Alumni · Rossin College
We are Lehigh Engineers
From the escalator to the James Webb Space Telescope, from the Panama Canal to the artificial heart, Lehigh engineers have designed, built, and led innovation across decades and industries.
- Alumni network89,000+
- Engineering since1865
- Alumni on the roll below17
- Countries with Lehigh alumni140
What alumni are doing now
The accomplishments of Lehigh engineering alumni run the gamut—from autos to artificial hearts, from corporate leadership to entrepreneurship, from the College’s earliest days on South Mountain to the furthest reaches of space.
- Scott Willoughby ’89 — Electrical engineering alum, elected to the National Academy of Engineering for his leadership on the James Webb Space Telescope.
- Ji-Cheng “JC” Zhao ’95 PhD — Materials science and engineering alum, named Dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Connecticut.
- Ann Tracy ’85 ’86 ’91G — Chief sustainability officer at Colgate-Palmolive.
- Animangsu Ghatak ’03 — Chemical and biomolecular engineering alum, elected to the Fellowship of the Indian National Science Academy.
Lehigh engineers: the first hundred years
Lehigh has taught engineering since its founding in 1865. These are some of the graduates of its first century — and what they left behind.
Jesse Reno
Patented the "inclined elevator" in 1892 — the forerunner of the modern escalator.
Installed the first working escalator as an amusement ride at Coney Island in 1897, and sold the design to the Otis Elevator Company in 1899.
James Ward Packard
Filed a patent for the Packard Electric Lamp five years after graduating — the first of more than forty patents in his lifetime.
The Packard Motor Company he co-founded built the V-1650 engine that powered most P-51 Mustangs in the Second World War.
Lewis Stillwell
Led the design of the first hydroelectric generating plant at Niagara Falls, and patented the "Stillwell regulator" that kept it from overproducing power.
Charles Marshall and Howard McClintic
Classmates who formed the McClintic-Marshall Construction Company in 1900, which grew into the largest independent steel manufacturing firm in the United States.
The firm built the Golden Gate Bridge, the George Washington Bridge, Detroit’s Ambassador Bridge, and the locks of the Panama Canal.
William Bowie
One of the best known and most influential members of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey.
Eugene Grace
As president and chairman of Bethlehem Steel through two world wars, the Depression and the skyscraper boom, he shifted the company between armament and domestic expansion.
Daniel McFarlan Moore
Invented the "Moore lamp" — the first commercially viable light source based on gas discharge rather than incandescence.
Tsai Shengbai
At the forefront of the development of the modern silk manufacturing industry in China.
Monroe Rathbone
Chosen by the editors of Fortune for permanent membership in its Hall of Fame of Business Leadership.
Robert Serber
Called by The New York Times "the intellectual midwife at the birth of the atomic bomb".
Lee Iacocca
Widely counted among the most influential business leaders of the twentieth century.
As general manager of Ford’s Ford Division he introduced the Mustang in 1964 — the most successful first-year sales of any automobile.
Peter C. Rossin
The entrepreneur whose $25-million endowment in 1998 gave the College its name — the largest gift ever made to Lehigh at the time.
Lynn Beedle
Credited with making Lehigh a centre of civil engineering research through his studies of the properties of steel structures.
Ai-Ting "Tobey" Yu
Through ORBA Corp, converted the Great Lakes into an efficient waterway with automated docks and self-unloaders for shipping ore and coal.
William Pierce
Known worldwide for his research in circulatory assist devices and artificial heart pumps.
John Fisher
Named by ENR Magazine in 1999 as one of the "Top 125 People" of the 125 years since the journal’s founding.
James Rice
Credited with discovering the "J-integral", a key concept in fracture mechanics.
Highlights of alumni accomplishment
- Tau Beta Pi
The national engineering honour society was founded at Lehigh in 1885 to recognise achievement in the field. Lehigh’s is the first chapter, Pennsylvania Alpha, and the society’s seal carries the brown and white.
- The first commercial product made in space
Microscopic polystyrene beads, ten micrometres across, manufactured aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger in April 1983 for calibrating particle-size instruments. The process was developed jointly by Lehigh and NASA.
- Columbia shuttle forensics
After the 2003 Columbia disaster, NASA asked Lehigh exclusively to help analyse the debris — the first university to do so, because of its microscopy. Materials science students presented the findings as their senior project.
- Landing Ship, Tank
The Dravo Corporation, founded by brothers Francis (1887) and Ralph Dravo (1889), was lead yard for the LST programme and built hundreds of them for the Normandy and Pacific landings.
Stay involved
The University’s alumni and student network — professional connections, mentoring, and people who did what you are about to do.
Regional chapters, reunions and interest groups run by the Lehigh Alumni Association.
Groups that bring alumni together around shared cultures, backgrounds and professions.
Mentor a student, host an event, interview an applicant, or serve on a board.
Alumni events on campus, in your region, and online.
New address, new email, new job — tell the Alumni Association so the College can reach you.
On LinkedIn, follow the Rossin College. Listing “P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science at Lehigh University” on your own profile adds you to the Alumni tab there.
Support the College
Alumni support widens access to experiential learning, seeds large interdisciplinary research, and funds the students who come next. It is also how the College is named: a 1948 graduate’s endowment, the largest gift Lehigh had received.
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