List of Cooper Union alumni

This is a list of notable alumni of the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. Awards received by Cooper Union alumni include one Nobel Prize in Physics, a Pritzker Prize, fifteen Rome Prizes, 26 Guggenheim Fellowships, three MacArthur Fellowships, nine Chrysler Design Awards, three American Institute of Architects Thomas Jefferson Awards for Public Architecture, a SEA Write Award, and one Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering. The school also boasts 39 Fulbright Scholars since 2001, and thirteen National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships since 2004.

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A

George G. Adams (engineer), mechanical engineer

Jon Agee, author and illustrator of children's books

John Alcorn (1935–1992), illustrator

Stan Allen, former Dean of the School of Architecture, Princeton University

Daniel Arsham, artist, with alumnus Alex Mustonen established Snarkitecture

David Attie (1920–1982), photographer

B

Donald Baechler, painter

Firelei Báez, artist

Alex Bag, video artist

Elizabeth Gowdy Baker (1860–1927), portraitist

Katherine M. Ball (1859-1952), art educator, especially of Asian art

Shigeru Ban, pioneer of "Paper Architecture", winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize (2014)

Karen Bausman, Rome Prize recipient, the only American woman architect to hold both the Eliot Noyes (Harvard) and Eero Saarinen (Yale) chairs

Max Becher, artist and educator

Dave Berg (1920–2002), cartoon artist and main contributor of Mad magazine illustrations

Renata Bernal, painter

Theodore H. Berlin (1917-1962), theoretical physicist

Emile Berliner (1851–1929), invented the vinyl record

Billy Bitzer (1872–1944), cinematographer

Victor Gustav Bloede (1849–1937), chemist and philanthropist; protege' of Peter Cooper

Louise Brann (1906–1982), muralist

Norman Bridwell (1928–2014), cartoonist and creator of Clifford the Big Red Dog

Kadar Brock, contemporary abstract artist

Steve Brodner, cartoonist

Ronald Brookmeyer, public health researcher; professor of biostatistics at UCLA

Dik Browne (1917–1989), cartoonist and creator of Hägar the Horrible

Jennie Augusta Brownscombe (1850-1936), artist

Lee Brozgol (1941–2021), visual artist, educator, and social worke

Kevin Burke, CEO of Consolidated Edison

C

Albert Carnesale, former chancellor of UCLA and dean of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard

Alfred Clark (1873–1950), inventor, cinematic director, and media executive

Martin Charnin (1934–2019), Tony Award-winning lyricist, writer, and theatre director

Remy Charlip (1929–2012), choreographer, writer, and illustrator

Ching Ho Cheng (1946–1989), artist

John Walter Christie (1865–1944), engineer and inventor

Seymour Chwast, graphic designer, co-founder of Push Pin Studios

Clio Newton, artist

Guy Coheleach, wildlife artist

Anna Botsford Comstock (1854-1930), leader in the nature study educational movement, author, illustrator, and first female professor at Cornell University

Anna Conway, painter

Miriam Cooper (1891–1976), actress

E. Miriam Coyrière, educator and entrepreneur

Will Cotton, painter

William L. Coulter (1865–1907), architect

Joshua Lionel Cowen (1877–1965), inventor of the flash-lamp and co-founder of Lionel Corporation

Amy Cutler, artist

D

Noah Davis (1983-2015), painter and founder of the Underground Museum in Los Angeles

Peggy Deamer, Emeritus Professor of Architecture at Yale

Roy DeCarava (1919–2009), photographer

William Francis Deegan (1882–1932), architect and political leader, namesake of the Major Deegan Expressway

Bruce Degen, illustrator for The Magic School Bus

Freda Diamond (1905–1998), industrial designer known for designing mass market home goods

Elizabeth Diller, with Ricardo Scofidio, the first architects to win a MacArthur Prize co-founder of Diller Scofidio + Renfro

Michael Doret, graphic designer, font designer, lettering artist

Lou Dorfsman (1918–2008), graphic designer art director for CBS

Eric Drooker, painter and author

William Dubilier (1888–1969), inventor of the mica capacitor and radio pioneer

Clive Dym, chair of the engineering department at Harvey Mudd College; professor at Stanford

E

John M. Eargle (1931–2007), Oscar and Grammy-winning audio engineer and musician

Thomas Edison (1847–1931), inventor

Allegra Eggleston (1860–1933), artist and illustrator

Malachi Leo Elliott (1886-1967), architect

Phillip Eng, president of the Long Island Rail Road and general manager of the MBTA

Jeffrey Epstein (1953–2019), financial advisor and convicted sex offender. Did not graduate.

Mark Epstein, property developer, brother of Jeffrey Epstein.

Mitch Epstein, photographer

F

Isidor Fankuchen (1905-1964), material scientist and solid-state physicist; pioneer of crystallography

Adriana Farmiga, visual artist and Dean at Cooper Union School of Art

Robert Feintuch, painter

Joel H. Ferziger (1937–2004), mechanical engineer and expert in computational fluid dynamics

Anthony Fiala (1869-1950), American explorer

Irving Fierstein (1915–2009), painter, designer

Liana Finck, cartoonist and author

Israel F. Fischer (1858–1940), US Representative, judge

James Fitzgerald (1851-1922), American jurist and politician

Thom Fitzgerald, filmmaker

Audrey Flack, pioneer of photorealism

Max Fleischer (1883–1972), animator, inventor, film director and producer; co-creator of Betty Boop

Mary Hallock Foote (1847–1938), author and illustrator

Charles R. Forbes (1878–1952), politician and military officer; first Director of the US Veterans' Bureau

Laura Ford, sculptor

Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965), Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

Brad Friedmutter, architect

Martin Feinberg, chemical engineer and mathematician

G

Hope Gangloff, painter

Janet Gardner, filmmaker

Lenora Garfinkel (1930–2020), architect

Paul Garrin, filmmaker

Amy Gartrell, artist

Louis D. Gibbs, lawyer, politician, judge

Philip Gips (1931–2019), film poster artist

Milton Glaser (1929–2020), graphic designer, creator of the I Love New York logo, co-founder of Push Pin Studios

Harold S. Goldberg, electrical engineer; first chair of the IEEE

Minetta Good (1895–1946), muralist, painter and printmaker

Harry H. Goode (1909-1960), computer engineer and systems engineer; professor at the University of Michigan

Aaron Goodelman, sculptor

Sidney Gordin (1918–1996), visual artist, professor

T.J. Gottesdiener, architect and manager of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

Harold Grad (1923-1986), applied mathematician

Aaron Green (1917-2001), architect and protege of Frank Lloyd Wright; lecturer at Stanford University

Charles Greenfield (1885-1979), engineer

Leonard Gross, mathematician; Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at Cornell University

H

Hans Haacke, artist

Dimitri Hadzi (1921–2006), sculptor

William Harnett (1848–1892), painter

Irving Harper (1916–2015), industrial designer

Matthew Harrison, film director

Sagi Haviv, partner, Chermayeff & Geismar; designer of the Library of Congress and Armani Exchange logos

Palmer Hayden (1890–1973), artist famous for depictions of African-American life

Dorothy E. Hayes (1935–2015), early Black graphic designer, educator, curator

John Hejduk (1929–2000), one of New York Five, a group of five New York City architects

Eva Hesse (1936–1970), sculptor

Angela Hill, professional mixed martial arts fighter

Edith Hillinger, mixed media artist, painter, founding member of second wave feminism

Julian Hirsch (1922–2003), electrical engineer and audio critic

Chuck Hoberman, winner of the Chrysler Design Award for Innovation and Design

Kim Holleman, artist, MIT Media Lab Social Computing Group

Emil Clemens Horst (1867–1940), inventor

Sharon Horvath (born 1958), mixed media artist, painter, educator

Shelby Hughes (1981–2014), artist and designer

Russell Hulse, 1993 winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics

Elizabeth Bullock Humphrey (1841–1889), illustrator

I

Alexander Isley, graphic designer

J

Francis Jehl (1860–1941), electrochemist and inventor

Patty Jenkins, filmmaker

Herman Jessor (1894-1990), architect and engineer

Sandy Jimenez, comic book artist

Bonnie E. John, cognitive psychologist

Crockett Johnson (1906–1975), (David Johnson Leisk), comic strip artist and author of Harold and the Purple Crayon

Willard F. Jones (1890–1967), naval architect, head of National Safety Council's marine section and Vice President of Gulf Oil

Mimi Jung (born 1981), artist

K

Bob Kane (1915–1998), comic book artist and writer, creator of Batman

Gideon Kanner, law professor, consultant, author, and lecturer

Michael Kasha (1920–2013), physical chemist, educator, and guitar designer

Alex Katz, figurative artist

Luke A. Keenan (1872-1924), politician

Arthur C. Keller (1901-1983), electrical engineer; pioneer of recording technologies

Otto Kempner (1858-1914), lawyer, politician, and judge

Owen M. Kiernan, member of the New York State Assembly

Owen Kildare (1864-1911), realist writer

Dave King, novelist and poet

William King (1925–2015), artist

R.B. Kitaj (1932–2007), painter

Murray S. Klamkin (1921-2004), mathematician

Vera Klement, professor at the University of Chicago

Herman Charles Koenig (1893–1959), book collector, friend of H. P. Lovecraft

Fred Kohler, inventor, author, and lecturer

Lee Krasner (1908–1984), painter

Kathleen Kucka, painter

Heather Kulik, computational materials scientist and chemical engineer; professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Moses Kunitz (1887-1978), biochemist

Harvey Kurtzman (1924–1993), cartoonist, editor and co-founder of Mad

L

Lucien Marc Smith, American artist, designer, philanthropist, and restauranteur

Lokanātha, Italian buddhist monk.

Marisa Lago, attorney; Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade

Alfred A. Lama (1899–1984), New York State Assemblyman and co-sponsor of Mitchell-Lama housing legislation

Thomas W. Lamb (1871–1942), architect and designer of theaters and cinemas

Morgan Foster Larson (1882–1961), Governor of New Jersey, 1929–1932

Benjamin Lax (1915-2015), solid-state and plasma physicist

Joseph Lechleider (1933-2015), electrical engineer; inventor of DSL technology

Aaron J. Levy (1881-1955), lawyer and politician

Janet Cook Lewis, painter, librarian, and bookbinder

Daniel Libeskind, architect for the reconstruction of the World Trade Center

Whitfield Lovell, artist

Herb Lubalin (1918–1981), graphic designer, creative director for publications Eros, Fact, and Avant Garde; designed the typeface ITC Avant Garde

Samuel Lubkin (1906-1972), mathematician and computer scientist; pioneer in the early history of computing

Marie Luhring Early woman truck designer in United States, first woman associate member of the American Society of Automotive Engineers

Ellen Lupton, graphic designer, writer, curator and educator

Wauhope Lynn (1856–1920), lawyer, judge, and politician

Noah Lyon, artist

M

Jay Maisel, photographer

Sylvia Plimack Mangold

Fred Marcellino (1939–2001), illustrator

Christian Marclay, artist, composer

Judith Margolis, artist, essayist, book designer, curator

Joseph Margulies (1896–1984), artist

Jacob Marks (1861–1965), lawyer, New York State Senator, Municipal Court Justice

Leonidas D. Marinelli (1906-1974), radiological physicist; founded the field of Human Radiobiology

Leslie Martinez, artist, abstract painting

Alexia Massalin, computer scientist and programmer

Crystal McKenzie, designer

Antonina Roll-Mecak, molecular biophyicist; Chief of the Unit of Cell Biology and Biophysics at the National Institutes of Health

Linn Meyers, artist

Abbott Miller, designer

Mike Mills, filmmaker

Matthew Monahan, sculptor

A. Harry Moore (1877–1952), 39th Governor of New Jersey

Toshiko Mori, architect

Jacqueline Moss (1927–2005), art historian, educator

P. Buckley Moss (1933-2024), artist

Michel Mossessian, architect

James H. Mulligan Jr. (1920–1996), American electrical engineer, former executive officer of National Academy of Engineering and president of IEEE

Thomas Maurice Mulry (1855–1916), businessman and philanthropist

Wangechi Mutu, artist

Henry L. Myers (1862-1943), United States senator

N

Roy Nachum, Israeli New York-based contemporary artist

Willa Nasatir (born 1990) BFA 2012, photographer, visual artist

Victor Nellenbogen (1888–1959), architect

Vera Neumann (1907–1993), artist known for colored linen patterns and scarves signed "Vera" by the Vera Company

O

Ella Seaver Owen (1852–1910), artist, teacher

P

Victor Papanek (1923–1998), designer and educator; early proponent of ecologically and socially responsible design

Bruce Pasternack (1947–2021), engineer, author, and President and CEO of the Special Olympics

Ruth Pastine, minimalist painter

Randolph Perkins (1871-1936), Republican US Congressman

Eleanore Pettersen (1916–2003), architect

William Gardner Pfann (1917–1982), inventor and materials scientist; known for his development of zone melting

Sylvia Plevritis, professor and chair of the Department of Biomedical Data Science at Stanford University

Robert Plonsey (1924-2015), electrical engineer; Pfizer-Pratt Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Duke University; known for his work in Bioelectricity

Ron Pompei, architect and founder of Pompei A.D.

Charles E. Pont (1898–1971), painter, illustrator, printmaker, graphic designer

Neal Pozner (1955–1994), artist, editor, writer and designer at DC Comics

Seth Putterman, physicist

Q

R

Grace Renzi (1922-2011), painter

Andrea Robbins, artist and educator

Morgan Robertson (1861-1915), American writer and self-proclaimed inventor of the periscope

Frank E. Rom (1926-2012), NASA engineer

Otto A. Rosalsky (1873-1936), lawyer and judge

Fred Rosebury (1901-1999), engineer and artist

Charles Rosen (1917–2002), engineer and pioneer in artificial intelligence in development of Shakey the Robot

Morris Rosenfeld (1885–1968), maritime photographer

Reynold Ruffins, graphic designer, co-founder of Push Pin Studios

Jere F. Ryan (1882-1948), builder, businessman, and politician

S

Amy Sadao, Daniel Dietrich II Director of the Institute of Contemporary Art

Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848–1907), Beaux-Arts sculptor, numismatist, and educator

Karen Sandler, lawyer

Erik Sanko, marionette-maker and leader of the rock band Skeleton Key

Alfred Sarant (1918–1979), engineer and Soviet spy

Edward Sargent (1842–1914), architect

Augusta Savage (Augusta Christine Fells) (1892-1962), sculptor and teacher

Henry Scheffé (1907-1977), statistician; known for the Lehmann-Scheffe theorem and Scheffe's method

Arnold Alfred Schmidt, painter

Mischa Schwartz, professor of electrical engineering, Columbia University

Richard Schwartz, engineer, shared the 2019 Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering for design and development of the first GPS satellites.