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Kofi Atta Annan was a Ghanaian diplomat and statesman 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.
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Bridgit Mendler
- Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- 2018-2020 graduated with Master of Science in media science
- Occupations
- singertelevision actorbusiness executivefilm actorvoice actor
- Biography
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Bridgit Claire Mendler is an American entrepreneur and former actress and singer-songwriter. 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 Northwood Space, a satellite data startup.
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Elaine Chao
- Occupations
- politicianeconomist
- Biography
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Elaine Lan Chao is a Taiwanese-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 first 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.
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Claude Shannon
- Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- 1936-1940 studied electrical engineering
- Occupations
- cryptographeruniversity teacherengineermathematicianinventor
- Biography
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Claude Elwood Shannon was an American polymath who was a mathematician, electrical engineer, computer scientist, cryptographer and inventor known as the "father of information theory" and the man who laid the foundations of the Information Age.
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Shiva Ayyadurai
- Occupations
- scientistanti-vaccine activistpoliticianbusinesspersoninventor
- Biography
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V. A. Shiva Ayyadurai is an 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.
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Richard Stallman
- Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Graduated with Doctor of Philosophy
- Occupations
- activistprogrammerbloggerengineerinventor
- Biography
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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.
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Subramanian Swamy
- Occupations
- authoreconomistpolitician
- Biography
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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.
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Lisa Su
- Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- In 1994 graduated with Doctor of Philosophy
- Graduated with master's degree
- Graduated with bachelor's degree
- Occupations
- electrical engineerchief executive officerentrepreneur
- Biography
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Lisa Tzwu-Fang Su is an American business executive, computer scientist, and electrical engineer who has been the president and CEO of the American semiconductor company AMD since 2014.
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Charles Koch
- Occupations
- businessperson
- Biography
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Charles de Ganahl Koch is an American businessman, engineer, and philanthropist. As of May 2025, he is ranked as the 22nd richest man in the world on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, with an estimated net worth of US$71.4 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.
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Raghuram Rajan
- Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Graduated with Doctor of Philosophy
- Occupations
- university teachereconomistbanker
- Biography
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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. He served as the Chief Economist of the International Monetary Fund from 2003 to 2006 and the 23rd Governor of the Reserve Bank of India from 2013 to 2016. In 2015, during his tenure at the RBI, he became the Vice-Chairman of the Bank for International Settlements.
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I. M. Pei
- Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Graduated with Bachelor of Architecture
- Occupations
- architect
- Biography
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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.
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Paul Krugman
- Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Studied in 1974-1977
- Occupations
- columnistprofessorwritereconomistessayist
- Biography
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Paul Robin Krugman is an American 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.
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David Koch
- 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
- philanthropistbusinesspersonentrepreneurchemistengineer
- Biography
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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.
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Raymond Kurzweil
- Occupations
- artificial intelligence researcherwriterinventorcomputer scientistscientist
- Biography
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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 an 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.
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Morris Chang
- Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- 1950-1952 graduated with bachelor's degree
- 1952-1953 graduated with master's degree
- Occupations
- entrepreneurengineer
- Biography
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Morris Chang Chung-mou is a Taiwanese billionaire business executive and electrical engineer. He is the founder of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and was the company's chief executive officer (CEO) from 1987 to 2005, and its chairman until 2018. As of January 2026, his net worth is estimated at US$7 billion.
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Leslie Groves
- Occupations
- army officermilitary engineer
- Biography
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Leslie Richard Groves Jr. was a United States Army Corps of Engineers officer who oversaw the construction of the Pentagon and directed the Manhattan Project, a top secret research project that developed the atomic bomb during World War II, leading to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
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Ben Bernanke
- Occupations
- bankerteacherpoliticianprofessoreconomist
- Biography
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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 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.
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Jimmy Doolittle
- Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Graduated with Doctor of Science in aeronautics
- Graduated with Master of Science
- Occupations
- military officerengineeraircraft pilot
- Biography
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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. According to the FAA, he was the first pilot ever to perform a successful instrument flight.
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Joseph E. Stiglitz
- Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- 1966-1967 graduated with Doctor of Philosophy in economics
- Occupations
- non-fiction writercriticscience writereconomistprofessor
- Biography
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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 U.S. 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.
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Aafia Siddiqui
- Occupations
- neuroscientist
- Biography
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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.
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Princess Ubol Ratana of Thailand
- Occupations
- social workersailorfilm actoractorsinger
- Biography
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Ubol Ratana is a member of the Thai royal family. She is the eldest child of King Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX) and Queen Sirikit, and the elder sister of King Vajiralongkorn (Rama X).
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Sal Khan
- Occupations
- entrepreneurcomputer scientistelectrical engineerYouTubermathematician
- Biography
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Salman 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.
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Alicia Nash
- Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- In 1955 studied physics
- Occupations
- physicistactivist
- Biography
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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.
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Neri Oxman
- Occupations
- designerartistuniversity teacherarchitect
- Biography
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Neri Oxman is an American-Israeli 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.
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George Shultz
- Occupations
- entrepreneureconomistuniversity teacherdiplomatpolitician
- Biography
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George Pratt Shultz was an American economist, businessman, diplomat, and statesman who served in various positions under Presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. A member of the Republican Party, he is one of the only two persons to have held four different Cabinet-level posts, the other being Elliot Richardson. As United States Secretary of State, Shultz played a major role in shaping the foreign policy of the Reagan administration, and conservative foreign policy thought thereafter.
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Carly Fiorina
- Occupations
- businesspersonpolitician
- Biography
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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.
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Selçuk Bayraktar
- Occupations
- engineerbusinesspersonpolitician
- Biography
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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 designer 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.
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Andrew Y. Ng
- Occupations
- computer scientistentrepreneuruniversity teacherartificial intelligence researcher
- Biography
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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.
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Alex Padilla
- Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- In 1994 graduated with Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineer
- Occupations
- engineerpolitician
- Biography
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Alejandro "Alex" Padilla is an American politician and engineer 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.
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Mai Thi Nguyen-Kim
- Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- In 2012 studied chemistry
- Occupations
- chemistscience journalistYouTubertelevision producerscience communicator
- Biography
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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.
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Abhijit Banerjee
- Occupations
- university teachereconomist
- Biography
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Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee is an Indian 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.
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Philip Kotler
- Occupations
- university teacherwritermathematicianbusinesspersoneconomist
- Biography
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Philip Kotler is an American marketing author, consultant, and professor emeritus. He is 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."
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Qian Xuesen
- Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- 1935-1936 graduated with Master of Science
- Occupations
- university teacherengineerastronautical engineer
- Biography
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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 deportation to China in 1955.
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Vannevar Bush
- Occupations
- science administratoruniversity teacherengineerinventorpolitician
- Biography
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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.
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Esther Duflo
- Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Graduated with Doctor of Philosophy
- Occupations
- university teacherresearchereconomist
- Biography
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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 her husband Abhijit Banerjee and Michael Kremer "for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty".
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Ronald McNair
- Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- In 1976 graduated with Doctor of Philosophy in physics
- Occupations
- saxophonistastronautphysicistkarateka
- Biography
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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.
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William Shockley
- Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- In 1936 graduated with Doctor of Philosophy
- Occupations
- university teacherinventorphysicist
- Biography
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William Bradford Shockley was an American solid-state physicist. 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."
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Jon Kabat-Zinn
- Occupations
- university teachermolecular biologistwriter
- Biography
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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.
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Chris Sununu
- Occupations
- businesspersonpolitician
- Biography
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Christopher Thomas Sununu is an American politician and engineer who served as the 82nd governor of New Hampshire from 2017 to 2025.
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Mario Molina
- Occupations
- university teacherchemistengineer
- Biography
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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.
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William Clay Ford
- Occupations
- taekwondo athleteentrepreneurbusiness executive
- Biography
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William Clay Ford Jr., commonly known as Bill Ford, is an American businessman, serving as the executive chair of Ford Motor Company since 1999. The great-grandson of company founder Henry Ford, Ford joined the board in 1988, and also served as CEO of the company from 2001 to 2006. He also serves as the vice chair of the Detroit Lions NFL franchise, and as chair of the United States-Mexico Chamber of Commerce.
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Daron Acemoğlu
- Occupations
- university teacherauthoreconomist
- Biography
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Kamer Daron Acemoğlu is a Turkish-American economist of Armenian descent 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. His primary research fields include political economy, development economics, and labor economics. He received the John Bates Clark Medal in 2005, and the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2024.
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Pita Limjaroenrat
- Occupations
- singerpoliticianmodelwriterbusinessperson
- Biography
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Pita Limjaroenrat, nicknamed Tim (Thai: ทิม, RTGS: Thim), is a Thai businessman and former politician who 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. He was also a member of the House of Representatives from 2019 to 2024.
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Tom Scholz
- Occupations
- songwriterguitaristmusician
- Biography
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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.
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Jonah Peretti
- Occupations
- businessperson
- Biography
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Jonah H. Peretti is an American internet entrepreneur. He is a co-founder and CEO of BuzzFeed, a co-founder of HuffPost, and a developer of reblogging under the project "Reblog".
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Lotfi A. Zadeh
- Occupations
- computer scientistengineeruniversity teachermathematician
- Biography
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Lotfi Aliasger 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.
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Tom Wolf
- Occupations
- businesspersonentrepreneurpolitician
- Biography
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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.
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Bill Koch
- Occupations
- art collectorentrepreneur
- Biography
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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.
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David Miliband
- Occupations
- economistresearch fellowdiplomatpolitician
- Biography
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David Wright Miliband is a British former politician serving as President of the International Rescue Committee since 2013. 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 resignation of Gordon Brown, but was defeated by his brother and subsequently left politics.
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David Scott
- Occupations
- test pilotastronautmilitary officeraircraft pilot
- Biography
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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.
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Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
- Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Graduated with Doctor of Philosophy in economic development
- Occupations
- finance ministereconomistmoney managementdiplomatminister
- Biography
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Dr 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 ever woman and also the first African to lead the World Trade Organization as director-general.
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Charles Murray
- Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- In 1974 graduated with Doctor of Philosophy in political science
- Occupations
- writerPeace Corpspolitical scientistsociologistauthor
- Biography
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Charles Alan Murray is an American political scientist. He is the W.H. Brady Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington, D.C.
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Robert Noyce
- Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- In 1953 graduated with Doctor of Philosophy
- Occupations
- computer scientistinventorphysicistbusinessperson
- Biography
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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.
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Edgar Mitchell
- Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Graduated with Doctor of Science in aeronautics and astronautics
- Occupations
- military flight engineermilitary officerscreenwriteraircraft pilotbusinessperson
- Biography
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Edgar Dean 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.
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Lee Boo-jin
- Occupations
- businessperson
- Biography
-
Lee Boo-jin is a South Korean businesswoman who is the president and chief executive of one of Seoul's leading hotels and conference centers, Hotel Shilla, since 2010. 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.
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Sam Brinton
- 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.
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Murray Gell-Mann
- Occupations
- theoretical physicistphysicistnon-fiction writer
- Biography
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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. Murray Gell-Mann received the 1969 Nobel Prize in Physics for his contributions and discoveries concerning the classification of elementary particles and their interactions.
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Charles Duke
- Occupations
- flight instructorfighter pilottest pilotair force officeraircraft pilot
- Biography
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Charles Moss Duke Jr. is an American former astronaut, United States Air Force (USAF) officer and test pilot who, as Lunar Module pilot of Apollo 16 in 1972, became the 10th and youngest person to walk on the Moon, at age 36 years and 201 days. Duke is one of four surviving Moon walkers, along with David Scott, Buzz Aldrin and Harrison Schmitt.
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Ricardo Rosselló
- Occupations
- naturalistgovernorpolitician
- Biography
-
Ricardo Antonio "Ricky" Rosselló Nevares is a Puerto Rican former politician, businessman, neurobiologist and educator. He served as Governor of Puerto Rico from 2017 until his resignation in 2019. In 2021, he returned to active politics by receiving 53,823 write-in votes as a congressional shadow delegation member, becoming the first Puerto Rican politician to be directly nominated. He is the son of Pedro Rosselló, a former governor of Puerto Rico and pediatric surgeon. Rosselló studied chemical engineering biomedical engineering and economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), researching adult stem cells, earned his master’s and doctorate from the University of Michigan and postdoctoral studies in neuroscience and neurobiology at Duke University.
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Charlie Korsmo
- Occupations
- lawyeractor
- Biography
-
Charles Randolph Korsmo is an American lawyer, academic, and actor. He first came to prominence as a child actor, portraying the Kid in the film adaptation of Dick Tracy (1990), Sigmund "Siggy" Marvin in What About Bob? (1991), and Jack Banning in Hook (1991). After earning degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Yale Law School, he became a lawyer for the Environmental Protection Agency and worked as a visiting professor at Brooklyn Law School. He is currently a professor of corporate law and finance at Case Western Reserve University School of Law. He still performs as an actor periodically, with roles in films including Can't Hardly Wait (1998, William Lichter), Chained for Life (2019, Herr Director), and A Different Man (2024, Ron Belcher).
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Louis Sullivan
- 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; it encapsulated earlier theories of architecture and he applied them to the modern age of the skyscraper. In 1944, Sullivan was the second architect to posthumously receive the AIA Gold Medal.
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Eric Ly
- 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.
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Mansoor Khan
- Occupations
- film producerscreenwriterfilm director
- Biography
-
Mohammed Mansoor Hussain Khan is an Indian film director and producer known for his works in Hindi cinema.
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Jim Simons
- Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- In 1958 graduated with Bachelor of Science
- Occupations
- philanthropistbusinesspersoncryptographeruniversity teachermathematician
- Biography
-
James Harris Simons was an American hedge fund manager, investor, mathematician, and philanthropist. At the time of his death, Simons's 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 called the "greatest investor on Wall Street" and more specifically "the most successful hedge fund manager of all time".
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George Akerlof
- 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 former United States Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen.
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Virgilio Barco Vargas
- Occupations
- engineerdiplomatcivil engineerpolitician
- Biography
-
Virgilio Barco Vargas was a Colombian politician and civil engineer who served as the 28th President of Colombia serving from 7 August 1986 to 7 August 1990.
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Janet Hsieh
- Occupations
- taekwondo athletetelevision presenterviolinistactor
- 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.
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Henry Mintzberg Storch
- Occupations
- writereconomistsociologistuniversity teacher
- 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.
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John H. Sununu
- Occupations
- television presenterpolitician
- Biography
-
John Henry Sununu is a Cuban-born American politician who served as the 75th governor of New Hampshire from 1983 to 1989 and as the 14th White House chief of staff under President George H. W. Bush from 1989 to 1991.
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Patrick Collison
- 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 current 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 fund COVID-19-related science with economist Tyler Cowen. In 2021, he co-founded Arc Institute, a nonprofit research organization, with bioscientists Silvana Konermann and Patrick Hsu.
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James Kenji López-Alt
- Occupations
- restaurateurchefculinary writercooktelevision producer
- 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.
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Raymond Tomlinson
- 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 invented 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 username from the name of their machine, a scheme which has been used in email addresses ever since.
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Robert Solow
- Occupations
- university teachereconomistprofessor
- Biography
-
Robert Merton Solow, GCIH was an American economist known for his studies of economic growth and the development of the Solow–Swan model, for which he won the 1987 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.
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Patrick M. Shanahan
- Occupations
- business executiveengineerpolitician
- 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.
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Yoshua Bengio
- Occupations
- computer scientistprofessorinformation scientistartificial intelligence researcher
- Biography
-
Yoshua Bengio OC OQ OBE 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 co-president and scientific director of the nonprofit LawZero. He founded Mila, the Quebec Artificial Intelligence (AI) Institute, and was its scientific director until 2025.
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Aditya Vikram Birla
- 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.
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Victor Vescovo
- 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.
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Tony Tan Keng Yam
- Years
- 1940-.. (age 86)
- Occupations
- mathematicianbusinesspersonpolitician
- Biography
-
Tony Tan Keng Yam is a Singaporean banker and politician who served as the seventh president of Singapore between 2011 and 2017 after winning the 2011 presidential election.
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John Urschel
- Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- In 2021 graduated with Doctor of Philosophy
- Occupations
- mathematicianAmerican football player
- Biography
-
John Cameron Urschel Jr. is a Canadian 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.
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Chadchart Sittipunt
- 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.
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Andrew S. Tanenbaum
- Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- In 1965 graduated with Bachelor of Science in physics
- Occupations
- programmerphysicisthoogleraaruniversity teacherengineer
- 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.
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Chan Chun Sing
- Occupations
- politiciansoldier
- Biography
-
Chan Chun Sing is a Singaporean politician and former major-general who is serving as Coordinating Minister for Public Services (previously Minister-in-charge of Public Services) and Minister for Defence since 2025. A member of the governing People's Action Party (PAP), he has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Buona Vista division of Tanjong Pagar Group Representation Constituency (GRC) since 2011.
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Robert J. Shiller
- Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- In 1972 graduated with Doctor of Philosophy in economics
- Occupations
- writereconomistpedagogueuniversity teacher
- 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 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.
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Lawrence M. Krauss
- Occupations
- non-fiction writertheoretical physicistphysicistuniversity teacherastrophysicist
- 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.
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Yi Ku
- 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.
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Jasmin Moghbeli
- 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.
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Kazuo Ueda
- Occupations
- professoreconomist
- Biography
-
Kazuo Ueda is a Japanese economist who has been serving as the 32nd Governor of the Bank of Japan (BOJ) since April 2023.
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Ahmed Chalabi
- Occupations
- mathematicianbusinesspersonpolitician
- Biography
-
Ahmed Abdel Hadi Chalabi was an Iraqi 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 have been an Iranian agent.
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Leslie Lamport
- Enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Graduated with Bachelor of Science in mathematics
- Occupations
- writercomputer scientistmathematicianengineerprogrammer
- Biography
-
Leslie Barry 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.
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Steve Pieczenik
- Occupations
- writerpsychiatristnovelistscience fiction writer
- 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.
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Hossein Nasr
- Occupations
- university teacherphilosopherwriter
- Biography
-
Seyyed Hossein Nasr is an Iranian-American philosopher, theologian, and Islamic scholar. He is University Professor of Islamic studies at George Washington University.
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William Redington Hewlett
- Occupations
- computer scientistengineerentrepreneur
- Biography
-
William Redington Hewlett was an American engineer and the co-founder, with David Packard, of the Hewlett-Packard Company (HP).
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Katie Bouman
- 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.
