This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.
The list of Rice University people includes notable alumni, former students, faculty, and presidents of Rice University.
Alumni
[edit]
The names of Distinguished Alumni Award recipients is available online[1] (the list is arranged alphabetically and includes recipients of other Rice University awards)
Selected Rice Alumni
Howard Hughes, former aviator, engineer, industrialist, film producer and director
Alberto Gonzales, former U.S. Attorney General
Josh Earnest, former White House Press Secretary
John Kline, U.S. Congressman
Annise Parker, 61st mayor of Houston
Tim League, founder of Alamo Drafthouse Cinema
Peggy Whitson, NASA astronaut
Lance Berkman, MLB player
Government and politics
[edit]
Note: individuals who belong in multiple sections appear in the most relevant section.
U.S. Cabinet Secretaries
[edit]
Charles Duncan, 1947, U.S. Secretary of Energy (1979–1981)[2]
Alberto Gonzales, 1979, United States Attorney General (2005–2007)[3]
U.S. Ambassadors
[edit]
James Ward Hargrove, 1943, Ambassador to Australia (1976–1977)[4]
Eric Nelson, 1983, Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina (2019–present)[5]
Other federal officials
[edit]
Patrick G. Carrick, member of the Senior Executive Service[6]
Robert L. Clarke, 1963, attorney, Comptroller of the Currency (1985–1992)
Josh Earnest, 1997, White House Press Secretary for President Barack Obama (2014–2017)[citation needed]
L. Patrick Gray (attended), acting director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (1972–1973)
Stephen Hahn, 1980, Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (2019–2021)[7]
Robert S. Martin, 1971, director, Institute of Museum and Library Services (2001–2005)
Benjamin J. Rhodes, 2000, speechwriter and national security adviser to Barack Obama[8]
U.S. Senators and Congressmen
[edit]
Bill Archer (attended), United States Congressman[9] (1971–2001)
Jim Bridenstine, 1998, U.S. Representative, Oklahoma's 1st congressional district[10] (2013–2018); Administrator of NASA (2018–2021)
John Kline, 1969, United States Congressman[11] (2003–2017)
Pete Olson, 1985, United States Congressman[12] (2009–2021)
Albert Thomas, 1920, U.S. Representative, Texas's 8th congressional district[13] (1937–1966)
Governors
[edit]
James V. Allred (attended), Governor of Texas (1935–1939)
Glenn Youngkin, 1990, Governor of Virginia (2022–present)[14]
Mayors
[edit]
George Chang, Ph.D. 1966, mayor of Tainan, Taiwan (1997–2001)
Roy Hofheinz, 1932 (attended), mayor of the City of Houston[15] (1953–1955)
Annise Parker, 1978, mayor of the City of Houston[16] (2010–2016)
Susan Sample, B.A. 1985, Mayor of the City of West University Place (2015–2019, 2021–present)[17]
Starke Taylor, 1943, mayor of the City of Dallas (1983–1987)[18]
State and local officials
[edit]
George P. Bush, 1998, commissioner of the Texas General Land Office; son of Florida Governor Jeb Bush; nephew of former President George W. Bush; grandson of former President George H. W. Bush[19]
Eric Dick, 2022, is the President of the Harris County Department of Education since 2017; lawyer specializing in denied or underpaid property insurance claims[20][21]
William P. Hobby Jr., 1953, Lieutenant Governor of Texas (1973–1991); former chancellor of the University of Houston System; former president and executive editor at The Houston Post[22]
Scott Hochberg, member of the Texas House of Representatives[citation needed]
M. J. Khan, Master of Business Administration, former Houston City Council member[23]
Lamar John Ryan Cecil, 1923, United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas (1954–1958)
Finis E. Cowan, 1951, United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas (1977–1979)
Harold R. DeMoss Jr., 1952, Federal Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (1991–2015)
Hugh Gibson, 1940, United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas (1979–1998)
Sam E. Haddon, 1959, United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Montana (2012–present)
Sharon Keller, 1975, Presiding Judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (2001–present)[25]
James Aubrey Parker, 1959, Senior Judge of the United States District Court for the District of New Mexico (2003–present)
Karen Gren Scholer, 1979, United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas (2018–present)[26]
Anuraag Singhal, 1986, United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida (2019–present)[27]
Leslie H. Southwick, 1972, Federal Judge on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals[28]
James P. Sullivan, 2003, Justice on the Supreme Court of Texas[29]
Other
[edit]
Robert L. Leuschner Jr., 1957, graduated as a chemical engineer, but after joining the NROTC at Rice, pursued a distinguished career in the U.S. Navy, attaining the rank of rear admiral
Mitch Bainwol, 1983, former chair, Republican National Committee[30]
William Luther Pierce, 1955, National Alliance founder, noted neo-Nazi, and author of the Turner Diaries[31]
Gary H. Stern, chief executive of the Ninth Federal Reserve Bank, at Minneapolis[32]
Arts and letters
[edit]
Architecture
[edit]
Ralph A. Anderson Jr., 1943, architect
Arthur E. Jones, 1947, architect
E. Fay Jones, March 1951, architect, named in 2000 by the American Institute of Architects as "one of the ten most influential architects of the twentieth century"[33]
Eric Kuhne, 1973, British architect
Charles Renfro, BArch 1989, architect, partner of Diller Scofidio + Renfro
Blaine E. Brownell, MArch 1998, architect, director of the School of Architecture at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and columnist for Architect Magazine
Kevin Daly, MArch, founder of Kevin Daly Architects and adjunct professor at UCLA
Fashion
[edit]
James Mischka, 1985, designer and co-founder of Badgley Mischka
Film, television and radio
[edit]
Elizabeth Avellán, 1992, film producer and co-founder of Troublemaker Studios
Ron Bozman, 1969, Academy Award-winning film producer (The Silence of the Lambs)
Dr. Joy Browne (b. Oppenheim), Jones 1966, host of popular syndicated radio and television call-in therapy shows[34]
John William Corrington, M.A. 1960, screenwriter
James Craig, actor (Kitty Foyle)
Germaine Franco, 1984, film composer (Coco)
Amy Hobby, 1986, Academy Award-nominated producer
Howard Hughes (attended), filmmaker known for Hell's Angel's (1930) and Scarface (1932); life and career served as the basis for the 2004 film The Aviator
Tim League, 1992, founder of Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, a high end theatre chain, and Drafthouse Films, film distributor
Mike MacRae, 1999, voice actor, comedian
Gus Sorola (attended), Machinima artist and founding member of Rooster Teeth[35]
History and journalism
[edit]
William Broyles Jr., 1966, founder of Texas Monthly; former editor in chief at Newsweek; screenwriter of Apollo 13, Cast Away, Unfaithful, Flags of Our Fathers
Gwynne Dyer, M.A. 1966, journalist, syndicated columnist and military historian; Senior Lecturer in War Studies at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (1973–1977)
John Graves, 1942, nature writer, Goodbye to a River
Zack Kopplin, 2015, political activist, journalist, and television personality who came to fame during high school for publicly campaigning against the Louisiana Science Education Act, a creationism law; investigator for the Government Accountability Project
Evan Mintz, 2008, 2017 Pulitzer Prize finalist in editorial writing[37]
Michael Noer, 1992, executive news editor for Forbes.com
Steve Sailer, 1980, writer for Taki's Magazine and VDARE
Rosa Levin Toubin, Jewish Texan historian, civic leader and philanthropist
Lamar White, 2005, investigative journalist known for his work on racism and political corruption in the Deep South
Literature
[edit]
Candace Bushnell (attended), author of Sex and the City
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
Larry McMurtry, M.A. 1960, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, known for Lonesome Dove, The Last Picture Show, and Terms of Endearment; won Oscar for Brokeback Mountain screenplay
Elizabeth Moon, 1968, author, The Deed of Paksenarrion, Winning Colors
Joyce Carol Oates (attended), author; Princeton creative writing professor; dropped out of English PhD program after publishing in Best American Short Stories
John Pipkin, PhD 1997, novelist
Elisa Gabbert, 2002, poet, essayist, and TheNew York Times poetry columnist[38]
Adriana E. Ramírez, 2005, writer, critic-at-large for the Los Angeles Times, and co-founder of the literary journal Aster(ix)
Music
[edit]
Lola Astanova, Master's 2005, summa cum laude, Russian-born classical pianist[citation needed]
Rebecca Carrington, Masters in Music, British "music comedian"
Carl P. Daw Jr., Episcopalian priest; director of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada; researcher and authority on sacred music
Gabriela Frank (born 1972), pianist and composer of contemporary classical music
Kate Soper, 2003, Pulitzer Prize-finalist musician
Visual art
[edit]
Mark Flood, 1981, contemporary artist
Robert S. Martin, 1971, librarian; member of National Council for the Humanities; former director of Institute of Museum & Library Services; 2008 recipient of Presidential Citizens Medal[citation needed]
Charles L. Venable, 1982, curator and former director of the Indianapolis Museum of Art and the Speed Art Museum
Wayne Gilbert, MA 2012, painter and gallerist
Ann Harithas, MFA, artist, curator, and founder of multiple museums in Texas, including the Art Car Museum, Station Museum of Contemporary Art, and Five Points Museum of Contemporary Art
Business
[edit]
Brian Armstrong, 2005 and 2006, founder and CEO of Coinbase[39]
George R. Brown, 1920, founder of Brown and Root, one of the world's largest construction firms[40]
Thomas H. Cruikshank, former chairman and CEO of Halliburton[41]
Mark Dankberg, 1976, co-founder and CEO, ViaSat
L. John Doerr, 1973, venture capitalist at Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers; CEO of Silicon Compilers; co-founder of the @Home Network; on the board of directors of Intuit, Amazon.com, PalmOne, Sun Microsystems, Google, and Segway[42]
Charles Duncan, 1947, former president, Coca-Cola; former Secretary of Energy under Jimmy Carter (1979–1981)[43]
Kevin Harvey, 1987, founding member and general partner at Benchmark, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm[46]
Howard Hughes (attended), richest man in the world in 1976[citation needed]
Steve Jackson, 1974, founder of Steve Jackson Games[47]
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[citation needed]
Ali Yıldırım Koç, 1990, Koç Holding member; 37th president of Turkish multisport club Fenerbahçe S.K.
Fred C. Koch (attended), founder of Koch Industries, one of the largest private companies in the United States[48]
James E. Lyon, Houston developer and Republican politician[49]
Cal McNair, 1995, chairman and CEO of the Houston Texans NFL franchise[50][51]
Arun Netravali, 1969 and 1971, pioneer of digital technology including HDTV; former president of Bell Laboratories and Chief Scientist for Lucent Technologies[52]
David Rhodes, 1996, president of CBS News; former head of U.S. television for Bloomberg[53]
John Morgan, 1968, mathematician, 2013 National Academy of Sciences
Harold E. Rorschach Jr., professor of physics at Rice (1952–1993), was the chairman of the physics department three times and principal investigator of the NASA interdisciplinary laboratory at Rice
Noah Rosenberg, 1997, geneticist working in evolutionary biology, mathematical phylogenetics, and population genetics, and the Stanford Professor of Population Genetics and Society
Nick Ryder, 2014, co-creator of GPT-3.
Steven Schafersman, 1983 PhD in geology, president of Texas Citizens for Science
Dorry Segev, Israeli-born Marjory K. and Thomas Pozefsky Professor of Surgery at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Professor of Epidemiology at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Associate Vice Chair of the Department of Surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital
Fred I. Stalkup, 1957 BS in chemical engineering, 1961 Ph.D. chemical engineering noted for work in enhanced oil recovery, member of the National Academy of Engineering
Dennis Sullivan, 1963 BA in mathematics, mathematician at Stony Brook University and CUNY grad school; recipient of the 2004 National Medal of Science; 2010 Wolf Prize in Mathematics; 2022 Abel Prize[73]
Powtawche Valerino, PhD 2005, mechanical engineer at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory who worked on the Cassini mission
Academia
[edit]
Daniel Albright, 1967, Harvard University English professor
Walter L. Buenger, Ph.D. 1979, historian at Texas A&M University
Nancy Cole, 1964, educational psychologist
Cristle Collins Judd, B.M./M.M. 1983, 11th President of Sarah Lawrence College
Gwynne Dyer, 1973–1977, Senior Lecturer in War Studies at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst
Nikta Fakhri, PhD 2011, Professor of Physics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Shriram Krishnamurthi, PhD 2000, professor of computer science at Brown University and developer of the Racket programming language
R. Bowen Loftin, Ph.D. 1975, 22nd chancellor of the University of Missouri, and 24th President of Texas A&M University.
Bennett McCallum, B.A. 1957, B.S. 1958, Ph.D. 1969, monetary economist and professor at the Tepper School of Business
Kannan Moudgalya, PhD 1985, professor of Chemical Engineering at IITB
Amos Rapoport, 1957, professor, pschologist, architect and one of the founders of Environment-Behavior Studies
Robert K. Ritner, 1975, Egyptologist at the University of Chicago
Roland W. Schmitt, Ph.D. 1951, President of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (1988–1993)
William Sidis (1898–1944) child prodigy with exceptional mathematical and linguistic skills, for which he was active as a mathematician, linguist, historian, author, researcher, and student and teacher at Rice
Namita Gupta Wiggers, 1989, expert in the field of contemporary craft, curator, educator and writer
Religion
[edit]
The Rt. Rev. Scott Field Bailey, 1938, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of West Texas
The Rev. Carl P. Daw Jr., Will Rice 1966, executive director of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada
The Rt. Rev. Claude Edward Payne, 1954, 1955, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas
The Rt. Rev. Steven Tighe, 1978, bishop of the Anglican Diocese of the Southwest
Sports
[edit]
Baseball
[edit]
David Aardsma, 2003, MLB pitcher, 22nd overall pick of the San Francisco Giants[74]
Lance Berkman, 1997, six-time All-Star Major League baseball player for the Houston Astros[75]
Norm Charlton, 1984, Major League Baseball player[76]
Bubba Crosby, 1998, Major League Baseball player for the New York Yankees[77]
José Cruz Jr., 1993, Major League Baseball player[78]
Tyler Duffey, Major League Baseball player for the Minnesota Twins[79]
Brock Holt, 2009, Major League Baseball utility player for the Boston Red Sox[80]
Philip Humber, 2004, Major League Baseball player, 3rd overall pick of the New York Mets;[81] pitched a perfect game in 2012
Evan Kravetz, 2019, Major League Baseball pitcher for the Cincinnati Reds
Jeff Niemann, 2004, Major League Baseball pitcher, 4th overall pick of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays[82]
Anthony Rendon, 2011, Major League Baseball first-round draft choice of the Washington Nationals
Basketball
[edit]
Morris Almond, 2007, NBA guard, 25th overall pick of the Utah Jazz[83]
Suleiman Braimoh (born 1989), Nigerian-American basketball player in the Israel Basketball Premier League
Egor Koulechov (born 1994), Israeli-Russian professional basketball player for Israeli team Ironi Nahariya
Ricky Pierce, 1983, NBA guard, 1983–1998; NBA All-Star 1991; NBA Sixth Man of the Year Award 1987 and 1990[84]
Dicky Moegle, 1954, halfback, inducted into Cotton Bowl Classic Hall of Fame in 1998; College Football Hall of Fame Inductee, 1979[105]
Cheta Ozougwu, defensive end for Chicago Bears, 2011 Mr. Irrelevant[106]
Tobin Rote, quarterback of 1957 NFL Champion Detroit Lions and 1963 AFL Champion San Diego Chargers[107]
Frank Beall Ryan, 1958, PhD 1965, NFL quarterback; textbook author; Yale athletic director; appeared on cover of Sports Illustrated, January 4, 1965[108]
Sam Match (1923–2010), tennis player; won the NCAA doubles championship with Rice University in 1947[110]
Harold Solomon (born 1952), professional tennis player ranked as high as number 5 in the world[111]
Track and field
[edit]
Andrea Blackett, 1997, Barbados Olympic hurdler[112] and 1998 Commonwealth Games 400 m hurdles champion[113]
Jason Colwick, 2010, two-time NCAA champion in pole vault[114]
Fred Hansen, 1963, NCAA champion in pole vault, gold medalist at 1964 Summer Olympics, world record holder[115]
Dave Roberts, 1974, bronze medalist in pole vault at 1976 Summer Olympics,[116] and former world record holder (twice) in pole vault[117]
Sean Wade, Master Runner of the Year; coach of the cross country team at The Kinkaid School[118]
Other
[edit]
Adi Bichman, 2001, Israeli freestyle and medley swimmer[119]
Sam McGuffie, 2013, member of the 2018 U.S. Olympic men's bobsleigh team as a push crewman for the four man bobsled and brakeman for the two-man bobsled
Miscellaneous
[edit]
Bill Arhos, KLRU station manager, program director; Austin City Limits executive producer
John Bradshaw, author and motivational speaker
Amanda Goad, Scripps National Spelling Bee champion
Henry Masterson III, National Medal of Arts recipient
Faculty and staff
[edit]
Nobel laureates
[edit]
Robert F. Curl Jr. (also an alumnus of Rice), professor of chemistry, awarded 1996 in chemistry for the discovery of fullerenes[120]
Hermann Joseph Muller, professor of biology, awarded 1946 in physiology or medicine for the discovery for X-ray mutagenesis
Roger Penrose, former Rice University’s Edgar Odell Lovett Professor of Mathematics,[121] awarded 2020 in physics for the discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity[122]
Richard Smalley, professor of chemistry, awarded 1996 in chemistry for the discovery of fullerenes
Robert Woodrow Wilson, senior scientist, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics; awarded 1978 in physics for the discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation
Other faculty
[edit]
Shmuel Agmon, Israeli mathematician
Max Apple, short story writer, novelist, and professor
Atar Arad, Israeli-American violist, professor of music, essayist, and composer
Hanan Ashrawi, Palestinian scholar and activist
Richard Baraniuk, professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
^Dooley, Tara. "Khan inspires Muslims with election to council." Houston Chronicle. Saturday, December 13, 2003. Religion p. 1. NewsBank Record Number: 3716921. Available from the Houston Public Library website with a library card.
^"Hector Ruiz". Notable Names Data Base. Retrieved 26 June 2013.
^(This footnote was copied from the "08:47, 28 September 2021" revision of the Wikipedia article about "Tandem Computers" [oldid=1047016237]) : "Tandem History: An Introduction". Center magazine, vol 6 number 1, Winter 1986, a magazine for Tandem employees.
^(This footnote was "also" copied from the "08:47, 28 September 2021" revision of the Wikipedia article about "Tandem Computers" [oldid=1047016237]) : "Tracing Tandem's History", NonStop News, vol 9 number 1, January 1986, a newsletter for Tandem employees.
^JADE BOYD. "Rice names Curl 'University Professor'". Rice University. Retrieved 16 July 2009. Bob was teaching an undergraduate course in chemistry the semester he and Rick Smalley were awarded the Nobel Prize