Notable Professors and Coaches
- Gregory Ain, architect, Head of Department of Architecture 1963-67
- Richard Alley, glaciologist and climate scientist, IPCC lead author
- George Andrews, mathematician
- John Barth, American novelist and short-story author
- Samuel Preston Bayard, folklorist, expert on fife and fiddle tunes
- Christian M. M. Brady, targumist and Dean of Schreyer Honors College
- Velvet Brown, tuba soloist and recording artist; is associate professor of music
- O. Richard Bundy, Director of Athletic Bands, including the Penn State Blue Band
- Donald Byrne, coach of America's first varsity chess team
- Paul DeMaine, one of the founders of the Computer Science Department.
- William K. George, fluid dynamicist
- Lee Giles, creator of CiteSeer
- Joseph Heller, author of Catch-22
- Ivan Illich, polymath: author, philosopher, and polemicist
- Philip Jenkins, professor of religious studies and writer on modern religious controversies
- James Kasting, atmospheric chemist and astrobiologist, a.k.a. "Dr. Habitable zone"
- Gary N. Knoppers, Head of the Department of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies who has written a lengthy and prominent two-volume commentary on I Chronicles (I Chronicles 1 - 9, Anchor Bible Vol. 12: "Doubleday", 2003) and I Chronicles 10 - 29, Anchor Bible Vol. 12A: "Doubleday", 2004)
- Webb Miller, one of the pioneers of Computational Biology. Co-creator of BLAST, a research tool used by geneticists worldwide.
- Erwin Wilhelm Müller, inventor of the field emission microscope, the field ion microscope, the atom probe, and the first person to view atoms
- Robert Neffson, artist
- Masatoshi Nei, theoretical population geneticist and evolutionary biologist
- Joe Paterno, head football coach from 1966 – 2011
- Roger Penrose
- Rene Portland, head women's basketball coach from 1980 – 2007
- C. R. Rao, 2002 National Medal of Science winning statistician
- Theodore Roethke, 1954 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry recipient
- Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Empire Falls, His novel Straight Man was drawn from his experiences teaching at Penn State Altoona
- Lee Smolin, theoretical physicist
- William Tenn (pen name of Philip Klass), famous science fiction writer
- Alan Walker, paleoanthropologist
- Frank C. Whitmore, pioneering organic chemist who described the mechanism of carbocation reactions.
- Aleksander Wolszczan, discoverer of first extrasolar planets and pulsar planets
- Mark D. Maughmer, developed first successful winglet designs for gliding competitions, widely known aerodynamicists and author
- Jerry Sandusky, disgraced former assistant coach convicted in a child sexual abuse scandal
Read more about this topic: List Of Pennsylvania State University People
Famous quotes containing the words notable, professors and/or coaches:
“Every notable advance in technique or organization has to be paid for, and in most cases the debit is more or less equivalent to the credit. Except of course when it’s more than equivalent, as it has been with universal education, for example, or wireless, or these damned aeroplanes. In which case, of course, your progress is a step backwards and downwards.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)
“Dilettantes appreciate the work, professors the master at the same time.”
—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)
“The real persuaders are our appetites, our fears and above all our vanity. The skillful propagandist stirs and coaches these internal persuaders.”
—Eric Hoffer (1902–1983)