The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science (also known as SEAS or Columbia Engineering; historically Columbia School of Mines) is the

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

and

applied science Applied science is the application of the scientific method and scientific knowledge to attain practical goals. It includes a broad range of disciplines, such as engineering and medicine. Applied science is often contrasted with basic science, ...

school of

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

, a private

research university A research university or a research-intensive university is a university that is committed to research as a central part of its mission. They are "the key sites of Knowledge production modes, knowledge production", along with "intergenerational ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. It was founded as the School of Mines in 1863 and then the School of Mines, Engineering and Chemistry before becoming the School of Engineering and Applied Science. On October 1, 1997, the school was renamed in honor of Chinese businessman Z.Y. Fu, who had donated $26 million to the school. The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science maintains a close research tie with other institutions including

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

, MIT, and The Earth Institute. Patents owned by the school generate over $100 million annually for the university. SEAS faculty and alumni are responsible for technological achievements including the developments of

FM radio FM broadcasting is a method of radio broadcasting that uses frequency modulation (FM) of the radio broadcast carrier wave. Invented in 1933 by American engineer Edwin Armstrong, wide-band FM is used worldwide to transmit high fidelity, high-f ...

and the maser. The current SEAS faculty include 27 members of the

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...

and one

Nobel laureate The Nobel Prizes (, ) are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institutet, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations who make outstanding contributions in th ...

. In all, the faculty and alumni of Columbia Engineering have won 10 Nobel Prizes in physics, chemistry, medicine, and economics. The school consists of approximately 300 undergraduates in each graduating class and maintains close links with its undergraduate

liberal arts Liberal arts education () is a traditional academic course in Western higher education. ''Liberal arts'' takes the term ''skill, art'' in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically the fine arts. ''Liberal arts education'' can refe ...

sister school Columbia College which shares housing with SEAS students. The School's current dean is Shih-Fu Chang, who was appointed in 2022.

History

Original charter of 1754

Included in the original charter for Columbia College was the direction to teach "the arts of Number and Measuring, of Surveying and Navigation ..the knowledge of ..various kinds of Meteors, Stones, Mines and Minerals, Plants and Animals, and everything useful for the Comfort, the Convenience and Elegance of Life." Engineering has always been a part of Columbia, even before the establishment of any separate school of engineering. An early and influential graduate from the school was John Stevens, Class of 1768. Instrumental in the establishment of U.S. patent law, Stevens procured many patents in early steamboat technology, operated the first steam ferry between New York and New Jersey, received the first railroad charter in the U.S., built a pioneer

locomotive A locomotive is a rail transport, rail vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. Traditionally, locomotives pulled trains from the front. However, Push–pull train, push–pull operation has become common, and in the pursuit for ...

, and amassed a fortune, which allowed his sons to found the

Stevens Institute of Technology Stevens Institute of Technology is a Private university, private research university in Hoboken, New Jersey. Founded in 1870, it is one of the oldest technological universities in the United States and was the first college in America solely de ...

. (Excerpt fro
SEAS
website.) When Columbia University first resided on Wall Street, engineering did not have a school under the Columbia umbrella. After Columbia outgrew its space on Wall Street, it relocated to what is now

Midtown Manhattan Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan, serving as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Building, the ...

in 1857. Then President Barnard and the Trustees of the University, with the urging of Professor Thomas Egleston and General Vinton, approved the School of Mines in 1863. The intention was to establish a School of Mines and Metallurgy with a three-year program open to professionally motivated students with or without prior undergraduate training. It was officially founded in 1864 under the leadership of its first dean, Columbia professor Charles F. Chandler, and specialized in mining and mineralogical engineering. An example of work from a student at the School of Mines was William Barclay Parsons, Class of 1882. He was an engineer on the Chinese railway and the Cape Cod and Panama Canals. Most importantly he worked for New York, as a chief engineer of the city's first subway system, the

Interborough Rapid Transit Company The Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) was the private operator of New York City's original underground subway line that opened in 1904, as well as earlier elevated railways and additional rapid transit lines in New York City. The IRT ...

. Opened in 1904, the subway's electric cars took passengers from City Hall to Brooklyn, the Bronx, and the newly renamed and relocated Columbia University in Morningside Heights, its present location on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

Renaming to the School of Mines

In 1896, the school was renamed to the "School of Mines, Engineering and Chemistry". During this time, the University was offering more than the previous name had implied, thus the change of name. The faculty during this time included Michael I. Pupin, after whom Pupin Hall is named. Pupin himself was a graduate of the Class of 1883 and the inventor of the " Pupin coil", a device that extended the range of long-distance telephones. Students of his included Irving Langmuir, Nobel laureate in Chemistry (1932), inventor of the gas-filled tungsten lamp and a contributor to the development of the radio

vacuum tube A vacuum tube, electron tube, thermionic valve (British usage), or tube (North America) is a device that controls electric current flow in a high vacuum between electrodes to which an electric voltage, potential difference has been applied. It ...

. Another student to work with Pupin was

Edwin Howard Armstrong Edwin Howard Armstrong (December 18, 1890 – February 1, 1954) was an American electrical engineer and inventor who developed FM (frequency modulation) radio and the superheterodyne receiver system. He held 42 patents and received numerous awa ...

, inventor of

. After graduating in 1913 Armstrong was stationed in France during World War I. There he developed the superheterodyne receiver to detect the frequency of enemy aircraft ignition systems. During this period, Columbia was also home to the "Father of Biomedical Engineering" Elmer L. Gaden.

Recent and future developments

The university continued to evolve and expand as the United States became a major political power during the 20th century. In 1926, the newly renamed School of Engineering prepared students for the nuclear age. Graduating with a master's degree, Hyman George Rickover, working with the Navy's Bureau of Ships, directed the development of the world's first nuclear-powered submarine, the

Nautilus A nautilus (; ) is any of the various species within the cephalopod family Nautilidae. This is the sole extant family of the superfamily Nautilaceae and the suborder Nautilina. It comprises nine living species in two genera, the type genus, ty ...

, which was launched in 1954. The school's first woman graduate received her degree in 1945. After a substantial grant of $26 million from Chinese businessman Z.Y. Fu, the engineering school was renamed again in 1997. The new name, as it is known today is the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science. SEAS continues to be a teaching and research institution, now with a large endowment of over $400 million, and sits under the Columbia umbrella endowment of $7.2 billion.

Admissions

The admissions rate for the SEAS undergraduate class of 2018 was approximately 7%. Approximately 95% of accepted students were in the top 10% of their graduating class; 99% were in the top 20% of their class. 58% of admitted students attended high schools that do not rank. The yield rate for the class of 2014 was 59%. As for SAT scores, SEAS students within the Columbia University community have raised the composite SAT statistic for the undergraduates at Columbia University. The Class of 2013's SAT interquartile range was 2060–2320 and 1400–1560 (old SAT). The ACT composite interquartile range was 32–34. Those accepting enrollment at Columbia SEAS typically completed engineering programs at the undergraduate level and are pursuing professional graduate school in engineering, business, law, or medical school, so as to become what Columbia terms "engineering leaders." Engineering leaders are those who pioneer or define engineering: patent lawyers, doctors with specialties in biophysical engineering, financial engineers, inventors, etc. Columbia Engineering's graduate programs have an overall acceptance rate of 28.0% in 2010. The PhD student–faculty ratio at the graduate level is 4.2:1 according to the 2008 data compiled by U.S. News & World Report. PhD acceptance rate was 12% in 2010.

Academics

Rankings

As of April 2022, it is ranked 13th among the best engineering schools by '' U.S. News & World Report'', and first within the

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference of eight Private university, private Research university, research universities in the Northeastern United States. It participates in the National Collegia ...

, tied with

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

. Its undergraduate engineering program is ranked 21st in the country, according to ''U.S. News''. In 2010, the US National Research Council revealed its new analyses and rankings of American university doctoral programs since 1995. Columbia Engineering ranked 10th in biomedical engineering, 18th in chemical engineering, 26th in electrical engineering, 14th in mechanical engineering (5th in research), 9th in operations research & industrial engineering, 7th in applied mathematics, and 6th in computer sciences. The school's department of computer science is ranked 11th in the nation, 36th in the world by '' U.S. News & World Report'', and 18th worldwide by

QS World University Rankings The ''QS World University Rankings'' is a portfolio of comparative college and university rankings compiled by Quacquarelli Symonds, a higher education analytics firm. Its first and earliest edition was published in collaboration with '' Times ...

. Its

biomedical engineering Biomedical engineering (BME) or medical engineering is the application of engineering principles and design concepts to medicine and biology for healthcare applications (e.g., diagnostic or therapeutic purposes). BME also integrates the logica ...

program is ranked 9th according to US News. Among the small prestigious programs, the school's

chemical engineering Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of the operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials ...

is ranked 20th, civil engineering and engineering mechanics 18th,

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

3rd,

applied physics Applied physics is the application of physics to solve scientific or engineering problems. It is usually considered a bridge or a connection between physics and engineering. "Applied" is distinguished from "pure" by a subtle combination of fac ...

4th,

industrial engineering Industrial engineering (IE) is concerned with the design, improvement and installation of integrated systems of people, materials, information, equipment and energy. It draws upon specialized knowledge and skill in the mathematical, physical, an ...

and

operations research Operations research () (U.S. Air Force Specialty Code: Operations Analysis), often shortened to the initialism OR, is a branch of applied mathematics that deals with the development and application of analytical methods to improve management and ...

4th, material engineering 10th,

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

15th, and

applied mathematics Applied mathematics is the application of mathematics, mathematical methods by different fields such as physics, engineering, medicine, biology, finance, business, computer science, and Industrial sector, industry. Thus, applied mathematics is a ...

15th, according to

National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...

. From '' The Chronicle of Higher Education'', Columbia's engineering mechanics is 6th in the nation, its

environmental engineering Environmental engineering is a professional engineering Academic discipline, discipline related to environmental science. It encompasses broad Science, scientific topics like chemistry, biology, ecology, geology, hydraulics, hydrology, microbiolo ...

4th, industrial engineering 7th, mechanical engineering 5th, applied physics 8th, and operations research 6th. Finally, Columbia's

financial engineering Financial engineering is a multidisciplinary field involving financial theory, methods of engineering, tools of mathematics and the practice of programming. It has also been defined as the application of technical methods, especially from mathe ...

program is ranked 3rd nationally, according to the 2020 ranking from Quantnet.

Facilities

Columbia's Plasma Physics Laboratory is part of the School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS), in which the HBT and Columbia Non-Neutral

Torus In geometry, a torus (: tori or toruses) is a surface of revolution generated by revolving a circle in three-dimensional space one full revolution about an axis that is coplanarity, coplanar with the circle. The main types of toruses inclu ...

are housed. The school also has two

wind tunnel A wind tunnel is "an apparatus for producing a controlled stream of air for conducting aerodynamic experiments". The experiment is conducted in the test section of the wind tunnel and a complete tunnel configuration includes air ducting to and f ...

s, a

machine shop A machine shop or engineering workshop is a room, building, or company where machining, a form of subtractive manufacturing, is done. In a machine shop, machinists use machine tools and cutting tool (machining), cutting tools to make parts, usua ...

, a

nanotechnology Nanotechnology is the manipulation of matter with at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometers (nm). At this scale, commonly known as the nanoscale, surface area and quantum mechanical effects become important in describing propertie ...

laboratory, a General Dynamics TRIGA Mk. II nuclear fission reactor, a large scale centrifuge for geotechnical testing, and an axial tester commonly used for testing New York City bridge cables. Each department has numerous laboratories on the Morningside Heights campus; however, other departments have holdings throughout the world. For example, the Applied Physics department has reactors at Nevis Labs in Irvington, NY and conducts work with

CERN The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in Meyrin, western suburb of Gene ...

in Geneva.

Notable alumni

The School of Engineering and Applied Science celebrates its ties and affiliations with at least 8 alumni Nobel Laureates. Alumni of Columbia Engineering have gone on to numerous fields of profession. Many have become prominent scientists, astronauts, architects, government officials, pioneers, entrepreneurs, company CEOs, financiers, and scholars. File:Hollerith.jpg, Herman Hollerith, Founded a company that merged with other companies to become IBM File:EdwinHowardArmstrong.jpg, Edwin Armstrong, developer of

FM Radio FM broadcasting is a method of radio broadcasting that uses frequency modulation (FM) of the radio broadcast carrier wave. Invented in 1933 by American engineer Edwin Armstrong, wide-band FM is used worldwide to transmit high fidelity, high-f ...

File:José Raúl Capablanca young cr.jpg, José Raúl Capablanca, Chess prodigy and the highest ranked chess player on the

Elo rating system The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in zero-sum games such as chess or esports. It is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-American chess master and physics professor. The Elo system wa ...

File:Mihajlo Pupin.jpg, Mihaljo Pupin, Serbian-American physicist and winner of the

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...

, namesake of Pupin Hall at

File:William Barclay Parsons, Pach Brothers photo portrait.jpg, William Barclay Parsons, American civil engineer, founder of Parsons Brinckerhoff, designed and constructed the first section of the

New York City Subway The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system in New York City serving the New York City boroughs, boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. It is owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Tr ...

File:IrvingLangmuir.jpg, Irving Langmuir, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1932 File:Edward Calvin Kendall 1940s.jpg, Edward Calvin Kendall, winner of the

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine () is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or medicine. The Nobel Prize is not a single prize, but five separate prizes that, acco ...

in 1950 File:Woodin2.jpg, William H. Woodin,

United States Secretary of the Treasury The United States secretary of the treasury is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, and is the chief financial officer of the federal government of the United States. The secretary of the treasury serves as the principal a ...

under

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

File:Hyman Rickover 1955.jpg, Hyman G. Rickover, admiral of the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

, "Father of the Nuclear Navy" File:Michael Massimino.jpg, Michael Massimino, NASA astronaut File:Alvin E. Roth 3 2012.jpg, Alvin E. Roth, Economist, Winner of 2012

Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, officially the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel (), commonly referred to as the Nobel Prize in Economics(), is an award in the field of economic sciences adminis ...

File:Robert Grubbs Royal Society.jpg, Robert H. Grubbs, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2005 File:Robert C. Merton.jpg,

Robert C. Merton Robert Cox Merton (born July 31, 1944) is an American economist, Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences laureate, and professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, known for his pioneering contributions to continuous-time finance, especia ...

, Winner of 1997

File:StephenHSchneiderJI1.jpg, Stephen Schneider, climatologist and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate (he contributed to the work that earned the IPCC the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize; he was not a named recipient) File:Rocco B. Commisso.jpg, Rocco B. Commisso, American billionaire businessman, founder of Mediacom, chairman of

New York Cosmos New York Cosmos may refer to * New York Cosmos (1970–1985), a team in the North American Soccer League (then the top-tier soccer league in the United States and Canada) * New York Cosmos (2010), a team playing since 2020 in the National Indepen ...

and ACF Fiorentina File:Leonard Blavatnik, February 2018 (4568) (cropped).jpg, Leonard Blavatnik, Ukrainian-British billionaire businessman, founder of Access Industries File:TNW USA 2013 - Day 1 (10327022886) (cropped).jpg, Jon Oringer, American billionaire businessman, founder of Shutterstock File:Douglas Leone in 2013.jpg, Douglas Leone, American billionaire venture capitalist and managing partner of Sequoia Capital File:Vikram Pandit in WEF, 2011.jpg, Vikram Pandit, Indian-American banker, former CEO of Citibank File:Ursula-Burns.jpg, Ursula Burns, former CEO of

Xerox Xerox Holdings Corporation (, ) is an American corporation that sells print and electronic document, digital document products and services in more than 160 countries. Xerox was the pioneer of the photocopier market, beginning with the introduc ...

, first African American woman to lead a

Fortune 500 The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by ''Fortune (magazine), Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States Joint-stock company#Closely held corporations and publicly traded corporations, corporations by ...

company * Albert Huntington Chester (E.M. 1868, Ph.D. 1876), geologist and mining engineer, professor at Hamilton College and Rutgers College and the namesake of Chester Peak * Henry Smith Munroe (E.M. 1869, Ph.D. 1877), Foreign advisor to Meiji Japan * Roland Duer Irving (E.M. 1869, Ph.D. 1879),

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the structure, composition, and History of Earth, history of Earth. Geologists incorporate techniques from physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, and geography to perform research in the Field research, ...

, pioneer in

petrography Petrography is a branch of petrology that focuses on detailed descriptions of rocks. Someone who studies petrography is called a petrographer. The mineral content and the textural relationships within the rock are described in detail. The clas ...

* H. Walter Webb (E.M. 1873), executive with the

New York Central Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected New York metropolitan area, gr ...

* Eben Erskine Olcott (1874), president of the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers from 1901 to 1902 * Frederick Remsen Hutton (E.M. 1876), secretary of the

American Society of Mechanical Engineers The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) is an American professional association that, in its own words, "promotes the art, science, and practice of multidisciplinary engineering and allied sciences around the globe" via "continuing edu ...

from 1883 to 1906 * Marcus Benjamin (Ph.B. 1878), editor * William Hamilton Russell (1878), architect who founded firm Clinton and Russell; designed the American International Building, Hotel Astor, Graham Court, The Langham and other New York landmarks * William L. Ward (1878), United States Congressman from New York *

Nathaniel Lord Britton Nathaniel Lord Britton (1859 – 1934) was an American botanist and taxonomist who co-founded the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, New York (state), New York. Early life Britton was born on the 15 of January 1859 at New Dorp, Staten Island ...

(1879), co-founder of the New York Botanical Garden * Hamilton Castner (1879), American industrial

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a graduated scientist trained in the study of chemistry, or an officially enrolled student in the field. Chemists study the composition of ...

famous for developing the

Castner–Kellner process The Castner–Kellner process is a method of electrolysis on an aqueous alkali chloride solution (usually sodium chloride solution) to produce the corresponding alkali hydroxide, invented by American Hamilton Castner and Austrian Carl Kellner (mys ...

* Graeme Hammond (1879), American

neurologist Neurology (from , "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the nervous system, which comprises the brain, the ...

, Olympic fencer; founding president of the Amateur Fencers League of America * Herman Hollerith (1879), founded a company that merged with other companies to become IBM * Charles Buxton Going (1882), engineer, author, editor * William Parsons (1882), Chief Engineer of New York City's subway system * Mihajlo Idvorski Pupin (B.S. 1883), Serbian

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

and physical chemist whose inventions include the Pupin coil, winner of

for his autobiography * Edward Chester Barnard (1884), American topographer with the

United States Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geography, geology, and hydrology. The agency was founded on Mar ...

* James Furman Kemp (1884),

; president of the Geological Society of America * Joseph Harvey Ladew Sr. (1885), founder of leather manufacturer Fayerweather & Ladew * Frederick James Hamilton Merrill (1885), geologist and former director of the New York State Museum * Edward Pearce Casey (1886), architect known for designing the Taft Bridge and Ulysses S. Grant Memorial * Walter Hull Aldridge (1887), President and Chairman of the Texas Gulf Sulphur Company; recipient of the John Fritz Medal and the William Lawrence Saunders Gold Medal * Jennings Cox (1887), mining engineer credited with inventing the cocktail Daiquiri * Graham Lusk (1887), American

physiologist Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a subdiscipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out chemical and ...

and

nutritionist A nutritionist is a person who advises others on matters of food and Human nutrition, nutrition and their impacts on health. Some people specialize in particular areas, such as sports nutrition, public health, or animal nutrition, among other disci ...

* Allen Tucker (1887), architect and artist * Edwin Gould I (1888), American investor and railway official; son of financier

Jay Gould Jason Gould (; May 27, 1836 – December 2, 1892) was an American railroad magnate and financial speculator who founded the Gould family, Gould business dynasty. He is generally identified as one of the Robber baron (industrialist), robber bar ...

* F. Augustus Heinze (1889), copper magnate and founder of United Copper; one of the three " Copper Kings" of

Butte, Montana Butte ( ) is a consolidated city-county and the county seat of Silver Bow County, Montana, United States. In 1977, the city and county governments consolidated to form the sole entity of Butte-Silver Bow. The city covers , and, according to the 2 ...

* Winifred Edgerton Merrill (PhD. 1889), first American woman to receive a Ph.D. in mathematics * James Monroe Hewlett (1890), American architect who created the mural on the ceiling of the

Grand Central Terminal Grand Central Terminal (GCT; also referred to as Grand Central Station or simply as Grand Central) is a commuter rail terminal station, terminal located at 42nd Street (Manhattan), 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York Ci ...

* George Oakley Totten Jr. (1891), prolific architect in Washington, D.C., who designed Meridian Hall, the Embassy of Turkey, Washington, D.C., and the Embassy of Ecuador in Washington, D.C. * John Stone Stone (1890s), early

telephone A telephone, colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that enables two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most ...

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

* Herschel Clifford Parker (PhB. 1890), physicist and mountaineer * William H. Woodin (1890), American industrialist, 51st

* Gano Dunn (1891), former president of Cooper Union and recipient of IEEE Edison Medal; former chairman and CEO of the National Research Council * Gonzalo de Quesada y Aróstegui (1891), Cuban revolutionary, minister to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, signer of the Hay-Quesada Treaty * Heinrich Ries (1892), American economic geologist; professor at

* Chester Holmes Aldrich (PhB. 1893), former director of American Academy in Rome and architect who designed the Kykuit * V. Everit Macy (PhB, 1893), American industrialist, former president of the National Civic Federation, major benefactor to Teachers College, Columbia University * Kenneth MacKenzie Murchison (1894), American architect who designed the Havana Central railway station, Pennsylvania Station in Baltimore, and the Murchison Building in

Wilmington, North Carolina Wilmington is a port city in New Hanover County, North Carolina, United States. With a population of 115,451 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, eighth-most populous city in the st ...

* Gustavus Town Kirby (1895), president of the

Amateur Athletic Union The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) is an amateur sports organization based in the United States. A multi-sport organization, the AAU is dedicated exclusively to the promotion and development of amateur sports and physical fitness programs. It h ...

and member of the United States Olympic Committee from 1896 to 1956 * Leon Moisseiff (1895), American engineer and designer of the Manhattan Bridge * George Gustav Heye (EE. 1896), investment banker and founder of the National Museum of the American Indian in New York, and namesake of the George Gustav Heye Center * Ambrose Monell (1896), American industrialist, first president of International Nickel Company, namesake of the Monel alloy * Alfred Chester Beatty (E.M. 1898), mining magnate and millionaire, often referred to as "King of Copper", founder of the Chester Beatty Library in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

* Albertson Van Zo Post (1899), fencer and writer * Hugh Auchincloss Brown (E.E. 1900), electrical engineer and conspiracy theorist, proponent of the cataclysmic pole shift hypothesis, member of the Auchincloss family * Reno H. Sales (E. M. 1900), Chief Geologist of Anaconda Copper, "father of mining geology" * Richard E. Dougherty (C.E. 1901), vice president of New York Central System and president of the American Society of Civil Engineers * Irving Langmuir (1903), Winner of the 1932 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, produced gas-filled incandescent lamp, explorer of the vacuum * Don Gelasio Caetani (1903), mayor of

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

and Italian ambassador to the United States * Stephen J. Pigott (1903), American marine engineer, managing director of

John Brown & Company John Brown and Company of Clydebank was a Scottish Naval architecture, marine engineering and shipbuilding firm. It built many notable and world-famous ships including , , , , , and ''Queen Elizabeth 2 (ship), Queen Elizabeth 2''. At its heig ...

* Robert Stangland (1904), Olympic athlete; bronze medalist in Athletics at the 1904 Summer Olympics * Peter Cooper Hewitt (1906), engineer who invented the first Mercury-vapor lamp in 1901, the Hewitt-Sperry Automatic Airplane, and the Mercury-arc valve, son of New York mayor and philanthropist Abram Hewitt * Reginald J. S. Pigott (1906), former president of the Society of Automotive Engineers and the

* Edward Calvin Kendall (1908), Winner of 1950

Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine () is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute, Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or medicine. The Nobel Prize is not a single ...

* Edmund Prentis (B.S. 1906), former president of the American Standards Association, art collector * Roger W. Toll (B.S. 1906), mountaineer, former superintendent of

Mount Rainier Mount Rainier ( ), also known as Tahoma, is a large active stratovolcano in the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest in the United States. The mountain is located in Mount Rainier National Park about south-southeast of Seattle. With an off ...

, Rocky Mountain, and Yellowstone National Parks * James Kip Finch (B.S. 1906), American engineer and educator, dean of Columbia Engineering from 1941 to 1950 * Maurice L. Sindeband (E.E. 1907), American electrical engineer, former president of the Ogden Corporation * Kingdon Gould Sr. (E.M. 1909), financier and polo player; father of ambassador Kingdon Gould Jr. * Grover Loening (M.S. 1910), American aircraft manufacturer, designer of first successful

monoplane A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple wings. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing con ...

* José Raúl Capablanca (1910), one of the greatest chess players of all time * Alfonso Valdés Cobián (E.E. 1911), Puerto Rican industrialist, co-founder of Compañía Cervecera de Puerto Rico * Eugene Dooman (1912), counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo vital in the negotiations between the U.S. and Japan before

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

* David Steinman (PhD. 1911), director of the reconstruction of Brooklyn Bridge * Harry Babcock (1912), 1912 Olympic champion in pole vaulting * Harvey Seeley Mudd (B.S. 1912), Metallurgical Engineer, president of Cyprus Mines Corporation, co-founder of Claremont McKenna College and namesake of Harvey Mudd College of Engineering * Richard Cunningham Patterson Jr. (E.M. 1912), United States Ambassador to Yugoslavia, United States Ambassador to Switzerland, United States Ambassador to Guatemala * Edwin Armstrong (E.E. 1913), inventor of the

frequency modulation Frequency modulation (FM) is a signal modulation technique used in electronic communication, originally for transmitting messages with a radio wave. In frequency modulation a carrier wave is varied in its instantaneous frequency in proporti ...

transmission method * Willard F. Jones (M.S. 1916), naval architect, head of National Safety Council's marine section and Vice President of

Gulf Oil Gulf Oil was a major global oil company in operation from 1901 to 1985. The eighth-largest American manufacturing company in 1941 and the ninth largest in 1979, Gulf Oil was one of the Seven Sisters (oil companies), Seven Sisters oil companies. ...

* Seeley G. Mudd (B.S. 1917), American physician, professor and major philanthropist to academic institutions; namesake of the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library of

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

* Philip Sporn (E.E. 1917), Austrian engineer and recipient of IEEE Edison Medal; former president and CEO of American Electric Power * Allen Carpé (E.E. 1919), first person to have climbed Mount Bona, Mount Fairweather, and Mount Logan * Radu Irimescu (1920), former Romanian ambassador to the United States * Langston Hughes (1922), poet of the Harlem Renaissance * Arthur Loughren (M.S. 1925), Pioneer in radio engineering and television engineering * Edward Lawry Norton (M.S. 1925), Bell Lab engineer, developer of Norton equivalent circuit * Hyman Rickover (M.S. 1928), Father of the Nuclear U.S. Navy * Hugh Alessandroni (Columbia College: B.A. 1929, SEAS: 1931), member of the US Fencing Hall of Fame, 2-time Olympian, 2-time US foil champion, 7 team national championships * Raymond D. Mindlin (B.S. 1931), researcher and professor known for his contributions to applied mechanics,

, and Engineering Sciences, recipient of

National Medal of Science The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral science, behavior ...

* Helmut W. Schulz (B.S. 1933, M.S. 1934), President Dynecology, developed uranium centrifugation ( gas centrifuge), laser analysis, safe waste conversion * Robert D. Lilley (B.S. 1934), Former President of the

AT&T AT&T Inc., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the w ...

from 1972 to 1976 * Herbert L. Anderson (B.S. 1935), established Enrico Fermi Institute and nuclear physicist in the

Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development program undertaken during World War II to produce the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States in collaboration with the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the ...

* Daniel C. Drucker (PhD. 1939), American engineer and recipient of

* Antoine Marc Gaudin (E.M. 1921), professor at MIT and a founding member of

* John R. Ragazzini (PhD. 1941), pioneered the development of the z-transform method in discrete-time

signal processing Signal processing is an electrical engineering subfield that focuses on analyzing, modifying and synthesizing ''signals'', such as audio signal processing, sound, image processing, images, Scalar potential, potential fields, Seismic tomograph ...

and analysis. * Arthur Hauspurg (B.S. 1943, M.S. 1947), chairman of

Consolidated Edison Consolidated Edison, Inc., commonly known as Con Edison (stylized as conEdison) or ConEd, is one of the largest investor-owned energy companies in the United States, with approximately $12 billion in annual revenues as of 2017, and over $62 ...

* Samuel Higginbottom (B.S. 1943), former CEO of

Eastern Air Lines Eastern Air Lines (also colloquially known as Eastern) was a major airline in the United States that operated from 1926 to 1991. Before its dissolution, it was headquartered at Miami International Airport in an unincorporated area of Miami-Dade ...

and

Rolls-Royce North America Rolls-Royce North America, Inc. is a subsidiary of multinational corporation Rolls-Royce plc. The American unit operates under a Special Security Arrangement which allows it to work independently on some of the most sensitive United States de ...

, chairman of Columbia's board of trustees * Richard Skalak (B.S. 1943), pioneer in

Biomedical engineering Biomedical engineering (BME) or medical engineering is the application of engineering principles and design concepts to medicine and biology for healthcare applications (e.g., diagnostic or therapeutic purposes). BME also integrates the logica ...

* Elmer L. Gaden (B.S. 1944), Father of Biochemical Engineering * William F. Schreiber (B.S. 1945), electrical engineer and developer of optical recognition machine * Sheldon E. Isakoff (B.S. 1945, M.S. 1947, PhD. 1951), chemical engineer and former director of

DuPont Dupont, DuPont, Du Pont, duPont, or du Pont may refer to: People * Dupont (surname) Dupont, also spelled as DuPont, duPont, Du Pont, or du Pont is a French surname meaning "of the bridge", historically indicating that the holder of the surname re ...

* Henry S. Coleman (B.S. 1946), acting dean of Columbia College, Columbia University who was held hostage during the Columbia University protests of 1968. * Joseph F. Engelberger (B.S. 1946, M.S. 1949), Father of

Industrial robot An industrial robot is a robot system used for manufacturing. Industrial robots are automated, programmable and capable of movement on three or more axes. Typical applications of robots include robot welding, welding, painting, assembly, Circu ...

ics * Edward A. Frieman (B.S. 1946), former director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography * Wilmot N. Hess (B.S. 1946), former director of the National Center for Atmospheric Research from 1980 to 1986 * Ira Millstein (B.S. 1947), antitrust expert, partner at Weil, Gotshal & Manges and oldest big law partner in practice * Bernard Spitzer (M.S. 1947), real estate developer and

philanthropist Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives for the public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private good, focusing on material ...

, father of Eliot Spitzer, 54th

Governor of New York The governor of New York is the head of government of the U.S. state of New York. The governor is the head of the executive branch of New York's state government and the commander-in-chief of the state's military forces. The governor ...

* James H. Mulligan Jr. (PhD. 1948), American electrical engineer, former executive officer of

and president of

IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) organization, 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE ...

* Lotfi Asker Zadeh (PhD. 1949), Iranian mathematician,

electrical engineer Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

, and computer scientist * Henry Michel (B.S. 1949), Civil Engineer, President of Parsons Brinckerhoff * Anna Kazanjian Longobardo (B.S. 1949), founder of the National Society of Women Engineers * Edward Jaworski (B.S. 1949), Olympic water polo player who represented the

in the

1952 Summer Olympics The 1952 Summer Olympics (, ), officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad (, ) and commonly known as Helsinki 1952, were an international multi-sport event held from 19 July to 3 August 1952 in Helsinki, Finland. After Japan declared in ...

* Edmund DiGiulio (B.S. 1950), founder of the Cinema Products Corporation, five-time

Academy Awards The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence in ...

winner, inventor of the CP-16 * Eliahu I. Jury (PhD. 1953), Initiated field of discrete time systems, pioneered z-transform (the discrete time equivalent of the

Laplace Transform In mathematics, the Laplace transform, named after Pierre-Simon Laplace (), is an integral transform that converts a Function (mathematics), function of a Real number, real Variable (mathematics), variable (usually t, in the ''time domain'') to a f ...

), and created Jury stability criterion test * Sheldon Weinig (M.S. 1953, PhD. 1955), CEO of Materials Research Corporation, Vice chairman for Engineering and Manufacturing for

SONY is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...

America * Robert Spinrad (B.S. 1953, M.S. 1954), American computer engineer and former director of Xerox Palo Alto Research Center * Ferdinand Freudenstein (PhD. 1954), mechanical engineer, professor, and widely considered the "Father of Modern Kinematics" * Donald R. Olander (B.S. 1954), professor at

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

* Donald E. Ross (B.S. 1954), managing partner of Jaros, Baum & Bolles * Saul Amarel (PhD. 1955), computer scientist and pioneer in

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

* Sheldon M. Wiederhorn (B.S. 1956), material scientist at

National Institute of Standards and Technology The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into Outline of p ...

Robert Moog Robert Arthur Moog ( ; May 23, 1934 – August 21, 2005) was an American engineer and electronic music pioneer. He was the founder of the synthesizer manufacturer Moog Music and the inventor of the first commercial synthesizer, the Moog synthe ...

(M.S. 1957), pioneer of

electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

, inventor of the Moog synthesizer * Rudolf Emil Kálmán (PhD. 1957), electrical engineer and recipient of

* Bernard J. Lechner (B.S. 1957), electronics engineer and vice president of RCA Laboratories * Edward Botwinick (B.S. 1958), IT entrepreneur and former president of Unisys Networks * Joseph F. Traub (PhD. 1959), prominent

computer scientist A computer scientist is a scientist who specializes in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation. Although computer scientists can also focus their work and research on ...

; head of the Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science from 1971 to 1979 and founder of the

Computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

department at

* Richard G. Newman (M.S. 1960), Chairman and former CEO of world-leading engineering firm

AECOM AECOM (, ; formerly AECOM Technology Corporation; stylised A''Ξ''COM) is an American multinational infrastructure consulting firm headquartered in Dallas, Texas. The company's official name from 1990–2015 was AECOM Technology Corporation, ...

* Masanobu Shinozuka (PhD. 1960), probabilistic mechanics, structural stability, and risk assessment * Lynn Conway (B.S. 1962, M.S. 1963), Professor of electrical engineering and computer science at

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

, pioneer in VLSI microchip design, and early activist for transgender rights * Jeffrey Bleustein (PhD. 1962), former chairman and CEO of Harley-Davidson * Roy Mankovitz (B.S. 1963), scientist, inventor, health strategist * Jeffrey Ullman (B.S. 1963), professor at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

and winner of the 2020 Turing Award * Richard D. Gitlin (M.S. 1965, PhD. 1969) – engineer, co-invention of DSL at

Bell Labs Nokia Bell Labs, commonly referred to as ''Bell Labs'', is an American industrial research and development company owned by Finnish technology company Nokia. With headquarters located in Murray Hill, New Jersey, Murray Hill, New Jersey, the compa ...

(B.S. 1966), Winner of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Economics and co-author of the Black–Scholes pricing model * Stephen Schneider (B.S. 1966, Ph.D. 1971), environmental scientist at

who shared the

Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize (Swedish language, Swedish and ) is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the Will and testament, will of Sweden, Swedish industrialist, inventor, and armaments manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobe ...

in 2007 * Harry L. Tuller (B.S. 1966, M.S. 1967, Ph.D. 1973), professor of materials science at

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

* Dorian M. Goldfeld (B.S. 1967), American mathematician and editor of the '' Journal of Number Theory'' * Robert H. Grubbs (PhD 1968), California Institute of Technology professor and 2005

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...

laureate * Lewis A. Sanders (B.S. 1968), co-founder, Chairman, and CEO of

AllianceBernstein AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (AB) is a global asset management firm providing investment management and research services worldwide to institutional, high-net-worth and Investor, retail investors. AllianceBernstein's headquarters are located ...

* Ira Fuchs (B.S. 1969), co-founder of BITNET, creator of LISTSERV, and

JSTOR JSTOR ( ; short for ''Journal Storage'') is a digital library of academic journals, books, and primary sources founded in 1994. Originally containing digitized back issues of academic journals, it now encompasses books and other primary source ...

, former vice-president of

* Jae-Un Chung (B.S. 1964, M.S. 1969), Former President, Vice chairman of

Samsung Electronics Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (SEC; stylized as SΛMSUNG; ) is a South Korean multinational major appliance and consumer electronics corporation founded on 13 January 1969 and headquartered in Yeongtong District, Suwon, South Korea. It is curr ...

and honorary chairman of Shinsegae Group, husband of Lee Myung-hee,

Samsung Samsung Group (; stylised as SΛMSUNG) is a South Korean Multinational corporation, multinational manufacturing Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in the Samsung Town office complex in Seoul. The group consists of numerous a ...

heiress * Feisal Abdul Rauf (B.S. 1969),

imam Imam (; , '; : , ') is an Islamic leadership position. For Sunni Islam, Sunni Muslims, Imam is most commonly used as the title of a prayer leader of a mosque. In this context, imams may lead Salah, Islamic prayers, serve as community leaders, ...

, author, activist; sponsor and director of Park51 * Eugene H. Trinh (B.S. 1972),

Vietnamese-American Vietnamese Americans () are Americans of Vietnamese people, Vietnamese ancestry. They constitute a major part of all overseas Vietnamese. As of 2023, over 2.3 million people of Vietnamese descent live in the United States, making them the fourth ...

scientist and

astronaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a List of human spaceflight programs, human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spa ...

* Eduardo M. Ochoa (M.S. 1976), President of California State University, Monterey Bay * Kevin P. Chilton (M.S. 1977), engineer, the current Commander, U.S. Strategic Command, former

* Rocco B. Commisso (B.S. 1971), Italian-American billionaire, founder and CEO of Mediacom, the 8th largest cable television company in the United States * James L. Manley (B.S. 1971), professor of life sciences at

* Alvin E. Roth (B.S. 1971), Economist, 2012 Nobel Prize Laureate in Economics * David Marquardt (B.S. 1973), venture capitalist and founder of August Capital *

James Albaugh James F. Albaugh (born May 31, 1950) is the former executive vice president of The Boeing Company and chief executive officer of the Boeing Commercial Airplanes business unit. He served in these capacities for Boeing Commercial Airplanes from Sept ...

(M.S. 1974), Current President and CEO of

Boeing Commercial Airplanes Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA) is a division of the Boeing Company. It designs, assembles, markets, and sells commercial aircraft, including the 737, 767, 777, and 787, along with freighter and business jet variants of most. The divis ...

, EVP of its parent company, The Boeing Company. * Vikram Pandit (B.S. 1976), former CEO of Citigroup * Ralph Izzo (B.S. 1978, M.S. 1979, Ph.D. 1981), Chairman, President, and CEO of Public Service Enterprise Group * James R. Scapa (B.S. 1978), Greek American billionaire, Chairman and CEO of

Altair Engineering Altair Engineering Inc. is an American Multinational corporation, multinational information technology company headquartered in Troy, Michigan. It provides software and cloud solutions for simulation, Internet of Things, IoT, high performance com ...

Ken Bowersox Kenneth Dwane "Sox" Bowersox (born November 14, 1956) is a United States Navy officer and former NASA astronaut. He is a veteran of five Space Shuttle launches and an extended stay aboard the International Space Station. When he launched on STS-73 ...

(M.S. 1979), engineer, United States

Naval officer An officer is a person who holds a position of authority as a member of an armed force or uniformed service. Broadly speaking, "officer" means a commissioned officer, a non-commissioned officer (NCO), or a warrant officer. However, absent ...

and a former

* William G. Gregory (M.S. 1980),

* Len Blavatnik (M.S. 1981), billionaire, founder of Access Industries * Peter Livanos (B.S. 1981), Greek shipping tycoon, billionaire, owner of Ceres Hellenic Shipping Enterprises and Chairman of Euronav; former major shareholder of Aston Martin * Anrika Rupp (B.S. 1981), artist * Joshua Bloch (B.S. 1982), Software engineer, Chief Java Architect at

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

* Jay Mehta (B.S. 1983), Indian businessman, owner of the conglomerate Mehta Group and Indian

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

team Kolkata Knight Riders; husband of Indian actress Juhi Chawla * Vincent Sapienza (B.S. 1982), Commissioner of the New York City Department of Environmental Protection * Ted Rall (dropped out 1984), Political cartoonist, President of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists * Wayne Goodman (B.S. 1984), psychiatrist who developed the Yale–Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale, chair of psychiatry at Baylor College of Medicine * Michael Massimino (B.S. 1984), Current engineer and

—mission specialist, STS-109,

STS-125 STS-125, or HST-SM4 (Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Mission 4), was the fifth and final Space Shuttle mission to the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The launch of the Space Shuttle ''Atlantis'' occurred on May 11, 2009, at 2:01 pm EDT. Land ...

* Gregory H. Johnson (M.S. 1985), Current

colonel Colonel ( ; abbreviated as Col., Col, or COL) is a senior military Officer (armed forces), officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, a colon ...

, engineer,

for

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...

. STS-109, support for

. * Amr Aly (B.S. 1985), winner of the 1985 Hermann Trophy and Olympic soccer player * Robert Bakish (B.S. 1985), current president and CEO of Viacom * Marshall Nicholson (B.S. 1985), managing director at China International Capital Corp * Chuck Hoberman (M.S. 1985), inventor and architect; designer of the Hoberman sphere * Douglas Leone (M.S. 1986), billionaire venture capitalist and partner at Sequoia Capital * Jon Normile (B.S. 1988), American Olympic fencer * Angeliki Frangou (M.S. 1988), Greek businesswoman, chairman and CEO of Navios Maritime Holdings * Jelena Kovacevic (M.S. 1988, PhD 1991), first female dean of the New York University Tandon School of Engineering * Moti Yung (PhD. 1988), Cryptographer; Information Security and Privacy Scientist

* Alan E. Willner (PhD. 1988), professor of Electrical Engineering at the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...

, president of The Optical Society * Semyon Dukach (B.S. 1989), former chairman of

SMTP The Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is an Internet standard communication protocol for electronic mail transmission. Mail servers and other message transfer agents use SMTP to send and receive mail messages. User-level email clients typi ...

and managing director of Techstars * David Eppstein (PhD. 1989), developer of computational geometry, graph algorithms, and recreational mathematics * Ursula Burns (M.S. 1991), Current CEO of

Xerox Corporation Xerox Holdings Corporation (, ) is an American corporation that sells print and digital document products and services in more than 160 countries. Xerox was the pioneer of the photocopier market, beginning with the introduction of the Xerox ...

, the first woman African-American

company CEO; Xerox is also the largest company a woman African American CEO is running. * Peter DiMaggio (B.S. 1992), co-CEO of Thornton Tomasetti * Azmi Mikati (B.S. 1994), CEO of M1 Group; nephew of Lebanese Prime Minister and billionaire

Najib Mikati Najib Azmi Mikati (born 24 November 1955) is a Lebanese politician and businessman who served as the 52nd prime minister of Lebanon from 2021 to 2025. He previously served in this post as the 48th and 45th prime minister from 2011 to 2014 and i ...

* Neil Daswani (B.S. 1996), founder of Dasient * Feryal Özel (B.S. 1996), professor of astronomy at the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it ...

* Judy Joo (B.S. 1997), American chef and TV personality, starred in the show '' Iron Chef UK''; * David Yeung (B.S. 1998), Hong Kong entrepreneur; founder of Green Monday * Jon Oringer (M.S. 1999), billionaire founder and CEO of Shutterstock * Andy Ross (B.S. 2001),

Ok Go OK Go is an American Rock music, rock band originally from Chicago, Illinois, now based in Los Angeles, California. The band is composed of Damian Kulash (lead vocals, rhythm guitar, guitar), Tim Nordwind (bass guitar, bass, backing vocalist, v ...

band member: guitarist, keyboard, backup vocals * Regina Barzilay (PhD. 2003), professor at

and MacArthur Fellowship recipient in 2017 * Jennifer Yu Cheng (B.S. 2003), Hong Kong businesswoman, educator, and philanthropist, wife of New World Development CEO Adrian Cheng * Nullsleep (B.S. 2003), 8-bit musician and founder of the 8bitpeoples collective. * Miloš Tomić (B.S. 2005), Olympic rower representing

Serbia and Montenegro The State Union of Serbia and Montenegro or simply Serbia and Montenegro, known until 2003 as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and commonly referred to as FR Yugoslavia (FRY) or simply Yugoslavia, was a country in Southeast Europe locate ...

* Samantha John (B.S. 2009), American computer engineer, founder of Hopscotch * Chris Chyung (B.S. 2016), real-estate businessman, member of the

Indiana House of Representatives The Indiana House of Representatives is the lower house of the Indiana General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Indiana. The House is composed of 100 members representing an equal number of constituent districts. House mem ...

* Mortimer Rogoff (M.S.E.E. 1948), first to patent an Electronic navigational chart and standardized the industry

Affiliates of the school

* Horst Ludwig Störmer I.I. Rabi professor of

physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

and

, winner of 1998 Nobel Prize in Physics * Mihajlo Idvorski Pupin Professor, Serbian

and physical chemist whose inventions include the Pupin coil * Theodore Zoli, adjunct professor of civil engineering and structural engineer * Charles F. Chandler American chemist, first Dean of

's School of Mines * Xi Chen, associate professor of computer science, winner of the 2021 Gödel Prize and Fulkerson Prize * Harold Clayton Urey Professor,

Nobel Laureate The Nobel Prizes (, ) are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institutet, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations who make outstanding contributions in th ...

(1934), extensive development in the

, discoverer of Deuterium. * Dimitris Anastassiou Professor of

Electrical Engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

, developer of MPEG-2 technology * Thomas Egleston, founder of Columbia School of Mines and professor of mining and metallurgy * John B. Medaris Commanding General of U.S. Army Ordnance Missile Command (ABMA), planned Invasion of Normandy; professor * Isidor Isaac Rabi Professor, PhD from Columbia (1927),

, Discoverer of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance * Mario Salvadori Architect, Structural Engineer, Professor (1940s–1990s), consultant on

, inventor of thin concrete shells * Klaus Lackner, Professor of Environmental Engineering * Chien-Shiung Wu "Chinese Marie Curie", first lady of physics, and Professor (1944–1980) who disproved " conservation of parity" * Cyril M. Harris, Professor of Electrical Engineering and architect * Norman Foster Ramsey Jr. Discovery of deuteron electric quadrupole moment, molecular beam

spectroscopy Spectroscopy is the field of study that measures and interprets electromagnetic spectra. In narrower contexts, spectroscopy is the precise study of color as generalized from visible light to all bands of the electromagnetic spectrum. Spectro ...

. Professor (1940–1947), B.A. PhD Columbia. * Frank Press Geophysicist, work in seismic activity and wave theory, counsel to four presidents. M.A., PhD Columbia, and researcher. *

Leon M. Lederman Leon Max Lederman (July 15, 1922 – October 3, 2018) was an American experimental physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1988, along with Melvin Schwartz and Jack Steinberger, for research on neutrinos. He also received the Wolf Pr ...

, discoverer of muon neutrino '62, bottom quark '77. Professor (1951–1989). M.A., PhD Columbia * Eric Kandel Biophysicist,

, uncovered secrets of synapses. Professor Physicians & Surgeons (1974–); research with the Biomedical Engineering department. * Joseph F. Traub Founding chairman of the

department at Columbia * Emanuel Derman, Professor and Director of Columbia's

program, co-authors of the Financial Modelers' Manifesto *

Alfred Aho Alfred Vaino Aho (born August 9, 1941) is a Canadian computer scientist best known for his work on programming languages, compilers, and related algorithms, and his textbooks on the art and science of computer programming. Aho was elected into ...

Canadian computer scientist widely known for his co-authorship of the AWK programming language, winner of the 2020 Turing Award * Gertrude Fanny Neumark one of the world's leading experts on doping wide-band semiconductors * Charles Hard Townes professor and an American Nobel Prize-winning

who helped to invent the

laser A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word ''laser'' originated as an acronym for light amplification by stimulated emission of radi ...

About Seas
Birth Place of Laser * Jacob Millman Professor of

, creator of Millman's Theorem * John R. Dunning School Dean,

who played key roles in the development of the atomic bomb * Steven M. Bellovin Professor of

Computer Science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

* Philip Kim Professor of Applied Physics and Mathematics * Mihalis Yannakakis Professor of

, famous scholar noted for his work in the fields of

Computational complexity theory In theoretical computer science and mathematics, computational complexity theory focuses on classifying computational problems according to their resource usage, and explores the relationships between these classifications. A computational problem ...

Databases In computing, a database is an organized collection of data or a type of data store based on the use of a database management system (DBMS), the software that interacts with end users, applications, and the database itself to capture and ana ...

* Maria Chudnovsky, professor of operations research and industrial engineering * David E Keyes, professor of applied mathematics * Awi Federgruen, Affiliate Professor of Operations Research and Industrial Engineering * Nicholas F. Maxemchuk Professor of

* Clifford Stein Professor of

and

* Ronald Breslow Professor of chemical engineering, now University Professor *

Santiago Calatrava Santiago Calatrava Valls (born 28 July 1951) is a Spaniards, Spanish-Swiss people, Swiss architect, structural engineer, sculptor and painter, particularly known for his bridges supported by single leaning pylons, and his railway stations, stad ...

(Honorary Doctorate, 2007), world renowned architect, sculptor and

structural engineer Structural engineers analyze, design, plan, and research List of structural elements, structural components and structural systems to achieve design goals and ensure the safety and comfort of users or occupants. Their work takes account mainly of ...

, designer of Montjuic Communications Tower and World Trade Center Transportation Hub * Ferdinand Freudenstein, Higgins Professor Emeritus of Mechanical Engineering * Henry Spotnitz, Affiliate Professor of Biomedical Engineering * Thomas Christian Kavanagh, professor of civil engineering * Vladimir Vapnik, Professor of Computer Science and co-developer of Vapnik–Chervonenkis theory * Jaron Lanier, visiting scholar at the Computer Science department * Sheldon Weinig, Professor of Operations Research and Industrial Engineering and founder of Materials Research Corporation *

Chris Wiggins Christopher John Wiggins (January 13, 1931 – February 19, 2017) was a Canadian actor. Career Wiggins was born January 13, 1931, in Blackpool, England. He started out as a banker in his home country before he began his acting career in Canada ...

, professor of applied mathematics, chief data scientist of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' * Man-Chung Tang, professor of civil engineering and former chairman of American Society of Civil Engineers * Van C. Mow, professor of biomedical engineering and member of the

, Institute of Medicine * Matt Berg, member of Mechanical Engineering Department research group and one of Time 100 Most Influential People in the World * Martin I. Reiman, Professor of Industrial Engineering an Operations Research, winner of the John von Neumann Theory Prize in 2016 * Bjarne Stroustrup, Professor in Computer Science, inventor of C++ programming language * Shree K. Nayar, professor of Computer Science, inventor of 360° camera and developer of Oren–Nayar Reflectance Model * David E. Shaw, former professor of Computer Science, founder of

hedge fund A hedge fund is a Pooling (resource management), pooled investment fund that holds Market liquidity, liquid assets and that makes use of complex trader (finance), trading and risk management techniques to aim to improve investment performance and ...

private equity Private equity (PE) is stock in a private company that does not offer stock to the general public; instead it is offered to specialized investment funds and limited partnerships that take an active role in the management and structuring of the co ...

and technology development firm D. E. Shaw & Co. * Mary Cunningham Boyce, former dean of the school, provost of

Specialized centers

Columbia Engineering faculty are a central force in creating many groundbreaking discoveries that today are shaping life tomorrow. They are at the vanguard of their fields, collaborating with other world-renowned experts at Columbia and other universities to bring the best minds from a myriad of disciplines to shape the future. Large, well-funded interdisciplinary centers in science and engineering, materials research, nanoscale research, and genomic research are making step changes in their respective fields while individual groups of engineers and scientists collaborate to solve theoretical and practical problems in other significant areas. Last year, Columbia Engineering's 2007–2008 research expenditures were $92,000,000, a very respectable number given the small size of the school. Harvard's research expenditures in the same period were $35,000,000. Columbia Engineering PhD students have ~60% more monetary resources to work with using the research expenditure : PhD student ratio.

Specialized labs

The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science occupies five laboratory and classroom buildings at the north end of the campus, including the Schapiro Center for Engineering and Physical Science Research and the new Northwest Building on Morningside Heights. Because of the School's close proximity to the other Morningside facilities and programs, Columbia engineering students have access to the whole of the University's resources. Carleton Laboratory Hi-Bay Panorama

The School is the site of an almost overwhelming array of basic and advanced research installations which include both the NSEC and the MRSEC NSF-funded interdisciplinary research centers, as well as the Columbia High-Beta Tokamak, the Robert A.W. Carleton Strength of Materials Laboratory, and a 200g geotechnical centrifuge. The Botwinick Multimedia Learning Laboratory is the School's facility for computer-aided design (CAD) and media development. It is equipped with 50 Apple Mac Pro 8-core workstations, as well as a cluster of Apple Xserves with Xraid storage, that serve the lab's 300-plus users per semester.

Other programs

* Undergraduate Research Involvement Program **Each SEAS department sponsors opportunities to do novel undergraduate research which have applications in the real world. Departmental Chairs supervise students through the process, and mentoring with a professor is provided. *

Materials science Materials science is an interdisciplinary field of researching and discovering materials. Materials engineering is an engineering field of finding uses for materials in other fields and industries. The intellectual origins of materials sci ...

and

** Program in the Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics, sharing teaching and research with the faculty from Henry Krumb School of Mines. *

Computer engineering Computer engineering (CE, CoE, or CpE) is a branch of engineering specialized in developing computer hardware and software. It integrates several fields of electrical engineering, electronics engineering and computer science. Computer engi ...

** Administered by both the electrical engineering and computer science departments through a joint computer engineering committee. * The combined plan program ** The 3–2, B.A./B.S., is designed to provide students with the opportunity to receive both a B.A. degree from an affiliated

college and a B.S. degree from SEAS within five years. Students complete the requirements for the liberal arts degree along with a pre-engineering course of study in three years at their college and then complete two years at Columbia.

References

External links

Official website
{{Coord, 40.80945, -73.96013, type:edu_globe:earth_region:US-NY, display=title

Engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

1864 establishments in New York (state) Engineering universities and colleges in New York (state) Universities and colleges established in 1864