Neal Amundson, B.S. ’37, M.S. ’41, Ph.D. ’45, considered nationally to be the “father of modern chemical engineering.” Amundson Hall is named in his honor. (see biography)

Alexander P. Anderson, B.S. 1894, M.S. 1895, discovered how to "pop" starch foods, leading to the creation of puffed rice and other puffed cereal grains (deceased).

Charles Arntzen, B.S. '65, professor of plant biology and biochemistry; member of President George W. Bush's Council of Advisors of Science & Technology Policy

Norman Borlaug, B.S. '37, M.S. '41, Ph.D. '42, Nobel Peace Prize, 1970, for developing disease-resistant and highly adaptable crop varieties that sparked the "green revolution" (see article)

Walter H. Brattain, Ph.D. '29, Nobel Prize in Physics, 1956, for developing the transistor (see article)

Michele Brekke, B.A. '73, M.S. '77, NASA astronaut instructor, flight director, and payload integration manager 

Melvin Calvin, Ph.D. '35, Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1961, for describing the chemical reactions that occur during photosynthesis

Duane Carey, B.A. '81, M.S. '82, space shuttle pilot; astronaut; awarded the Distinguised Flying Cross and three air medals (see article)

Seymour Cray, M.A. '51, super-computer creator; cofounder of Cray Research and Control Data Corp. (deceased)

James Estes, B.A. '67, professor at University of California Santa Cruz in marine sciences and recipient of awards for his work on the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska

Art Fry, B.S. '55, inventor of Post-It Notes for 3M.

Robert Rowe Gilruth, B.S. '35, M.A. '36, pioneer in U.S. aviation and space flight; often considered the "father of America's human space flight program" (deceased)

Rebecca Goldberg, M.S. '85, Ph.D. '86, senior scientist at Environmental Defense Fund's New York City headquarters; active in public policy issues concerning food production

Robert W. Gore, Ph.D. '63, inventor of Gore-Tex; CEO of W.L. Gore and Associates

Susan Harlander, M.S. '78, former executive with Pillsbury; started her own business, BIOrational Consultants, which specializes in food and agricultural  biotechnology issues impacting the food supply

Reynold B. Johnson B.S. '29, considered "father of the computer disk drive"; invented the method of scoring standardized tests taken with a No.-2 pencil, held several other patents (deceased)

Julie Kirihara, B.S. '81, Ph.D. '88, cofounder and president of ATG Laboratories, a biotech company specializing in gene cloning and protein expression

Ernest O. Lawrence, M.A. '23, Nobel Prize for Physics, 1939, for inventing and developing the cyclotron, a device that accelerates atomic particles in a spiral path by means of a fixed magnetic field (deceased)

Lisa Lee, B.S. '85, 1999 National Young Engineer of the Year, National Society of Professional Engineers

Daniel McFadden Ph.D. '62, Nobel Prize in economics, 2000, for developing theories that predict individual and collective behavior

Alfred O.C. Nier, B.S. '31, M.S. '33, Ph.D. '36, inventor of the mass spectrometer (deceased)

Jeannette Piccard, Ph.D. '42, world's first licensed female balloon pilot, first woman to ascend into the stratosphere; once held high-altitude ascent record; in 1974 became first female Episcopal priest (deceased)

Bent Skovmond, B.S '71, M.S., '73, founder of the Nordic Genebank, organizer of a fortified repository of 3,000,000 kinds of unique crop seeds, and developer of stronger, more disease-resistant wheat varieties as a former colleague of Norman Borlaug.

Donald "Deke" Slayton, B.S. '49, one of the original Mercury astronauts (though he did not fly a mission till later), longtime NASA flight director, and Apollo docking module pilot of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) mission, July 15-24, 1975—a joint space flight culminating in the first historical meeting in space between American astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts. (deceased)

William Stout, B.S. '05, "The Henry Ford of Aviation" invented two planes, the "Air Pullman" and the "Stout Tri-motor" (later renamed the Ford Tri-motor), that revolutionized air transportation. (deceased)