California Institute of Technology

The California Institute of Technology (commonly known as Caltech) is a private, coeducational university located in Pasadena, California, in the United States. One of the world's premier research universities, Caltech maintains a strong emphasis on the natural sciences and engineering. Caltech also owns and manages the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), a world-leading autonomous-space-flight complex that oversees the design and operation of most of NASA's space-probes.

Noted alumni

• Carl D. Anderson, BS 1927, PhD 1930 - Nobel laureate in physics (1936)
• Moshe Arens, MS 1953 - former Israeli defense minister and foreign minister
• Arnold Beckman, PhD 1928 - Founder of Beckman Instruments and financier of the first "silicon" company in Silicon Valley, Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory.
• Sabeer Bhatia, BS 1991 - Co-founder of Hotmail
• David Brin, BS 1973 - science fiction author
• Frank Capra, BS 1918 - Filmmaker, director of such classics as It's a Wonderful Life
• Chester Carlson, BS 1930 - Inventor of the photocopier, the foundation of Xerox
• Chung-Yao Chao, PhD 1930 - The first scientist that captured positron through electron-positron annihilation. Father of atomic energy enterprise of China.
• Sidney Coleman, PhD 1962 - theoretical physicist
• Fernando J. Corbató, BS 1950 - Computer scientist, recipient of the 1990 Turing Award
• William A. Fowler, PhD 1936 - Nobel laureate in physics (1983)
• Yuan-Cheng Fung, PhD 1948 - Founder of Biomechanics
• Donald A. Glaser, PhD 1950 - Nobel laureate in physics (1960)
• Juris Hartmanis, PhD 1955 - Computer scientist, recipient of the 1993 Turing Award
• Leland H. Hartwell, BS 1961 - Nobel laureate in physiology or medicine (2001)
• N. Katherine Hayles, MS 1966- critical theorist
• Steingrímur Hermannsson, MS 1952 - former Prime Minister of Iceland
• David Ho, BS 1974 - AIDS researcher
• Tsien Hsue-shen, PhD 1939 - Father of China's rocket program
• Herman Kahn, graduate studies - Nuclear strategist
• Donald Knuth, PhD 1963 - Computer scientist, creator of TeX typesetting language, and author of The Art of Computer Programming, recipient of the 1974 Turing Award
• Edward B. Lewis, PhD 1942 - Nobel laureate in physiology or medicine (1995)
• York Liao, BS 1967 - inventor of liquid crystal displays
• Alan Lightman, PhD 1974 - physicist and novelist
• William Lipscomb, PhD 1946 - Nobel laureate in chemistry (1976)
• Sandra Tsing Loh, BS 1983 - writer, performer, musician, humorist
• Paul MacCready, MS 1948, PhD 1952 - Father of Human Powered Flight, invented the Gossamer Condor and the Gossamer Albatross
• Benoît Mandelbrot, Eng 1949 - Pioneer of fractal geometry
• John McCarthy, BS 1948 - Computer scientist, inventor of the Lisp programming language and recipient of the 1971 Turing Award
• Edwin Mattison McMillan, BS 1928, MS 1929 - Nobel laureate in chemistry (1951)
• Robert C. Merton, MS 1967 - Nobel laureate in economics (1997)
• Mark M. Mills, PhD 1948 - nuclear physicist.
• Cleve Moler, BS 1961 - Inventor of MATLAB, co-founder of The MathWorks, influential in the field of numerical analysis
• Gordon E. Moore, PhD 1954 - co-founder of Intel Corp. and author of Moore's law
• Andrew Odlyzko, BS, MS 1971 - mathematician, demonstrated the Montgomery-Odlyzko Law
• Frank Oppenheimer, PhD 1939 - Manhattan Project physicist, founder of the Exploratorium
• Douglas D. Osheroff, BS 1967 - Nobel laureate in physics (1996)
• Linus Pauling, PhD 1925 - Nobel laureate in chemistry (1954) and peace (1962)
• William Luther Pierce, graduate studies - Neo-Nazi activist, founder of the white supremacist National Alliance, author of The Turner Diaries
• Kenneth Pitzer, BS 1935 - winner of the National Medal of Science, third president of Rice University, sixth president of Stanford University, Director of Research for Atomic Energy Commission (1949-1951)
• John M. Poindexter, PhD 1964 - Director of DARPA Information Awareness Office, National Security Advisor to Ronald Reagan
• Leo James Rainwater, BS 1939 - Nobel laureate in physics (1975)
• Simon Ramo, PhD 1936 - co-founder of TRW and developed ICBMs
• Benjamin Rosen, BS 1954 - co-founder of Compaq
• Harrison Schmitt, BS 1957 - astronaut and US Senator, the only geologist to have ever walked on the moon
• William Shockley, BS 1932 - Nobel laureate in physics (1956)
• Vernon L. Smith, BS 1949 - Nobel laureate in economics (2002)
• Robert Tarjan, BS 1969 - Computer scientist, recipient of the 1986 Turing Award
• Howard M. Temin, PhD 1960 - Nobel laureate in physiology or medicine (1975)
• Charles H. Townes, PhD 1939 - Nobel laureate in physics (1964)
• Harry Turtledove, undergraduate studies - historian and fiction writer
• Kenneth G. Wilson, PhD 1961 - Nobel laureate in physics (1982)
• Robert W. Wilson, PhD 1962 - Nobel laureate in physics (1978)
• Stephen Wolfram, PhD 1979 - Creator of Mathematica