Alumni
There are many notable graduates, non-graduate former students and current students of Georgia Tech. Georgia Tech alumni are generally known as Yellow Jackets. According to the Georgia Tech Alumni Association:
is open to all graduates of Georgia Tech, all former students of Georgia Tech who regularly matriculated and left Georgia Tech in good standing, active and retired members of the faculty and administration staff, and those who have rendered some special and conspicuous service to Georgia Tech or to .
The first class of 95 students entered Georgia Tech in 1888, and the first two graduates received their degrees in 1890. Since then, the institute has greatly expanded, with an enrollment of 13,672 undergraduates and 6,815 postgraduate students as of Fall 2010.
Many distinguished individuals once called Georgia Tech home, the most notable being Jimmy Carter, former President of the United States and Nobel Peace Prize winner, who briefly attended Georgia Tech in the early 1940s before matriculating at and graduating from the United States Naval Academy. Another Georgia Tech graduate and Nobel Prize winner, Kary Mullis, received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1993. A large number of businesspeople (including but not limited to prominent CEOs and directors) began their careers at Georgia Tech. Some of the most successful of these are Charles "Garry" Betty (CEO Earthlink), David Dorman (CEO AT&T Corporation), Mike Duke (CEO Wal-Mart), and James D. Robinson III (CEO American Express and later director of The Coca-Cola Company).
Tech graduates have been deeply influential in politics, military service, and activism. Atlanta mayor Ivan Allen, Jr. and former United States Senator Sam Nunn have both made significant changes from within their elected offices. Former Georgia Tech president G. Wayne Clough was also a Tech graduate, the first Tech alumnus to serve in that position. Many notable military commanders are alumni; James A. Winnefeld, Jr. who currently serves as the ninth Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Philip M. Breedlove who currently serves as the Commander, U.S. Air Forces in Europe, William L. Ball was the 67th Secretary of the Navy, John M. Brown III is the Commander of the United States Army Pacific Command, and Leonard Wood was Chief of Staff of the Army and a Medal of Honor recipient for helping capture of the Apache chief Geronimo. Wood was also Tech's first football coach and (simultaneously) the team captain, and was instrumental in Tech's first-ever football victory in a game against the University of Georgia. Thomas McGuire was the second-highest scoring American ace during World War II and a Medal of Honor recipient.
Numerous astronauts and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) administrators spent time at Tech; most notably, Retired Vice Admiral Richard H. Truly was the eighth administrator of NASA, and later served as the president of the Georgia Tech Research Institute. John Young was the first commander of the space shuttle and is the only person to have piloted four different classes of spacecraft. Georgia Tech has its fair share of noteworthy engineers, scientists, and inventors. Nobel Laureate Kary Mullis developed the polymerase chain reaction, Herbert Saffir developed the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale, and W. Jason Morgan made significant contributions to the theory of plate tectonics and geodynamics. In computer science, Krishna Bharat developed Google News, and D. Richard Hipp developed SQLite. Architect Michael Arad designed the World Trade Center Memorial in New York City.
Despite their highly technical backgrounds, Tech graduates are no strangers to the arts or athletic competition. Among them, comedian/actor Jeff Foxworthy of Blue Collar Comedy Tour fame and Randolph Scott both called Tech home. Several famous athletes have, as well; about 150 Tech students have gone into the National Football League (NFL), with many others going into the National Basketball Association (NBA) or Major League Baseball (MLB). Well-known American football athletes include all-time greats such as Joe Hamilton, Pat Swilling, Billy Shaw, and Joe Guyon, former Tech head football coaches Pepper Rodgers and Bill Fulcher, and recent students such as Calvin Johnson and Tashard Choice. Some of Tech's recent entrants into the NBA include Chris Bosh, Derrick Favors, Thaddeus Young, Jarrett Jack, and Iman Shumpert. Award-winning baseball stars include Kevin Brown, Mark Teixeira, Nomar Garciaparra, and Jason Varitek. In golf, Tech alumni include the legendary Bobby Jones, who founded The Masters, and David Duval, who was ranked the No. 1 golfer in the world in 1999.
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