List of Washington State University people

The Washington State University Alumni Association defines an alumnus as anyone who was a student at WSU and is no longer attending. This page lists accomplished alumni and faculty members of WSU.

Notable alumni

Notable faculty

• James Asay, Institute of Shock Physics researcher; member of the National Academy of Engineering
• LeRoy Ashby, regents professor of history; twice Washington Professor of the Year; author of With Amusement for All: A History of American Popular Culture Since 1830
• Brett Atwood, print and online journalist; co-founder of Rolling Stone Radio; former managing editor at Amazon.com, RealNetworks and Billboard magazine
• Buck Bailey, WSU baseball coach
• V. N. Bhatia, former WSU Honors Program director; Knight of Denmark, Dannebrog Order
• Anjan Bose, electrical engineering professor and former dean; developed training simulators and computational tools for reliable power-system operation; member of the National Academy of Engineering
• Walter Clore, horticulture researcher; "father of the Washington wine industry"
• Clint Cole, co-founder of Heartstream, creator of the first automatic external defibrillator (AED) for commercial use; co-founder of Digilent, a local Pullman electronics manufacturer
• R. James Cook, plant pathologist, cropping systems and biotechnology researcher; led first field test of a genetically modified organism in the Pacific Northwest; member of the National Academy of Sciences
• Rodney Croteau, leader in biosynthesis of cancer-fighting Taxol; expert on terpenoids; member of the National Academy of Sciences
• J. Thomas Dickinson, physicist, known for work in fracture, tribology and laser interactions with materials; Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
• William Henry Dietz ("Lone Star Dietz"), WSU football coach; won first annual Rose Bowl; professional football coach
• Don A. Dillman, sociologist; Regents Professor; Foley Distinguished Professor of Government and Public Policy; major contributor to modern survey methods; past president of the American Association of Public Opinion Research; Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Elson S. Floyd, professor of Higher Education Administration; president of Washington State University
• Roald H. Fryxell, WSU professor of geoarchaeology in the Department of Anthropology; namesake of the Fryxell crater on the Moon
• Norman S. Golding, food scientist, inventor of Cougar Gold cheese
• Jeffrey Gramlich, professor of accounting
• Yogendra Gupta, physicist, director of WSU Institute for Shock Physics; Fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science
• John Hirth, mechanical and materials engineer; characterized and modeled the behavior of materials at atomic and microstructural levels, including thin film formation useful to the semiconductor industry; member of the National Academy of Engineering
• Alexander Kuo, humanities and creative writing professor; author; writer-in-residence
• Mark G. Kuzyk, physicist, discoverer of the Kuzyk limit and the Kuzyk quantum gap
• Kelvin Lynn, materials scientist, renowned for "positron annihilation" research; Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
• John M. Madsen, former dean and general authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
• Frances K. McSweeney, psychologist known for work on behavior and reinforcement, with findings on short-term changes in reinforcer effectiveness; WSU Meyer Distinguished Professor of Psychology; Fellow of the Association for Behavior Analysis
• Charles Pezeshki (Dr. Chuck), WSU professor of mechanical and materials engineering, 1998–present; past chair of the University Faculty Senate; founder and director of the Industrial Design Clinic
• Bhakta B. Rath, assistant professor of metallurgy and material Science; material physicist; head of the Materials Science and Component Technology of the United States Naval Research Laboratory
• V. Lane Rawlins, professor of economics and WSU president emeritus
• Clarence A. "Bud" Ryan Jr., isolated and synthesized systemin, first polypeptide hormone found in plants, and discovered that plants produce natural insecticides in response to pest attacks; member of the National Academy of Sciences
• Michael Skinner, molecular and reproduction biologist; made discoveries in epigenetics including reduction in male fertility for four generations; his findings appeared in Discover magazine's "100 top science stories of 2005"
• Samuel H. Smith, WSU President Emeritus; former NATO post-doctoral fellow
• William Jasper Spillman, WSU professor of agriculture; wheat breeder; independently rediscovered Mendel's Law of Heredity; "father of agricultural economics"
• Orville Vogel, WSU and USDA wheat breeder; developer of semi-dwarf wheat varieties that fueled the Green Revolution; recipient of the National Medal of Science
• Diter von Wettstein, plant geneticist; internationally recognized for genetically modifying barley for brewing processes and disease resistance; National Academy of Sciences foreign associate; member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences
• Allen I. White, WSU professor of pharmacy faculty 1940–1960; dean of the WSU College of Pharmacy 1960–1979; pioneered off-campus training for the college

Notable regents

• Frances Penrose Owen, first woman on the WSU Board of Regents, serving 1957–1975

References