This
list of Georgia Institute of Technology alumni includes graduates, non-graduate former students, and current students of
Georgia Tech . Notable administration, faculty, and staff are found on the
list of Georgia Institute of Technology faculty . Georgia Tech alumni are generally known as
Yellow Jackets . According to the
Georgia Tech Alumni Association ,
[the status of "alumni "] is open to all graduates of Georgia Tech, all former students of Georgia Tech who regularly matriculated and left Georgia Tech in good standing, active and retired members of the faculty and administration staff, and those who have rendered some special and conspicuous service to Georgia Tech or to [the alumni association].
The first class of 128 students entered Georgia Tech in 1888, and the first two graduates, Henry L. Smith and George G. Crawford , received their degrees in 1890. Smith would later lead a manufacturing enterprise in Dalton, Georgia and Crawford would head Birmingham, Alabama 's large Tennessee Coal, Iron, and Railway Company. Since then, the institute has greatly expanded, with an enrollment of 19,505 undergraduates and 28,441 postgraduate students as of fall 2023.
Award winners
Nobel laureates
Scholars
Name
Class year
Notability
References
Joy Buolamwini
2012
2013 Rhodes Scholar, 2012 Fulbright Fellow (Zambia)
David Eger
2003
2003 Fulbright Scholar (Hungary)
Will Roper
2001
2002 Rhodes Scholar; 2001 Truman Scholar
Public figures
Business
Name
Class year
Notability
References
Rawi Abdelal
1993
Professor of business administration at Harvard Business School
Ronald W. Allen
1964
President, chairman and CEO of Delta Air Lines (1987–1997); chairman and CEO of Aaron's, Inc. (2012–2014)
Gil Amelio
1965
CEO emeritus of National Semiconductor and Apple ; IEEE Fellow
Charles "Garry" Betty
1979
President and CEO of EarthLink (1996–2007)
W. Frank Blount
1961
Businessman, chairman and CEO of venture capital firm JI Ventures, Inc.; former chairman and CEO of Cypress Communications Inc.; former director and CEO of Telstra in Australia
John F. Brock
1971
Chairman and CEO of Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc.
Paul J. Brown
1989
CEO at Inspire Brands
Gary C. Butler
1968
CEO of Automatic Data Processing
Brook Byers
1968
Venture capitalist of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
Ben Chestnut
1998
Co-founder and CEO, MailChimp
George G. Crawford
1890
Headed the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company
Cecil B. Day
1958
Founder of Days Inn Hotels
David Dorman
1975
Chairman and CEO emeritus of AT&T Corporation
Mike Duke
1971
Former President and CEO of Wal-Mart Stores
Walter Ehmer
1989
President and CEO of Waffle House
David C. Garrett Jr.
1955
CEO of Delta Air Lines (1978–1987)
Jaime Gilinski
1978
Chairman of JGB Financial Holding Company
Frank Gordy
1929
Founder of The Varsity chain, which includes the world's largest drive-in
James Gulliver
1950
Founder of Argyll Foods , one of the United Kingdom's largest retail businesses
Dennis Hayes
1973
Founder of Hayes Communications , an early developer of PC modems
Ed Iacobucci
1975
Leader of the IBM OS/2 Design Team; founder of Citrix Systems ; president and CEO of DayJet ; member of SCO Group 's board of directors
Chris Klaus
1994
Founder and current CEO of Kaneva, Inc. ; co-founder and former CTO of Internet Security Systems ; His company was acquired by IBM for over $1.3 Billion. He donated $15 million to Georgia Tech toward the construction of the Klaus Advanced Computing Building which is named after him.
Roger Krone
1978
CEO of Leidos Holdings Inc .
Alan J. Lacy
1975
Last chairman and CEO of Sears, Roebuck and Company
Mike Levy
1969
Founder and current CEO of Maxxpoint.com; founder and former president, chairman and CEO of Sportsline.com , now CBSSports.com
David S. Lewis Jr.
1939
Major force in the aerospace and defense industry for three decades
Calvin Mackie
1996
Award-winning mentor; motivational speaker; entrepreneur
Scottie Mayfield
1973
President of Mayfield Dairy Farms
Robert Milton
1983
Former chairman, president and CEO of Air Canada. Former chairman of the board of directors of United Continental Holdings which is the parent company of United Airlines.
Charles Moorman
1975
Former CEO of Norfolk Southern , current CEO of Amtrak
Blake Moret
1985
Current president and CEO of Rockwell Automation Inc.
David Perdue
1972
Former CEO of Dollar General and Reebok International ; Former Georgia US Senator
J. Paul Raines
1985
CEO of GameStop
Hazard E. Reeves
1928
Introduced magnetic stereophonic sound to motion pictures; was president of over 60 companies, including Cinerama
Glen P. Robinson
1948
Researcher at the Georgia Tech Research Institute ; went on to found Scientific Atlanta
James D. Robinson III
1957
CEO of American Express Co. (1977–1993); director of The Coca-Cola Company (1975–present)
Joe Rogers Jr.
1968
Longtime CEO of Waffle House
Chuck Sannipoli
1967
Executive in the data networking industry; Senior Member of the IEEE
Derek V. Smith
1979
CEO of ChoicePoint (1997–2008)
Mark C. Smith
1962
Co-founder of ADTRAN, Inc.
E. Roe Stamps
1967
Founding managing partner of venture capital firm Summit Partners ; member of the Georgia Tech Foundation Board of Trustees
Henry Grady Weaver
1911
Director of Customer Research Staff for General Motors Corporation , appeared on the cover of the November 14, 1938 issue of Time magazine
George W. Woodruff
1917
Engineer, businessman, and philanthropist who gave generously to both Georgia Tech and Emory University; namesake of the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
Chris Klaus
Mike Levy
David S. Lewis Jr.
Education
Politics and public service
Military service
Name
Class year
Notability
References
Edward C. Aldridge Jr.
1962
Served in many top U.S. Defense Department and defense industry jobs, including as the 16th Air Force secretary
William L. Ball
1969
67th Secretary of the Navy (March 28, 1988 – May 15, 1989)
John Boyd
1964
USAF fighter pilot, engineer and military strategist
Philip M. Breedlove
1977
Retired Four-star general in the United States Air Force and former Vice Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force
John M. Brown III
1969
Commander of United States Army Pacific Command
Ray Davis
1938
Assistant Commandant of the USMC ; Korean War Medal of Honor recipient
James O. Ellis
1970
Retired 4-star admiral; former Commander of United States Strategic Command , Offutt Air Force Base
Pete Geren
1973
Served as the 20th United States Secretary of the Army from July 16, 2007 to September 16, 2009; former member of the United States House of Representatives from Texas; currently president of the Sid W. Richardson Foundation in Fort Worth, Texas
Russell D. Hale
1969
United States Assistant Secretary of the Air Force (Financial Management & Comptroller) (1981–1984)
Haywood S. Hansell
1924
USAF major general; air combat commander and strategist of the United States Army Air Forces during World War II
Hugh W. Hardy
1944
United States Marine Corps Reserves major general; geoscientist
John W. Hendrix
1965
Retired United States Army four-star general who served as Commander, United States Army Forces Command (1999–2001)
Jon C. Kreitz
1986
United States Navy Rear Admiral
Orlando Llenza
1951
Second Puerto Rican to reach the rank of Major General in the USAF
Thomas McGuire
1941
Second leading USAAF ace of World War II with 38 victories; Medal of Honor recipient
Peter M. Rhee
1983
Surgeon, medical professor, and military veteran; spent 24 years in the United States Navy serving as a battlefield casualty physician in Afghanistan and Iraq
William G. Thrash
1939
Retired United States Marine Corps three-star general ; highly decorated Naval Aviator
James A. Winnefeld Jr.
1978
United States Navy four-star admiral who served as the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; former fourth commander, U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) and 21st commander, North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD)
Leonard Wood
1894
Medal of Honor recipient, Governor-General of the Philippines and Cuba, 5th Chief of Staff of the Army
General Ray Davis
Admiral James O. Ellis
Major General Leonard Wood
Science and engineering
NASA and aerospace
Name
Class year
Notability
References
Eric Boe
1997
NASA astronaut (STS-126 , STS-133 )
Michael R. Clifford
1982
NASA astronaut (STS-53 , STS-59 , STS-76 ); former US Army lieutenant colonel
Jan Davis
1975
Retired NASA astronaut (STS-47 , STS-60 , STS-85 ); current director of the Safety and Mission Assurance directorate at Marshall Space Flight Center
James Henry Deese
1935
NASA administrator
Ben T. Epps
1904
Known as "Georgia's First Aviator"; aviation pioneer; in 1907, he built a monoplane of his own design, now known as the Epps 1907 Monoplane , followed by other original monoplane and biplane designs
Gabriel Georgiades
1979
Professor of aerospace engineering at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
L. Blaine Hammond
1974
Retired NASA astronaut (STS-39 , STS-64 )
Charlie Hillard
1958
Aerobatics pilot; first American to win the world aerobatics title
Scott J. Horowitz
1982
Retired NASA astronaut (STS-75 , STS-82 , STS-101 , STS-105 )
Ellis L. Johnson
1960
Coca-Cola Chaired Professor in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech
Susan Still Kilrain
1985
Retired NASA astronaut (STS-83 , STS-94 )
Robert S. Kimbrough
1998
NASA astronaut (STS-127 ); Among the first candidates selected for astronaut training in the United States following the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster
Charles Kohlhase
1957
Worked for forty years at NASA/JPL leading the design of several robotic deep-space planetary missions
Timothy Kopra
1995
NASA astronaut (STS-127); flight engineer and science officer of the International Space Station; US Army lieutenant colonel
Sandra Magnus
1996
NASA astronaut (STS-112 , STS-126 , STS-119 , STS-135 ); member of the ISS Expedition 18
William S. McArthur
1983
NASA astronaut (STS-58 , STS-74 , STS-92 ); veteran of three Space Shuttle missions; veteran of one mission to the International Space Station via the Russian Soyuz capsule
Yvonne Pendleton
1979
Chief Scientist and first director of NASA’s Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute; first director of the NASA Lunar Science Institute
Alan G. Poindexter
1986
NASA astronaut (STS-122 , STS-131 )
James R. Thompson Jr.
1958
Director of the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama (1986–1989); NASA's deputy director (1989–1991)
Joe F. Thompson
1971
Aerospace engineer and chaired professor at Mississippi State University known for contributions to the field of computational fluid dynamics
Sabrina Thompson
2009
Aerospace engineer at Goddard Space Flight Center and founder of fashion brand Girl in Space Club
Richard H. Truly
1959
Retired NASA Astronaut (Approach and Landing Tests , STS-2 , STS-8 ); Retired Vice Admiral in the United States Navy ; 8th Administrator of NASA (1989–1992); head of the Georgia Tech Research Institute (1993–1998)
Douglas H. Wheelock
1992
NASA astronaut (STS-120 , Soyuz TMA-19 , Expedition 24 /25 )
John Young
1952
Retired NASA astronaut (Gemini 3 , Gemini 10 , Apollo 10 , Apollo 16 , STS-1 , STS-9 ); first commander of the Space Shuttle , walked on the Moon during Apollo 16
William S. McArthur , astronaut
Richard H. Truly , retired Vice Admiral, former head of NASA and GTRI
Physics
Chemistry and biology
Engineering
Computer and information science
Name
Class year
Notability
References
Jim Allchin
1984
Former high-level executive at Microsoft
Eric Allender
1985
Computer Science professor at Rutgers University , where he chaired the Department of Computer Science from 2006 to 2009
Annie Antón
1997
Chair and professor, School of Interactive Computing (Georgia Tech); professor of software engineering at NCSU ; privacy expert
Krishna Bharat
1996
Google research scientist ; creator of Google News
Fabian E. Bustamante
2001
Computer science professor at Northwestern University
Joe Celko
1982
Relational database expert from Austin, Texas ; participated in the ANSI X3H2 Database Standards Committee; helped write the SQL -89 and SQL-92 standards
Dorothy M. Crosland
1961
Long-time head librarian of the Georgia Tech Library , awarded honorary degree in 1961
Tom Cross
1999
Entrepreneur ; computer security expert; hacker
Jim Davies
1997
Cognitive scientist , playwright, artist; assistant professor of cognitive science at the Institute of Cognitive Science at Carleton University in Ottawa , Ontario , Canada, where he is the director of the Science of Imagination Laboratory
Richard DeMillo
1974
Former dean of the Georgia Tech College of Computing ; Distinguished Professor of Computing; previous director of the Georgia Tech Information Security Center
Anind Dey
1995
Computer scientist, currently an associate professor and the director of the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University
W. Keith Edwards
1989
Director of the GVU Center (Georgia Tech); professor of School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech; former manager of the Ubiquitous Computing group at PARC
Chaim Gingold
2003
Noted for his work with Spore
D. Richard Hipp
1984
Architect and primary author of SQLite
Ed Iacobucci
1975
Leader of the IBM OS/2 design team; founder of Citrix Systems ; president and CEO of DayJet ; member of SCO Group 's board of directors
Craig Mundie
1972
Chief research and strategy officer at Microsoft
Elizabeth Mynatt
1989
Executive director, Institute for People and Technology (IPaT) at Georgia Tech; director of the GVU Center at Georgia Tech; associate dean of strategic planning, Georgia Tech College of Computing
James F. O'Brien
2000
Computer science professor at University of California, Berkeley
Jeff Offutt
1988
Computer science professor of software engineering at George Mason University ; software testing expert; editor-in-chief of Software Testing, Verification & Reliability journal
Shwetak Patel
2003
Computer science entrepreneur and professor at University of Washington
Rosalind Picard
1984
Founder and director of the Affective Computing Research Group at MIT
Mike Pinkerton
1997
Software developer working on the Mozilla browsers and Google Chrome browser; lectures on "Development of Open Source Software" at George Washington University
Anand Sivasubramaniam
1995
Computer science Distinguished professor at The Pennsylvania State University
Alex Snoeren
1997
Computer science professor at University of California, San Diego
Gene Spafford
1981
Computer science professor at Purdue University ; computer security expert
Yaser S. Abu-Mostafa
1981
Computer science professor at California Institute of Technology ; machine learning expert
James Mickens
2001
Computer science professor at Harvard ; distributed systems expert
Jim Allchin , former executive at Microsoft Rosalind Picard Gene Spafford
Mathematics
Humanities
Architecture and design
Arts and entertainment
Athletics
Despite their highly technical backgrounds, Tech graduates are no strangers to athletics; approximately 150 Tech students have gone into the NFL , with many others going into the NBA or MLB . Well-known American football athletes include former students Calvin Johnson , Daryl Smith , and Keith Brooking , former Tech head football coaches Pepper Rodgers and Bill Fulcher , and all-time greats such as Joe Hamilton , Pat Swilling , Billy Shaw , and Joe Guyon . Tech's recent entrants into the NBA include Javaris Crittenton , Thaddeus Young , Jarrett Jack , Luke Schenscher , Stephon Marbury , Derrick Favors , Iman Shumpert , Chris Bosh , and Travis Best . Award-winning baseball stars include Kevin Brown , Mark Teixeira , Nomar Garciaparra , Jason Varitek , Erskine Mayer , and Jay Payton . In golf, the legendary Bobby Jones founded The Masters , David Duval was ranked No. 1 in the world in 2001, Stewart Cink was the 2009 Open Championship winner, was ranked in the top ten, and Matt Kuchar won the U.S. Amateur.
Fictional people
See also