List of Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni

• Christopher Charles Benninger (MCP 1971) – award-winning architect and urban planner in India, Sri Lanka, prepared capital plan of Bhutan
• Walter Danforth Bliss – architect from California, with many buildings on the National Register of Historic Places
• Gordon Bunshaft (BArch 1933, MArch 1935) – architect of Lever House (New York City), Beinecke Library (Yale), Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (Washington DC); Pritzker Prize (1988)
• Ogden Codman, Jr. (1884) – Beaux-Arts domestic architect, interior designer
• Vishaan Chakrabarti (MCP 1993)— architect and dean of UC Berkeley's College of Environmental Design
• John Desmond (MArch) – designed numerous public buildings in Baton Rouge, including the River Center
• Daniel Chester French (1871, one year) – sculptor of Abraham Lincoln (Lincoln Memorial), John Harvard (Harvard Yard), Minute Man (Concord, Massachusetts)
• Greta Gray (1880 - 1961) - Bachelor of Architecture, home economist at UCLA, author and academic.
• Cass Gilbert (1880) – architect of the US Supreme Court Building, Woolworth Building (New York City)
• Charles Sumner Greene (1891) – partner in Greene and Greene, domestic architects of Arts & Crafts style, Gamble House (Pasadena)
• Henry Mather Greene (1891) – partner in Greene and Greene, domestic architects of Arts & Crafts style, Gamble House (Pasadena)
• Marion Mahony Griffin (1894) – co-designer of the master plan for Canberra, Australia
• Nathanael Herreshoff (B.S. 1870) – naval architect-engineer, yacht designer
• Raymond Hood (1903) – architect of Rockefeller Center (New York City), Tribune Tower (Chicago)
• Lois Lilley Howe (B.S. 1890) – second woman in the US to found an architecture firm
• Jarvis Hunt – Chicago architect[13]
• Myron Hunt (B.S. 1893) – architect of Huntington Art Gallery, Rose Bowl (Pasadena)
• Piotr Kowalski (B.S. 1952) – artist, sculptor, architect, professor
• Roger K. Lewis (BArch 1964; MArch 1967) – architect, urban planner, professor, author
• Austin W. Lord (1888) – architect of the administration buildings, Isthmian Canal Commission, Panama; director of the School of Architecture at Columbia University
• Kevin A. Lynch (B.S. 1947) – urban planner, author of the seminal book The Image of the City
• John O. Merrill (B.S. 1921) – structural engineer, architect, leader of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill
• Eleanor Manning O'Connor (B.S. 1906) – architect, educator, public housing advocate
• Neri Oxman (1976 - ) - Ph.D. Architectural Design (2010).
• I. M. Pei (BArch 1940) – architect, Louvre Pyramid (Paris), Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (Cleveland), Bank of China (Hong Kong), MIT Buildings 18, 54, 66, E15; AIA Gold Medal (1979), Pritzker Prize (1983)
• Donald W. Southgate (1887–1953) – architect in Nashville, Tennessee[14]
• Sumner Spaulding (1892–1952) – architect, graduated in 1916, designed many buildings in California
• Louis Sullivan (one year) – influential founder of the Chicago School; "father of skyscrapers"; "father of modernism"; AIA Gold Medal (1944)
• James Knox Taylor (1880) – Supervisory Architect of Denver Mint, Philadelphia Mint, many post offices, court houses, other federal buildings
• Robert Taylor (1892) – MIT's first black graduate, architect of the Tuskegee Institute
• Harry Mohr Weese (BArch 1938) – architect, historic preservation advocate, designed first group of stations for Washington Metro system

See also List of companies founded by Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni

• Theodosios Alexander (M.S. in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering 1982; M.S. in Ocean Systems Management; M.S. in Mechanical Engineering; ScD in Mechanical Engineering 1987) – Dean of Parks College of Engineering, Aviation and Technology[38] of Saint Louis University; Professor and Chair of Energy Engineering, Queen Mary, University of London; former James Watt Professor at the University of Glasgow, Scotland; former Mechanical Engineering Professor at Washington University in St. Louis
• Joseph E. Aoun (PhD 1982) – president of Northeastern University, linguist, author
• Andrew Armacost (M.S. 1995, PhD 2000) – dean of the United States Air Force Academy
• Dennis Assanis (M.S. in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering 1983, M.S. in Mechanical Engineering 1983, M.S. in Management 1986, PhD in Power and Propulsion 1986) – former Jon R. and Beverly S. Holt Professor and Arthur F. Thurnau Professor at the University of Michigan; Provost and Senior VP for Academic Affairs at Stony Brook University[39]
• Larry Bacow (B.S. 1972) – president of Harvard University, former president of Tufts University, lawyer, economist, author
• Merrill J. Bateman (PhD 1965) – former president of Brigham Young University; Mormon Presiding Bishop
• Scott C. Beardsley – dean of the University of Virginia Darden School of Business[40]
• Lawrence Berk (B.S. Architectural Engineering 1932) – founder and former president of Berklee College of Music (1945–1978)
• William R. Brody (B.S. 1965, M.S. 1966) – former president of Johns Hopkins University, current president of Salk Institute
• Emily Calandrelli (M.S. 2013) – aerospace engineer and STEM communicator
• Marion Hamilton Carter (1893) – educator, journalist, author
• Jared Cohon (M.S. 1972, PhD 1973) – former president of Carnegie Mellon University
• William Cooper (PhD 1976) – president of University of Richmond
• Dianna Leilani Cowern (2011) – physics alumnus and STEM educator and communicator on YouTube and elsewhere as a YouTuber and similar as “Physics Girl” collaborating often with fellow MIT graduate Emily Calandrelli and many other people associated with many other organizations[41]
• Allan Cullimore – former president of New Jersey Institute of Technology (1920–1947)[42]
• Laura D'Andrea Tyson (PhD 1974) – chairman of the CEA under Clinton; former dean of the Haas School of Business; former dean of the London Business School
• Woodie Flowers (M.S. 1968, ME 1971, PhD 1973) – MIT professor, created Introduction to Design (2.70), founder of FIRST Robotics Competition, starting host of Scientific American Frontiers (1990–93)
• Philip Friedman (PhD 1972) – president of Golden Gate University
• David Garrison[43] – founding chair, University of Houston–Clear Lake Physics Department
• Thomas P. Gerrity – former dean of Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania
• Hollis Godfrey (1889) – former president of Drexel University[44]
• Eric Grimson (PhD Mathematics 1980) – computer scientist and Chancellor of MIT[45]
• Amos Horev (B.S., M.S.) – former president of Technion[46]
• Shirley Jackson (B.S. 1968, PhD 1973) – president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, physicist
• Martin C. Jischke (M.S., PhD 1968) – former president of Purdue University
• Theodora J. Kalikow (Sc.M. 1970) – former president of the University of Maine at Farmington and the University of Southern Maine
• Salman Khan – founder and executive director of Khan Academy
• Joseph Klafter – chemical physics professor, the eighth President of Tel Aviv University
• Martin C. Libicki (B.S. Mathematics) – professor at the Frederick S. Pardee RAND Graduate School in Santa Monica, California
• John Maeda (B.S., M.S. 1989) – former president of Rhode Island School of Design (2008–2013), graphic designer, computer scientist, author, venture capitalist
• Modesto Maidique (B.S. 1962, M.S. 1964, EE 1966, PhD 1970) – former president of Florida International University
• Julianne Malveaux (PhD 1980) – president of Bennett College
• Alan Marcus (PhD 1981) – economist; professor at the Carroll School of Management, Boston College. The first recipient of the Mario Gabelli Endowed Professorship.
• David McClain (PhD 1974) – president of University of Hawaii
• Frederic Mishkin (B.S. 1973, PhD 1976) – economist; professor at Columbia Business School; Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (2006–2008); appeared in the documentary Inside Job
• Leo E. Morton (M.S. 1987) – chancellor of University of Missouri-Kansas City
• Gretchen Ritter (Ph.D.) – dean of the Cornell University College of Arts and Sciences.[47]
• Richard Santagati (M.S. 1979) – former president of Merrimack College
• Rahmat Shoureshi – researcher, professor, and provost of New York Institute of Technology (NYIT)
• Reed Shuldiner (Ph.D. 1985) – Alvin L. Snowiss Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School
• Nam-Pyo Suh (B.S. 1959, M.S. 1961) – president of KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology)
• Lawrence H. Summers (B.S. 1975) – former president of Harvard University, economist, former presidential advisor
• Subra Suresh (ScD 1981) – former president of Carnegie Mellon University, former Director of the National Science Foundation, former Dean of the School of Engineering at MIT
• Demetri Terzopoulos FRS FRSC (PhD 1984) - Academy Award winning computer scientist, university professor, author, and entrepreneur
• Ahmed Tewfik (PhD 1987) – IEEE Signal Processing Society President, former chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Cockrell School of Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin
• Lee T. Todd, Jr. (M.S. 1970, EE 1971, PhD 1974) – president of University of Kentucky
• Hal Varian (B.S. 1969) – chief economist at Google, founding dean of the School of Information at UC Berkeley
• Patrick Henry Winston (B.S. 1965, M.S. 1967, PhD 1970) – author of standard textbooks on artificial intelligence and programming languages, MIT professor, co-founded Ascent Technology
• Elisabeth Zinser (M.S. 1982) – president of Southern Oregon University
• Muhammad M. Al-Saggaf (M.S. 1996, PhD 2000 in Geophysics) - President of King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals

• Colin Adams – mathematician, knot theory expert, teacher, writer, math humorist
• Rakesh Agrawal – National Medal of Technology and Innovation Laureate and Professor of Chemical Engineering at Purdue University
• John George Trump - electrical engineer, inventor, and physicist, then become a professor of MIT from 1936 until 1973, direct the MIT High Voltage Research Laboratory from 1946 to 1980
• Buzz Aldrin – combat pilot, astronaut, second man to walk on the Moon
• Pauline Morrow Austin – meteorologist, Director of Weather Radar at MIT, research staff in Radiation Laboratory
• Adrian Bejan – professor of mechanical engineering, namesake of the Bejan number
• Gordon Bell – computer engineer and manager, designer of DEC PDP, manager of the VAX project
• Stephen Benton – invented rainbow hologram, pioneered digital holography
• Manuel Blum – computer scientist, received Turing Award (1995) for studies in computational complexity theory
• Katie Bouman – computer game designer and programmer, developed Zork adventure game
• Katie Bouman – computer scientist and electrical engineer involved in developing the algorithm used in filtering the first images of a black hole taken by the Event Horizon Telescope
• Dan Bricklin – co-inventor of Visicalc, the first WYSIWYG PC spreadsheet program
• Alice G. Bryant – otolaryngologist and inventor of surgical tools
• Edward M. Burgess – chemist, inventor of the Burgess reagent
• Christopher Chen – William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Boston University.
• David D. Clark – led the development of TCP/IP (the protocol that underlies the Internet)
• Wesley A. Clark – computing pioneer, creator of the LINC (the first minicomputer)
• Fernando Corbató – retired MIT professor, Turing Award (1990), co-founder of the Multics project
• Shiladitya DasSarma (PhD 1985) – pioneering microbiologist and professor at University of Maryland School of Medicine who deciphered genetic code for Halobacterium NRC-1
• Peter J. Denning (M.S. 1965, PhD 1968) – computer scientist, professor, co-founder of the Multics project, pioneered virtual memory
• Jack Dennis – retired MIT professor, co-founder of the Multics project
• Peter Diamandis – founder and chairman of the X PRIZE Foundation, co-founder and chairman of Singularity University, and co-author of New York Times bestseller Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think
• Whitfield Diffie – pioneer of public-key cryptography and the Diffie-Hellman protocol, Turing Award (2015)
• K. Eric Drexler – pioneer nanotechnologist, author, co-founded Foresight Institute
• Harold Eugene "Doc" Edgerton (M.S. 1927, ScD 1931) – former MIT Institute professor; co-founder, and the "E", of EG&G; stroboscope photography pioneer; Oscar winner 1940
• Theodore Miller Edison (1898–1992) – only child of Thomas Alva Edison who graduated from college; inventor with over 80 patents[50]
• Farouk El-Baz – Supervisor of Lunar Science Planning, Apollo Program, NASA
• Kelly Falkner (PhD 1989) – oceanographer, Antarctic researcher
• Bran Ferren (Class of 1974) – Designer, Technologist, Engineer, entertainment technology expert, prolific inventor, Academy Award nominee
• Carl Feynman – computer scientist; son of the physicist Richard Feynman
• Mike Fincke (B.S. Aero/Astro 1989, SB EAPS 1989) – NASA astronaut.
• Marron William Fort (B.S. 1926, M.S. 1927, PhD 1933) – first African-American to earn a PhD in engineering
• Bob Frankston (B.S. 1970, M.S. EE 1974) – co-inventor of Visicalc (first WYSIWYG PC spreadsheet program); critic of telecommunications public policy
• Limor Fried – open-source hardware pioneer, founder of Adafruit Industries
• Simson Garfinkel – journalist, author, computer security researcher, entrepreneur, computer science professor
• Ivan Getting – co-inventor of the Global Positioning System (GPS), Draper Prize (2003)
• Jim Gettys – an original developer of X Window, former director of GNOME
• Yoshimi Goda – Coastal Engineer and recipient of the Order of the Sacred Treasure who undertook research at MIT with Arthur Ippen[51]
• Martha Goodway – archaeometallurgist at the Smithsonian Institution
• Bill Gosper (B.S. 1965) – mathematician, a founder of the original hacker community, pioneer of symbolic computing, originator of hashlife
• Julia R. Greer (B.S. 1997) – materials science professor at Caltech, pioneer in the fields of nanomechanics and architected materials, CNN 2020 Visionary
• Gerald Guralnik (B.S. 1958) – Professor of Physics, Brown University; co-discoverer of Higgs mechanism and Higgs boson in 1964 with C.R. Hagen; awarded J. J. Sakurai Prize for Theoretical Particle Physics in 2010[52]
• C. R. Hagen (B.S., M.S. 1958, PhD. 1963) – Professor of Physics, University of Rochester; co-discoverer of Higgs mechanism and Higgs boson in 1964 with Gerald Guralnik; awarded J. J. Sakurai Prize for Theoretical Particle Physics in (2010)[52][53]
• George Ellery Hale – astronomer, founded several astronomical observatories, developed Throop College of Technology into Caltech
• Heidi Hammel (B.S. 1982) – planetary astronomer who has extensively studied Neptune and Uranus.
• Karen Hao (B.S. 2015), award-winning AI journalist[54][55]
• William W. Happ (M.S.) – Silicon transistor pioneer at Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory, and Professor at Arizona State University.[56]
• Guadalupe Hayes-Mota – (B.S. 2008, M.S. 2016, MBA 2016) - biotechnologist and business director.[57]
• Asegun Henry (M.S., PhD 2009) – mechanical engineer[58]
• Caroline Herzenberg (B.S. 1953) – physicist
• Julian W. Hill (PhD 1928) – inventor of nylon[59]
• C.-T. James Huang (PhD 1982) – generative linguist, Professor and Director of Graduate Studies at Harvard, Fellow of the Linguistic Society of America (2015), recipient of the Linguistic Society of Taiwan's Lifetime Achievement Award (2014)
• David A. Huffman – computer scientist known for Huffman coding used in lossless data compression
• Jerome C. Hunsaker (M.S. 1912, ScD 1923) – pioneering aeronautical engineer, airship designer, former head of MIT Mechanical Engineering Department
• Anya Hurlbert (PhD, 1989) – visual neuroscientist
• William Jeffrey – defense technology expert, former director of National Institute of Standards and Technology
• Thomas Kailath – entrepreneur, retired Stanford professor, IEEE Medal of Honor (2007)
• Rudolf E. Kálmán – electrical engineer, theoretical mathematician, co-inventor of Kalman Filter algorithm, Draper Prize (2008)
• Jordin Kare – high energy laser physicist, developer of "mosquito laser zapper"
• Gregor Kiczales – computer scientist, professor at the University of British Columbia, Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery
• Leonard Kleinrock (M.S. Electrical Engineering 1959, PhD Computer Science 1963) – computing and Internet pioneer, one of the key group of designers of the original ARPANET
• Henry Kloss (1953, dropped out) – audio engineer; entrepreneur; founder of Acoustic Research, KLH, Advent, Kloss Video, Cambridge SoundWorks, Tivoli Audio
• Loren Kohnfelder – introduced the term "public key certificate" for public key cryptography in secure network communication
• Raymond Kurzweil (B.S. 1970) – inventor, entrepreneur in music synthesizers, OCR and speech-to-text processing
• Leslie Lamport (B.S. 1960) – computing pioneer in temporal logic, developer of LaTeX, winner of the Turing Award (2013)
• Robert S. Langer – biochemical engineer, biomedical researcher, MIT professor, inventor, entrepreneur, Draper Prize (2002)
• Norman Levinson (B.S., M.S. 1934, ScD 1935) – theoretical mathematician, former Institute Professor at MIT, developed Levinson recursion
• Daniel Levitin – neuroscientist, music producer, author of This Is Your Brain on Music
• Soung Chang Liew (B.S. 1984, M.S. 1986, PhD 1988) – information engineering professor
• Steven R. Little (PhD 2005) – chemical engineer, pharmaceutical scientist, and department chair of Chemical Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering
• Maureen D. Long (PhD 2006) – observational seismologist
• Edward Norton Lorenz – mathematician, meteorologist, MIT professor emeritus, invented chaos theory, discovered Lorenz attractor
• Joseph Lykken (PhD 1982) – theoretical physicist, proposed "weak scale superstring" theory
• Danilo M Maceda Jr – technology policy expert, software entrepreneur, film writer, software engineer, computer programmer (dropout for hacking CIA server)
• Luz Martinez-Miranda – Physicist and professor at the University of Maryland; first female president of the National Society of Hispanic Physicists[60]
• Hiram Percy Maxim – inventor of the "Maxim Silencer" and founder of the American Radio Relay League
• John F. McCarthy Jr. (B.S. 1950, M.S. 1951) – director of MIT Center for Space Research and director of Lewis Research Center, NASA
• Douglas McIlroy (PhD 1959) – mathematician, software engineer, professor, developed component-based software engineering, an original developer of Unix, member of National Academy of Engineering
• Diane McKnight (B.S. 1975, M.S. 1978, PhD 1979) – engineering professor, limnologist, biogeochemist, Antarctic researcher
• Anne McNeil (Postdoc 2005–2007) – chemist and professor at University of Michigan
• Faye McNeill (PhD 2005) – American atmospheric chemist and Professor of Chemical Engineering at Columbia University
• Parisa Mehrkhodavandi (PhD 2002) – chemist
• Fulvio Melia (PhD 1985) – theoretical astrophysicist, professor, author, editor, general educator
• Holly Michael, (PhD 2005) – hydrogeologist and professor
• Arnold Mindell (MSc 1961) – physicist, author, psychologist – developer of Process Oriented Psychology
• Daniel Mindiola – professor of chemistry at University of Pennsylvania
• Douglas J. Mink (B.S. 1973, M.S. 1974) – astronomer, software developer, co-discovered rings around Uranus, bicycling activist
• Bill Parker – artist, engineer, inventor of the modern plasma lamp
• Bradford Parkinson – co-inventor of the Global Positioning System (GPS), Draper Prize (2003)
• Robert A. "Bob" Pease (B.S. 1961) – analog integrated circuit design expert, technical author
• Irene Pepperberg (B.S. 1969) – Brandeis University professor, researcher in animal cognition, trained Alex (parrot)
• Alan Perlis (M.S. 1949, PhD 1950) – computer scientist, professor, pioneer of programming languages, winner of the first Turing Award (1966)
• Radia Perlman (B.S. 1973, M.S. 1976, PhD 1988) – computer scientist, network engineer, invented numerous data network technologies, "mother of the Internet"
• David Pesetsky (PhD 1982) – generative linguist, Ferrari P. Ward Professor of Modern Languages and Linguistics and Head of the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at the MIT
• Edward Rebar (PhD 1997) – biologist, senior vice president, and chief technology officer at Sangamo Therapeutics
• ChoKyun Rha (B.S. 1962, M.S. 1964, M.S. 1966, SCD 1967) – food technologist, professor at MIT
• Adam Riess (B.S. 1992) – physicist, Nobel Prize winner in Physics awarded in 2011 for demonstrating the acceleration of the universe's rate of expansion
• Louis W. Roberts (PhD 1946) – microwave physicist, chief of the Microwave Laboratory at NASA's Electronics Research Center, director of the John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center[61][62]
• Jerome Saltzer – retired MIT professor, timesharing computing pioneer, co-founder of the Multics project, Director of Project Athena
• Frederick P. Salvucci (B.S. 1961, M.S. 1962) – civil engineer, transportation planner, MIT professor, former Massachusetts Secretary of Transportation, public transit advocate, Big Dig advocate
• George W. Santos – pioneer in bone marrow transplantation
• Bob Scheifler – computer scientist, leader of the X Window System project, architect of Jini
• Julie Segre – epithelial biologist, Chief of the Human Genome Research Institute
• Oliver Selfridge – computer scientist, father of machine perception
• Claude Shannon – mathematician, electrical engineer, and cryptographer known as "the father of information theory"
• Amy B. Smith (B.S. 1984, M.S. 1995) – mechanical engineer, inventor, former Peace Corps volunteer, MIT senior lecturer and researcher in appropriate technology, MacArthur Fellow (2004)
• Oliver R. Smoot – namesake of the smoot unit of measurement, former chair of ANSI; former president of ISO
• Richard M. Stallman (grad student, dropped out) – computer programmer; Free Software activist; creator of EMACS editor, GNU; MacArthur Fellow (1990)
• Guy L. Steele, Jr. (M.S. 1977, PhD 1980) – computer scientist, programming language expert, an original editor of the Jargon File (Hacker's Dictionary)
• Richard Stratt (B.S. 1975) – professor of physical chemistry at Brown University
• Mahmooda Sultana (PhD 2010) – NASA research engineer[63]
• Bert Sutherland (M.S., PhD) – managed research laboratories, including Sun Microsystems Laboratories (1992–1998), the Systems Science Laboratory at Xerox PARC (1975–1981), and the Computer Science Division of Bolt, Beranek and Newman
• Ivan Sutherland (PhD 1963) – computer graphics pioneer, former professor, ARPAnet and Internet pioneer, co-founded Evans & Sutherland, Turing Award (1988)
• Lynne Talley (PhD 1982) – physical oceanographer, professor[64]
• Badri Nath Tandon (1961) – gastroenterologist, textbook author, Sasakawa WHO Health Prize and Padma Bhushan winner
• Andrew S. Tanenbaum (B.S. 1965) – computer scientist, professor, textbook author (operating systems), creator of Minix (the precursor to Linux)
• Frederick Terman – electrical engineer; former provost of Stanford University; "father of Silicon Valley"
• Ray Tomlinson – innovator of email systems, pioneered the use of the "@" symbol for email
• Leonard H. Tower Jr. (B.S. Biology 1971) – early Free Software activist, software hacker
• John G. Trump – electrical engineer, inventor, and physicist
• Kay Tye – neuroscientist, MIT assistant professor
• Denisa Wagner – vascular biologist at Harvard Medical School
• Ann M. Valentine – chemist, professor at Yale and Temple University
• Manuel Sandoval Vallarta – MIT professor, founder of the Physics Institute at UNAM; mentor of Nobel laureate Richard Feynman
• Susie Wee – Women in Technology International laureate; CTEO of Collaboration at Cisco
• Robert Williams Wood – optical physicist, developed "black light", ultraviolet and infrared photography
• Joshua Wurman – meteorologist, inventor, developed the Doppler On Wheels, Bistatic Weather Radar Networks, founder and president of Center for Severe Weather Research (CSWR)
• Jenny Y Yang (PhD 2007) – chemist
• Edward Yourdon – computer pioneer, author, lecturer, popularized the term "Y2K Bug"
• Gregorio Y. Zara – inventor of the first two-way videophone; National Scientist of the Philippines
• Günter M. Ziegler – mathematician, Free University of Berlin professor, ex-president of the German Mathematical Society, recipient of the Chauvenet and Leroy P. Steele prizes

• Jimmy Bartolotta (2009) – professional basketball player
• Charles Butt, Jr. (1941) – rowing coach
• Skip Dise (2003) – member of 2010 US National Rowing Team[65]
• Adam Edelman (2014) – American-born Israeli Olympic skeleton athlete
• Johan Harmenberg (dropped out circa 1975-1977; drafted by Sweden) – épée fencer, gold medal winner in the 1980 Olympics, world champion
• Larry Kahn – tiddlywinks champion
• Dave Lockwood (1975) – tiddlywinks champion
• Jeff Sagarin (1970) – sports statistician
• Zeke Sanborn – Olympic gold medalist
• Jason Szuminski (2000) – major league pitcher
• Steve Tucker (1991) – two-time member of the US Olympic rowing team

• Katy Croff Bell (B.S. Ocean Engineering 2000) – National Geographic explorer
• Sylvester Q. Cannon (B.S. Mining Engineering) – Apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
• Csaba Csere (1978 B.S., 2 Mechanical Engineering) – automotive journalist, editor of Car and Driver
• Janet Hsieh (2001) – Taiwanese-American television personality, violinist, author, and model; host of Fun Taiwan
• Jeff Hwang – US Air Force fighter pilot, 1999 winner of Mackay Trophy
• J. Kenji López-Alt (2002 B.S., 4, Architecture) – celebrity chef, author of The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science
• Ray Magliozzi (1972 B.S., 21B, Humanities and Science) – radio personality, Car Talk
• Tom Magliozzi (1958 B.S., 14A, Economic Policy and Engineering) – radio personality, Car Talk
• Lalit Pande (1972 M.S., 2 Mechanical Engineering) – environmentalist and Padma Shri awardee
• London Akira Mizuno (2000 B.S. Electrical engineer)
• Randal Pinkett – chairman and CEO of BCT Partners; winner of television show The Apprentice
• Ubol Ratana (1973 B.S., 18 Mathematics) – Princess of Thailand
• Aafia Siddiqui (1995 B.S., 7 Biology / Life Science) – neuroscientist; alleged Al-Qaeda operative; convicted of assaulting with a deadly weapon and attempting to kill US soldiers and FBI agents
• Ellen Spertus (1990 B.S., 1992 M.S., 1998 PhD, Computer Science) – professor, computer scientist, 2001's "Sexiest Geek Alive"
• Kelvin Teo (M.S. 2006) – young entrepreneur and season 1 winner of Malaysian reality show Love Me Do
• Robert Varkonyi (1983 B.S., 15 Management, 1983 SB, 6 Computer Science and Engineering) – winner of the 2002 World Series of Poker Main Event

• Lex Luthor, diabolical genius and supervillain of the DC Universe
• Tim McGee, field agent specializing in cybersecurity and computer crime on NCIS, portrayed by Sean Murray
• Tony Stark, alter ego of Iron Man, portrayed by Robert Downey Jr. in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films
• Howard Wolowitz, character on The Big Bang Theory, portrayed by Simon Helberg
• Gordon Freeman, the silent protagonist of Half-Life (series), graduated at MIT with a Ph.D. degree in Theoretical Physics

As of April 2011, the MIT Office of the Provost says that 76 Nobel awardees had or currently have a formal connection to MIT.[66] Of this group, 29 have earned MIT degrees (MIT has never awarded honorary degrees in any form).[1]

• List of companies founded by MIT alumni