100 Notable alumni of
Purdue University
Updated:
Purdue University is 139th in the world, 61st in North America, and 58th in the United States by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 100 notable alumni from Purdue University sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff. 2 individuals affiliated with Purdue University won Nobel Prizes in Chemistry.
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Neil Armstrong
- Enrolled in Purdue University
- In 1955 graduated with Bachelor of Science in aeronautics
- Occupations
- aerospace engineerUnited States Naval Aviatortest pilotuniversity teacherastronaut
- Biography
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Neil Alden Armstrong was an American astronaut and aeronautical engineer who in 1969 became the first person to walk on the Moon. He was also a naval aviator, test pilot, and university professor.
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Drew Brees
- Occupations
- player of American football
- Biography
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Drew Christopher Brees is an American former football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 20 seasons. A member of the New Orleans Saints for most of his career, Brees is second in career passing yards, career touchdown passes, career pass completions, and career completion percentage. Brees also holds the record of consecutive games with a touchdown pass, breaking the record held by Johnny Unitas for 52 years. He is regarded as one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time.
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George Peppard
- Occupations
- television actorfilm directorstage actorfilm actorfilm producer
- Biography
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George William Peppard was an American actor. He secured a major role as struggling writer Paul Varjak when he starred alongside Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), and later portrayed a character based on Howard Hughes in The Carpetbaggers (1964). On television, he played the title role of millionaire insurance investigator and sleuth Thomas Banacek in the early-1970s mystery series Banacek. He played Col. John "Hannibal" Smith, the cigar-smoking leader of a renegade commando squad in the 1980s action television series The A-Team.
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Chesley Sullenberger
- Enrolled in Purdue University
- In 1973 graduated with master's degree in industrial and organizational psychology
- Occupations
- expertdiplomataircraft pilotvisiting scholarmilitary officer
- Biography
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Chesley Burnett "Sully" Sullenberger III is a retired American fighter pilot, diplomat, and airline pilot. He is best known for his actions as captain of US Airways Flight 1549. In 2009 he ditched the plane, landing on the Hudson River after both engines were disabled by a bird strike. All 155 people aboard survived. Sullenberger became an outspoken advocate for aviation safety and helped develop new protocols for flight safety. He served as the co-chairman, along with his co-pilot on Flight 1549, Jeffrey Skiles, of the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA)'s Young Eagles youth introduction-to-aviation program from 2009 to 2013.
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Jim Gaffigan
- Occupations
- film actorscreenwritertelevision actoractorfilm producer
- Biography
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James Christopher Gaffigan is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and producer. His material often addresses fatherhood, laziness, food, religion, and general observations. He is regarded as a "clean" comic, using little profanity in his routines. He has released several successful comedy specials, including Mr. Universe, Obsessed, Cinco, and Quality Time, all of which have received Grammy nominations.
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Gus Grissom
- Occupations
- writerair force officerastronautmechanical engineertest pilot
- Biography
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Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom was an American engineer and pilot in the United States Air Force, as well as one of the original seven men, the Mercury Seven, selected by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for Project Mercury, a program to train and launch astronauts into outer space. Grissom was also a Project Gemini and Apollo program astronaut for NASA. As a member of the NASA Astronaut Corps, Grissom was the second American to fly in space in 1961. He was also the second American to fly in space twice, preceded only by Joe Walker with his sub-orbital X-15 flights.
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Herman Cain
- Enrolled in Purdue University
- Graduated with Master of Science
- Occupations
- writerpoliticianradio personalitybusinesspersonjournalist
- Biography
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Herman Cain was an American businessman and Tea Party movement activist in the Republican Party. Born in Memphis, Cain grew up in Atlanta and graduated from Morehouse College with a bachelor's degree in mathematics. He then earned a master's degree in computer science at Purdue University while also working full-time for the U.S. Department of the Navy. In 1977, he joined the Pillsbury Company where he later became vice president. During the 1980s, Cain's success as a business executive at Burger King prompted Pillsbury to appoint him as chairman and CEO of Godfather's Pizza, in which capacity he served from 1986 to 1996.
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Eugene Cernan
- Occupations
- fighter pilotaerospace engineerautobiographerastronautbusinessperson
- Biography
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Eugene Andrew Cernan was an American astronaut, naval aviator, electrical engineer, aeronautical engineer, and fighter pilot. During the Apollo 17 mission, Cernan became the eleventh human being to walk on the Moon. As he re-entered the Apollo Lunar Module after Harrison Schmitt on their third and final lunar excursion, he remains the most recent person to walk on the Moon.
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John Wooden
- Occupations
- basketball playerbasketball coachwritermilitary officer
- Biography
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John Robert Wooden was an American basketball coach and player. Nicknamed the "Wizard of Westwood", he won ten National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) national championships in a 12-year period as head coach for the UCLA Bruins, including a record seven in a row. No other team has won more than four in a row in Division I college men's or women's basketball. Within this period, his teams won an NCAA men's basketball record 88 consecutive games. Wooden won the prestigious Henry Iba Award as national coach of the year a record seven times and won the Associated Press award five times.
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Matt Mitrione
- Occupations
- karatekamixed martial arts fighterplayer of American football
- Biography
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Matthew Steven Mitrione is an American retired mixed martial artist and former American football player, who competed for both the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), and most recently for Bellator MMA. Prior to embarking on an MMA career, Mitrione played college football at Purdue University, and he turned pro and played in the National Football League (NFL) with the New York Giants and the Minnesota Vikings. He was a featured fighter on The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights.
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Matt Hamill
- Occupations
- amateur wrestlermixed martial arts fighter
- Biography
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Matt Hamill is an American former mixed martial artist and wrestler who competed in the Light Heavyweight division of the UFC. He is a three-time NCAA Division III National Champion in wrestling (167 lb class in 1997, 190 lb class in 1998 and 197 lb class in 1999) while attending the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in Rochester, New York.
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Ted Allen
- Occupations
- television presenterauthoractorchefjournalist
- Biography
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Edward Reese Allen is an American author and television personality. He was the food and wine connoisseur on the Bravo network's television program Queer Eye, and has been the host of the TV cooking competition series Chopped since its launch in 2009, as well as Chopped Junior, which began in mid-2015. On April 13, 2014, he became the host of another Food Network show, originally called America's Best Cook; a retooled version of that show, retitled All-Star Academy, debuted on March 1, 2015. In early 2015, he also hosted a four-part special, Best. Ever. which scoured America for its best burgers, pizza, breakfast, and barbecue. He is a longtime contributing writer to Esquire magazine and is the author of two cookbooks, and regularly appears on the Food Network show Beat Bobby Flay and other television cooking shows.
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Stephan Bonnar
- Occupations
- mixed martial arts fighterprofessional wrestlertaekwondo athlete
- Biography
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Stephan Patrick Bonnar was an American mixed martial artist. Bonnar competed as a Light Heavyweight in the UFC for most of his career. Bonnar was the runner-up on The Ultimate Fighter 1; his TUF Ultimate Finale loss to Forrest Griffin is widely considered to be the most important fight in the history of the UFC.
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Stephen McKinley Henderson
- Occupations
- television actorstage actordirectorfilm actoractor
- Biography
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Stephen McKinley Henderson is an American actor. Henderson trained at Juilliard School for acting and later became a resident member of the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis from 1976 to 1981. He came to prominence as a character actor often performing the plays of August Wilson. He has received nominations for two Tony Awards, a Drama Desk Award, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. Vulture named Henderson as one of "The 32 Greatest Character Actors Working Today".
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Glenn Robinson
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
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Glenn Alan Robinson Jr. is an American former professional basketball player. Nicknamed "Big Dog" and "The Chosen One", he played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1994 to 2005 for the Milwaukee Bucks, Atlanta Hawks, Philadelphia 76ers, and San Antonio Spurs. Robinson attended Purdue University and was the first overall pick in the 1994 NBA draft. He is the father of Glenn Robinson III, who played college basketball at the University of Michigan and has also played in the NBA.
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Len Dawson
- Occupations
- player of American footballsports commentator
- Biography
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Leonard Ray Dawson was an American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) and American Football League (AFL) for 19 seasons, primarily with the Kansas City Chiefs franchise. After playing college football at Purdue, Dawson began his professional career with the NFL in 1957, spending three seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers and two with the Cleveland Browns. He left the NFL in 1962 to sign with the AFL's Chiefs (then known as the Dallas Texans), where he spent the last 14 seasons of his career, and rejoined the NFL after the AFL–NFL merger.
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Kevin Sumlin
- Occupations
- player of American football
- Biography
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Kevin Warren Sumlin is an American football coach who is the associate head coach, co-offensive coordinator, and tight ends coach for the University of Maryland. Sumlin served as the head football coach at the University of Houston from 2008 to 2011, Texas A&M University from 2012 to 2017, and at the University of Arizona from 2018 to 2020.
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Roger Bruce Chaffee
- Occupations
- astronautaerospace engineeraircraft pilotmilitary officer
- Biography
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Roger Bruce Chaffee was an American naval officer, aviator and aeronautical engineer who was a NASA astronaut in the Apollo program.
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Sun Li-jen
- Occupations
- military personnelbasketball player
- Biography
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Sun Li-jen was a Chinese Nationalist (KMT) general, a graduate of Virginia Military Institute in the United States, best known for his leadership in the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War. His military achievements earned him the laudatory nickname "Rommel of the East". His New First Army was known as the "Best Army under heaven" and credited with effectively confronting Japanese troops in the 1937 Battle of Shanghai and in the Burma Campaign, 1943–1944.
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Raheem Mostert
- Occupations
- player of American football
- Biography
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Dominique Raheem Mostert is an American football running back for the Miami Dolphins of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Purdue.
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Mike Alstott
- Occupations
- player of American football
- Biography
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Michael Joseph Alstott is an American former professional football player who was a fullback in the National Football League (NFL) for 12 seasons with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Nicknamed "A-Train", he played college football at Purdue and was selected by the Buccaneers in the second round of the 1996 NFL Draft. Alstott received six Pro Bowl and three first-team All-Pro honors during his career, in addition to being part of the Buccaneers team that won the franchise's first Super Bowl title in Super Bowl XXXVII. For his accomplishments in Tampa Bay, he was inducted to the Buccaneers Ring of Honor in 2015. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest fullbacks of all time. One of the NFL's YouTube channels called Alstott "the last legendary fullback".
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Caleb Swanigan
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
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Caleb Sylvester Swanigan was an American professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Purdue Boilermakers. He was ranked among the top prep players in the national class of 2015 by Rivals.com, Scout.com and ESPN. He completed his senior season in the 2014–15 academic year for Homestead High School in Fort Wayne, Indiana, who went on to win the first state championship in the school's history. Swanigan was named Indiana's Mr. Basketball and a McDonald's All-American.
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Zach Edey
- Enrolled in Purdue University
- Studied in 2020
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
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Zach Edey is a Canadian college basketball player for the Purdue Boilermakers of the Big Ten Conference. He is listed at 7 feet 4 inches (2.24 meters), making him the tallest player in Big Ten history. At the close of the 2023 season, Edey was named the Big Ten Player of the Year and consensus National Player of the Year.
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Ryan Newman
- Occupations
- racing automobile driver
- Biography
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Ryan Joseph Newman, nicknamed "Rocket Man", is an American professional stock car racing driver. He last competed part-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the Nos. 15/51 Ford Mustang for Rick Ware Racing, full time in the SRX Camping World Series driving the No. 39 and part-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driving the No. 66 Ford Mustang for MBM Motorsports. He is the 2023 SRX Series champion.
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Jon Fitch
- Occupations
- mixed martial arts fighter
- Biography
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Jon Fitch is an American retired mixed martial artist. He has competed in the Welterweight divisions of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), the Professional Fighters League (PFL), and most recently for Bellator MMA. In the UFC, Fitch compiled a record of 14–3–1 and once challenged for the UFC Welterweight Championship. In the PFL, Fitch achieved championship success when he won the PFL Welterweight Championship, and he also once challenged for the Bellator MMA Welterweight World Championship.
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Sarah Jo Pender
- Years
- 1979-.. (age 45)
- Biography
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Sarah Jo Pender is an American woman convicted along with her former boyfriend, Richard Edward Hull, of murdering their roommates, Andrew Cataldi and Tricia Nordman, on October 24, 2000, in Indiana. She has claimed ever since that she is victim of a wrongful conviction. She came to national attention in August 2008 after she escaped from the Rockville Correctional Facility and was featured on America's Most Wanted. She was recaptured by police in December at a house in Chicago.
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Ian Murdock
- Enrolled in Purdue University
- In 1996 graduated with bachelor's degree in computer science
- Occupations
- computer scientistengineerprogrammer
- Biography
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Ian Ashley Murdock was an American software engineer, known for being the founder of the Debian project and Progeny Linux Systems, a commercial Linux company.
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Chintamani Nagesa Ramachandra Rao
- Occupations
- chemistphysicist
- Biography
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Chintamani Nagesa Ramachandra Rao,, is an Indian chemist who has worked mainly in solid-state and structural chemistry. He has honorary doctorates from 86 universities from around the world and has authored around 1,800 research publications and 56 books. He is described as a scientist who had won all possible awards in his field except the Nobel Prize.
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Carsen Edwards
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
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Carsen Cade Edwards is an American professional basketball player for Bayern Munich of the German Basketball Bundesliga (BBL) and the EuroLeague. He played college basketball for the Purdue Boilermakers, where he was twice named an All-American.
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Ward Cunningham
- Occupations
- technology evangelistcomputer scientistprogrammer
- Biography
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Howard G. Cunningham is an American computer programmer who developed the first wiki and was a co-author of the Manifesto for Agile Software Development. A pioneer in both design patterns and extreme programming, he started coding the WikiWikiWeb in 1994, and installed it on c2.com (the website of his software consultancy) on March 25, 1995, as an add-on to the Portland Pattern Repository. He co-authored (with Bo Leuf) a book about wikis, entitled The Wiki Way, and invented the Framework for Integrated Test.
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Orville Redenbacher
- Occupations
- entrepreneur
- Biography
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Orville Clarence Redenbacher was an American food scientist and businessman most often associated with the brand of popcorn that bears his name which is now owned by Conagra Brands. The New York Times described him as "the agricultural visionary who all but single-handedly revolutionized the American popcorn industry".
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Yitang Zhang
- Occupations
- mathematician
- Biography
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Yitang Zhang is a Chinese-American mathematician primarily working on number theory and a professor of mathematics at the University of California, Santa Barbara since 2015.
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Bob Peterson
- Occupations
- film directorscreenwriteractorvoice actoranimator
- Biography
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Robert Peterson is an American animator, director, screenwriter, storyboard supervisor and voice actor who works at Pixar. He was hired at Pixar by Roger Gould in 1994 as an animator for commercials, before subsequently becoming an animator on Toy Story (1995). He was the co-director and co-writer for Up (2009), in which he also voiced the characters Dug and Alpha. His work as a writer for the films Up and Finding Nemo (2003) earned him nominations for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. He was also a co-writer on Cars 3 (2017) and won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Short Form Animated Program for his work on Forky Asks A Question (2020).
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Darryl Stingley
- Occupations
- player of American football
- Biography
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Darryl Floyd Stingley was an American professional football player, a wide receiver whose career was ended at age 26 by an on-field spinal cord injury. He played his entire five-year career with the New England Patriots of the National Football League and died from heart disease and pneumonia complicated by quadriplegia.
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Abigail Spanberger
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Abigail Anne Spanberger is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative from Virginia's 7th congressional district since 2019. She is a member of the Democratic Party. Spanberger is a former CIA officer.
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Margaret Bourke-White
- Occupations
- photojournalistwriterartistwar photographerjournalist
- Biography
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Margaret Bourke-White was an American photographer and documentary photographer. She was arguably best known as the first foreign photographer permitted to take pictures of Soviet industry under the Soviets' first five-year plan, as the first American female war photojournalist, and for taking the photograph (of the construction of Fort Peck Dam) that became the cover of the first issue of Life magazine.
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Maya Rockeymoore
- Occupations
- politicianpundit
- Biography
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Maya Michelle Rockeymoore Cummings is an American consultant, politician, and former chair of the Maryland Democratic Party in the United States. Before her election as party chair, she briefly ran for Governor of Maryland. She owns a Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm.
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Matt Painter
- Occupations
- basketball coachbasketball player
- Biography
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Matthew Curtis Painter is an American basketball coach and former player, who is the current and 19th head coach of the Purdue Boilermakers. He played college basketball at Purdue from 1989 to 1993. He was also the head coach of the Southern Illinois Salukis from 2003 to 2004.
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Jaden Ivey
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
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Jaden Edward Dhananjay Ivey is an American professional basketball player for the Detroit Pistons of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Purdue Boilermakers.
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Brad Miller
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
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Bradley Alan Miller is an American former professional basketball player. The two-time NBA All-Star played for six National Basketball Association (NBA) teams.
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Venu Srinivasan
- Occupations
- industrialist
- Biography
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Venu Srinivasan is an Indian industrialist. He is Chairman Emeritus of TVS Motor Company, one of the leading manufacturers of two-wheelers in the world and Sundaram-Clayton Limited, a leading manufacturer of auto components in India. He also serves on the board of Tata Sons Ltd., the holding company of the conglomerate the Tata Group and TVS & Sons. He is a Director on the Central Board of Reserve Bank of India. He is also Vice Chairman of Tata Trusts. Tata Trusts holds 66% of the equity capital of Tata Sons. He was conferred the Padma Bhushan Award, the third Highest civilian award in India, in January 2020.
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Ei-ichi Negishi
- Awards
- Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2010
- Years
- 1935-2021 (aged 86)
- Occupations
- researcherchemistprofessor
- Biography
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Ei-ichi Negishi was a Japanese chemist who was best known for his discovery of the Negishi coupling. He spent most of his career at Purdue University in the United States, where he was the Herbert C. Brown Distinguished Professor and the director of the Negishi-Brown Institute. He was awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for palladium catalyzed cross couplings in organic synthesis" jointly with Richard F. Heck and Akira Suzuki.
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Dick the Bruiser
- Occupations
- actorprofessional wrestlerplayer of American football
- Biography
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William Fritz Afflis was an American professional wrestler, promoter, and NFL player, better known by his ring name, Dick the Bruiser. During his NFL days he played four seasons with the Green Bay Packers. In addition to that he was also hugely successful in professional wrestling being a fifteen-time world champion, having held the AWA World Heavyweight Championship once, the WWA World Heavyweight Championship (Indianapolis version) thirteen times and the WWA World Heavyweight Championship (Los Angeles version) once. He also excelled at Tag-Team wrestling having won 20 Tag Team championships, having held the AWA tag team championship five times and the WWA tag team championship a record 15 times in his career. 11 of these championships were won alongside his long-time Tag-Team partner Crusher Lisowski. He was one of the most hated as well as well known heels from the mid 50s till the early 80s. He was famous for his feuds with the likes of such stalwarts such as Lou Thesz, Bobo Brazil, Angelo Poffo and "Classie" Freddie Blassie. For his achievements he would be inducted into the WWE hall of fame class of 2021. He was also inducted into the 2005 International Wrestling Hall of Fame.
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Marilyn Quayle
- Occupations
- novelistwriterlawyer
- Biography
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Marilyn Tucker Quayle is an American lawyer and novelist. She is the wife of the 44th vice president of the United States, Dan Quayle, and served as the second lady of the United States from 1989 until 1993.
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Birch Bayh
- Enrolled in Purdue University
- Graduated with Bachelor of Science in agricultural science
- Occupations
- lawyerwriterpoliticianfarmer
- Biography
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Birch Evans Bayh Jr. was an American Democratic Party politician who served as U.S. Senator from Indiana from 1963 to 1981. He was first elected to office in 1954, when he won election to the Indiana House of Representatives; in 1958, he was elected Speaker, the youngest person to hold that office in the state's history. In 1962, he ran for the U.S. Senate, narrowly defeating incumbent Republican Homer E. Capehart. Shortly after entering the Senate, he became Chairman of the Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments, and in that role authored two constitutional amendments: the Twenty-fifth—which establishes procedures for an orderly transition of power in the case of the death, disability, or resignation of the President of the United States—and the Twenty-sixth, which lowered the voting age to 18 throughout the United States. He is the first person since James Madison and only non–Founding Father to have authored more than one constitutional amendment. Bayh also led unsuccessful efforts to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment and eliminate the Electoral College.
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Joe Barton
- Enrolled in Purdue University
- In 1973 graduated with Master of Science
- Occupations
- politicianengineerbusiness executive
- Biography
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Joseph Linus Barton is an American politician. A member of the Republican Party, he represented Texas's 6th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1985 to 2019. The district included Arlington, part of Fort Worth, and several small towns and rural areas south of the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex. He was also a member of the Tea Party Caucus. In 2014, Barton became the longest-serving member of the Texas congressional delegation.
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Cuonzo Martin
- Occupations
- basketball coachbasketball player
- Biography
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Cuonzo LaMar Martin is an American basketball coach and former player who is the former head coach of the Missouri Tigers men's basketball team.
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David Boudia
- Occupations
- competitive diverswimmer
- Biography
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David Alasdair Boudia is an American diver. He won the gold medal in the 10 metre platform diving competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics and the bronze medal in the same event at the 2016 Summer Olympics. He also won a bronze medal with Nick McCrory in the men's synchronized 10 metre platform at the 2012 Summer Olympics and a silver medal in the same event with Steele Johnson at the 2016 Summer Olympics.
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E'Twaun Moore
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
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E'Twaun Donte Moore is an American professional basketball player who is currently a free agent. He was drafted by the Boston Celtics in the 2011 NBA draft after playing college basketball at Purdue University. In high school, he led East Chicago's Central High School to an IHSAA state championship.
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Mike Winkelmann
- Occupations
- NFT artistgraphic designervisual artistVJ
- Biography
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Michael Joseph Winkelmann, known professionally as Beeple, is an American digital artist, graphic designer, and animator known for selling NFTs. In his art, he uses various media to create comical, phantasmagoric works that make political and social commentary while using pop culture figures as references. British auction house Christie's has called him "A visionary digital artist at the forefront of NFTs". Beeple was introduced to NFTs in October 2020 and credits Pak for providing his first "primer" on selling NFTs. The NFT associated with Everydays: the First 5000 Days, a collage of images from his "Everydays" series, was sold on March 12, 2021, for $69 million in cryptocurrency to an investor in NFTs. It is the first purely non-fungible token to be sold by Christie's. The auction house had previously sold Block 21, an NFT with accompanying physical painting for approximately $130,000 in October 2020.
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Mercedes Lackey
- Occupations
- novelistscience fiction writerwritershort story writer
- Biography
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Mercedes Ritchie Lackey is an American writer of fantasy novels. Many of her novels and trilogies are interlinked and set in the world of Velgarth, mostly in and around the country of Valdemar. Her Valdemar novels include interaction between human and non-human protagonists with many different cultures and social mores.
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Robbie Hummel
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
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Robert John Hummel is an American former professional basketball player and current TV commentator. He played college basketball for Purdue University and for the Minnesota Timberwolves in the NBA. In 2019, Hummel was named USA Basketball Male Athlete of the Year. Since his retirement from professional basketball, Hummel has been an analyst for the Big Ten Network and ESPN. Hummel is a regular contributor for Westwood One Sports and Sirius XM.
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Aidan O'Connell
- Enrolled in Purdue University
- Studied management
- Occupations
- player of American football
- Biography
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Aidan James O'Connell is an American football quarterback for the Las Vegas Raiders of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Purdue.
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Booth Tarkington
- Occupations
- children's writerwriterscreenwriterplaywrightpolitician
- Biography
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Newton Booth Tarkington was an American novelist and dramatist best known for his novels The Magnificent Ambersons (1918) and Alice Adams (1921). He is one of only four novelists to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once, along with William Faulkner, John Updike, and Colson Whitehead. In the 1910s and 1920s he was considered the United States' greatest living author. Several of his stories were adapted to film.
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Mauricio Fernández Garza
- Occupations
- politicianbusinessperson
- Biography
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Mauricio Fernández Garza is a Mexican politician, businessman and collector directly related to the Fernández Ruiloba wealthy and prominent family; owners of PYOSA (Pigmentos Y Oxidos SA). He was the mayor of San Pedro Garza García, former senator and current member of the board of Grupo Alfa, a Monterrey-based chemical, food and auto-parts producer. He is well known for his art contribution to Nuevo León.
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Andrea Drews
- Occupations
- volleyball player
- Biography
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Andrea Carrie Drews is an American professional volleyball player for the United States women's national volleyball team. Drews was elected as the Most Valuable Player of the 2019 FIVB Women's Volleyball Nations League in Nanjing, China, where Team USA won the gold medal and the Best Opposite of the 2019 FIVB Volleyball Women's World Cup where the U.S. finished in second place. She won gold with the national team at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics.
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Deng Jiaxian
- Occupations
- physicistnuclear physicist
- Biography
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Deng Jiaxian, or Chia Hsien Teng, was a Chinese nuclear physicist and academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences. He was a leading organizer and key contributor to the Chinese nuclear weapon programs.
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Martin “John” M. Atalla
- Occupations
- engineerphysicist
- Biography
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Mohamed M. Atalla was an Egyptian-American engineer, physicist, cryptographer, inventor and entrepreneur. He was a semiconductor pioneer who made important contributions to modern electronics. He is best known for inventing the MOSFET (metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor, or MOS transistor) in 1959 (along with his colleague Dawon Kahng), which along with Atalla's earlier surface passivation processes, had a significant impact on the development of the electronics industry. He is also known as the founder of the data security company Atalla Corporation (now Utimaco Atalla), founded in 1972. He received the Stuart Ballantine Medal (now the Benjamin Franklin Medal in physics) and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for his important contributions to semiconductor technology as well as data security.
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Carl Landry
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
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Carl Christopher Landry is an American former professional basketball player. The 6-foot-9-inch (2.06 m), all-conference power forward played college basketball for the Purdue Boilermakers from 2004 to 2007. He is the older brother of Marcus Landry.
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David A. Bednar
- Occupations
- university teacherpriest
- Biography
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David Allan Bednar is a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). A former educator, Bednar was president of Brigham Young University–Idaho (BYU–Idaho) from 1997 to 2004.
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Mark Chen
- Years
- 1935-.. (age 89)
- Enrolled in Purdue University
- 1970-1972 graduated with doctorate
- Occupations
- politiciandiplomat
- Biography
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Mark Tang-shan/Tan-sun Chen is a Taiwanese politician, former Secretary-General of the Office of the President of Taiwan under former President Chen Shui-bian. He was also previously Foreign Minister of the ROC from 2004 to 2006 (the first Democratic Progressive Party member to occupy the position). Before returning to Taiwan, he worked for the United States Department of Commerce from 1973 to 1992, over 19 years.
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Rondale Moore
- Enrolled in Purdue University
- Studied in 2018
- Occupations
- player of American football
- Biography
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Rondale DaSean Moore is an American football wide receiver for the Arizona Cardinals of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Purdue, and was selected by the Cardinals in the second round of the 2021 NFL Draft.
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Matt Light
- Occupations
- player of American football
- Biography
-
Matthew Charles Light is an American former professional football player who spent his entire 11-year career as an offensive tackle for the New England Patriots of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Purdue Boilermakers. He was picked by the Patriots in the second round of the 2001 NFL Draft.
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Kevin Stallings
- Occupations
- basketball playerbasketball coach
- Biography
-
Kevin E. Stallings is a former American basketball coach, who formerly served as the head coach at Illinois State University, Vanderbilt University and the University of Pittsburgh. He was an assistant coach at Purdue University and the University of Kansas.
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Akira Suzuki
- Occupations
- professorchemist
- Biography
-
Akira Suzuki is a Japanese chemist and Nobel Prize Laureate (2010), who first published the Suzuki reaction, the organic reaction of an aryl- or vinyl-boronic acid with an aryl- or vinyl-halide catalyzed by a palladium(0) complex, in 1979.
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Edward Mills Purcell
- Occupations
- nuclear physicistuniversity teacherphysicist
- Biography
-
Edward Mills Purcell was an American physicist who shared the 1952 Nobel Prize for Physics for his independent discovery (published 1946) of nuclear magnetic resonance in liquids and in solids. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) has become widely used to study the molecular structure of pure materials and the composition of mixtures. Friends and colleagues knew him as Ed Purcell.
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Earl Butz
- Occupations
- economistwriterpoliticianuniversity teacher
- Biography
-
Earl Lauer "Rusty" Butz was a United States government official who served as the secretary of agriculture under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. His policies favored large-scale corporate farming and an end to New Deal programs.
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James Cayne
- Occupations
- bankerbridge playerstockbroker
- Biography
-
James E. "Jimmy" Cayne was an American businessman and CEO of Bear Stearns. In 2006, he became the first Wall Street chief to own a company stake worth more than $1 billion, but he lost most of that in the 2007–2008 collapse of Bear's stock and sold his entire stake in the company for $61 million.
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John W. Rose
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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John Williams Rose is an American politician and businessman serving as the U.S. representative for Tennessee's 6th congressional district since 2019. A Republican, he was commissioner of agriculture for Tennessee and president of Boson Software, LLC.
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James Tour
- Enrolled in Purdue University
- In 1986 graduated with Doctor of Philosophy in organic chemistry
- Occupations
- chemistuniversity teacher
- Biography
-
James Mitchell Tour is an American chemist and nanotechnologist. He is a Professor of Chemistry, Professor of Materials Science and Nanoengineering at Rice University in Houston, Texas.
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Ray Ewry
- Occupations
- athletics competitor
- Biography
-
Raymond Clarence Ewry was an American track and field athlete who won eight gold medals at the Olympic Games and two gold medals at the Intercalated Games (1906 in Athens). This puts him among the most successful Olympians of all time.
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Karen Marie Moning
- Occupations
- science fiction writernovelistwriter
- Biography
-
Karen Marie Moning is an American author. Many of her novels have appeared on the New York Times Bestseller List with Shadowfever reaching the number one position on multiple national best sellers lists. She is a winner of the prestigious Romance Writers of America RITA award for Best Paranormal Romance and is a multiple RITA nominee.
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Akinwumi Adesina
- Occupations
- economistcivil servantpoliticianinternational forum participant
- Biography
-
Akinwumi "Akin" Adesina CON is a Nigerian economist, who is currently serving as the President of the African Development Bank. He previously served as Nigeria's Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development. Until his appointment as Minister in 2010, he was Vice President of Policy and Partnerships for the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa. He was elected as the President of the African Development Bank in 2015 and re-elected for a second term in 2020. He is the first Nigerian to hold the post.
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JaJuan Johnson
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
-
JaJuan Markeis Johnson is an American professional basketball player who last played for New Basket Brindisi of the Lega Basket Serie A. He played college basketball at Purdue University. During his sophomore season, he was named a first-team All-Big Ten selection. As a junior, he was named a second-team All-Big Ten selection. As a senior, a first-team consensus All-American as well as the Big Ten Player of the Year and Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year.
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Isaac Haas
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
-
Isaac Haas is an American professional basketball player for the Beijing Royal Fighters of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA). He played college basketball for the Purdue Boilermakers.
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Gen Fukunaga
- Occupations
- engineerentrepreneur
- Biography
-
Gen Fukunaga is a Japanese-born American engineer and entrepreneur. He established Funimation (now Crunchyroll), a company that distributes anime in Canada and the United States. He served as its president and chairman until 2019, where he stepped down. As of October 2011, Fukunaga was named chairman of online video game publisher GameSamba.
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George Karlaftis
- Enrolled in Purdue University
- Studied in 2019
- Occupations
- player of American football
- Biography
-
George Matthew Karlaftis III is a Greek professional American football defensive end for the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League (NFL). He was born in Athens and grew up as a multi-sport athlete playing football, track and field, basketball, and water polo, the latter of which he played with the Greek national team.
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Brian Cardinal
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
-
Brian Lee Cardinal is an American former professional basketball player. He played 456 games in the NBA between 2000 and 2012, and won an NBA championship with the Dallas Mavericks in 2011. Before his NBA career, he was one of the best players in the history of Purdue University.
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Chris Schenkel
- Occupations
- sports commentatorannouncer
- Biography
-
Christopher Eugene Schenkel was an American sportscaster. Over the course of five decades he called play-by-play for numerous sports on television and radio, becoming known for his smooth delivery and baritone voice.
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Rick Mount
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
-
Richard Carl Mount is a former American basketball player in the American Basketball Association (ABA). Mount played basketball at Lebanon Senior High School in Lebanon, Indiana, during which time he became the first high school boy representing a team sport to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Mount then played for Purdue University from 1966 to 1970.
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Monte Blue
- Occupations
- actorfilm actorstage actor
- Biography
-
Gerard Montgomery Blue was an American film actor who began his career as a romantic lead in the silent era; and for decades after the advent of sound, he continued to perform as a supporting player in a wide range of motion pictures.
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Brian Lamb
- Occupations
- military officerjournalist
- Biography
-
Brian Patrick Lamb is an American journalist. He is the founder, executive chairman, and the now-retired CEO of C-SPAN, an American cable network that provides coverage of the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate as well as other public affairs events. In 2007, Lamb was awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush and received the National Humanities Medal the following year.
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Don West
- Occupations
- managersports commentator
- Biography
-
Donald West was an American pitchman, television personality, and professional wrestling broadcaster.
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Suwat Liptapanlop
- Years
- 1955-.. (age 69)
- Occupations
- politicianengineer
- Biography
-
Suwat Liptapanlop is a Thai entrepreneur, politician and sports official based in Nakhon Ratchasima. He has held different cabinet posts in several governments since 1988, including deputy prime minister, and is the de facto leader of the Chart Pattana Party while his brother Tewan Liptapallop serves as its official leader.
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David McKinley
- Enrolled in Purdue University
- In 1969 graduated with Bachelor of Engineering in civil engineering
- Occupations
- engineerbusiness executivepoliticiancivil engineer
- Biography
-
David Bennett McKinley is an American businessman and politician who served as the U.S. representative for West Virginia's 1st congressional district from 2011 to 2023. A member of the Republican Party, McKinley was a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates from 1980 to 1994, and chaired the West Virginia Republican Party from 1990 to 1994.
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Andrew J. Feustel
- Occupations
- geophysicistphysicistastronaut
- Biography
-
Andrew Jay "Drew" Feustel is a former American/Canadian NASA astronaut and geophysicist. Following several years working as a geophysicist, Feustel was selected as an astronaut candidate by NASA in July 2000. He is the veteran of 3 space flights with NASA. His first spaceflight in May 2009, STS-125, lasted just under 13 days. This was a mission with six other astronauts to repair the Hubble Space Telescope, aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis. Feustel performed three spacewalks during the mission. His second spaceflight was STS-134, which launched on May 16, 2011, and landed on June 1, 2011. STS-134 was the penultimate Space Shuttle flight. Feustel returned to space on March 21, 2018, on Soyuz MS-08 with Expedition 55/56. For expedition 56, he commanded the International Space Station, before handing over to Alexander Gerst on October 3, 2018.
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A. J. Hammons
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
-
Aaron Jarrell Hammons is an American former professional basketball player. He played college basketball for Purdue before being drafted by the Dallas Mavericks with the 46th overall pick in the 2016 NBA draft.
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Herbert C. Brown
- Occupations
- chemistuniversity teacherwriter
- Biography
-
Herbert Charles Brown was an American chemist and recipient of the 1979 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work with organoboranes.
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Jerry L. Ross
- Occupations
- astronautaircraft pilotmilitary officer
- Biography
-
Jerry Lynn Ross is a retired United States Air Force officer, engineer, and a former NASA astronaut. Ross is a veteran of 7 Space Shuttle missions, making him the joint record holder for most spaceflights (a record he shares with Franklin Chang-Diaz).
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Fahmi Fadzil
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
-
Ahmad Fahmi bin Mohamed Fadzil is a Malaysian politician, actor and writer who has served as the Minister of Communications in the Unity Government administration under Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim since December 2023 and the Member of Parliament (MP) for Lembah Pantai since May 2018. He served as the Minister of Communications and Digital in the PH administration under Prime Minister Anwar from December 2022 to December 2023. He is a member of the People's Justice Party (PKR), a component party of the PH coalition and the government spokesperson. He has also served as Information Chief of PKR since July 2022 and served as Communications Director of PKR from September 2013 to July 2022.
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Ben Roy Mottelson
- Occupations
- nuclear physicistuniversity teacherphysicist
- Biography
-
Ben Roy Mottelson was an American-Danish nuclear physicist. He won the 1975 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the non-spherical geometry of atomic nuclei.
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Josh Lindblom
- Occupations
- baseball player
- Biography
-
Joshua William Lindblom is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Philadelphia Phillies, Texas Rangers, Oakland Athletics, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Milwaukee Brewers and in the KBO League for the Lotte Giants and Doosan Bears.
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Essam Sharaf
- Occupations
- politicianengineer
- Biography
-
Essam Abdel-Aziz Sharaf is an Egyptian academic who was the Prime Minister of Egypt from 3 March 2011 to 7 December 2011. He served as Minister of Transportation from 2004 to 2005.
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John H. Hager
- Occupations
- politicianbusinessperson
- Biography
-
John Henry Hager was an American politician who served as the 37th Lieutenant Governor of Virginia from 1998 to 2002. He was the first person with a disability to be elected to that office. He proceeded to act as an assistant secretary within the United States Department of Education from 2004 to 2007. He also served as the chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia from August 2007 until May 2008.
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Bill Skowron
- Occupations
- baseball player
- Biography
-
William Joseph Skowron, nicknamed "Moose", was an American professional baseball first baseman. He played 14 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1954 to 1967 for the New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers, Washington Senators, Chicago White Sox, and California Angels. He was an eight-time All-Star and a five-time World Series champion.
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Lebbeus Woods
- Occupations
- university teacherartistarchitectpainterengineer
- Biography
-
Lebbeus Woods was an American architect and artist known for his unconventional and experimental designs. Known for his rich, yet mainly unbuilt work and its nonetheless significant impact on the architectural sphere, Lebbeus Woods and his oeuvre are considered visionary, describing a radically experimental world built on the principles of heterogeneity and multiplicity and bridging thus the gap between numerous fields including architecture, philosophy, and mathematics. Reconfiguring the architectural space in environments of crisis, whether it be natural, social, political, or financial, Woods stated: “I’m not interested in living in a fantasy world. All my work is still meant to evoke real architectural spaces. But what interests me is what the world would be like if we were free of conventional limits. Maybe I can show what could happen if we lived by a different set of rules.”
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Louis Edward Curdes
- Occupations
- aircraft pilotflying ace
- Biography
-
Louis Edward "Lou" Curdes was an American flying ace of the United States Army Air Forces during World War II who held the unusual distinctions of scoring an official and intentional air-to-air kill against another American aircraft as well as shooting down at least one aircraft from each of the major Axis powers. Curdes was also a Prisoner of war escapee and spent about nine months in enemy held territory. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross twice, a Purple Heart and the Prisoner of War Medal. He flew a Lockheed P-38 Lightning and a North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft with the latter having the nickname "Bad Angel."
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Lamar Lundy
- Occupations
- player of American footballbasketball player
- Biography
-
Lamar J. Lundy, Jr. was an American defensive end with the Los Angeles Rams of the National Football League for 13 seasons, from 1957 to 1969. Along with Deacon Jones, Merlin Olsen, and Rosey Grier, Lundy was a member of the Fearsome Foursome, often considered one of the best defensive lines in NFL history. All four also did some acting; Lundy portrayed the boulder-hurling cyclops in the unaired pilot of Lost in Space (this pilot was later made into episode 4 of the series, entitled "There Were Giants in the Earth").
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Suzanne Crouch
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
-
Suzanne Crouch is an American politician who has served as the 52nd lieutenant governor of Indiana since 2017. She previously served as the 56th state auditor of Indiana from 2014 to 2017. She is running for governor of Indiana in 2024.
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Dennis Hong
- Enrolled in Purdue University
- In 1999 graduated with Master of Science in mechanical engineering
- In 2002 graduated with Doctor of Philosophy in mechanical engineering
- Occupations
- university teachermechanical engineeracademic
- Biography
-
Dennis Hong is a Korean American mechanical engineer and roboticist.
