Founded by Amos G. Throop in 1891 as Throop University, name changed to Throop Polytechnic Institute, Throop College of Technology, and then California Institute of Technology in 1921.
| Name | Occupation | Birth | Death | Known for |
|---|
| Carl David Anderson |
Physicist |
3-Sep-1905 |
11-Jan-1991 |
Discovered the positron, mu-meson |
| Moshe Arens |
Politician |
27-Dec-1925 |
|
Likud Minister |
| Horace W. Babcock |
Astronomer |
13-Sep-1912 |
29-Aug-2003 |
Adaptive optics and the Babcock Model |
| George Beadle |
Scientist |
22-Oct-1903 |
9-Jun-1989 |
One gene, one enzyme theory |
| Arnold Beckman |
Inventor |
10-Apr-1900 |
18-May-2004 |
Philanthropist who invented pH meter |
| David Bohm |
Physicist |
20-Dec-1917 |
29-Oct-1992 |
Particle physicist |
| Frank Borman |
Astronaut |
14-Mar-1928 |
|
First to circumnavigate moon |
| Ira S. Bowen |
Astronomer |
21-Dec-1898 |
6-Feb-1973 |
Debunked nebulium |
| Richard Brautigan |
Author |
30-Jan-1935 |
14-Oct-1984 |
So the Wind Won't Blow it All Away |
| David Brin |
Novelist |
6-Oct-1950 |
|
The Uplift War |
| E. Margaret Burbidge |
Astronomer |
12-Aug-1919 |
|
Synthesis of the elements in stars |
| Geoffrey Burbidge |
Astronomer |
24-Sep-1925 |
26-Jan-2010 |
Quasi-steady state cosmology |
| L. Sprague de Camp |
Author |
27-Nov-1907 |
6-Nov-2000 |
Lest Darkness Fall |
| Frank Capra |
Film Director |
18-May-1897 |
3-Sep-1991 |
It's A Wonderful Life |
| Chester Carlson |
Inventor |
8-Feb-1906 |
19-Sep-1968 |
Invented Xerography |
| John S. Chen |
Business |
1-Jul-1955 |
|
CEO of Sybase |
| WenChi Chen |
Business |
? |
|
President and CEO, VIA Technologies |
| France A. Córdova |
Educator |
5-Aug-1947 |
|
President, Purdue University |
| Kevin Drum |
Blogger |
19-Oct-1958 |
|
Washington Monthly's Political Animal |
| James J. Duderstadt |
Educator |
5-Dec-1942 |
|
President, University of Michigan, 1988-96 |
| Robert G. Edwards |
Scientist |
27-Sep-1925 |
10-Apr-2013 |
In vitro fertilization |
| Ed Felten |
Computer Programmer |
25-Mar-1963 |
|
Broke SDMI |
| William A. Fowler |
Astronomer |
9-Aug-1911 |
14-Mar-1995 |
Element generation within stars |
| D. Carleton Gajdusek |
Scientist |
9-Sep-1923 |
12-Dec-2008 |
Kuru (slow virus infections) |
| Gregory L. Geoffroy |
Educator |
c. 1946 |
|
President, Iowa State University |
| Sheldon Glashow |
Physicist |
5-Dec-1932 |
|
Electroweak Theory |
| Jesse L. Greenstein |
Astronomer |
15-Oct-1909 |
21-Oct-2002 |
Co-Discoverer of quasars |
| Virgil Griffith |
Computer Programmer |
6-Mar-1983 |
|
Author of WikiScanner |
| Narendra K. Gupta |
Business |
c. 1949 |
|
Co-Founder, Integrated Systems Inc. |
| Leland H. Hartwell |
Scientist |
30-Oct-1939 |
|
Regulators of cell cycle |
| David Ho |
Doctor |
3-Nov-1952 |
|
AIDS researcher |
| Robert W. Holley |
Scientist |
28-Jan-1922 |
11-Feb-1993 |
RNA's role in protein synthesis |
| Leroy Hood |
Biologist |
10-Oct-1938 |
|
Systems biology and Human Genome Project |
| Fred Hoyle |
Astronomer |
24-Jun-1915 |
20-Aug-2001 |
Opposed the Big Bang but named it |
| Tsien Hsue-shen |
Scientist |
11-Dec-1911 |
31-Oct-2009 |
Founder of Chinese space program |
| Howard Hughes |
Business |
24-Sep-1905 |
5-Apr-1976 |
Insane billionaire |
| Vernon W. Hughes |
Physicist |
28-May-1921 |
25-Mar-2003 |
Muons |
| Niels K. Jerne |
Scientist |
23-Dec-1911 |
7-Oct-1994 |
Immune theory (anti-antibody) |
| Pierre H. Jungels |
Business |
c. 1945 |
|
CEO of Enterprise Oil, 1997-2001 |
| Herman Kahn |
Scholar |
15-Feb-1922 |
7-Jul-1983 |
Hudson Institute founder |
| Theodore von Kármán |
Mathematician |
11-May-1881 |
7-May-1963 |
Kármán vortices |
| Martin Karplus |
Chemist |
15-Mar-1930 |
|
Karplus Equation |
| Tom Kibble |
Mathematician |
23-Dec-1932 |
2-Jun-2016 |
Zurek-Kibble theory |
| Donald E. Knuth |
Computer Programmer |
10-Jan-1938 |
|
The Art of Computer Programming |
| Robert B. Leighton |
Astronomer |
10-Sep-1919 |
9-Mar-1997 |
Leighton dishes |
| Edward B. Lewis |
Scientist |
20-May-1918 |
21-Jul-2004 |
Drosophila researcher, Nobel laureate |
| Allan J. Lichtman |
Historian |
4-Apr-1947 |
|
The Keys to the White House |
| John C. Lilly |
Scientist |
6-Jan-1915 |
30-Sep-2001 |
Human-dolphin communication |
| William Lipscomb |
Chemist |
9-Dec-1919 |
14-Apr-2011 |
Chemical bonding |
| Sandra Tsing Loh |
Radio Personality |
11-Feb-1962 |
|
The Loh Life |
| Donald Lynden-Bell |
Astronomer |
5-Apr-1935 |
|
Astrophysicist at Cambridge |
| Benoit Mandelbrot |
Mathematician |
20-Nov-1924 |
14-Oct-2010 |
Fractal mathematician |
| Jessica Tuchman Mathews |
Government |
1946 |
|
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace |
| John McCarthy |
Computer Programmer |
4-Sep-1927 |
24-Oct-2011 |
Created LISP programming language |
| Pete McCloskey |
Politician |
29-Sep-1927 |
|
Congressman from California, 1967-83 |
| Daniel L. McFadden |
Economist |
29-Jul-1937 |
|
Statistical analysis of individual and household behavior |
| Edward McGaffigan |
Government |
8-Dec-1948 |
2-Sep-2007 |
NRC Commissioner, 1996-2007 |
| Harold McGee |
Author |
1951 |
|
On Food and Cooking |
| Edwin M. McMillan |
Physicist |
18-Sep-1907 |
7-Sep-1991 |
Discovered neptunium and plutonium |
| Carver A. Mead |
Engineer |
1-May-1934 |
|
Microelectronics |
| Robert C. Merton |
Economist |
31-Jul-1944 |
|
Risk management and options |
| Ruben Mettler |
Business |
23-Feb-1924 |
23-May-2006 |
CEO of TRW, 1969-77 |
| Stanley Miller |
Chemist |
7-Mar-1930 |
20-May-2007 |
Miller-Urey Experiment |
| Mario J. Molina |
Chemist |
19-Mar-1943 |
|
Ozone depletion |
| Jacques Monod |
Scientist |
9-Feb-1910 |
31-May-1976 |
Operon theory of genetic control |
| Gordon Moore |
Business |
3-Jan-1929 |
|
Co-founder of Intel, laid down Moore's Law |
| Rudolf Mössbauer |
Physicist |
31-Jan-1929 |
14-Sep-2011 |
Discovered Mössbauer effect |
| Erwin Neher |
Scientist |
20-Mar-1944 |
|
Cellular ion channels |
| Patrick H. Nettles |
Business |
1943 |
|
CEO of Ciena, 1994-2000 |
| Gerry Neugebauer |
Astronomer |
3-Sep-1932 |
|
Infrared astronomy |
| Larry Niven |
Author |
30-Apr-1938 |
|
Ringworld and Known Space series |
| Bill Nye |
TV Personality |
27-Nov-1955 |
|
Bill Nye the Science Guy |
| Barney Oliver |
Astronomer |
27-May-1916 |
23-Nov-1995 |
SETI researcher |
| Frank Oppenheimer |
Physicist |
14-Aug-1912 |
3-Feb-1985 |
Founder of the Exploratorium |
| Douglas D. Osheroff |
Physicist |
1-Aug-1945 |
|
Superfluidity of helium-3 |
| Pief Panofsky |
Physicist |
24-Apr-1919 |
24-Sep-2007 |
Stanford Linear Accelerator |
| Eugene Parker |
Astronomer |
10-Jun-1927 |
|
Solar winds |
| Gerhard H. Parker |
Business |
c. 1943 |
|
Retired Intel VP |
| Jack Parsons |
Scientist |
2-Oct-1914 |
17-Jul-1952 |
Satanic rocket scientist |
| Linus Pauling |
Chemist |
28-Feb-1901 |
19-Aug-1994 |
Scientist and peacenik |
| William Pierce |
Author |
11-Sep-1933 |
23-Jul-2002 |
The Turner Diaries |
| Kenneth S. Pitzer |
Chemist |
6-Jan-1914 |
26-Dec-1997 |
President of Rice University, 1961-68 |
| John Poindexter |
Military |
12-Aug-1936 |
|
Iran-Contra criminal |
| James Rainwater |
Physicist |
9-Dec-1917 |
31-May-1986 |
Determined shapes of nuclei |
| Karl L. Rankin |
Diplomat |
4-Sep-1898 |
15-Jan-1991 |
US Ambassador to Taiwan, 1950-57 |
| Martin Rees |
Astronomer |
23-Jun-1942 |
|
President of the Royal Society |
| Charles Richter |
Scientist |
26-Apr-1900 |
30-Sep-1985 |
Groundbreaking seismologist |
| Stephen A. Ross |
Economist |
c. 1943 |
|
Professor of Financial Economics, MIT |
| Carl Sagan |
Astronomer |
9-Nov-1934 |
20-Dec-1996 |
Popular astronomer, host of Cosmos |
| Allan R. Sandage |
Astronomer |
18-Jun-1926 |
13-Nov-2010 |
Quasars and Hubble-Sandage variable stars |
| Wallace Sargent |
Astronomer |
15-Feb-1935 |
29-Oct-2012 |
Astrophysicist at CalTech |
| Maarten Schmidt |
Astronomer |
28-Dec-1929 |
|
Co-Discoverer of quasars |
| Jack Schmitt |
Astronaut |
3-Jul-1935 |
|
12th Man on the Moon |
| John Patrick Schmitz |
Government |
1955 |
|
Washington lobbyist |
| William R. Sears |
Engineer |
1-Mar-1913 |
12-Oct-2002 |
Airfoil engineer |
| Phillip A. Sharp |
Biologist |
6-Jun-1944 |
|
Eukaryotic (split) genes |
| Tsutomu Shimomura |
Physicist |
23-Oct-1964 |
|
Helped catch Kevin Mitnick |
| William Shockley |
Physicist |
13-Feb-1910 |
12-Aug-1989 |
Co-Inventor of the transistor |
| Vernon L. Smith |
Economist |
1-Jan-1927 |
|
Experimental economics |
| H. Guyford Stever |
Educator |
24-Oct-1916 |
9-Apr-2010 |
President of CMU, 1965-72 |
| Ivan Sutherland |
Engineer |
16-May-1938 |
|
Father of computer graphics |
| Timothy Swager |
Chemist |
1-Jul-1961 |
|
Chemist at MIT |
| Howard M. Temin |
Scientist |
10-Dec-1934 |
9-Feb-1994 |
Tumor viruses and host genetics |
| Charles H. Townes |
Physicist |
28-Jul-1915 |
27-Jan-2015 |
Invention of the maser and laser |
| George M. Whitesides |
Chemist |
3-Aug-1939 |
|
Harvard chemist, highest H-Index |
| Kenneth G. Wilson |
Physicist |
8-Jun-1936 |
15-Jun-2013 |
Second-order phase transitions |
| Robert Woodrow Wilson |
Astronomer |
10-Jan-1936 |
|
Detected primordial radiation |
| Ralph D. Winter |
Religion |
? |
|
US Center for World Mission |
| Stephen Wolfram |
Mathematician |
29-Aug-1959 |
|
Creator of Mathematica |
| Mark S. Wrighton |
Educator |
1949 |
|
Chancellor, Washington University in St. Louis |
| Name | Occupation | Birth | Death | Known for |
|---|
| John F. Akers |
Business |
28-Dec-1934 |
22-Aug-2014 |
CEO of IBM, 1986-93 |
| Robert O. Anderson |
Business |
13-Apr-1917 |
2-Dec-2007 |
CEO of ARCO, 1966-86 |
| George Argyros |
Business |
4-Feb-1937 |
|
Billionaire |
| Horace W. Babcock |
Astronomer |
13-Sep-1912 |
29-Aug-2003 |
Adaptive optics and the Babcock Model |
| David Baltimore |
Biologist |
7-Mar-1938 |
|
Co-Discoverer, reverse transcriptase |
| Donald R. Beall |
Business |
c. 1939 |
|
CEO of Rockwell, 1988-98 |
| Arnold Beckman |
Inventor |
10-Apr-1900 |
18-May-2004 |
Philanthropist who invented pH meter |
| John G. Bolton |
Astronomer |
5-Jun-1922 |
6-Jul-1993 |
First Director of Parkes Observatory |
| Ira S. Bowen |
Astronomer |
21-Dec-1898 |
6-Feb-1973 |
Debunked nebulium |
| Eli Broad |
Business |
6-Jun-1933 |
|
Billionaire |
| Harold Brown |
Government |
19-Sep-1927 |
|
US Secretary of Defense, 1977-81 |
| John E. Bryson |
Business |
24-Jul-1943 |
|
US Secretary of Commerce, 2011-12 |
| Jean-Lou Chameau |
Educator |
1953 |
|
President, California Institute of Technology |
| Henry Dreyfuss |
Inventor |
2-Mar-1904 |
5-Oct-1972 |
Product designer, human factors engineer |
| Thomas E. Everhart |
Physicist |
15-Feb-1932 |
|
President of CalTech, 1987-97 |
| Robert W. Galvin |
Business |
9-Oct-1922 |
11-Oct-2011 |
CEO of Motorola, 1959-90 |
| Harold J. Haynes |
Business |
29-Sep-1925 |
8-Jul-2009 |
CEO of Standard Oil of California, 1974-81 |
| David Ho |
Doctor |
3-Nov-1952 |
|
AIDS researcher |
| Shirley Hufstedler |
Judge |
24-Aug-1925 |
30-Mar-2016 |
US Secretary of Education, 1979-81 |
| Bobby Ray Inman |
Military |
4-Apr-1931 |
|
Admiral, NSA Director, Deputy CIA Director |
| Theodore von Kármán |
Mathematician |
11-May-1881 |
7-May-1963 |
Kármán vortices |
| Richard Kovacevich |
Business |
30-Oct-1943 |
|
CEO of Wells Fargo, 1998-2007 |
| Kent Kresa |
Business |
24-Mar-1938 |
|
CEO of Northrop Grumman, 1990-2003 |
| Andrew E. Lange |
Astronomer |
23-Jul-1957 |
22-Jan-2010 |
Cosmologist, astrophysicist at Caltech |
| John McCone |
Government |
4-Jan-1902 |
14-Feb-1991 |
CIA Director, 1961-65 |
| Ruben Mettler |
Business |
23-Feb-1924 |
23-May-2006 |
CEO of TRW, 1969-77 |
| Robert A. Millikan |
Physicist |
22-Mar-1868 |
19-Dec-1953 |
Determined the charge of an electron |
| Gordon Moore |
Business |
3-Jan-1929 |
|
Co-founder of Intel, laid down Moore's Law |
| Thomas H. Morgan |
Scientist |
25-Sep-1866 |
4-Dec-1945 |
Fruit fly chromosomes and heredity |
| Peter W. Mullin |
Business |
c. 1940 |
|
Mullin Consulting, Inc. |
| Philip M. Neal |
Business |
1940 |
|
CEO of Avery Dennison, 1998-2005 |
| Patrick H. Nettles |
Business |
1943 |
|
CEO of Ciena, 1994-2000 |
| Gerry Neugebauer |
Astronomer |
3-Sep-1932 |
|
Infrared astronomy |
| Ronald L. Olson |
Attorney |
1941 |
|
Munger Tolles & Olson |
| Linus Pauling |
Chemist |
28-Feb-1901 |
19-Aug-1994 |
Scientist and peacenik |
| Stewart A. Resnick |
Business |
c. 1938 |
|
Roll International |
| Arthur Rock |
Business |
19-Aug-1926 |
|
Coined term "Venture Capitalism" |
| Stephen A. Ross |
Economist |
c. 1943 |
|
Professor of Financial Economics, MIT |
| Wallace Sargent |
Astronomer |
15-Feb-1935 |
29-Oct-2012 |
Astrophysicist at CalTech |
| Maarten Schmidt |
Astronomer |
28-Dec-1929 |
|
Co-Discoverer of quasars |
| Roger Smith |
Business |
12-Jul-1925 |
29-Nov-2007 |
CEO of General Motors, 1980-90 |
| Dennis Stanfill |
Business |
1-Apr-1927 |
|
CEO of 20th Century Fox, 1971-81 |
| Marc I. Stern |
Business |
c. 1944 |
|
Chairman, GIMS North America |
| Donald W. Tang |
Business |
c. 1963 |
|
Vice Chairman of Bear Stearns |
| Lew Wasserman |
Business |
22-Mar-1913 |
3-Jun-2002 |
Chairman and CEO of MCA, 1946-95 |
| Walter L. Weisman |
Business |
c. 1935 |
|
American Medical International |
| Ahmed H. Zewail |
Chemist |
26-Feb-1946 |
2-Aug-2016 |
Femtochemistry |
