Alumni
An E&AS Who’s Who
Recipients of the Caltech Distinguished Alumni Award

We realized a while back that nowhere has the Engineering and Applied Science Division collected and published the names of all of its Distinguished Alumni. The Distinguished Alumni Award is the highest honor the Institute bestows upon an alumnus/a. It is in recognition of extraordinary achievement in business, community, and professional life, and may be acknowledging a particular achievement of noteworthy value, a series of such achievements, or a career of noteworthy accomplishment.
The award was initiated as part of Caltech’s 75th Anniversary celebration in 1966. Nominations are made by a joint faculty-alumni committee and confirmed by the Board of Trustees; the awards are presented at a ceremony during Caltech’s annual Alumni Seminar Day.
So, here they are.We salute each and every one. Their contributions reflect well on Caltech and the Division, and they deserve wide recognition among their fellow alumni and the larger community. Kudos!

A note on the listing: The E&AS recipients are listed alphabetically by decade of first Caltech degree. The year in parentheses just after the name is the year the Distinguished Alumni Award was received. The title below the name reflects the position the person held at the time the award was given. (d) indicates the person has passed away.
1920s
James Boyd
(d) (1966)
President, Cooper Range Company BS 1927 Eec Richard G. Folsom (d) (1966) President, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute BS 1928 ME,MS 1929 ME, PhD 1932 ME W. Morton Jacobs (1971) President and Executive Officer, Southern California Gas Company BS 1928 ME |
Mark Serrurier
(d) (1981)
Retired.Worked on the design ofthe 200 inch telescope at Mt. Palomar; assisted with continuing development and modernization of the “Moviola” used for film editing, received an “Oscar” for this work. BS 1926 CE |
1930s
Horace Babcock
(1994)
Trenton R. Dames
(d) (1993)
|
Walter H. Munk
(1966)
|
1940s
Mihran S. Agbabian
(2000)
|
Ruben F. Mettler
(1966)
President, TRW, Inc. BS 1944 EE,MS 1947 EE, PhD 1949 EE John W. Miles (1997) Professor of Applied Mechanics and Geophysics, University of California, San Diego BS 1942 Eng,MS 1943 Ae,MS 1943 EE, AeE 1944 Ae, PhD 1944 Ae Robert L. Noland (1989) President and CEO, Ketema, Inc., Odenton, MD BS 1941 ME Stanley C. Pace (1987) Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, General Dynamics Corporation MS 1949 Ae Robert J. Parks (1992) Deputy Director, Retired, Jet Propulsion Laboratory BS 1944 EE Allen E. Puckett (1970) Executive Vice President and Assistant General Manager Hughes Aircraft Company PhD 1949 Ae Eberhardt Rechtin (1984) President, Aerospace Corporation BS 1946 EE, PhD 1950 EE Harold A. Rosen (1976) Vice President for Engineering, Space and Communications Group, Hughes Aircraft Company MS 1948 EE, PhD 1951 EE Glenn A. Schurman (1994) Corporate Vice President of Oil Field Development and Production Operations, Chevron Corporation MS 1946 ME Vernon L. Smith (1996) Regents’ Professor of Economics, Department of Economics, University of Arizona BS 1949 EE Douglas C. Strain (1986) Vice Chairman, Board of Directors, Electro Scientific Industries BS 1948 EE Kiyo Tomiyasu (2002) Consulting Engineer, Lockhead Martin Corporation BS 1940 EE Max L. Williams, Jr. (1995) Dean, Emeritus, School of Engineering, University of Pittsburgh MS 1947 Ae, Eng 1948 Ae, PhD 1950 Ae Thornton A. Wilson (d) (1968) Executive Vice President, Boeing Company MS 1948 Ae Abe M. Zarem (1969) Retired, Electro-Optical Systems MS 1940 EE, PhD 1944 EE |
1950s
Moshe Arens
(1980)
|
Max V. Mathews
(1989)
Professor of Music (Research), Stanford University BS 1950 EE, BS 1950 ME H. Edwin Reinecke (1969) Lieutenant Governor, California BS 1950 ME George E. Solomon (1983) Vice President and General Manager, Electronics and Defense, TRW, Inc. MS 1950 Ae, PhD 1953 Ae Alvin W. Trivelpiece (1987) Director of Office of Energy Research, U.S. Department of Energy MS 1955 EE, PhD 1958 EE Donald L. Turcotte (1999) Professor of Geological Sciences, Cornell University BS 1954 ME, PhD 1958 Ae |
1960s
Robert W. Bower
(2001)
|
Roddam Narasimha
(1986)
Director, National Aeronautical Laboratory, Indian Institute of Science PhD 1961 Ae Navin C. Nigam (1991) Director (President), Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi PhD 1967 CE Ozires Silva (1992) Minister of Infrastructure, Brazil MS 1966 Ae Ivan E. Sutherland (1985) Vice President, Sutherland, Sproull, and Associates, Inc. MS 1960 EE Charles R. Trimble (1995) President and CEO, Trimble Navigation BS 1963 Eng,MS 1964 EE |
1970s
Yoshiaki D. Hagiwara
(2000)
|
Henry C.Yuen
(1999)
Chief Executive Officer Gemstar Development Corporation PhD 1973 AMa |
1980s
Arati Prabhakar
(1995)
|
Visit Caltech’s Alumni Association website at: www.alumni.caltech.edu