Founded in Cambridge in 1861, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private university that is usually regarded as not only one of the best universities in the United States, but as one of the best universities in the entire world. MIT is extremely difficult to get into, and those that graduate from this school are some of the most intelligent people in the world. The university specializes in sciences, engineering, economics, and management, and those that earn a degree from MIT often go on to become extremely successful and influential. There’s a large amount of alumni from this school that have gone on to do great things, but some have gone on to become key figures in their respective industries. Here are ten of the most influential MIT alumni.
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10. Andrea Wong
Andrea Wong graduated from MIT in 1988, having earned her degree in electrical engineering. Wong has then gone on to become the international president for both Sony Pictures Television and Sony Pictures Entertainment. She has become one of the most influential women in the entertainment business, and is accredited for developing hit shows such as The Bachelor, Dancing With the Stars (U.S. version), and Extreme Makeover: Home Addition which has won two Emmy awards.
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9. Lawrence Summers
Lawrence Summers is an American economist who graduated from MIT in 1975, and like many MIT alumni, he’s gone on to accomplish quite a lot. First of all, he entered MIT when he was just 16-years-old, so already you can tell that he’s quite intelligent. After receiving his undergraduate degree in economics from MIT, he went on to earn his graduate degree from Harvard. He was the Chief Economist for the World Bank from 1992 to 1993, was the U.S. Secretary of Treasury under the Clinton administration, went on to become the President of Harvard for five years, and served as the Director of the White House under President Obama. So yeah, he’s quite the influential figure, to say the least.
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8. Ben Bernanke
Ben Bernanke is an American economist and is another accomplished alumni from MIT. He attended Harvard for his undergrad years where he studied economics and graduated with high honors, and then earned his Ph.D. in economics from MIT in 1979. Bernanke then went on to become a board of governors member for the Federal Reserve in 2002, he was then pointed as a chief economic advisor under President George Bush in 2005, before finally becoming the chairman of the Federal Reserve.
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7. John Thain
Despite having graduated with a degree in electrical engineering from MIT, John Thain would go on into the world of business and investment banking. He first became the CEO of the New York Stock Exchange in 2004, after working at Goldman Sachs for a number of years. He then went on to become the chairman and CEO of Merrill Lynch before they merged with the Bank of America. Now Thain is the CEO of the CIT Group in addition to serving on the MIT Corporation Board as as an advisor for the MIT Sloan School of Management.
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6. Shirley Ann Jackson
Shirley Ann Jackson was one of the first African Americans to study at MIT. At the university she studied theoretical physics, and then went on to earn her Ph.D. in the subject, which made her the first African American woman to earn her doctorate from MIT. She then went on to work at a variety of laboratories around the world before she became the Chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission under President Clinton. Now she is the current president of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a private reassert university.
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5. Benjamin Netanyahu
From Tel Aviv, the current Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, is also a graduate from MIT. After living in the United States up until his high school years, Netanyahu returned to Israel where he enlisted with the IDF. He served as a special operations soldier for a number of years, and saw combat action in a few military engagements of the time. After his time with the military, he returned to the U.S. to study at MIT, where he took on double the course load. In 1973 he left the school to serve in the Yom Kippur War, before returning again to complete his studies where he earned a B.S. in architecture and then his masters from the MIT Sloan School of Management. Years later he returned to Israel where he served in a few different public office positions before he became the Prime Minister of the country.
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4. William Redington Hewlett
Born in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1913, William Redington Hewlett is another extremely influential person who studied at MIT. At a young age, William became very interested with both science and engineering. He eared his Bachelors degree from Stanford University in 1934, eared his masters degree in electrical engineering from MIT in 1936, before earning an additional electrical engineering degree from Stanford in 1939. Later in life he became friends with David Packard, and the two formed the Hewlett-Packard Company.
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3. Kofi Annan
Kofi Annan wouldn’t study at MIT until much later in his life, but he has gone on to become an extremely influential and successful individual. Kofi was born in Ghana in 1938 into a fairly wealthy family where he was raised in a nurturing environment. He attended the Mfantsipim Senior High School, an elite school, in 1954 where he became extremely interested in economics, humanitarian issues, and politics. Upon graduating, Kofi became heavily interested in his studies. He initially study at a university in Ghana before receiving a grant that allowed him to study economics at the Macalester College in Minnesota. After receiving his degree from that school, he then studied international relations at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva in 1961. Kofi then took a break from his studies before finally earning his master’s degree in management from MIT. Later in life, Kofi would become the Secretary General of the United Nations and then even went on to become a Nobel Peace Prize recipient.
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2. Katharine McCormick
Katharine McCormick was born in 1875 in Dexter, Michigan and would go on to become of of the most influential MIT alumni ever. When she was just 14-years-old she lost her father to a heart attack and then four years later she lost her brother to meningitis. It was through these tragedies that sparked her interest in science and medicine. She would go on to study biology from MIT and graduated in 1904. At the time, it was extremely unheard of for women to attend college, let alone study a science, so right away Katharine was extremely influential. She then married a man by the name of Stanley McCormick who was the heir to a massive fortune. Her husband became extremely ill and suffered from dementia later in life, which lead her to be in charge of his large estate. Kathrine would then go on to become a key individual in the women’s suffrage movement as she became the vice president and treasurer for the National American Woman Suffrage Association. She was a fierce advocate for women’s rights at the time, and then went on to become a major philanthropist who donated her money to a variety of charities and movements. Through her work as a scientist and a philanthropist, she became the key donor that funded the research team that created the first birth control pill. So not only is Katharine McCormick an extremely influential MIT alumni, she was also one of the most influential women in the United States.
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1. Buzz Aldrin
Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin is an American engineer and astronaut that is best known as the second human being to walk on the surface of the moon, and as the pilot for the Lunar Module on the Apollo 11 mission. His accomplishments speak for themselves, and Buzz is also a graduate of MIT. Funny enough, Buzz actually rejected a scholarship from MIT to attend as an undergraduate as he chose to attend West Point instead. However he came back later in life to earn a doctorate degree in astronautics.
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