UNCW Pre-Engineering Transfer Program
Famous, and perhaps not so famous, Engineers
Jack Kilby - inventor of the integrated circuit and handheld calculator, Nobel, Draper, and Kyoto Prize winner, electrical engineer
Jack Welsh - former Chairman & CEO, General Electric Company, chemical engineer
Herbert Hoover - 31st President of the United States, humanitarian, founder of the Hoover Institute, mining engineer
Nathanael Herreshoff - legendary America's Cup yacht designer, mechanical engineer/naval architect
Tommy Thompson - mastermind of the team that found the SS Central America, aka "Ship of Gold", mechanical engineer
William Gramley, MD - chemical engineering degree, gastroenterologist
Erik Rotheim - invented the aerosol spray can, chemical engineer
Maurizio Seracini - art imaging and diagnostics specialist, electrical and bioengineer
Leo Beranek - co-founder of Bolt, Beranek, and Newman, acoustics engineer
Bill Nye, PE - worked for Boeing before he became the "science guy", mechanical engineer
Susan Story - CEO, Gulf Power, industrial engineer
David M. Crocker - retired Rear Admiral, former Commanding Officer of the USS Carl Vinson, aerospace engineer
Marcian Hoff - invented the microprocessor while at Intel, electrical engineer
John Bardeen - co-inventor of the transistor, electrical engineer and physicist, double Nobel Prize winner
Willis Carrier - invented first air conditioning system, mechanical engineer
Paul MacCready - human-powered flight pioneer, aeronautical engineer
Nick Holonyak, Jr. - invented the first light emitting diode (LED), electrical engineer
Seymour Cray - founder of Cray Research, supercomputer manufacturer, electrical engineer
Martin Cooper - inventor of the cell phone, electrical engineer
Marshall Brain, founder of How Stuff Works, electrical engineer
Santiago Calatrava - world famous architect and structural engineer, graduate degree in civil engineering
Harold Froehlich - designed the Alvin deep ocean submersible, aeronautical engineer
Mae Jamison, MD - first black, female astronaut, chemical engineer, medical doctor
General Michael Hagee - 33rd Commandant of the Marine Corps, electrical engineer
Stephen Wozniak - founded Apple and then later returned to finish school, electrical engineer
Karlheinz Brandenberg - co-developer of the MP3 compression scheme, electrical engineer
Luis Reyes - Executive Director of Operations, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, electrical, nuclear engineer
Dale Klein - Chairman, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, mechanical, nuclear engineer
Dr. Z - Chairman of the Board of Management, Daimler, doctorate in electrical engineering
Amar Bose - founder of the Bose Corp., former MIT electrical engineering professor, electrical engineer
Frank Capra - film director, degree in chemical engineering
Isambard Kingdom Brunel - the great British transportation engineer
Sir Barnes Wallis - invented the bouncing and deep-penetration earth quake bombs used in WWII, marine engineer
Kermin Fleming - 2004 Jeopardy college champion, electrical and computer engineering student
Montel Williams - TV show host, engineering graduate of the U. S. Naval Academy
Cameron Mathison - soap opera star, BS degree in civil engineering
Ray Dolby - founder of Dolby Laboratories, electrical engineer
Robert Moog - inventor of the Moog synthesizer, MS in electrical engineering
Alan Boeckmann - CEO of the Fluor Corporation, electrical engineer
Mark Dean - IBM Fellow, part of the original IBM PC development team, electrical engineer
Dave Bradley - wrote the BIOS for the original IBM PC, inventor of the control-alt-del key combo, electrical engineer
Douglas Engelbart - inventor of the mouse, electrical engineer
William Hewlett - co-founder of the Hewlett-Packard (HP) Company, electrical engineer
David Packard - co-founder of the Hewlett-Packard (HP) Company, electrical engineer
Albert Carnesale, Chancellor Emeritus, UCLA, former Provost, Harvard, nuclear engineer
Donald Liu - former VP of the American Bureau of Shipping, naval architect, marine and mechanical engineer
Bonnie Dunbar - astronuat, mechanical/biomedical engineer
Judith Resnik - Challenger astronuat, electrical engineer
Ilan Ramon - Israeli Columbia astronaut, electrical engineer 
Rich Husband - Columbia astronaut, mechanical engineer
Kalpana Chawla - Columbia astronaut, first Indian in space, aerospace engineer
Burt Rutan - aircraft innovator, SpaceShipOne designer, aeronautical engineer
Katherine Stinson - first woman graduate of NCSU College of Engineering, aeronautical engineer
Neil Armstrong - astronaut, aeronautical engineer
John Glenn - astronaut, US Senator, USMC aviator, WWII & Korea veteran, BS degree in engineering
Clarence "Kelly" Johnson - founder of Lockheed's legendary "Skunk Works", SR-71 designer, aeronautical engineer
Ben Rich - 2nd Director of the Skunk Works; led development of the F-117 stealth bomber, mechanical engineer
Theodore von Karman - aerodynamics pioneer, aeronautical engineer, first Director of the Jet Propulsion Lab
Ashton Lewis - NASCAR driver, mechanical engineer
Ryan Newman - NASCAR driver, mechanical engineer
Sue Ginter, professional golfer, degree in mechanical engineer
James P. Gills, MD - eye surgeon, engineering graduate
Norbert Rillieux - inventor of the process of vacuum evaporation, chemical engineer
Kenneth Olsen - inventor of magnetic core memory, co-founder, Digital Equipment Corporation, electrical engineer
Nikola Tesla - inventor of the induction motor, electrical engineer
Elijah McCoy - inventor of the rotary machine lubricator, engineer
Bill Koch - 1992 America's Cup winner, chemical engineer 
John Sununu (R) - former senator, New Hampshire, mechanical engineering graduate, MIT, "smartest person in the senate"
Joe Barton PE (R) - Congressman, Texas sixth district, industrial engineer
Cliff Stearns (R) - Congressman, Florida sixth district, electrical engineer
Andrew Card - former White House chief of staff, college degree in engineering
Andrew Grove - co-founder, Intel, chemical engineer
George Westinghouse - founder of Westinghouse, inventor, pioneer of AC power, engineer
Bill Joy  - co-founder of Sun Microsystems, electrical engineer
Alexander Calder - scupltor, college degree in engineering
John Roebling - designed the Brooklyn Bridge, civil engineer
Washington Roebling - completed oversight of construction of Brooklyn Bridge, civil engineer
Hyman G. Rickover - led development of the navy nuclear submarine fleet, electrical engineer
John Simpson - US nuclear pioneer, electrical engineer
Stephen Timoshenko - arguably, the father of engineering mechanics, engineering scientist
Ludwig Prandtl - arguably, the father of fluid mechanics, mechanical engineer
William LeMessurier - structural designer of the Citicorp building, structural engineer
James Morgan - former CEO, Applied Materials, mechanical engineer
Joesph Strauss et al. - designers and builders of the Golden Gate Bridge

According to the September 16-17, 2006 edition of the Wall Street Journal's Weekend Edition, about 20% of the CEO's of the top US companies have engineering degrees - the most common degree - followed by business administration, liberal arts, economics, and accounting. Only about 10% have degrees from Ivy League schools.

No, Bill Gates is not an engineer, and Al Gore did not invent the Internet. But these guys did!

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