List of United States Military Academy Alumni - Scientists, Inventors, and Physicians

Scientists, Inventors, and Physicians

• Benjamin Alvord, Class of 1833. Mathematician.

• Seth Barton, Class of 1849 (USA & CSA), noted chemist.
• Ormsby M. Mitchel, Class of 1825. Astronomer.
• Thoralf M. Sundt, Jr., Class of 1952. Neurosurgeon (Mayo Clinic); One of America’s premier neurosurgerons; Operated on President Ronald Reagan in 1989; member National Academy of Sciences.
• George Bomford, Class of 1805. Inventor of ordnance and explosives; standardized army usage as Chief of the Ordnance Department.
• John James Abert, Class of 1811. Head topographer for the U.S. Army; his officers mapped the American West under his supervision.
• Benjamin Bonneville, Class of 1815. Organized expedition that explored the Great Salt Lake, crossed the Sierras, found the headwaters of the Yellowstone and discovered the Humboldt River.
• George Washington Whistler, Class of 1819. Invented contour lines on maps. Father of James McNeill Whistler, the artist. Husband of "Whistler's Mother"
• Robert Parker Parrott, Class of 1824. Invented the Parrott rifle used extensively during the American Civil War.
• Henry DuPont, Class of 1833. Improved the production of gunpowder. Chemicals industry pioneer.
• Henry Dunwoody, Class of 1866. Invented the crystal radio receiver.
• William W. Averell, Class of 1855. Inventor of asphalt.
• John Wilson Ruckman, Class of 1883. Inventor of artillery devices critical in WWI.
• George O. Squier, Class of 1887. Developer of Muzak. Early radio engineer.
• Leslie Groves, Class of 1918. Chief engineer for the Manhattan Project and the Pentagon
• Edward A. Murphy, Jr., Class of 1940. Credited with the invention of Murphy's Law.
• Peter Huybers, Class of 1996. MacArthur Foundation Grant awardee ("Genius Grant"). Planetary and Climate scientist and currently a professor at Harvard.

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