Our Most-Read Alumni Profiles of 2019

Robert G. Gottlieb ’60, SM ’61 didn’t have posterity in mind when he invented the Stanley Tools 85-610 Locking Wrench in 1982. He was simply exasperated.

When Dianna Cowern ’11 graduated, she was unsure of her next step—so unsure that she made a video about it entitled “What to do with a physics degree…”

Rather than viewing the water's surface as a barrier, Fadel Adib SM ’13, PhD ’17 saw how it could be a tool.

Like many alumni, Daniel Smalley ’05, MEng ’06, SM ’08, PhD ’13 is a Star Wars enthusiast. But when he watches Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, he's academically miffed.

Kelly Shannon ’02 has always loved investigating. It’s what drew her to MIT to study biology. It’s also what led to her eventual career as an FBI Special Agent.

When Boeing's Starliner spacecraft launches its first test mission later this year, Kavya Manyapu SM ’10 and Celena Dopart SM ’14 will have had their hands all over it.

Ron Searls ’70 left the Institute twice, not graduating because of the thesis requirement, but decades later a change in the qualifications brought him back to MIT.

“I want my headstone to say, ‘He made a difference,’” George Basch '59 says. He has tapped his skills as a mechanical engineer, entrepreneur, and explorer to do just that.

At MIT Lincoln Lab's Flight Test Facility are seven aircrafts ranging from a single-engine private plane to a multiengine business jet. One of their pilots is Thomas Washington ’92, SM ’94.

When I arrived at MIT,” recalls Folkers Rojas ’09, SM ’11, PhD ’14, “I thought a mechanical engineer was the guy who fixed your car." UROP gave him the skills he needed to thrive at school and afterward.

Veronica Toro ’16, who had never rowed until her first year at MIT, recently became the first Puerto Rican female to qualify for the Pan American Games.

After five years of active duty as an infantry officer, Graham Rockwell MBA ’14 was welcomed into the MIT Sloan community. Others he served with were struggling, so he found a way to help.