List of Rice University people

The list of Rice University people includes notable alumni, former students, faculty, and presidents of Rice University.

Alumni

The names of Distinguished Alumni Award recipients is available online (the list is arranged alphabetically and includes recipients of other Rice University awards)

Selected Rice Alumni Lance Berkman, MLB player Howard Hughes, former aviator, engineer, industrialist, film producer and director John Kline, U.S. Congressman Alberto Gonzales, former U.S. Attorney General Peggy Whitson, NASA astronaut

Athletics

• David Aardsma, 2003, MLB pitcher, 22nd overall pick of the San Francisco Giants
• Morris Almond, 2007, NBA guard, 25th overall pick of the Utah Jazz
• Tony Barker, 1992, Former NFL Football player for the Washington Redskins
• Lance Berkman, 1997, All-Star Major League baseball player for the St. Louis Cardinals
• Adi Bichman, 2001, Israeli freestyle and medley swimmer
• Andrea Blackett 1997, Barbados Olympic hurdler and 1998 Commonwealth Games 400m hurdles champion
• O.J. Brigance, 1991, Former NFL football player
• James Casey, NFL Tight end/Full Back for the Houston Texans
• Bubba Crosby, Major league baseball player for the New York Yankees
• Norm Charlton, 1984, Major league baseball player
• Jason Colwick, 2010, two-time NCAA champion in pole vault
• José Cruz, Jr., 1993, Major league baseball player
• Patrick Dendy, NFL football player on Green Bay Packers
• Buddy Dial, end, College Football Hall of Fame inductee 1993, All-Pro 1961, 1963
• Jarett Dillard, 2008, Jacksonville Jaguars Wide Receiver
• Courtney Hall, 1989, NFL offensive lineman, 1989 2nd round draft pick of the San Diego Chargers
• Fred Hansen, 1963, NCAA champion in pole vault, gold medalist at 1964 Summer Olympics, world record holder
• King Hill, quarterback, top pick in first round of 1958 NFL Draft
• Weldon Humble, guard, College Football Hall of Fame Inductee, 1961
• Philip Humber, 2004, Major league baseball player, 3rd overall pick of the New York Mets
• Tommy Kramer, NFL quarterback, named to Pro Bowl while playing for the Minnesota Vikings
• Larry Izzo, 3 time Pro Bowl LB/special teams captain for the New England Patriots, Super Bowl Champions 2002, 2004, 2005
• N.D. Kalu, NFL defensive end for the Houston Texans
• Dicky Maegle, 1954, halfback, inducted into Cotton Bowl Classic Hall of Fame in 1998. In the 1954 Cotton Bowl Classic, Maegle was tackled by Tommy Lewis from the Alabama sideline. and was awarded a 95-yard touchdown run. College Football Hall of Fame Inductee, 1979
• Will McClay, Coach of the Dallas Desperados, an Arena Football League team
• Jeff Niemann, 2004, Major league baseball pitcher, 4th overall pick of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays
• Cheta Ozougwu, defensive end, 2011 Mr. Irrelevant
• Ricky Pierce, 1983, NBA guard, 1983–1998, NBA All-Star 1991, NBA Sixth Man of the Year Award 1987 and 1990
• Dave Roberts, 1974, bronze medalist in pole vault at 1976 Summer Olympics
• Tobin Rote, quarterback of 1957 NFL Champion Detroit Lions and 1963 AFL Champion San Diego Chargers
• Frank Beall Ryan, 1958, PhD 1965, NFL quarterback, textbook author, Yale athletic director, appeared on cover of Sports Illustrated, January 4, 1965
• Harold Solomon, professional tennis player ranked as high as number 5 in the world
• Mike Wilks, 2001, NBA guard 2002–present, currently is a free agent
• Sean Wade, Master runner of the Year and Coach of the Cross Country team at The Kinkaid School

Business

• George R. Brown, 1920, founder of Brown and Root, one of the world's largest construction firms
• Jack Boyd Buckley, 1948, civil engineer from Houston who designed many tall buildings throughout the world and the air conditioning system of the Astrodome
• Thomas H. Cruikshank, former Chairman and CEO of Halliburton
• L. John Doerr, 1973, influential venture capitalist at Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers, CEO of Silicon Compilers and co-founder of the @Home Network, on the Board of Directors of Intuit, Amazon.com, PalmOne, Sun Microsystems, Google, and Segway, among others
• Charles Duncan, 1947, former president, Coca-Cola; former Secretary of Energy under Jimmy Carter (1979–1981)
• Lynn Elsenhans, Chairman and CEO of Sunoco
• James A. Fite, Jr., 1933, Former Coordinator of Credit Card Business for Exxon; helped lead the rescue of the crew of the USS Indianapolis (CA-35) in World War II
• Howard Hughes, (attended), was the richest man in the world in 1976
• Steve Jackson (US), 1974, founder of Steve Jackson Games
• Ken Kennedy, 1967, founder of Center for Research on Parallel Computation, the High Performance Fortran Forum; co-chair of the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee with Bill Joy of Sun Microsystems
• Yıldırım Ali Koç, 1990, Koç Holding member and Turkish multisport club Fenerbahçe S.K. vice-president
• Fred C. Koch, (attended), founder of Koch Industries, one of the largest private companies in the United States
• Arun Netravali, 1969 and 1971, pioneer of digital technology including HDTV and former President of Bell Laboratories and Chief Scientist for Lucent Technologies
• Hector Ruiz, 1972, President and CEO of AMD
• James Treybig, 1963 and 1964, founder of Tandem Computers
• James S. Turley, 1977 and 1978, Chairman and CEO of Ernst & Young
• Bill J. Vaughn, 1925, former president, Eastman Kodak

Education

• Daniel Albright, 1967, Harvard University English professor
• Walter L. Buenger Ph.D. 1979, historian at Texas A&M University
• Nancy Cole, 1964, educational psychologist
• Gwynne Dyer, 1973–1977, Senior Lecturer in War Studies at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst
• Kenneth R. Mladenka Ph.D. 1975, political scientist at Texas A&M University who researched in urban studies

Government and politics

• Bill Archer (attended), United States Congressman
• Mitch Bainwol, 1983, former chair, Republican National Committee
• James Baker, former Secretary of State and Treasury, chair of the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy
• Patrick G. Carrick, Member of the Senior Executive Service
• Charles Duncan, 1947, U.S. Secretary of Energy (1979–1981)
• Ed Emmett, 1971, Harris County Judge
• William P. Hobby, Jr., Lieutenant Governor of Texas (1973–1991); former chancellor of the University of Houston System; former president and executive editor at The Houston Post
• Roy Hofheinz (attended), Mayor of the City of Houston
• John Kline, 1969, United States Congressman
• John N. Leedom, 1943, State senator (1981–1996) from Dallas and Rockwall counties
• Pete Olson, 1985, United States Congressman
• Annise Parker, 1978, Mayor of the City of Houston
• William Luther Pierce, 1955, National Alliance founder
• Leslie H. Southwick, 1972, Federal Judge on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
• Scott Hochberg, Member of the Texas House of Representatives
• Eliot Shapleigh, 1974, Texas state senator
• Gary H. Stern, chief executive of the Ninth Federal Reserve Bank, at Minneapolis

History

• Gwynne Dyer, 1973–77, Military historian, Senior Lecturer in War Studies at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst
• Marilyn McAdams Sibley, Rice Ph.D., historian
• Rosa Levin Toubin, Jewish Texan historian, civic leader and philanthropist

Journalism

• William Broyles, Jr., 1966, Founder of Texas Monthly, former editor in chief at Newsweek and screenwriter of Apollo 13, Cast Away, Unfaithful, Flags of Our Fathers
• Paul Burka, senior executive editor for Texas Monthly
• Gwynne Dyer - journalist, syndicated columnist and military historian, Senior Lecturer in War Studies at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (1973–1977)
• John Graves, 1942, Nature writer
• Steve Sailer, 1980, writer for Taki's Magazine and VDARE.com

Literature, art and music

• Lola Astanova, Russian-born classical pianist, completed her Masters Degree in 2005, summa cum laude.
• Candace Bushnell, New York Times best-seller and author of esteemed New York Observer column, and basis of the television show, Sex and the City. Also author of several other critically acclaimed novels.
• Rebecca Carrington, British "music comedian", completed her Masters of Music at Rice
• Carl P. Daw Jr., American Episcopalian priest and director of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada, famed researcher and authority on sacred music
• Eva Hoffman, 1967, author Lost in Translation, Shtetl: The Life and Death of a Small Town and the World of Polish Jews, The Secret, After Such Knowledge
• Larry McMurtry, 1960, Pulitzer Prize winning author, won Oscar for Brokeback Mountain screenplay
• Mike MacRae, 1999, Voice actor, comedian
• Robert Martin, 1971, librarian, member of National Council for the Humanities, former director of Institute of Museum & Library Services, 2008 recipient of Presidential Citizens Medal
• Elizabeth Moon, 1968, author, The Deed of Paksenarrion, Winning Colors
• Gus Sorola (attended), Machinima artist

Radio, television and film

• Candace Bushnell (attended), author of Sex and the City
• Howard Hughes (attended), Writer/Director/Producer/Actor Aviator
• Libra Thompson, houseguest on Big Brother 10
• Amanda Goad, Scripps National Spelling Bee Champion
• Bill Arhos, Creator of Austin City Limits

Religion

• Rt. Rev. Scott Field Bailey (1938) Seventh Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of West Texas
• Rt. Rev. Claude Payne (1954, 1955) Seventh Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas
• Rev. Carl P. Daw Jr. (Will Rice 1966) Executive Director of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada

Science and technology

• Jay Bailey, BA 1966, PhD 1969, pioneer of biochemical engineering
• John S. Bull, 1957, BS in Mechanical Engineering, NASA Astronaut
• Andrew Dessler, Lovett 1986 climate change meteorologist
• Takao Doi, PhD 2004, NASA Astronaut
• David Eagleman, 1993, neuroscientist at Baylor College of Medicine and author of Sum (novel)
• Dave Hyatt, Baker 1994, browser developer at Netscape and Apple
• Tamara E. Jernigan, PhD 1988, NASA Astronaut
• James A. Kahle, Will Rice 1983, IBM Fellow and chief architect of the POWER4 and Cell microprocessors
• Riki Kobayashi, 1943, BS in Chemical Engineering, Rice University professor emeritus of chemical engineering, elected member of National Academy of Engineering
• James E. Gunn, Baker 1961, astronomer at Princeton University, 2009 recipient of the National Medal of Science
• S (Saikat) Nick Barua, 2001, Software Developer Microsoft
• Richard Juday, Baker 1965, Manager, Hybrid Vision Laboratory at NASA
• George Whitelaw Mackey, 1938, mathematician
• James H. Newman, 1982 and 1984, NASA Astronaut
• John D. Olivas, PhD 1996, NASA Astronaut
• Steven Schafersman, 1983 PhD in Geology, President of Texas Citizens for Science
• Fred I. Stalkup, 1957 BS in Chemical Engineering, elected member of National Academy of Engineering
• Dennis Sullivan, 1963 BA in mathematics, 2004 recipient of the National Medal of Science
• Janice Voss, Graduate work in Space Physics 1977-1978 NASA Astronaut
• Peggy Whitson, PhD 1986 NASA Astronaut
• Shannon Walker, Baker 1987, MA 1992, PhD 1993 NASA Astronaut
• Robert Woodrow Wilson, co-discoverer of cosmic microwave background radiation and Nobel laureate

Faculty and Staff

Nobel Laureates

• Hermann Joseph Muller, professor of biology, awarded 1946 in physiology or medicine for discovery for X-ray mutagenesis
• Richard Smalley, professor of chemistry, awarded 1996 in chemistry for the discovery of fullerenes
• Robert F. Curl Jr., (listed above, under "Alumni")

Other Faculty

• Hanan Ashrawi
• Tani E. Barlow
• Earl Black
• Douglas Brinkley
• C. Sidney Burrus
• John F. Kennedy (visiting professor)
• B. Jill Carroll
• Franklin Chang-Diaz
• Steven J. Cox
• Gerald R. Dickens
• Justin Cronin
• Edward Djerejian
• Elaine Howard Ecklund
• Paul Ellison
• Julian Huxley
• Ken Kennedy (computer scientist)
• Anne C. Klein
• Sydney Lamb
• Neal Lane
• Robert Lewis
• Cho-Liang Lin
• D. Michael Lindsay (former)
• Andreas Luttge
• Ussama Makdisi
• George Marcus
• Amy Myers Jaffe
• Ann Saterbak
• Robert M. Stein
• Richard Tapia
• James Tour
• Frank Vandiver
• Moshe Vardi
• William F. Walker
• Susan Wood (poet)
• Stephen A. Zeff

Staff

• John Heisman, for whom the coveted Heisman Trophy is named; football coach, 1924-1927, College Football Hall of Fame inductee, 1954
• Jess Neely, football coach 1940-1966, College Football Hall of Fame inductee, 1971
• Prebble McLaughlin, swimming coach, radio personality

Presidents

• Edgar Odell Lovett (president founding to 1946)
• William V. Houston (president 1946-1961)
• Kenneth Pitzer (president 1961-1968)
• Norman Hackerman (president 1970-1985)
• George Rupp (president 1985-1993)
• Malcom Gillis (president 1993-2004)
• David Leebron (president 2004 to present)

See also

List of Rice presidents