38 Notable alumni of
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Updated:
Worcester Polytechnic Institute is 1478th in the world, 524th in North America, and 492nd in the United States by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 38 notable alumni from Worcester Polytechnic Institute sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff.
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Dean Kamen
- Occupations
- inventorentrepreneur
- Biography
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Dean Lawrence Kamen is an American engineer, inventor, and businessman. He is known for his invention of the Segway and iBOT, as well as founding the non-profit organization FIRST with Woodie Flowers. Kamen holds over 1,000 patents.
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Robert H. Goddard
- Occupations
- aerospace engineerastronomerphysicistinventorengineer
- Biography
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Robert Hutchings Goddard was an American engineer, professor, physicist, and inventor who is credited with creating and building the world's first liquid-fueled rocket, which was successfully launched on March 16, 1926. By 1915 his pioneering work had dramatically improved the efficiency of the solid-fueled rocket, signaling the era of the modern rocket and innovation. He and his team launched 34 rockets between 1926 and 1941, achieving altitudes as high as 2.6 km (1.6 mi) and speeds as fast as 885 km/h (550 mph).
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J. Geils
- Occupations
- guitaristjazz guitarist
- Biography
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John Warren Geils Jr., known professionally as J. Geils or Jay Geils, was an American guitarist. He was known as the leader of The J. Geils Band.
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Todd Akin
- Enrolled in Worcester Polytechnic Institute
- In 1971 graduated with Bachelor of Science
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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William Todd Akin was an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for Missouri's 2nd congressional district from 2001 to 2013. He was a member of the Republican Party. Born in New York City, Akin grew up in the Greater St. Louis area. After receiving his bachelor's degree from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts, Akin served in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and worked in the computer and steel industries. In 1988, he was elected to the Missouri House of Representatives. He served in the state house until 2000, when he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, in which he served until 2013.
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Magic Dick
- Occupations
- musician
- Biography
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Richard Salwitz, known as Magic Dick, is an American musician, noted for playing the harmonica for the J. Geils Band. In addition to the harmonica, Salwitz plays the trumpet (the first instrument he learned) and saxophone.
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Im Tae-kyung
- Occupations
- singermusicianrecording artist
- Biography
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Im Tae-Kyung, sometimes credited as Lim Tae-kyung, Im Tae-kyeong, or Lim Tae-kyeong, is a South Korean musical actor, television actor, and crossover tenor.
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Mei Yiqi
- Enrolled in Worcester Polytechnic Institute
- Studied in 1911-1914
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Mei Yiqi or Mei Yi-chi, courtesy name Yuehan (Chinese: 月涵), was a Chinese politician, physicist and educator, who served two separate terms as Ministry of Education of the Republic of China, from 1948 to 1949 and from 1958 to 1961. He was additionally President of National Tsinghua University between 1931 and 1948, making him the university's longest serving president.
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Chartsiri Sophonpanich
- Occupations
- international forum participantentrepreneur
- Biography
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Chartsiri Sophonpanich is a Thai banker. He currently serves as President of Bangkok Bank, the largest commercial bank in Thailand and one of the largest regional banks in Southeast Asia, and Chairman of Bangkok Bank (China), a wholly owned subsidiary of Bangkok Bank. He held various senior management positions in Bangkok Bank before being appointed President in December 1994 and has been a member of the Board of Executive Directors since 1992.
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Elwood Haynes
- Occupations
- inventorwriterracing automobile driverentrepreneur
- Biography
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Elwood Haynes was an American inventor, metallurgist, automotive pioneer, entrepreneur and industrialist. He invented the metal alloy stellite and independently co-discovered martensitic stainless steel along with Englishman Harry Brearley in 1912 and designed one of the earliest automobiles made in the United States. He is recognized for having created the earliest American design that was feasible for mass production and, with the Apperson brothers, he formed the first company in the United States to produce automobiles profitably. He made many advances in the automotive industry.
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Naveen Selvadurai
- Enrolled in Worcester Polytechnic Institute
- 1999-2003 studied computer science
- Occupations
- businesspersonentrepreneur
- Biography
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Naveen Selvadurai is an American internet entrepreneur and co-founder of location-based social networking site Foursquare.com. Until recently, he was working at startup studio Expa which was founded by co-founder of Uber and StumbleUpon - Garrett Camp, as a partner. He was featured in Inc Magazine's 30 under 30 list in the year 2010. He was also featured in Rediff.com's article - 4 NRIs among US's coolest young entrepreneurs.
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Richard T. Whitcomb
- Occupations
- aerospace engineerengineer
- Biography
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Richard Travis Whitcomb was an American aeronautical engineer who was noted for his contributions to the science of aerodynamics.
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Edwin Eugene Aldrin Sr
- Occupations
- military personnel
- Biography
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Edwin Eugene "Gene" Aldrin Sr. was an aviator and officer in the United States Army during World War I and World War II. He was assistant commandant of the Army's first test pilot school at McCook Field, Ohio, from 1919 to 1922, and founded the engineering school there that later became the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) at Wright-Patterson AFB. The Edwin E. Aldrin Sr. Award is presented to an AFIT graduate for leadership and accomplishing AFIT's educational objectives in an outstanding manner. He was the father of astronaut Buzz Aldrin.
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A. Atwater Kent
- Occupations
- businesspersoninventor
- Biography
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Arthur Atwater Kent Sr. was an American inventor and prominent radio manufacturer based in Philadelphia. In 1921, he patented the modern form of the automobile ignition coil.
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Jonathan Bird
- Years
- 1969-.. (age 55)
- Occupations
- photographer
- Biography
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Jonathan Bird is an American photographer, cinematographer, director and television host. He is best known for his role as the host of Jonathan Bird's Blue World, a family-friendly underwater exploration program on public television in the United States. His work is largely underwater in nature.
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Anthony Zinno
- Occupations
- poker player
- Biography
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Anthony Zinno is a professional poker player from Cranston, Rhode Island. He has won three World Poker Tour (WPT) titles and four World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelets.
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Curtis Carlson
- Occupations
- scientist
- Biography
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Curtis Raymond Carlson was president and CEO of SRI International from 1998 to 2014.
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David Gewirtz
- Occupations
- computer scientistwritercolumnisteditorjournalist
- Biography
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David Allen Gewirtz is a journalist, author, and U.S. policy advisor working in technology and national security policy. He currently serves as director of the U.S. Strategic Perspective Institute.
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George Cowan
- Occupations
- chemistbusinessperson
- Biography
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George Arthur Cowan was an American physical chemist, a businessman and philanthropist.
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Jeremy Hitchcock
- Occupations
- academic
- Biography
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Jeremy Hitchcock is co-founder and CEO of wifi management and IoT security startup, Minim (NASDAQ: MINM), based in Manchester, NH. Jeremy is also a Partner at New North Ventures, which invests in artificial intelligence, cyber security and next-gen communication sectors.
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David F. Emery
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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David Farnham Emery is an American politician from Maine. He served four terms as a Republican U.S. Representative from 1975 to 1983.
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Pascale Fung
- Occupations
- researchercomputer scientistinternational forum participant
- Biography
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Pascale Fung is a professor in the Department of Electronic & Computer Engineering and the Department of Computer Science & Engineering at the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology(HKUST). She is the director of the newly established, multidisciplinary Centre for AI Research (CAiRE) at HKUST. She is an elected Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for her “contributions to human-machine interactions”, an elected Fellow of the International Speech Communication Association for “fundamental contributions to the interdisciplinary area of spoken language human-machine interactions” and an elected Fellow of the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL) for her “significant contributions toward statistical NLP, comparable corpora, and building intelligent systems that can understand and empathize with humans”.
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Emilio Sacristan Rock
- Occupations
- biomedical engineer
- Biography
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Emilio Sacristan Rock is a Mexican researcher, inventor and entrepreneur in the field of medical technology. He is currently professor of electrical and biomedical engineering, Director and Founder of the National Center for Medical Instrumentation and Imaging Research, CI3M, at the UAM-Iztapalapa, Mexico City, and Mexican National Researcher level III. He holds a B.S. (1987) in EE and M.S. (1990) and Ph.D. (1993) degrees in biomedical engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He has been research assistant professor at WPI (1993–1995), associate researcher at University of Massachusetts Medical School (1988-1995), and visiting professor at Yale School of Medicine (2001–2002) and Stanford University (2009). His research focuses on instrumentation for anesthesia and critical care as well as Magnetic Resonance Imaging, and is author of over 70 research articles and 22 international patents. Dr. Sacristan is also an active entrepreneur seeking to translate medical innovations to the market, having served as founder/CEO/CSO of Enviva Corp. (MA), Innovamedica (Mexico), Abdeo Medical (Mexico and CA), Critical Perfusion Inc. (CA), and currently serves as Chief Science Officer of Nervive, Inc.(OH). He is the Inventor of the VITACOR UVAD artificial heart, the aspiration condenser for anesthesia, the gastric impedance monitor for critical care, the VITALFLOW magnetic stimulator for stroke therapy, among other medical devices. He is an Endeavor entrepreneur since 2004 and he was honored as American Express Entrepreneur of the Year 2006.
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Kotaro Shimomura
- Occupations
- chemistengineer
- Biography
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Kotaro Shimomura was a Japanese chemical engineer known for many famous inventions. He coined the term for chemical engineering, kagaku-kōgaku (化学工学), in Japanese in 1909.
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Michael Ahearne
- Years
- 1966-.. (age 58)
- Biography
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Michael Ahearneis Professor and C.T. Bauer Chair in Marketing at the C.T. Bauer College of Business, University of Houston. He is also the Research Director of the Sales Excellence Institute. He is an associate editor at several journals, including Journal of Marketing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, International Journal of Research in Marketing, and Journal of Service Research. He was the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management.
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Joseph Mancuso
- Occupations
- writer
- Biography
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Joseph Mancuso is an American author, who has written 24 entrepreneurial books for entrepreneurs and CEOs, and an international businessman and keynote speaker. Mancuso is the founder, CEO and current president of CEO Clubs International, a worldwide membership association of mid-market CEOs. He frequently travels the world, opening new chapters, and speaking and doing consulting work with existing international CEO Clubs. He is a well-known business speaker and consultant in Mainland China and Japan.
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Everett J. Lake
- Occupations
- player of American footballpolitician
- Biography
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Everett J. Lake was an American politician and businessman who served as the 67th governor of Connecticut.
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Charles Grenfill Washburn
- Occupations
- politicianlawyer
- Biography
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Charles Grenfill Washburn was a member of the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts.
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Leon P. Alford
- Occupations
- organisational theoristmechanical engineer
- Biography
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Leon Pratt Alford was an American mechanical engineer, organizational theorist, and administrator for the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. known for his seminal work in the field of industrial management.
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Oscar Nathaniel Solbert
- Occupations
- military engineerexhibition curator
- Biography
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Oscar Nathaniel Solbert was an American general, business executive and the first director of the George Eastman Museum.
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Francis W. Treadway
- Occupations
- politicianlawyer
- Biography
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Francis Wilcox Treadway was an American politician who served as the 30th lieutenant governor of Ohio from 1909 to 1911.
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Marc Zimmer
- Occupations
- chemist
- Biography
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Marc Zimmer is the Jean Tempel '65 Professor of Professor of Chemistry at Connecticut College. He has published seven books, written articles on science and medicine for the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, the Huffington Post, etc. He has been interviewed or quoted in the Economist, Science, Nature etc.
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Marcia Keith
- Occupations
- physicist
- Biography
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Marcia Anna Keith was a physicist, teacher of physics to women, and a charter member of the American Physical Society since its founding in 1899.
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William Herbert Hobbs
- Years
- 1864-1952 (aged 88)
- Occupations
- geologist
- Biography
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William Herbert Hobbs, Ph.D. was an American geologist.
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Jackson Nickerson
- Occupations
- economistuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Jackson Nickerson is an American academic who studies leadership, organizations, and strategy. Nickerson was the Frahm Family Professor of Organization and Strategy (Emeritus) in Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis. He also was the Associate Dean and Director of Brookings Executive Education from 2009-2017, was a non-resident Senior Fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution from 2010-2020, and is a Fellow of the Strategic Management Society.
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William Stevens Lawton
- Occupations
- military personnel
- Biography
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William Stevens Lawton was a lieutenant general in the United States Army and served as the Army's Comptroller.
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William Lafayette Darling
- Occupations
- civil engineerengineer
- Biography
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William Lafayette Darling, was a consulting engineer in St. Paul, Minnesota.
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Henry Prentiss Armsby
- Enrolled in Worcester Polytechnic Institute
- Graduated with Bachelor of Science
- Occupations
- chemistzoologistacademic administrator
- Biography
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Henry Prentiss Armsby was an American agricultural chemist, animal nutritionist, and academic administrator. He served as Vice Principal and Acting Principal of the Storrs Agricultural School (1881–1883), associate director of the Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station (1883–1887), and director of the Agricultural Experiment Station (1887–1907) and the Institute of Animal Nutrition (1907–1921) at the Pennsylvania State University.
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James Ernest Smith
- Years
- 1881-1973 (aged 92)
- Occupations
- electrical engineer
- Biography
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James Ernest Smith was an American engineer, entrepreneur, educator, and businessman. He was the co-founder and president of the National Radio Institute (NRI) in Washington D.C., which trained 1.5 million students through home study over its 88-year history. Smith was born on February 3, 1881, in Rochester, New Hampshire. He held a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering (B.S.E.E., 1906) from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) and began his career at Westinghouse Electric Corporation in Pittsburgh, but he took an extended leave of absence in 1907 to teach what remained in the term of an applied electricity course at McKinley Manual Training School (moved in 1926 to its present location in Washington, D.C., and now known as McKinley Technology High School) for a colleague who had become ill. It went well and Smith was offered a permanent position at the school, which he accepted.
