Discover the notable alumni of Massachusetts Institute Of Technology. The list includes people like Dolph Lundgren, Buzz Aldrin, John Forbes Nash Jr., Benjamin Netanyahu & James Woods. This list of notable alumni is loosely sorted by popularity and has people from different domains of life, such as scientists, engineers, intellectuals & academics, writers and miscellaneous etc.

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Birthdate: June 13, 1928

Sun Sign: Gemini

Birthplace: Bluefield, West Virginia, United States

Died: May 23, 2015

The inspiration behind the movie A Beautiful Mind, John F. Nash was a legendary mathematician whose work in the area of game theory earned him the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. In his later years, he was riddled with mental illness. He later died in a car crash.

 2 

Richard Feynman

(One of the Joint Winners of Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965)

Birthdate: May 11, 1918

Sun Sign: Taurus

Birthplace: New York, New York, United States

Died: February 15, 1988

Theoretical physicist Richard Feynman won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965, along with Julian Schwinger and Shin'ichirō Tomonaga, for his research on quantum electrodynamics. He also contributed to the development of the atomic bomb. Feyman made it to Physics World’s list of the 10 greatest physicists of all time.

Birthdate: April 8, 1938

Sun Sign: Aries

Birthplace: Kumasi, Ghana

Died: August 18, 2018

Ghanaian diplomat Kofi Annan served as the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1997 to 2006. He was the founder and chairman of the Kofi Annan Foundation and a co-recipient of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize. During his stint with the UN, he launched the UN Global Compact and worked to combat HIV/AIDS. 

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 4 

Claude Shannon

(Mathematician, Engineer & Cryptographer Known as a 'Father of Information Theory')

Birthdate: April 30, 1916

Sun Sign: Taurus

Birthplace: Petoskey, Michigan, United States

Died: February 24, 2001

Claude Shannon was an electrical engineer, mathematician, and cryptographer. He is credited with publishing the article A Mathematical Theory of Communication which gave rise to the field of information theory. Hence, Shannon is considered the father of information theory. He is also credited with founding digital circuit design theory. During World War II, he contributed to the field of cryptanalysis.

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Birthdate: April 26, 1917

Sun Sign: Taurus

Birthplace: Guangzhou, China

Died: May 16, 2019

I. M. Pei was a Chinese-American architect who drew inspiration from the garden villas at Suzhou when he was young. He is credited with founding I. M. Pei & Associates, an independent design firm, in 1955. Today, the award-winning firm is known by the name, Pei Cobb Freed & Partners. Pei is known for designing structures like the Mesa Laboratory.

 6 

Ben Bernanke

(American Economist and 14th Chair of the Federal Reserve (2006-2014))

Birthdate: December 13, 1953

Sun Sign: Sagittarius

Birthplace: Augusta, Georgia, United States

Ben Bernanke is an American economist who served two terms as the chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System from 2006 to 2014, during which he supervised the Federal Reserve's response to the global financial crisis (GFC). For his efforts during GFC, Ben Bernanke was named Time Person of the Yearin 2009.

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 7 

Buzz Aldrin

(American Astronaut, Fighter Pilot and the Second Person to Set Foot on the Moon)

Birthdate: January 20, 1930

Sun Sign: Aquarius

Birthplace: Glen Ridge, New Jersey, United States

Buzz Aldrin became the second person to set foot on the Moon, as the pilot of NASA’s Apollo 11 mission, 19 minutes after Neil Armstrong stepped on the Moon, on July 21, 1969. Aldrin has also been a U.S. Air Force officer and flew fighter jets in the Korean War.

 8 

James Woods

(Best Known for His Roles in the Films: 'Salvador' and 'Ghosts of Mississippi')

Birthdate: April 18, 1947

Sun Sign: Aries

Birthplace: Vernal, Utah, United States

Mostly known for playing real-life characters, Emmy Award-winner James Woods began his career on stage. Fans adore him for his performances in the play Moonchildren, the series Holocaust, and the TV movie Too Big to Fail. He also played a significant voice role in the animated feature Hercules.

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Birthdate: November 2, 1929

Sun Sign: Scorpio

Birthplace: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

Died: July 12, 2013

Amar Bose was an American academic, entrepreneur, sound engineer, and electrical engineer. Bose served as a professor at MIT for more than 45 years. He is also credited with founding a manufacturing company called Bose Corporation where he served as the chairman. In 2008, Amar Bose was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. 

 10 

Carly Fiorina

(CEO of ‘Hewlett-Packard’, the First Woman to Lead a Fortune Top-20 Company)

Birthdate: September 6, 1954

Sun Sign: Virgo

Birthplace: Austin, Texas, United States

Carly Fiorina made history by becoming the first female head of a Dow Jones-listed company when she became the CEO of HP. The daughter of a law professor father, she had initially joined law school but then dropped out to study management. She has also been Ted Cruz’s vice-presidential running mate.

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 11 

Charles Koch

(American Billionaire Businessman, Chairman, and CEO of ‘Koch Industries’)

Birthdate: November 1, 1935

Sun Sign: Scorpio

Birthplace: Wichita, Kansas, United States

Charles Koch, co-owner, chairman, and CEO of Koch Industries, was the world’s 11th-richest man in 2019. He and his brother, David Koch, both named to Time 100 in 2011, transformed their business from an oil and chemical company to one that owns brands such as Stainmaster, Lycra, and Dixie Cup.

Birthdate: December 12, 1927

Sun Sign: Sagittarius

Birthplace: Burlington

Died: June 3, 1990

American engineer Robert Noyce, who co-invented the integrated circuit, later gained the nickname the Mayor of Silicon Valley. The co-founder of Intel and Fairchild Semiconductor, Noyce is also said to have given Silicon Valley its name with his invention that included a silicon microchip. He was also a swimming champion.

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 13 

Sal Khan

(The Founder and CEO of 'Khan Academy')

Birthdate: October 11, 1976

Sun Sign: Libra

Birthplace: Metairie, Louisiana, United States

What began as amateur math tutorials for his cousin later became Sal Khan’s dream project, the online education platform Khan Academy, which now has over 42 million users worldwide. Named to Time 100 in 2012, the American-born Bengali former hedge fund analyst is an MIT and Harvard alumnus.

Birthdate: 1938 AD

Birthplace: Newton

The son of a shoe factory owner, mathematician-turned-hedge-fund-manager James Harris Simons studied math at MIT and helped the U.S. break codes during the Vietnam War. He later founded his own hedge fund firm, Renaissance Technologies. He supports autism research and funds Math for America. In 2021, he was America’s 23rd-richest person.

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Birthdate: September 3, 1856

Sun Sign: Virgo

Birthplace: Boston

Died: April 14, 1924

Louis Sullivan was an architect who became only the second person to be honored with a posthumous AIA Gold Medal. Dubbed thefather of modernism and the father of skyscrapers, Sullivan contributed immensely to the Chicago School of architecture. He is also credited with mentoring Frank Lloyd Wright who went on to become a respected architect in his own right.

 16 

Elaine Chao

(18th United States Secretary of Transportation (2017 - 2021))

Birthdate: March 26, 1953

Sun Sign: Aries

Birthplace: Taipei, Taiwan

Elaine Chao has served as the U.S. secretary of transportation under Donald Trump and has also previously been the secretary of labor. A Harvard alumna and a recipient of 37 honorary doctorates, she became the first Asian-American female and the first Chinese/Taiwanese American to be part of the U.S. cabinet.

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Birthdate: March 16, 1953

Sun Sign: Pisces

Birthplace: New York City, New York, United States

Computer programmer and free-software activist Richard Stallman established the Free Software Foundation. The Harvard and MIT alumnus led the free GNU project, aimed at creating a UNIX-like operating system. He was later dragged into a controversy when he dismissed a sexual assault victim’s allegation against Jeffrey Epstein.

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Abhijit Banerjee

(Indian-born American Economist, Professor and 2019 Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences)

Birthdate: February 21, 1961

Sun Sign: Pisces

Birthplace: Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Born to economics professor parents, Abhijit Banerjee grew up in India before he moved to the U.S. to study at Harvard. He later taught at Harvard and Princeton and is now associated with MIT. His studies on the ways of reducing world poverty won him a Nobel Prize.

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Birthdate: September 15, 1929

Sun Sign: Virgo

Birthplace: Manhattan, New York City, U.S.

Died: May 24, 2019

Nobel Prize-winning American physicist Murray Gell-Mann is best remembered for his research on elementary particles. The Yale and MIT alumnus later taught at Caltech and is credited with coining the terms "quark" and "strangeness" in quantum physics. A linguistic enthusiast, he also co-established the Evolution of Human Languages program.

 20 

John G. Trump

(Scientist)

Birthdate: August 21, 1907

Sun Sign: Leo

Birthplace: New York, New York, United States

Died: February 21, 1985

Better known as former U.S. president Donald Trump’s uncle, John G. Trump was an MIT physicist and engineer. Though he had initially aspired to be an architect and join his brother Fred’s real-estate business, John later concentrated on his research that led to the invention of high-voltage generators.

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Birthdate: February 6, 1976

Sun Sign: Aquarius

Birthplace: Haifa

Neri Oxman is an American-Israeli designer best known for combining design, computing, biology, and materials engineering into art and architecture. She also serves as a professor at the MIT Media Lab, leading the Mediated Matter research group. Praised as one of the modern-time greats, Oxman was included in ICON's 20 Most Influential Architects to Shape Our Future list in 2009.

 22 

Alicia Nash

(Wife of Mathematician John Forbes Nash Jr.)

Birthdate: January 1, 1933

Sun Sign: Capricorn

Birthplace: San Salvador, El Salvador

Died: May 23, 2015

Born in El Salvador, Alicia Nash later moved to the U.S., where she became one of the first women to join MIT as a student. The physicist met her husband, renowned mathematician John Nash at MIT. Both Alicia and John were killed in car crash while returning home from Norway.

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 23 

Mario Draghi

(Economist, Banker, University teacher)

Birthdate: September 3, 1947

Sun Sign: Virgo

Birthplace: Rome

The son of a banker father, Italian economist Mario Draghi initially served as the president of the European Central Bank and the Bank of Italy governor, and is the current prime minister of Italy. The media named him Super Mario for efficiently handling the Eurozone debt crisis.

 24 

Shiva Ayyadurai

(Indian-American Politician, Entrepreneur and Anti-Vaccine Activist)

Birthdate: December 2, 1963

Sun Sign: Sagittarius

Birthplace: Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Shiva Ayyadurai is an Indian-American engineer, scientist, and entrepreneur. He gained recognition after claiming to be the inventor of email, which is widely disputed even today. His claim is based on a software called EMAIL, which he wrote while studying at Livingston High School in the late-1970s. He is also known for his unfounded medical claims, including treatments for COVID-19.

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Birthdate: February 29, 1860

Sun Sign: Pisces

Birthplace: Buffalo

Died: November 17, 1929

 26 

George P. Shultz

(Economist)

Birthdate: December 13, 1920

Sun Sign: Sagittarius

Birthplace: New York, New York, United States

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Birthdate: February 9, 1943

Sun Sign: Aquarius

Birthplace: Gary

Nobel laureate Joseph E. Stiglitz is best known for his work on the theory of markets with asymmetric information. The MIT alumnus has taught at prestigious institutes such as Harvard and Stanford and currently teaches at Columbia University, He has been an economic advisor to the U.S. government, too.

 28 

Jonah Peretti

(Businessperson)

Birthdate: January 1, 1974

Sun Sign: Capricorn

Birthplace: Contra Costa County, California, United States

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Birthdate: February 3, 1963

Sun Sign: Aquarius

Birthplace: Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India

Raghuram Rajan is an Indian economist who served as the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India from 2013 to 2016. He also served as the 15th Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India. For his significant contribution in the field of economics, Raghuram Rajan was honored with the Fischer Black Prize by the American Finance Association in 2003.

 30 

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

(Nigerian-American Economist Who Has Served in Several Ministerial Positions in Nigeria)

Birthdate: June 13, 1954

Sun Sign: Gemini

Birthplace: Ogwashi Ukwu, Nigeria

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is a Nigerian-American economist and political figure. She served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2006 before serving as the Coordinating Minister for the Economy of Nigeria from 17 August 2011 to 29 May 2015. Ngozi also served as the Minister of Finance on two separate occasions; from 2003 to 2006 and again from 2011 to 2015.

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 31 

William Shockley

(American Physicist, Inventor and Winner of the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics)

Birthdate: February 13, 1910

Sun Sign: Aquarius

Birthplace: London, England

Died: August 12, 1989

American physicist, inventor and Nobel laureate William Bradford Shockley Jr received the Nobel Prize in Physics with John Bardeen and Walter Brattain in 1956 for their researches on semiconductors and for discovering the transistor effect while working at the Bell Labs. He later became a proponent of eugenics while serving as a professor of electrical engineering at Stanford University.

 32 

Lawrence Summers

(71st United States Secretary of the Treasury(1999 - 2001))

Birthdate: November 30, 1954

Sun Sign: Sagittarius

Birthplace: New Haven, Connecticut, United States

Apart from being the president of Harvard, Lawrence Summers has also been the U.S. secretary of the treasury, the World Bank’s chief economist, and the NEC director. The MIT alumnus became one of the youngest tenured faculty members at Harvard. He also writes regularly for The Washington Post.

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 33 

Leslie Lamport

(Mathematician, Computer scientist, Programmer, Engineer, Writer)

Birthdate: February 7, 1941

Sun Sign: Aquarius

Birthplace: New York City

 34 

Michele Lee

(Actress)

Birthdate: June 24, 1942

Sun Sign: Cancer

Birthplace: Los Angeles, California, USA

Height: 5'8" (173 cm)

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 35 

Thomas Massie

(Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Kentucky's 4th District )

Birthdate: January 13, 1971

Sun Sign: Capricorn

Birthplace: Huntington, West Virginia, United States

Conservative libertarian Republican Thomas Massie is the US Representative from Kentucky's 4th district. Born to a beer distributor, he studied mechanical engineering at MIT and also co-owned a start-up. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, he earned Donald Trump’s ire when he opposed a stimulus package to boost the American economy.

Birthdate: October 25, 1972

Sun Sign: Scorpio

Birthplace: Paris, France

Esther Duflo is a French–American economist. She is credited with co-founding the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, a global research center that works towards reducing poverty worldwide. In 2019, she shared the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with Michael Kremer and Abhijit Banerjee for their efforts to reduce poverty.

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Birthdate: April 5, 1950

Sun Sign: Aries

Birthplace: San José, Costa Rica

Franklin Chang Díaz is a Costa Rican American physicist, mechanical engineer, and former NASA astronaut. He is credited with founding the Ad Astra Rocket Company where he currently serves as the CEO. On May 5, 2012, Franklin Chang Díaz was inducted into the NASA Astronaut Hall of Fame.

 38 

Leslie Groves

(United States Army Officer in Charge of the Construction of 'The Pentagon' and Director of 'The Manhattan Project')

Birthdate: August 17, 1896

Sun Sign: Leo

Birthplace: Albany, New York, United States

Died: July 13, 1970

US Army officer Leslie Groves is best remembered for his association with the Manhattan Project, which was aimed at developing atom bombs during World War II. He was also in-charge of building a place to house the War Department’s staff in a structure that later became the Pentagon.

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 39 

Edgar Mitchell

(American Astronaut Who was the Sixth Person to Walk on the Moon)

Birthdate: September 17, 1930

Sun Sign: Virgo

Birthplace: Hereford, Texas, United States

Died: February 4, 2016

Edgar Mitchell was an American aviator, United States Navy officer, test pilot, NASA astronaut, ufologist, and aeronautical engineer. In 1971, Mitchell became only the sixth person ever to walk on the Moon. Over the course of his illustrious career, Edgar Mitchell was honored with several prestigious awards, such as the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the NASA Distinguished Service Medal.   

 40 

Bill Koch

(Entrepreneur)

Birthdate: May 3, 1940

Sun Sign: Taurus

Birthplace: Wichita, Kansas, United States

Height: 5'8" (173 cm)

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 41 

Vanessa Selbst

(American Poker Player)

Birthdate: July 9, 1984

Sun Sign: Cancer

Birthplace: Brooklyn, New York, United States

Birthdate: April 23, 1941

Sun Sign: Taurus

Birthplace: Amsterdam, New York, U.S.

Died: March 5, 2016

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 43 

Ivan Sutherland

(Computer scientist)

Birthdate: May 16, 1938

Sun Sign: Taurus

Birthplace: Hastings, Nebraska, United States

 44 

Charles Duke

(Former NASA Astronaut Who Became the Youngest Person to Walk on the Moon)

Birthdate: October 3, 1935

Sun Sign: Libra

Birthplace: Charlotte

Former NASA astronaut Charles Duke has also been a USAF officer and test pilot. At 36, he became the youngest astronaut to walk on the surface of the Moon. Throughout his illustrious career, he went on 5 Apollo missions. He is also an international public speaker.

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Birthdate: February 12, 1948

Sun Sign: Aquarius

Birthplace: New York City, New York, United States

Ray Kurzweil is an American futurist and inventor best known for his work in fields like optical character recognition, speech recognition technology, and text-to-speech synthesis. A proponent of life extension technologies and robotics, Kurzweil was honored with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation in 1999. In 2002, he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

 46 

Whitfield Diffie

(Cryptographer and one of the pioneers of public-key cryptography along with Martin Hellman and Ralph Merkle)

Birthdate: June 5, 1944

Sun Sign: Gemini

Birthplace: Washington, D.C., United States

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 47 

Alan Mulally

(Engineer)

Birthdate: August 4, 1945

Sun Sign: Leo

Birthplace: Oakland, California, U.S.

 48 

Lisa Su

(Entrepreneur)

Birthdate: November 7, 1969

Sun Sign: Scorpio

Birthplace: Tainan, Taiwan

Born in Taiwan, Lisa Su, the CEO of AMD, moved to the US at age 3. Lisa eventually earned a PhD in electrical engineering from MIT. Named to the Forbes America’s Self-Made Women 2020 list, she is also the first woman recipient of the IEEE Robert Noyce Medal.

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 49 

Paul Krugman

(Columnist, Economist, Essayist, Blogger, University teacher, Actor, Pundit, Journalist, Writer)

Birthdate: February 28, 1953

Sun Sign: Pisces

Birthplace: Albany

Economist Paul Krugman, who has taught at Yale, MIT, and Princeton, later won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, primarily for his work on the new trade theory and economic geography. He has also gained popularity for his op-ed column in The New York Times.

 50 

Dylan Bruno

(Actor)

Birthdate: September 6, 1972

Sun Sign: Virgo

Birthplace: Milford, Connecticut, United States

Height: 5'10" (178 cm)

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The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is widely considered the best institution in the world for a degree in Engineering. The campus of this university, situated in the city of Cambridge, in the United States, sprawls over 168 kilometers. According to a 2017 survey conducted by ‘Times Higher Education’, this famous institution was ranked 2nd in the whole of United States and 5th in the world. ‘Massachusetts Institute of Technology’ is not a globally recognized educational institution merely for its infrastructure or quality of education, but also for its notable alumni. The institution has produced several great entrepreneurs who have set fine examples of how a business has to be managed. Apparently, the university has produced more than 80 Nobel laureates, around 45 Rhodes Scholars and more than 30 astronauts. Some of the students who are a part of the institution’s alumni association are outstanding achievers and role models to many people around the world. A few noteworthy personalities who were once students of this famous university are Kofi Annan, former Secretary-General of the United Nations, noted Indian economist Raghuram Rajan and television host Janet Hsieh. Kofi Annan has been immensely praised world over for his humanitarian works. He is also the founder of the non-profit initiative called the ‘Kofi Annan Foundation’ and was appointed the chairman of the organization ‘The Elders’. We are presenting to you a list of notable alumni of the ‘Massachusetts Institute of Technology’ who made waves for their remarkable achievements.