List of Rice University people

This is an incomplete list that may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by expanding it with reliably sourced entries.

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^[1] (the list is arranged alphabetically and includes recipients of other Rice University awards)

Athletics

• David Aardsma, 2003, MLB pitcher, 22nd overall pick of the San Francisco Giants^[2]
• Morris Almond, 2007, NBA guard, 25th overall pick of the Utah Jazz^[3]
• Tony Barker, 1992, Former NFL Football player for the Washington Redskins^[4]
• Lance Berkman, 1997, All-Star Major League baseball player for the St. Louis Cardinals^[5]
• Adi Bichman, 2001, Israeli freestyle and medley swimmer^[6]
• Andrea Blackett 1997, Barbados Olympic hurdler^[7] and 1998 Commonwealth Games 400 m hurdles champion^[8]
• O.J. Brigance, 1991, Former NFL football player^[9]
• James Casey, NFL Tight end/Full Back for the Houston Texans^[10]
• Bubba Crosby, Major league baseball player for the New York Yankees^[11]
• Norm Charlton, 1984, Major league baseball player^[12]
• Jason Colwick, 2010, two-time NCAA champion in pole vault^[13]
• José Cruz, Jr., 1993, Major league baseball player^[14]
• Patrick Dendy, NFL football player on Green Bay Packers^[15]
• Buddy Dial, end, College Football Hall of Fame inductee 1993,^[16] All-Pro 1961, 1963^[17]
• Jarett Dillard, 2008, Jacksonville Jaguars Wide Receiver^[18]
• Michael Downs 1981, NFL All-Pro safety, Dallas Cowboys ^[19]
• Courtney Hall, 1989, NFL offensive lineman, 1989 2nd round draft pick of the San Diego Chargers^[20]
• Fred Hansen, 1963, NCAA champion in pole vault, gold medalist at 1964 Summer Olympics, world record holder^[21]
• King Hill, quarterback, top pick in first round of 1958 NFL Draft^[22]
• Brock Holt, 2009, Major league baseball utility player for the Boston Red Sox^[23]
• Billy Howton, NFL's former all-time receiving leader, Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys^[24]
• Weldon Humble, guard, College Football Hall of Fame Inductee, 1961^[25]
• Philip Humber, 2004, Major league baseball player, 3rd overall pick of the New York Mets^[26]
• Tommy Kramer, NFL quarterback, named to Pro Bowl while playing for the Minnesota Vikings^[27]
• Larry Izzo, 3 time Pro Bowl LB/special teams captain for the New England Patriots, Super Bowl Champions 2002, 2004, 2005^[28]
• N.D. Kalu, NFL defensive end for the Houston Texans^[29]
• 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^[30]
• Don Maynard, wide receiver, Pro Football Hall of Fame Inductee^[31]
• Will McClay, Coach of the Dallas Desperados, an Arena Football League team^[32]
• Vance McDonald, 2013, National Football League tight end^[33]
• Jeff Niemann, 2004, Major league baseball pitcher, 4th overall pick of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays^[34]
• Cheta Ozougwu, defensive end for Chicago Bears, 2011 Mr. Irrelevant^[35]
• Ricky Pierce, 1983, NBA guard, 1983–1998, NBA All-Star 1991, NBA Sixth Man of the Year Award 1987 and 1990^[36]
• Anthony Rendon, 2011, Major League Baseball first-round draft choice of the Washington Nationals.
• Dave Roberts, 1974, bronze medalist in pole vault at 1976 Summer Olympics,^[37] and former world record holder (twice) in pole vault^[38]
• Tobin Rote, quarterback of 1957 NFL Champion Detroit Lions and 1963 AFL Champion San Diego Chargers^[39]
• Frank Beall Ryan, 1958, PhD 1965, NFL quarterback, textbook author, Yale athletic director, appeared on cover of Sports Illustrated, January 4, 1965^[40]
• Harold Solomon, professional tennis player ranked as high as number 5 in the world^[41]
• Mike Wilks, 2001, NBA guard 2002–09^[42]
• James Williams, American football end and kicker
• Luke Willson, 2013, National Football League tight end^[43]
• Sean Wade, Master runner of the Year and Coach of the Cross Country team at The Kinkaid School^[44]

Business

• George R. Brown, 1920, founder of Brown and Root, one of the world's largest construction firms^[45]
• Matthew G. Ahrens, Esq., 1987, real estate tax executive and visionary, Host Hotels & Resorts
• Jack Boyd Buckley, 1948, civil engineer from Houston who designed many tall buildings throughout the world and the air conditioning system of the Astrodome^[46]
• Thomas H. Cruikshank, former Chairman and CEO of Halliburton^[47]
• 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^[48]
• Charles Duncan, 1947, former president, Coca-Cola; former Secretary of Energy under Jimmy Carter (1979–1981)^[49]
• Lynn Elsenhans, Chairman and CEO of Sunoco^[50]
• 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^[51]
• 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^[52]
• James E. Lyon, Houston developer and Republican politician^[53]
• Arun Netravali, 1969 and 1971, pioneer of digital technology including HDTV and former President of Bell Laboratories and Chief Scientist for Lucent Technologies^[54]
• David Rhodes, 1996, President of CBS News and former head of U.S. television for Bloomberg.^[55]
• Hector Ruiz, 1972, President and CEO of AMD^[56]
• James Treybig, 1963 and 1964, founder of Tandem Computers
• Jim Turley, 1977 and 1978, Chairman and CEO of Ernst & Young^[57]
• Mark Durcan, 1984, CEO of Micron Technology^[58]
• Jim Whitehurst, 1989, President and CEO of Red Hat^[59]

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
• R. Bowen Loftin, Ph.D. 1975, chancellor of the University of Missouri
• 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^[60]
• Mitch Bainwol, 1983, former chair, Republican National Committee^[61]
• James Baker, former Secretary of State and Treasury, chair of the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy^[62]
• Jim Bridenstine, U.S. Representative, Oklahoma's 1st congressional district^[63]
• Patrick G. Carrick, Member of the Senior Executive Service^[64]
• Charles Duncan, 1947, U.S. Secretary of Energy (1979–1981)^[65]
• Ed Emmett, 1971, Harris County administrative county judge since 2007; member of the Texas House of Representtivees (1979–1987)^[66]
• Doug Harlan (Class of 1964), political consultant, lawyer, educator, public official from San Antonio; endowed at Rice the Douglas S. Harlan Program in State Elections, Campaigns and Politics^[67]
• 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'^[68] '
• Roy Hofheinz (1932; attended), Mayor of the City of Houston^[69]
• M.J. Khan (Master of Business Administration), former Houston City Council member^[70]
• John Kline, 1969, United States Congressman^[71]
• John N. Leedom, 1943, State senator (1981–1996) from Dallas and Rockwall counties
• Pete Olson, 1985, United States Congressman^[72]
• Annise Parker, 1978, Mayor of the City of Houston^[73]
• William Luther Pierce, 1955, National Alliance founder
• Benjamin J. Rhodes, speechwriter and national security adviser to Barack Obama^[74]
• Leslie H. Southwick, 1972, Federal Judge on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals^[75]
• Scott Hochberg, Member of the Texas House of Representatives
• Eliot Shapleigh, 1974, Texas state senator^[76]
• Gary H. Stern, chief executive of the Ninth Federal Reserve Bank, at Minneapolis^[77]
• Josh Earnest, 1997, press secretary for President Barack Obama ^[78]

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
• 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
• Michael Noer, 1992, currently the executive news editor for Forbes.com

Literature, art and music

• Joyce Carol Oates, American author and Princeton creative writing Professor, dropped out of English PhD program after publishing in "Best American Short Stories"
• Lola Astanova, Russian-born classical pianist, completed her Master's degree in 2005, summa cum laude.
• John Bradshaw, author and motivational speaker.
• 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: A Novel, After Such Knowledge
• E. Fay Jones, Architect, Master of Architecture degree, 1951. In 2000, he was named by the American Institute of Architects as “one of the ten most influential architects of the twentieth century.” ^[79]
• 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
• Caroline Shaw, 2004, Pulitzer Prize winning musician
• Gus Sorola (attended), Machinima artist and creator of the popular BASIC game Snake.^[80]

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
• Phil Konstantin, Author, Reporter / Photographer – KUSI, KGTV, KFMB-TV
• Bill Arhos, KLRU Station Manager / Program Director / Austin City Limits Executive Producer

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^[81]
• Andrew Dessler, Lovett 1986 climate change meteorologist
• Takao Doi, PhD 2004, NASA Astronaut^[82]
• Mark Durcan, (1979–1984), Master of Chemical Engineering and a BS Chemical Engineering, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at Micron Technology.^[83]
• David Eagleman, 1993, neuroscientist at Baylor College of Medicine and author of Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives
• Wayne Hale, Hanszen 1976, mechanical engineering. Space Shuttle Flight Director for 40 missions between 1988 and 2003^[84]
• Jeffrey A. Hoffman, Masters in materials science, 1988. NASA Astronaut^[85]
• Dave Hyatt, Baker 1994, browser developer at Netscape and Apple
• Tamara E. Jernigan, PhD 1988, NASA Astronaut^[86]
• Howard Johnson, PhD 1982, electrical engineer
• James A. Kahle, Will Rice 1983, IBM Fellow and chief architect of the POWER4 and Cell microprocessors
• Riki Kobayashi, 1943, B.S., chemical engineering.
• James E. Gunn, Baker 1961, astronomer at Princeton University, 2009 recipient of the National Medal of Science
• Larry Lake, PhD 1973, petroleum engineer and member of the National Academy of Engineering
• George Whitelaw Mackey, 1938, mathematician
• Jack Morava, 1968, mathematician
• John Morgan, 1968, mathematician
• James H. Newman, 1982 and 1984, NASA Astronaut^[87]
• John D. Olivas, PhD 1996, NASA Astronaut^[88]
• Steven Schafersman, 1983 PhD in Geology, President of Texas Citizens for Science
• Dennis Sullivan, 1963 BA in mathematics. Mathematician at Stony Brook University and CUNY grad school. Recipient of the 2004 National Medal of Science and 2010 Wolf Prize in Mathematics.
• Janice Voss, Graduate work in Space Physics 1977–1978 NASA Astronaut^[89]
• Peggy Whitson, PhD 1986 NASA Astronaut^[90]
• Shannon Walker, Baker 1987, MA 1992, PhD 1993 NASA Astronaut^[91]
• Robert Woodrow Wilson, co-discoverer of cosmic microwave background radiation and Nobel laureate
• Kwatsi Alibaruho MBA 2011, first African-American flight director in NASA history and the lead flight director for the last space shuttle mission ^[92]

Fictional

• L. Bob Rife, fiber-optics monopolist and villain in Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash.^[93]
• Louis Holland, the protagonist and KTRU station manager in Jonathan Franzen's Strong Motion.^[94]
• a mathematician from William Gibson's novel Pattern Recognition.^[95]
• Andy Carpenter, a Mississippi native working on his history Ph.D. in Dean James's stand-alone novel, Death by Dissertation.^[96]

Faculty and Staff

Nobel Laureates

• Robert Woodrow Wilson, Senior scientist Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, awarded 1978 in physics for discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation
• 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")^[97]

Other Faculty

• Hanan Ashrawi
• Tani E. Barlow
• Earl Black
• Douglas Brinkley
• Solomon Bochner
• Bun B (guest lecturer)^[98]
• C. Sidney Burrus
• B. Jill Carroll
• Suchan Chae
• Franklin Chang-Diaz
• Gerald R. Dickens
• Justin Cronin
• Edward Djerejian
• Elaine Howard Ecklund
• Paul Ellison
• Ariel Fernandez
• Julian Huxley
• Ken Kennedy (computer scientist)
• Anne C. Klein
• Riki Kobayashi
• Sydney Lamb
• Neal Lane
• Robert Lewis
• Cho-Liang Lin
• D. Michael Lindsay (former)
• Andreas Luttge
• George Marcus
• William Martin^[99]
• Amy Myers Jaffe
• Ann Saterbak
• Robert M. Stein
• Robert B. Stobaugh
• Richard Tapia
• James Tour
• Frank Vandiver
• Moshe Vardi
• William F. Walker
• Martin Wiener
• 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^[100]
• Jess Neely, football coach 1940–1966, College Football Hall of Fame inductee, 1971^[101]

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)
• Malcolm Gillis (president 1993–2004)
• David Leebron (president 2004 to present)

References

Rice University Academics Susanne M. Glasscock School of Continuing Studies Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business Rice University School of Architecture Wiess School of Natural Sciences George R. Brown School of Engineering Shepherd School of Music Rice University School of Humanities Rice University School of Social Sciences Research Connexions Mid-InfraRed Technologies for Health and the Environment Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship The Rice School BioScience Research Collaborative Athletics Rice Owls Houston–Rice rivalry Conference USA Major League Baseball players who played for Rice University Football Baseball Men's basketball Marching Owl Band Rice Stadium Tudor Fieldhouse Reckling Park Fox Sports Houston Sammy the Owl Student Life Rice Thresher Night of Decadence Residential colleges People Alumni Faculty and Staff Presidents William Marsh Rice James A. Baker, Sr. Edgar Odell Lovett