# List of California Institute of Technology people

The California Institute of Technology has had numerous notable alumni and faculty.

## Notable alumni

Alumni who went on to become members of the faculty are listed only in this category.

### Physics and astronomy

* Marc Aaronson, BS 1972
* George O. Abell, BS 1951, MS 1952, PhD 1957; Professor of Astronomy UCLA
* Charles R. Alcock, PhD 1977
* Berni Alder, PhD 1951; National Medal of Science recipient
* Carl D. Anderson, BS 1927, PhD 1930, faculty – Nobel laureate in physics (1936) for proving the existence of positrons
* Roger Angel, MS 1966; Kavli Prize laureate; awarded MacArthur Fellowship
* Horace W. Babcock, BS 1934
* James M. Bardeen, PhD 1965
* Eric Becklin, PhD 1968
* Edmund Bertschinger, BS 1979
* Eric Betzig, BS 1983, co-recipient of 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy"
* J. Richard Bond, PhD 1979; Gruber Prize in Cosmology winner
* Ira Sprague Bowen, PhD 1926
* Robert Brode, PhD 1924
* Carlton M. Caves, PhD 1979
* Paul Chaikin, BS 1966
* Chung-Yao Chao, PhD 1930
* John Clauser, BS 1964; Wolf Prize winner and co-recipient of 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics "for experiments with entangled photons, establishing the violation of Bell inequalities and pioneering quantum information science"
* Donald D. Clayton, PhD 1962
* Judith Gamora Cohen, PhD 1971; Kate Van Nuys Page Professor of Astronomy at Caltech
* Sidney Coleman, PhD 1962
* H. Richard Crane, BS 1930, PhD 1934; National Medal of Science recipient
* Roger Dashen, PhD 1964
* Lance J. Dixon, BS 1982
* Robley D. Evans, BS 1928, PhD 1932
* Alexei Filippenko, PhD 1984
* James C. Fletcher, PhD 1948
* William A. Fowler, PhD 1936, faculty; Nobel laureate in physics (1983) "for his theoretical and experimental studies of the nuclear reactions of importance in the formation of the chemical elements in the universe"; National Medal of Science recipient
* Edward Fredkin, undergraduate studies (1952)
* Neil Gehrels, PhD 1982; Dan David Prize winner
* Andrea M. Ghez, PhD 1992; Crafoord Prize Laureate in Astronomy, 2012; Sackler Prize winner; awarded MacArthur Fellowship; co-recipient of 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics "for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy"
* Donald A. Glaser, PhD 1950; Nobel laureate in physics (1960) "for the invention of the bubble chamber"
* James E. Gunn, PhD 1966; Crafoord Prize Laureate in Astronomy, 2005; Gruber Prize in Cosmology winner; National Medal of Science recipient; Kyoto Prize winner
* Robert N. Hall, BS 1942, PhD 1948
* James Hartle, PhD 1964
* Jeffrey A. Harvey, PhD 1981
* Lars Hernquist, PhD 1985; Gruber Prize in Cosmology winner
* John Huchra, PhD 1976
* Vernon W. Hughes, MS 1942
* Kamaloddin Jenab, PhD 1936
* David C. Jewitt, PhD 1983; Shaw Prize laureate; Kavli Prize laureate
* Kenneth Kellermann, PhD 1963
* Robert Kirshner, PhD 1975; Wolf Prize winner
* Steven E. Koonin, BS 1972; former faculty; former Undersecretary for Science, Department of Energy; former chief scientist at BP
* John Kormendy, PhD 1976
* Charles Christian Lauritsen, PhD 1929
* Thomas Lauritsen, BS 1936, PhD 1939; former Professor of Physics at Caltech; member of National Academy of Sciences
* Robert B. Leighton, BS 1941, PhD 1947
* Tom Lubensky, BS 1964
* Hideo Mabuchi, PhD 1998; awarded MacArthur Fellowship
* Arthur B. McDonald, PhD 1969; Nobel laureate in physics (2015) "for the discovery of neutrino oscillations, which shows that neutrinos have mass"; Breakthrough Prize laureate
* William B. McLean, BS 1935, PhD 1939
* Curt Michel, BS 1955, PhD 1962; selected as NASA scientist-astronaut (but was not assigned to any spaceflight missions)
* Dimitri Mihalas, PhD 1963
* Mark M. Mills, PhD 1948
* Morris Muskat, PhD 1929
* Seth Neddermeyer, PhD 1935
* Jerry Nelson, BS 1965; Kavli Prize laureate
* Gerry Neugebauer, PhD 1960; former faculty
* Jens Rud Nielsen, PhD 1924; Guggenheim Fellow
* Frank Oppenheimer, PhD 1939; Manhattan Project physicist; founder of the Exploratorium
* Douglas D. Osheroff, BS 1967; Nobel laureate in physics (1996) "for their discovery of superfluidity in helium-3"; awarded MacArthur Fellowship
* Wolfgang K. H. Panofsky, PhD 1942; National Medal of Science recipient
* Eugene Parker, PhD 1951; Kyoto Prize laureate; National Medal of Science recipient; Crafoord Prize Laureate in Astronomy (2020)
* Joseph Polchinski, BS 1975; Breakthrough Prize laureate
* Charles Y. Prescott, PhD 1966
* William H. Press, PhD 1973
* David E. Pritchard, BS 1962
* Leo James Rainwater, BS 1939; Nobel laureate in physics (1975) "for the discovery of the connection between collective motion and particle motion in atomic nuclei and the development of the theory of the structure of the atomic nucleus based on this connection"
* Wade Regehr, PhD 1988
* Howard Percy Robertson, PhD 1925; former faculty
* Malvin Ruderman, PhD 1951
* Allan Sandage, PhD 1953; Crafoord Prize Laureate in Astronomy, 1991; Gruber Prize in Cosmology winner; National Medal of Science recipient
* Anneila Sargent, PhD 1967; faculty
* Paul Schechter, PhD 1975
* Robert J. Schoelkopf, PhD 1995
* Kate Scholberg, PhD 1996
* David Schramm, PhD 1971
* Bernard F. Schutz, PhD 1972
* William Shockley, BS 1932; Nobel laureate in physics (1956) "for their researches on semiconductors and their discovery of the transistor effect"
* Charles C. Steidel, PhD 1990; Lee A. DuBridge Professor of Astronomy at Caltech; MacArthur Fellow (2002); Gruber Prize in Cosmology winner
* Paul Steinhardt, BS 1973
* Guyford Stever, PhD 1941; National Medal of Science recipient
* Martin Summerfield, PhD 1941
* Saul Teukolsky, PhD 1973
* Kip Thorne, BS 1962; faculty; Richard P. Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics, Emeritus at Caltech; Shaw Prize laureate; Kavli Prize laureate; Breakthrough Prize laureate; Gruber Prize in Cosmology winner; Harvey Prize recipient; co-recipient of 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics "for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves"
* William G. Tifft, PhD 1958
* Alvin V. Tollestrup, PhD 1950; former faculty; National Medal of Technology and Innovation recipient
* Charles H. Townes, PhD 1939; Nobel laureate in physics (1964) "for fundamental work in the field of quantum electronics, which has led to the construction of oscillators and amplifiers based on the maser-laser principle"; National Medal of Science recipient
* Virginia Louise Trimble, PhD 1968
* Alvin Trivelpiece, PhD 1958
* Michael Turner, BS 1971
* George Wallerstein, PhD 1958
* Clifford Martin Will, PhD 1971
* Kenneth G. Wilson, PhD 1961; Wolf Prize laureate (1980), Nobel laureate in physics (1982) "for his theory for critical phenomena in connection with phase transitions"
* Olin Chaddock Wilson, PhD 1934
* Robert W. Wilson, PhD 1962; Nobel laureate in physics (1978) "for their discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation"
* Bruce Winstein, PhD 1970
* Jack Wisdom, PhD 1981; awarded MacArthur Fellowship
* Stephen Wolfram, PhD 1979; awarded MacArthur Fellowship
* George Zweig, PhD 1964; awarded MacArthur Fellowship
* Barton Zwiebach, PhD 1983
* Norman J. Zabusky, PhD 1959

### Chemistry and chemical engineering

* Peter B. Armentrout, PhD 1980
* Jesse L. Beauchamp, BS 1964
* Arnold Beckman, PhD 1928; inventor of the pH meter, founder of Beckman Instruments and financier of the first "silicon" company in Silicon Valley, Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory; National Medal of Technology and Innovation recipient; National Medal of Science recipient
* David Beratan, PhD 1986
* Rena Bizios, MS 1971
* Richard D. Braatz, PhD 1993
* Leo Brewer, BS 1940
* Emily A. Carter, PhD 1987
* Christopher Chang, BS/MS 1997
* Douglas S. Clark, PhD 1983; Gilbert Newton Lewis Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Dean of College of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley; known for advances in biocatalyst and bioreaction engineering for drug discovery, drug screening, and bioprocessing; elected member of National Academy of Engineering
* Robert N. Clayton, PhD 1955, National Medal of Science recipient
* Robert E. Cohen, PhD 1972
* Charles D. Coryell, BS 1932, PhD 1935
* Francis J. Doyle III, PhD 1991; Dean of the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University
* Paul Hugh Emmett, PhD 1925
* David A. Evans, PhD 1967
* M.G. Finn, BS 1980
* Gerald Fuller, PhD 1980
* Neil Garg, PhD 2005; Professor & Kenneth N. Trueblood Endowed Chair at UCLA; awarded Robert Foster Cherry Award (2018), California Professor of the Year (2015), and American Chemical Society's EJ Corey Award (2017)
* William A. Goddard, III, PhD 1965; faculty, theoretical chemist
* James L. Hoard, PhD 1932
* Brian M. Hoffman, PhD 1966
* James A. Ibers, BS 1951, PhD 1954
* Harold S. Johnston, PhD 1948; National Medal of Science recipient; winner of Tyler World Prize for Environmental Achievement
* Christopher W. Jones, PhD 1999
* Eric W. Kaler, BS 1978
* Martin Karplus, PhD 1953; Nobel laureate in chemistry (2013) "for the development of multiscale models for complex chemical systems"
* Chaitan Khosla, PhD 1990; Alan T. Waterman Award winner
* Julia A. Kornfield, BS 1983; faculty; Professor of Chemical Engineering at Caltech; researcher in field of polymer chemistry and physics; elected member of National Academy of Engineering for developing megasupramolecules for antimisting fuel additives and light-adjustable intraocular lenses to improve cataract surgery outcomes
* Nathan Lewis, BS/MS 1977; faculty; George L. Argyros Professor of Chemistry at Caltech
* William Lipscomb, PhD 1946; Nobel laureate in chemistry (1976) "for his studies on the structure of boranes illuminating problems of chemical bonding"
* Joseph Edward Mayer, BS 1924
* Stephen L. Mayo, PhD 1987; faculty; Bren Professor of Biology and Chemistry at Caltech
* Harden M. McConnell, PhD 1951; Wolf Prize winner; National Medal of Science recipient
* Edwin Mattison McMillan, BS 1928, MS 1929; Nobel laureate in chemistry (1951) "for their discoveries in the chemistry of the transuranium elements"; National Medal of Science recipient
* Matthew Meselson, PhD 1957; Lasker Award recipient; awarded MacArthur Fellowship
* Liviu M. Mirica, BS 2005; William H. and Janet G. Lycan Professor of Chemistry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
* Kurt Mislow, PhD 1947; Professor Emeritus of chemistry at Princeton University; known for major contributions to physical organic chemistry; member of National Academy of Sciences
* Daniel G. Nocera, PhD 1984
* Karen Oegema, BS 1989
* José Onuchic, PhD 1987
* Dinshaw Patel, MS 1963
* Linus Pauling, PhD 1925; former faculty, two-time sole recipient of Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1954) "for his research into the nature of the chemical bond and its application to the elucidation of the structure of complex substances" and Nobel Peace Prize (1962) for his work on nuclear disarmament and his contributions to the Partial Test Ban Treaty; National Medal of Science recipient
* Nikola Pavletich, BS 1988
* Kenneth Pitzer, BS 1935; National Medal of Science recipient
* Danny Reible, PhD 1982
* Melanie Sanford, PhD 2001; awarded MacArthur Fellowship
* George C. Schatz, PhD 1976
* Richard Scheller, PhD 1980; Kavli Prize laureate; Alan T. Waterman Award winner; Lasker Award recipient
* Peter G. Schultz, BS 1979, PhD 1984; Alan T. Waterman Award winner; Wolf Prize winner
* Howard A. Stone, PhD 1988
* Scott Strobel, PhD 1992
* Kenneth S. Suslick, BS 1974
* Timothy M. Swager, PhD 1988
* Mark Thompson, PhD 1985; chemist
* Holden Thorp, PhD 1989
* Margaret A. Tolbert, PhD 1986; Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at University of Colorado, Boulder; member of National Academy of Sciences; prominent researcher in field of atmospheric chemistry
* Donald Truhlar, PhD 1970
* Michael Tsapatsis, PhD 1994
* Nicholas Turro, PhD 1963
* John S. Waugh, PhD 1953; Wolf Prize winner
* Walter Hartwell White, MS 1982
* George M. Whitesides, PhD 1964; Dan David Prize winner; Kyoto Prize laureate; King Faisal International Prize winner; National Medal of Science recipient; Kavli Prize in Nanoscience co-recipient
* Edgar Bright Wilson, PhD 1933; National Medal of Science recipient
* Saul Winstein, PhD 1938; National Medal of Science recipient
* K. Dane Wittrup, PhD 1988
* Peter T. Wolczanski, PhD 1981
* Mark S. Wrighton, PhD 1972; awarded MacArthur Fellowship
* Oliver R. Wulf, PhD 1926
* Yannis C. Yortsos, PhD 1979
* William Gould Young, PhD 1929
* Robert Zwanzig, PhD 1952

### Biology, biological engineering, and medicine

* David Agard, PhD 1980
* Bruce Ames, PhD 1953; Japan Prize laureate; National Medal of Science recipient; winner of Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement
* Thomas F. Anderson, BS 1932, PhD 1936
* Utpal Banerjee, PhD 1984
* Andrew Benson, PhD 1942
* Howard Berg, BS 1964; former faculty
* Steven Block, PhD 1983
* James F. Bonner, PhD 1934; former faculty
* C. Kevin Boyce, BS 1995; awarded MacArthur Fellowship
* Louise Chow, PhD 1973
* Mark M. Davis, PhD 1981; King Faisal International Prize winner; Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. Prize winner
* Ronald W. Davis, PhD 1970; Gruber Prize in Genetics winner
* Sean Eddy, BS 1986
* Michael Ehlers, BS 1991
* Sarah Elgin, PhD 1972
* Michael Gazzaniga, PhD 1964
* James L. Gould, BS 1970
* Viviana Gradinaru, BS 2005
* Leland H. Hartwell, BS 1961; Nobel laureate in physiology or medicine (2001) "for their discoveries of key regulators of the cell cycle"; Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. Prize winner; Lasker Award winner
* Sterling B. Hendricks, PhD 1926; National Medal of Science recipient
* Ira Herskowitz, BS 1967; awarded MacArthur Fellowship
* Leonard Herzenberg, PhD 1955; Kyoto Prize laureate
* David Ho, BS 1974
* David Hogness, BS 1949, PhD 1953
* Leroy Hood, BS 1960, PhD 1968; former faculty; Kyoto Prize laureate; Russ Prize winner; Lasker Award winner; National Medal of Science recipient
* Norman Horowitz, PhD 1939, former faculty
* Clyde A. Hutchison III, PhD 1968
* Harvey Itano, PhD 1950
* Lily Jan, PhD 1974, Wiley Prize recipient; Gruber Prize in Neuroscience winner
* Yuh Nung Jan, PhD 1974, Wiley Prize recipient; Gruber Prize in Neuroscience winner
* Tan Jiazhen, PhD 1937
* A. Dale Kaiser, PhD 1955, Lasker Award winner
* Lawrence C. Katz, PhD 1984
* Alfred G. Knudson, BS 1944, PhD 1956, Kyoto Prize laureate; Lasker Award winner
* Leonard Lerman, PhD 1950
* Edward B. Lewis, PhD 1942; former faculty; Nobel laureate in physiology or medicine (1995) "for their discoveries concerning the genetic control of early embryonic development"; Lasker Award winner; Wolf Prize winner; National Medal of Science recipient
* Dan Lindsley, PhD 1952
* Sharon R. Long, BS 1973, awarded MacArthur Fellowship
* John H. R. Maunsell, PhD 1982
* Robert Metzenberg, PhD 1955
* William Newsome, PhD 1979; Dan David Prize winner
* Baldomero Olivera, PhD 1966
* Maynard Olson, BS 1965; Gruber Prize in Genetics winner
* Arthur Pardee, PhD 1947
* Ardem Patapoutian, PhD 1996; co-recipient of 2020 Kavli Prize in Neuroscience and 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for their discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch"
* John Quackenbush, BS 1983
* Charles M. Rice, PhD 1981; Albert Lasker award recipient (2016); co-recipient of 2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for the discovery of Hepatitis C virus"
* Arthur Riggs, PhD 1966, geneticist
* Michael Rosbash, BS 1965; Shaw Prize laureate; Wiley Prize recipient; Gruber Prize in Neuroscience winner; co-recipient of 2017 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for their discoveries of molecular mechanisms controlling the circadian rhythm"
* Gordon H. Sato, PhD 1955
* Michael Sheetz, PhD 1972; Wiley Prize recipient; Lasker Award recipient
* Folke K. Skoog, BS 1932, PhD 1936; National Medal of Science recipient
* Charles M. Steinberg, PhD 1961
* Howard M. Temin, PhD 1959; co-recipient of 1975 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for their discoveries concerning the interaction between tumour viruses and the genetic material of the cell"; Lasker Award winner; National Medal of Science recipient
* Doris Tsao, BS 1996; Professor of Biology at Caltech; MacArthur fellow; Kavli Prize laureate
* Albert Tyler, PhD 1929; former faculty
* Sue VandeWoude, BS 1982; Professor of Comparative Medicine and Associate Dean for Research in the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at Colorado State University; leading animal virologist and veterinarian; elected member of National Academy of Sciences
* Christopher Voigt, PhD 2002
* Sam Wang, BS 1986
* Ned Wingreen, BS 1984

### Mathematics and computer science

* Ian Agol, BS 1992; Breakthrough Prize laureate
* William Arveson, BS 1960
* Michael Aschbacher, BS 1966; faculty, winner of the Cole Prize in Algebra (1980) and Wolf Prize in Mathematics (2012)
* Pierre Baldi, PhD 1986
* Mihir Bellare, BS 1986
* Walter Bright, BS 1979
* Lawrence D. Brown, BS 1961
* Robert Calderbank, PhD 1980
* Tony F. Chan, BS/MS 1973
* Matthew Cook, PhD 2005
* Fernando J. Corbató, BS 1950; recipient of the 1990 Turing Award
* Bill Dally, PhD 1986
* James Demmel, BS 1975
* Robert Dilworth, BS 1936, PhD 1939, former faculty
* Bradley Efron, BS 1960; recipient of 2005 National Medal of Science; awarded MacArthur Fellowship
* Solomon Feferman, BS 1948
* Edward Felten, BS 1985
* Hal Finney, BS 1979
* Athanassios S. Fokas, PhD 1979
* Edray Goins, BS 1994; president of the National Association of Mathematicians
* E. Mark Gold, BS 1956
* Leonidas J. Guibas, BS/MS 1971
* John Gustafson, BS 1977
* Alfred W. Hales, BS 1960, PhD 1962
* Philip J. Hanlon, PhD 1981
* Juris Hartmanis, PhD 1955; recipient of the 1993 Turing Award
* Chandrashekhar Khare, PhD 1995
* David Kirk, PhD 1993
* Donald Knuth, PhD 1963; creator of TeX typesetting language; author of The Art of Computer Programming; recipient of the 1974 Turing Award; Kyoto Prize laureate; Harvey Prize recipient; National Medal of Science recipient
* Harold W. Kuhn, BS 1947
* Serge Lang, BS 1946
* Benoît Mandelbrot, MS 1948, Eng 1949; pioneer of fractal geometry; Japan Prize laureate; Harvey Prize recipient; Wolf Prize winner
* John McCarthy, BS 1948; inventor of the Lisp programming language and recipient of the 1971 Turing Award; Kyoto Prize laureate; National Medal of Science recipient
* Carl Morris, BS 1960, statistician
* Eugene Myers, BS 1975
* Andrew Odlyzko, BS/MS 1971
* Lior Pachter, BS 1994
* Lawrence Paulson, BS 1977
* John Platt, PhD 1989
* Irving S. Reed, BS 1944, PhD 1949; co-inventor of Reed–Solomon error correction
* John R. Rice, PhD 1959
* Neil Risch, BS 1972
* Paul W. K. Rothemund, BS 1994; awarded MacArthur Fellowship
* Tsutomu Shimomura, undergraduate studies, computational physicist and computer security expert; tracked down and helped the FBI arrest hacker Kevin Mitnick
* Peter Shor, BS 1981; King Faisal International Prize winner; awarded MacArthur Fellowship, Breakthrough Prize laureate
* Stanislav Smirnov, PhD 1996; recipient of Fields Medal in 2010
* Richard P. Stanley, BS 1966
* Harold Stark, BS 1961
* Ivan Sutherland, MS 1960; computer scientist and internet pioneer; recipient of the 1988 Turing Award for the invention of Sketchpad, an early predecessor to the graphical user interface; former faculty; Kyoto Prize laureate
* Peter Swerling, BS 1947
* Robert Tarjan, BS 1969; recipient of the 1986 Turing Award
* Clifford Truesdell, BS 1941, MS 1942
* Lloyd R. Welch, PhD 1958; co-inventor of the Baum-Welch algorithm
* Erik Winfree, PhD 1998; faculty; awarded MacArthur Fellowship

### Engineering and applied science

* Rohan Abeyaratne, PhD 1979
* Allan Acosta, BS 1945, PhD 1952; former faculty; engineer; Richard L. and Dorothy M. Hayman Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Emeritus at Caltech
* George E. Apostolakis, PhD 1973, engineer; Korea Electric Power Corporation Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering, and Professor of Engineering Systems Emeritus, at Massachusetts Institute of Technology; former Commissioner of Nuclear Regulatory Commission; known for innovations in the theory and practice of probabilistic risk assessment and risk management, particularly with regards to nuclear safety; member of National Academy of Engineering
* Michael Aziz, BS 1978; the Gene and Tracy Sykes Professor of Materials and Energy Technologies at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences who is working organic battery
* William F. Ballhaus, Sr., PhD 1947
* Robert L. Behnken, PhD 1997, NASA astronaut, flew on STS-123
* Jacobo Bielak, PhD 1971
* Maurice Anthony Biot, PhD 1932
* Pratim Biswas, PhD 1985
* Alexandria Boehm, BS 1996
* Frank Borman, MS 1957; NASA astronaut, commanded Gemini 7 and Apollo 8 space missions
* Robert W. Bower, PhD 1973
* James E. Broadwell, MS 1944; research scientist in aeronautical engineering; elected member of National Academy of Engineering for contributions to the understanding and management of turbulent mixing with application to chemical laser design
* Arthur E. Bryson, PhD 1951
* Sébastien Candel, PhD 1972
* Gregory Chamitoff, MS 1985; NASA astronaut, flew on STS-124 and stayed on Expedition 17 on the International Space Station
* Dean Roden Chapman, BS 1944, PhD 1948
* Uma Chowdhry, MS 1970
* Deborah Chung, BS/MS 1973
* Ray W. Clough, MS 1943; National Medal of Science recipient
* Julian Cole, PhD 1949; former faculty
* Stanley Corrsin, PhD 1947
* Slobodan Ćuk, PhD 1977; inventor of Ćuk switched-mode DC-to-DC voltage converter; former professor of Electrical Engineering at Caltech
* John Dabiri, PhD 2005, Centennial Chair Professor of Aeronautics and Mechanical Engineering at Caltech; awarded MacArthur Fellowship; recipient of National Medal of Science
* Raffaello D'Andrea, MS, PhD 1997
* Satish Dhawan, PhD 1951
* James Duderstadt, PhD 1967, National Medal of Technology and Innovation recipient
* Regina E. Dugan, PhD 1993, 19th Director of DARPA, first female director
* Charles Elachi, PhD 1971, former faculty
* Nader Engheta, PhD 1982
* Richard G. Folsom, BS 1928, PhD 1933
* C. Gordon Fullerton, BS 1957, MS 1958, Space Shuttle astronaut and test pilot
* Yuan-Cheng Fung, PhD 1948; Russ Prize winner; National Medal of Science recipient
* Morteza Gharib, PhD 1983; faculty; Vice Provost for Research and Hans W. Liepmann Professor of Aeronautics and Bioinspired Engineering at Caltech
* Edward Gibson, MS 1960, PhD 1964, NASA astronaut, flew on Skylab 4
* Roy W. Gould, BS 1949, PhD 1956, former faculty; Simon Ramo Professor of Engineering, Emeritus at Caltech; made several important contributions to field of plasma physics; member of National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering
* Meredith Gourdine, PhD 1960
* Wallace D. Hayes, PhD 1947
* George W. Housner, PhD 1941; former faculty; Carl F Braun Professor of Engineering, Emeritus at Caltech; National Medal of Science recipient
* Tsien Hsue-shen, PhD 1939, "father of China's rocket program"
* Arthur T. Ippen, PhD 1936
* Ali Jadbabaie, PhD 2000
* Sudhir K. Jain, PhD 1983
* Ann Karagozian, PhD 1982, Distinguished Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA); recognized for important research contributions to combustion and propulsion as well as education and service to profession; elected member of National Academy of Engineering
* Joseph Katz, PhD 1982
* Leon M. Keer; BS 1956, MS 1958, Walter P. Murphy Professor of Civil Engineering at Northwestern University; known for research on application of elasticity to design problems involving contact and fracture; member of National Academy of Engineering
* Mark Kryder, PhD 1970
* Fei-Fei Li, PhD 2005
* York Liao, BS 1967
* Chia-Chiao Lin, PhD 1944
* Amable Liñán, A.Eng (Degree of Aeronautical Engineer) 1963
* David Luenberger, BS 1959
* Paul MacCready, PhD 1952, father of human-powered flight; invented the Gossamer Condor and the Gossamer Albatross
* Frank Malina, PhD 1940
* Frank E. Marble, PhD 1948, former faculty; Richard L. and Dorothy M. Hayman Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Professor of Jet Propulsion, Emeritus at Caltech
* Max Mathews, BS 1950
* Frank A. McClintock, PhD 1950
* Robert McEliece, BS 1964, PhD 1967, former faculty; Allen E. Puckett Professor of Electrical Engineering, Emeritus at Caltech
* Carver Mead, BS 1956, PhD 1959; former faculty; Gordon and Betty Moore Professor of Engineering and Applied Science, Emeritus at Caltech; National Medal of Technology and Innovation recipient; Kyoto Prize winner
* Chiang C. Mei, PhD 1963
* John W. Miles, BS 1942, PhD 1944
* Richard Miller, PhD 1976, President of Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering
* Clark Blanchard Millikan, PhD 1928, former faculty
* Richard S. Muller, PhD 1962
* Richard M. Murray, BS 1985, engineer; Thomas and Doris Everhart Professor of Control and Dynamical Systems and Bioengineering at Caltech; known for contributions in control theory and networked control systems with applications to aerospace engineering, robotics, autonomy, and biological circuits; member of National Academy of Engineering
* Roddam Narasimha, PhD 1961
* Bernard M. Oliver, PhD 1940, National Medal of Science recipient
* James F. Pankow, PhD 1979
* William Hayward Pickering, BS 1932, PhD 1936; former faculty; Japan Prize laureate; National Medal of Science recipient
* John R. Pierce, BS 1933, PhD 1936, former faculty; Japan Prize laureate; Charles Stark Draper Prize winner; National Medal of Science recipient
* Zoya Popovic, PhD 1990; Distinguished Professor and Lockheed Martin Endowed Chair, Electrical Computer and Energy Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder; elected fellow of National Academy of Engineering for "developing high-efficiency microwave transmitters and active antenna arrays for wireless communication systems and for engineering education"
* Andrea Prosperetti, PhD 1974
* Simon Ramo, PhD 1936, co-founder of TRW; developed ICBMs; National Medal of Science recipient; Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient
* Gabriel M. Rebeiz, PhD 1988
* Garrett Reisman, MS 1992, PhD 1997, NASA astronaut, flew on STS-123 and was part of expedition 16 on the International Space Station; returned to Earth on STS-124
* Ignacio Rodriguez-Iturbe, MS 1965
* Harold Rosen, MS 1948, PhD 1951, developer of Syncom family of communication satellites; winner of National Medal of Technology 1985
* Anatol Roshko, PhD 1952, Theodore von Kármán Professor of Aeronautics, Emeritus at Caltech; former faculty
* Richard A. Searfoss, MS 1979, NASA astronaut, flew on STS-58 and STS-76, commander of STS-90
* William R. Sears, PhD 1938
* Ernest Edwin Sechler, BS 1928, PhD 1933, former faculty
* Ozires Silva, MS 1966
* Edward E. Simmons, BS 1934, MS 1936
* Adam Steltzner, MS 1991
* David W. Thompson, MS 1978, National Medal of Technology and Innovation recipient
* Stephen Trimberger, BS 1977, PhD 1983
* Hsue-Shen Tsien (as he was known in the US before 1950, or Qian Xuesen as he was known in China after 1950; family name is transliterated as Tsien or as Qian), PhD 1939, co-founder of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and is known as the "Father of Chinese space program" and the "Father of Chinese Rocketry"
* Kerry Vahala, BS 1980, MS 1981, PhD 1985, faculty member; the Ted and Ginger Jenkins chair of Information Science and Technology and also serves as the Executive Officer of the Department of Applied Physics and Materials Science at Caltech
* Milton Van Dyke, PhD 1949
* Jelena Vučković, PhD 2002
* Ian Waitz, PhD 1991, Dean of Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
* Forman A. Williams, PhD 1958
* Victor Wouk, PhD 1942
* Susan Wu, PhD 1963
* Theodore Y. Wu, PhD 1952, former faculty
* Zheng Zhemin, PhD 1952
* Theodore Zoli, MS 1989; awarded MacArthur Fellowship

### Geological, environmental, and planetary sciences

* Thomas J. Ahrens, MS 1958, former faculty
* Clarence Allen, PhD 1954, faculty
* Don L. Anderson, PhD 1962, former faculty; Crafoord Prize Laureate in Geosciences, 1998; National Medal of Science recipient
* Charles Archambeau, PhD 1964, former faculty; awarded MacArthur Fellowship
* Hugo Benioff, PhD 1935, former faculty
* Joel D. Blum, PhD 1990
* Emily Brodsky, PhD 2001
* Donald J. DePaolo, PhD 1978
* Gordon P. Eaton, PhD 1957
* Richard Lawrence Edwards, PhD 1988; recipient of National Medal of Science
* Thomas C. Hanks, PhD 1972
* Thomas H. Heaton, PhD 1978
* Raymond Jeanloz, PhD 1979, awarded MacArthur Fellowship
* Thomas H. Jordan, BS 1969, PhD 1972
* Barclay Kamb, BS 1952, PhD 1956, former faculty
* Susan Kieffer, PhD 1971, awarded MacArthur Fellowship
* Leon Knopoff, BS 1944, PhD 1949; former faculty
* Laurie Leshin, PhD 1994
* Jonathan Lunine, PhD 1985
* Michael C. Malin, PhD 1975, awarded MacArthur Fellowship
* James C. McWilliams, BS 1968
* Mark Meier, PhD 1957
* H. Jay Melosh, PhD 1972
* Henry William Menard, BS 1942, MS 1947
* Walter Munk, BS 1939, MS 1940, Crafoord Prize Laureate in Geosciences, 2010; Kyoto Prize laureate; National Medal of Science recipient
* Richard J. O'Connell, BS 1963, PhD 1969
* Tullis Onstott, BS 1976
* Carolyn Porco, PhD 1983
* Paul G. Richards, PhD 1970, awarded MacArthur Fellowship
* Charles Francis Richter, PhD 1928, former faculty, creator of the Richter scale
* George R. Rossman, PhD 1971, faculty, Dana Medal and Roebling Medal recipient
* Harrison Schmitt, BS 1957, astronaut and US Senator, the only geologist to walk on the Moon
* Robert P. Sharp, BS 1934, MS 1935, former faculty; National Medal of Science recipient
* Eugene Merle Shoemaker, BS 1947, MS 1948, former faculty; co-discoverer of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9; National Medal of Science recipient
* Leon Silver, PhD 1955, former faculty
* Sean Solomon, BS 1966, National Medal of Science recipient
* Sarah T. Stewart-Mukhopadhyay, PhD 2002; MacArthur Fellow
* Donald L. Turcotte, BS 1954, PhD 1958
* John Vidale, PhD 1987

### Business

* Sabeer Bhatia, BS 1989; co-founder of Hotmail
* Chester Carlson, BS 1930; inventor of electrophotography, the foundation of Xerox
* John S. Chen, MS 1979
* Adam D'Angelo, BS 2006; former CTO of Facebook; founder and current CEO of Quora
* George T. Felbeck, PhD 1943; president of Union Carbide from 1944-1962
* Jim Fruchterman, BS/MS 1980; awarded MacArthur Fellowship
* Bill T. Gross, BS 1981; founder of business incubator Idealab
* Eddy Hartenstein, MS 1974
* Ruben F. Mettler, BS 1944, PhD 1949; Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of TRW Inc., 1977-1988
* Cleve Moler, BS 1961; inventor of MATLAB, co-founder of MathWorks, influential in the field of numerical analysis
* Gordon E. Moore, PhD 1954; co-founder of Intel Corp.; author of Moore's law; Dan David Prize winner; National Medal of Technology and Innovation recipient; Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient
* Charlie Munger, undergraduate studies (did not graduate); investor and vice-chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Corporation
* Benjamin M. Rosen, BS 1954; former chairman of Compaq
* Ozires Silva, MS 1966
* Dean Wooldridge, PhD 1936

### Economics, finance, and social science

* Robert Barro, BS 1965
* Gary W. Cox, BS 1978, PhD 1982
* Arthur Lupia, PhD 1991
* Robert C. Merton, MS 1967; recipient of Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel (aka Nobel Prize in Economics) (1997) "for a new method to determine the value of derivatives"
* Roger Noll, BS 1962
* Thomas Palfrey, PhD 1981; Flintridge Professor of Economics and Political Science at Caltech
* Stephen Ross, BS 1965
* Mark Satterthwaite, BS 1967
* Vernon L. Smith, BS 1949; recipient of Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel (aka Nobel Prize in Economics) (2002) "for having established laboratory experiments as a tool in empirical economic analysis, especially in the study of alternative market mechanisms"
* Barry Weingast, PhD 1978

### Government and politics

* Mustafa A.G. Abushagur, PhD 1984; interim Deputy Prime Minister of Libya from 2011
* Moshe Arens, MS 1953; former Israeli defense minister and foreign minister
* Joseph V. Charyk, PhD 1946; National Medal of Technology and Innovation recipient
* William Colglazier, PhD 1971
* France A. Córdova, PhD 1979; 14th Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF); former president of Purdue University and former Chancellor of University of California, Riverside
* Steingrímur Hermannsson, MS 1952; former Prime Minister of Iceland
* Erdal İnönü, PhD 1951; Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey, 1991–1993
* Khurram Dastgir Khan, BS 1993; former Minister for Defence, Pakistan
* David J. C. MacKay, PhD 1992
* Jessica Mathews, PhD 1973; former Director of the Office of Global Issues of the National Security Council; founding Vice President and former Director of Research of the World Resources Institute; former Senior Fellow at Council on Foreign Relations; former president of Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
* Raymond L. Orbach, BS 1956; former Chancellor of University of California, Riverside; first Under Secretary for Science and former Director of Office of Science at Department of Energy
* John M. Poindexter, PhD 1964; Director of DARPA Information Awareness Office; National Security Advisor to Ronald Reagan
* Arati Prabhakar, PhD 1984; first woman to head National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and former Director of United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
* Eberhardt Rechtin, BS 1946, PhD 1950; Director of DARPA; Assistant Secretary of Defense; chief engineer of Hewlett-Packard; president of the Aerospace Corporation
* Joseph Rhodes, Jr., BS 1969
* Ted Taylor, BS 1945
* Victor Veysey, BS 1936; former Republican U.S. congressman from California and Assistant Secretary for Civil Works for the U.S. Army
* Ellen D. Williams, PhD 1981; former chief scientist at BP and former Director of ARPA-E

### Other fields

* Bert Acosta, undergraduate studies, early aviator
* David Brin, BS 1973; science fiction author
* Frank Capra, BS 1918; filmmaker, director of such classics as It's a Wonderful Life, winner of six Academy Awards
* Pierre Clostermann, undergraduate studies, French WW2 flying ace, author
* Jess Collins, BS 1948; visual artist
* L. Sprague de Camp, BS 1930; science fiction author
* Su Guaning
* Jim Hall, BS 1958; race car driver and founder of the Chaparral racing team
* Kristy Hawkins, PhD 2008; professional female bodybuilder
* N. Katherine Hayles, MS 1966; critical theorist
* Herman Kahn, graduate studies; futurist and military strategist
* Robert J. Lang, PhD; physicist and renowned origami master
* Alan Lightman, PhD 1974; physicist and novelist
* Sandra Tsing Loh, BS 1983; writer, performer, musician, humorist
* Harold McGee, BS 1973; pioneer in science-based approach to cooking
* Larry Niven, undergraduate studies, science fiction writer
* Dean Oliver, statistician
* Aza Raskin, graduate studies, design expert, interface guru, and entrepreneur
* Huck Seed, undergraduate studies, professional poker player, winner of the main event of the 1996 World Series of Poker
* Mark Serrurier
* Harry Turtledove, undergraduate studies, historian and fiction writer
* Telle Whitney, PhD 1985; computer scientist and co-founder and CEO of the Anita Borg Institute

## Notable faculty

Members of the faculty are listed under the name of the academic division to which they belong.

### Physics, mathematics, and astronomy

* Tom M. Apostol
* Robert Bacher
* John N. Bahcall, former faculty
* Barry Barish, co-recipient of 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics "for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves". Recipient of National Medal of Science
* Harry Bateman
* Eric Temple Bell
* Roger Blandford, former faculty; Crafoord laureate and recipient of Shaw Prize
* Harold Brown, physicist, president of Caltech (1969–77), U.S. Secretary of Defense (1977–81)
* Danny Calegari, former faculty
* John Carlstrom, former faculty; Gruber Prize in Cosmology winner; awarded MacArthur Fellowship
* Robert F. Christy
* Ronald Drever, Shaw Prize laureate; Kavli Prize laureate; Breakthrough Prize laureate; Gruber Prize in Cosmology winner; Harvey Prize recipient
* Lee Alvin DuBridge
* James P. Eisenstein
* Richard Ellis; former faculty
* Paul Sophus Epstein, former faculty
* Arthur Erdélyi, former faculty
* Richard Feynman, Nobel laureate in physics (1965) "for their fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics, with deep-ploughing consequences for the physics of elementary particles"; National Medal of Science recipient
* David Gabai, former faculty
* Murray Gell-Mann, Nobel laureate in physics (1969) "for his contributions and discoveries concerning the classification of elementary particles and their interactions"; co-founder of Santa Fe Institute; recipient of Franklin Medal
* Marvin Leonard Goldberger, former faculty and President Emeritus
* David Goodstein, director of The Mechanical Universe
* Jesse L. Greenstein
* George Ellery Hale
* Marshall Hall, former faculty
* Fiona A. Harrison
* William Vermillion Houston, former faculty
* Marc Kamionkowski, former faculty
* Samuel Karlin, former faculty
* Nets Katz
* Alexander Kechris
* H. Jeff Kimble
* Alexei Kitaev, Breakthrough Prize laureate; awarded MacArthur Fellowship
* Shrinivas Kulkarni, Alan T. Waterman Award winner; Dan David Prize winner; Shaw Prize laureate
* Andrew E. Lange, Dan David Prize winner; Balzan Prize recipient
* Wilhelmus Luxemburg
* Matilde Marcolli
* Vladimir Markovic
* Robert A. Millikan, Nobel laureate in physics (1923) "for his work on the elementary charge of electricity and on the photoelectric effect"
* Rudolf Mössbauer, Nobel laureate in physics (1961) "for his researches concerning the resonance absorption of gamma radiation and his discovery in this connection of the effect which bears his name"; former faculty
* Guido Münch, former faculty
* Hirosi Ooguri
* Robert Oppenheimer, director of the Manhattan Project
* Rahul Pandharipande, former faculty
* H. David Politzer, Nobel laureate in physics (2004) "for the discovery of asymptotic freedom in the theory of the strong interaction"
* John Preskill
* Thomas Felix Rosenbaum
* Herbert John Ryser
* Wallace L. W. Sargent
* Maarten Schmidt, Kavli Prize laureate
* John H. Schwarz, Breakthrough Prize laureate; awarded MacArthur Fellowship
* Nick Scoville
* Barry Simon
* Maria Spiropulu
* Frank Spitzer, former faculty
* Edward C. Stone, National Medal of Science recipient, Shaw Prize laureate
* Richard C. Tolman
* R. M. Wilson
* Mark B. Wise
* Peter J. Young
* Fritz Zwicky, produced the first evidence of dark matter

### Chemistry and chemical engineering

* Frances Arnold, Millennium Technology Prize winner; Charles Stark Draper Prize winner; National Medal of Technology and Innovation recipient; Nobel laureate in chemistry (2018) "for the directed evolution of enzymes"
* Jay Bailey, former faculty
* John D. Baldeschwieler, National Medal of Science recipient
* Jacqueline Barton, bioinorganic chemist, MacArthur Fellow (1991), and winner of National Medal of Science (2011); Alan T. Waterman Award winner
* John E. Bercaw
* Robert G. Bergman, former faculty; Wolf Prize winner
* Erick M. Carreira, former faculty
* Mark E. Davis, Alan T. Waterman Award winner
* Peter Dervan, Harvey Prize recipient; National Medal of Science recipient
* Richard E. Dickerson, former faculty
* Dennis A. Dougherty
* Richard Flagan, major contributor to aerosol science and technology and atmospheric chemistry; member of National Academy of Engineering
* Gregory Fu
* Harry Gray, inorganic chemist, winner of National Medal of Science (1986), Wolf Prize in Chemistry (2004), and Priestley Medal (1991); founding director of the Beckman Institute; Harvey Prize recipient
* Robert H. Grubbs, Nobel laureate in chemistry (2005) "for the development of the metathesis method in organic synthesis"
* George S. Hammond, former faculty
* James R. Heath, Sackler Prize winner
* Linda Hsieh-Wilson
* Barbara Imperiali, Class of 1922, former faculty; Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Biology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology; member of National Academy of Sciences and fellow of American Academy of Arts and Sciences
* John Gamble Kirkwood, former faculty
* L. Gary Leal, former faculty
* David MacMillan, former faculty; 2021 Nobel laureate in chemistry "for the development of asymmetric organocatalysis"
* Rudolph Marcus, Nobel laureate in chemistry (1992) "for his contributions to the theory of electron transfer reactions in chemical systems"; Wolf Prize winner; National Medal of Science recipient
* Manfred Morari, former faculty
* Carl Niemann, former faculty
* Arthur A. Noyes, chemist
* Jonas C. Peters
* John D. Roberts, physical chemist, one of the pioneers of NMR as a tool to study organic compounds, winner of the National Medal of Science (1990) and the Priestley Medal (1987)
* John H. Seinfeld, winner of Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement
* Brian Stoltz
* David A. Tirrell
* Ahmed H. Zewail, Nobel laureate in chemistry (1999) "for his studies of the transition states of chemical reactions using femtosecond spectroscopy"; King Faisal International Prize winner; Albert Einstein World Award of Science winner; Wolf Prize winner

### Biology and biological engineering

* John Abelson
* Richard A. Andersen, neuroscientist
* David J. Anderson
* Giuseppe Attardi
* David Baltimore, virologist; Nobel laureate in physiology or medicine (1975) "for their discoveries concerning the interaction between tumour viruses and the genetic material of the cell"; President of Caltech (1997–2006); National Medal of Science recipient; 2021 Lasker Award recipient
* George Wells Beadle, geneticist; Nobel laureate in physiology or medicine (1958) "for their discovery that genes act by regulating definite chemical events"; President of the University of Chicago (1961–1968); Lasker Award winner
* Seymour Benzer, geneticist, Crafoord Prize Laureate in Biosciences (1993); Harvey Prize recipient; Albany Medical Center Prize winner; Lasker Award winner; Gruber Prize in Neuroscience winner; Wolf Prize winner; National Medal of Science recipient
* Pamela J. Bjorkman, L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science winner
* Marianne Bronner
* Eric H. Davidson
* Norman Davidson, biologist, National Medal of Science recipient
* Max Delbrück, biophysicist and pioneering molecular biologist, Nobel laureate in physiology or medicine (1969) "for their discoveries concerning the replication mechanism and the genetic structure of viruses"
* Raymond J. Deshaies, former faculty
* Michael Dickinson, biologist, awarded MacArthur Fellowship
* Theodosius Dobzhansky, former faculty
* William J. Dreyer
* Renato Dulbecco, virologist; Nobel laureate in physiology or medicine (1975) "for their discoveries concerning the interaction between tumour viruses and the genetic material of the cell"; Lasker Award winner
* Robert Stuart Edgar, former faculty
* Michael Elowitz, awarded MacArthur Fellowship
* Scott D. Emr, former faculty
* Scott E. Fraser, former faculty
* Arthur Galston, former faculty
* Arie Jan Haagen-Smit, National Medal of Science recipient; winner of Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement
* John Hopfield, former faculty; Albert Einstein World Award of Science winner; awarded MacArthur Fellowship; Nobel laureate in physics (2024) for "for foundational discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks"
* A. James Hudspeth, former faculty; Kavli Prize laureate
* Christof Koch, former faculty
* Masakazu Konishi, Gruber Prize in Neuroscience winner
* Tom Maniatis, former faculty
* Sarkis Mazmanian, MacArthur fellow
* Elliot Meyerowitz, Balzan Prize recipient; Gruber Prize in Genetics winner; Wolf Prize winner
* Thomas Hunt Morgan, Nobel laureate in physiology or medicine (1933) "for his discoveries concerning the role played by the chromosome in heredity"
* Wheeler J. North, marine scientist
* James Olds, neuroscientist; former faculty
* Ray David Owen
* Erin M. Schuman, former faculty
* Roger W. Sperry, neuroscientist, Nobel laureate in physiology or medicine (1981) "for his discoveries concerning the functional specialization of the cerebral hemispheres"; Lasker Award winner; Wolf Prize winner; National Medal of Science recipient
* Alfred Sturtevant, former faculty; National Medal of Science recipient
* Kenneth V. Thimann, former faculty
* Alexander Varshavsky, King Faisal International Prize winner; Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. Prize winner; Albany Medical Center Prize winner; Lasker Award winner; Breakthrough Prize laureate; Wolf Prize winner
* Jerome Vinograd, former faculty
* Frits Warmolt Went, former faculty

### Engineering and applied science

* Harry Atwater, Otis Booth Leadership Chair of the Division of Engineering and Applied Science; pioneer in photovoltaics and solar energy
* John F. Brady
* Robert D. Braun
* William B. Bridges
* Randal Bryant, former faculty
* Emmanuel Candès, former faculty; Alan T. Waterman Award winner
* Jean-Lou Chameau, former faculty and President Emeritus
* K. Mani Chandy
* John Doyle, engineer
* Pol Duwez
* Thomas Eugene Everhart, former faculty and President Emeritus
* Katherine Faber, faculty; originator of the Faber-Evans model for crack deflection; fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
* Roy W. Gould
* Ali Hajimiri
* Babak Hassibi
* Janet Hering, former faculty
* Michael R. Hoffmann
* Hans G. Hornung
* Thomas Hou
* Jim Kajiya, former faculty
* Herbert Keller
* Mary Lidstrom, former faculty; Jungers Professor of Microbiology and Chemical Engineering, University of Washington; Howard Hughes Medical Investigator; member of National Academy of Sciences
* Hans W. Liepmann, National Medal of Technology and Innovation recipient; National Medal of Science recipient
* Jerrold E. Marsden
* James W. Mayer, former faculty
* Stanford S. Penner, former faculty
* Rob B. Phillips
* Milton S. Plesset, former faculty
* Demetri Psaltis, former faculty
* Stephen Quake, former faculty
* Guruswami Ravichandran
* Ares J. Rosakis
* Michael Roukes
* Philip Saffman
* Axel Scherer
* Keith Schwab
* Royal Wasson Sorensen
* Andrew M. Stuart
* P. P. Vaidyanathan
* Theodore von Kármán, National Medal of Science recipient
* Lihong V. Wang
* Michael M. Watkins
* Gerald B. Whitham
* Amnon Yariv, Harvey Prize recipient; National Medal of Science recipient

### Geological and planetary sciences

* Harrison Brown, former faculty
* Michael E. Brown, Kavli Prize laureate
* Samuel Epstein, geochemist
* Kenneth Farley
* Peter Goldreich, Shaw Prize laureate, National Medal of Science recipient
* John P. Grotzinger
* Beno Gutenberg, former faculty
* Don Helmberger, pioneering seismologist; member of National Academy of Sciences
* Andrew Ingersoll
* Hiroo Kanamori, Kyoto Prize laureate
* Heinz A. Lowenstam, former faculty
* Bruce C. Murray
* Dianne Newman, awarded MacArthur Fellowship
* Victoria Orphan, awarded MacArthur Fellowship
* Clair Cameron Patterson, determined the age of the Earth; exposed lead pollution; winner of Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement
* Frank Press, former faculty; Japan Prize laureate
* Kerry Sieh, former faculty
* David J. Stevenson
* Gerald J. Wasserburg, Crafoord Prize laureate in geochemistry (1986)
* Paul Wennberg, awarded MacArthur Fellowship
* James Westphal, awarded MacArthur Fellowship
* Peter John Wyllie
* Yuk L. Yung

### Humanities and social sciences

* R. Michael Alvarez
* Robert Bates, former faculty, political scientist
* John F. Benton, former faculty; awarded MacArthur Fellowship
* Jed Buchwald, awarded MacArthur Fellowship
* Bruce E. Cain, former faculty
* Colin F. Camerer, awarded MacArthur Fellowship
* Nicholas Dirks, former faculty
* Morris P. Fiorina, former faculty
* Matthew O. Jackson, former faculty
* Abraham Kaplan, former faculty
* Daniel Kevles, former faculty
* J. Morgan Kousser
* Preston McAfee, former faculty
* Jerome McGann
* Richard McKelvey
* William B. Munro
* Peter Ordeshook
* Scott E. Page
* Charles Plott