Notable people[edit]

Leon M. Lederman, winner of the 1988 Nobel Prize for Physics, discoverer of the bottom quark, and Director Emeritus of Fermilab was a professor at IIT.


Robert F. Christy taught at IIT before going on to be a part of the Manhattan Project. His insights greatly simplified the design of a plutonium based warhead; the solid-core plutonium model is often referred to as the "Christy gadget".


Lee De Forest, one of "the fathers of the electronic age" and the man who brought sound to motion pictures was an IIT physics faculty member.


The world's first radio astronomer, Grote Reber, is an IIT alum.


Watts Humphrey, "Father of software quality", earned a Masters in physics from IIT.


Jack Steinberger studied at IIT before dropping out to support his family. He later won the 1988 Nobel Prize for Physics.


Sidney Coleman, best known for his contributions to quantum field theory, received his B.S. from IIT. Nobel laureate Sheldon Glashow says of Coleman, ""He's not a Stephen Hawking; he has virtually no visibility outside. But within the community of theoretical physicists, he's kind of a major god. He is the physicist's physicist."^[8]


Raymond A. Serway, author of several undergraduate physics textbooks, received his doctorate from the Illinois Institute of Technology.