Ivan Illich (Vienna, September 4,1926 - Bremen, December 2,2002) was an Austrian philosopher and anarchist social critic, whose polemics on various forms of professional authority earned him worldwide notoriety. Author of an informal series of critiques of the institutions of "modern" culture, he addressed issues such as education, medicine, work, energy use, economic development, and gender. His work was most widely known in the 1970s, yet today is hard to find, …

Joseph Heller was an American satirist best remembered for writing the satiric World War II classic "Catch-22". The novel was partly based on Heller's own war experiences and its literary devices are continued on into his other novels. It influenced, among others, Robert Altman's comedy M*A*S*H and the subsequent long-running TV series, set in the Korean War. The phrase "Catch-22" has entered the English language to signify a no-win situation, …

Hugh Llewellyn Keenleyside, C.C., Ph.D., LL.D. (7 July 1898 - September 27, 1992) was Canadian diplomat and civil servant. He was the Canadian ambassador to Mexico from 1944 to 1947 and Commissioner of the Northwest Territories from January 14, 1947 to September 15, 1950. Born in Toronto, Ontario, the son of Ellis William and Margaret (Irvine) Keenleyside, he moved with his family to British Columbia when he was a few months old.

Sarvadaman D. Chowla (22 October 1907, London-10 December 1995, Laramie, Wyoming) was a prominent British-Indian-American mathematician, specializing in number theory. He was born in London, since his father, Gopal Chowla, a professor of mathematics in Lahore, was then studying in Cambridge. His family returned to India, where he received his masters degree in 1928 from the Government College in Lahore. In 1931 he received his doctorate from the University of Cambridge, …

Aleksander Wolszczan (pronounced: ; b. 1946 in Szczecinek, Poland) is a Polish astronomer. He was the discoverer of the first extrasolar planets and pulsar planets.

John Simmons Barth (born May 27, 1930) is an American novelist and short-story writer, known for the postmodernist and metafictive quality of his work. John Barth was born in Cambridge, Maryland, and briefly studied "Elementary Theory and Advanced Orchestration" at Juilliard before attending Johns Hopkins University, receiving a B.A. in 1951 and an M.A. in 1952 (for which he wrote a thesis novel, "The Shirt of Nessus").

Theodore Roethke (1908-1963). Born in Saginaw, Michigan, Roethke was the son of a greenhouse owner; greenhouses figure prominently in the imagery of his poems. He graduated magna cum laude from the University of Michigan in 1929, where he also earned an M.A. in 1936 after graduate study at Harvard. He taught at several universities, coached two varsity tennis teams, and settled at the University of Washington in 1947.

Calyampudi Radhakrishna Rao (born September 10, 1920) is a famous Indian statistician and currently professor emeritus at Penn State University. He was born in Hadagali, Karnataka state, India. He received an M.S. in mathematics from Andhra University and an M.S. in Statistics from Calcutta University in 1943.

George Eyre Andrews is an American mathematician working in analysis and combinatorics. He is currently a Evan Pugh Professor of Mathematics at Pennsylvania State University. He received his PhD in 1964 at University of Pennsylvania where his advisor was Hans Rademacher. Andrews's contributions include several monographs and over 250 research and popular articles on q-series, special functions, combinatorics and applications.

Brian Black is an US professor of history and environmental studies at Pennsylvania State University, Altoona, Pennsylvania. His research focuses on deals with the landscape and environmental history of North America. He has published articles and books on the history of petroleum and history of the environment.

Jackson J. Spielvogel is an associate professor emeritus at Pennsylvania State University. His textbooks are commonly used in high school and college Western Civilization classes. Spielvogel holds a Ph.D., from Ohio State University, and specialized in Reformation history under the supervision of Harold J. Grimm.

Christopher P. "Chris" Carney (born March 2, 1959) is Congressman of the United States House of Representatives, representing the 10th Congressional District of Pennsylvania. He is the first Democrat to represent the district since January 1961.

Haskell Brooks Curry was an American mathematician and logician. The son of educator Samuel Silas Curry, he was educated at Harvard University and received a Ph.D. from Göttingen in 1930, under the supervision of David Hilbert. While at Göttingen, Curry read the published version of Moses Schönfinkel's 1920 lecture introducing combinatory logic, the fateful event in his career. He then wrote his Ph.D. thesis on combinatory logic.

Professor Alan Walker (born August 23, 1938), is the Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Biology at Pennsylvania State University. He received a MacArthur Fellowship in 1988.

Donald Byrne was one of the USA's strongest chess players during the 1950s and 1960s. He won the U.S. Open in 1953, was awarded the International Master title from FIDE (English: World Chess Federation) in 1962, and played for or captained five U.S. Chess Olympiad teams between 1962 and 1972. His brother, International Grandmaster Robert Byrne, was also a leading player of that time. Byrne lost to Bobby Fischer in the Game of the Century in 1956.

Velvet Brown is an internationally recognized orchestral and chamber tubist, composer and educator. She is the principal tubist of the Altoona Symphony Orchestra and has served as principal with the New Hampshire Music Festival Orchestra from 1989-2004, and as substitute or additional tubist with the Detroit Symphony, Saint Louis Symphony, San Francisco Women's Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Fort Wayne Philharmonic Orchestra.

Bruce Weigl (born January 27, 1949, Lorain, Ohio) is an American contemporary poet who currently teaches at Lorain County Community College. Weigl enlisted in the United States Army shortly after his 18th birthday and spent four years in the service. He served in the Vietnam War from December 1967 to December 1968 and received the Bronze Star Medal.

Samuel H. Smith was the eighth president of Washington State University, serving for fifteen years (July 1 1985 - June 8 2000). A native of Salinas, California, he holds bachelor's and doctoral degrees in plant pathology from the University of California, Berkeley and honorary doctoral degrees from Nihon University in Tokyo, Japan, and Far Eastern State University in Vladivostok, Russia. Prior to his presidency, he spent 16 years at Pennsylvania State University, …

Rob Frieden holds the Pioneers Chair and serves as Professor of Telecommunications at Penn State University. Frieden holds a B.A., with distinction, from the University of Pennsylvania (1977) and a J.D. from the University of Virginia (1980). Before accepting an academic appointment, Frieden practiced law in Washington, D.C., and served as Assistant General Counsel at PTAT Systems, Inc.

William Tenn is the pseudonym for the science fiction work of Philip Klass. Born May 9, 1920, in London, England, he moved before his second birthday with his parents to New York where he grew up in Brooklyn. After serving in the United States Army during World War II as a combat engineer in Europe, he held a job as a technical editor with an Air Force radar and radio laboratory and was employed by Bell Labs.

Dr. William S. Pierce, professor emeritus of surgery at Pennsylvania State University, was a key figure in the development of the Heart-lung machine and various medical devices related to organ transplant and cardiovascular health. Pierce founded the Penn State organ donation program and was instrumental in conceiving and developing the Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD) and later the Left Ventricular Assist System (LVAS).

Clay Calvert is currently a professor at the Pennsylvania State University, specializing in First Amendment Law. Originally a member of the California State Bar Association, he published numerous articles for law journals. He has also written several books dealing with the First Amendment, the most recognizable being "Voyeur Nation".

O. Richard Bundy joined the University Park faculty in 1983. He is director of the Penn State Marching Blue Band. In addition, he teaches courses in conducting, marching band techniques, instrumental music education, and band literature. An active guest conductor and adjudicator, Bundy has conducted ensembles and presented clinics throughout the eastern United States and Canada.

Augustin Banyaga (b. March 31, 1947 in Kigali, Rwanda) is a Rwandan-born American mathematician whose research fields include symplectic topology and contact geometry. He is currently a Professor of Mathematics at Pennsylvania State University.

Robert A. Higgins (born November 24, 1894 in Corning, New York, died June 6, 1969 in State College, Pennsylvania) was a professional American football player and coach.

Christian M. M. Brady (born 1968) is an American targumist, Jewish studies scholar and academic. He is Dean of the Schreyer Honors College, Penn State University and is an Associate Professor of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies and Jewish Studies. He was formerly Associate Professor of Classical Studies and Jewish Studies and Director of the Honors Program at Tulane University (1997-2006). Brady's specialization is in rabbinic literature and the targumim, …

Neal Gabler is a professor, journalist, author, and political commentator. He is the author of four books: "An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood" (1989), "Winchell: Gossip, Power and the Culture of Celebrity" (1994), "Life the Movie: How Entertainment Conquered Reality" (1998) and "Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination" (2006).

Ellen Dannin (August 3, 1951) is professor of law at the Dickinson School of Law at Penn State University, and an expert in the labor law of New Zealand and the United States.

The Hon Dr Kay Patterson (Liberal Senator for Victoria)<br /> BA (Hons) (Syd), PhD, Dip Ed (Monash), MAPss.<br /><br /> "Born: 21 November 1944" Kay Patterson was elected to the Senate in 1987. Prior to entering the Senate she commenced her working life as a secretary and then manager of a small business. Returning to school when she was 20 she completed matriculation, a degree at the University of Sydney and a PhD in psychology at Monash University.

Robert Bray Mitinger (born February 13, 1940 in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, died September 27, 2004 in State College, Pennsylvania) was a former professional football player, attorney and civic leader.

Philip J. McConnaughay, is the current Dean and The Donald J. Farage Professor of Law at The Pennsylvania State University's Dickinson School of Law. Previously, he was a Professor of Law at the University of Illinois College of Law. He was admitted to Illinois bar in 1978; 1979, California; 1983, District of Columbia; 1992‑1994, Japan; 1994‑1996, Hong Kong.

Donald B. Redford is an influential Canadian Egyptologist and archaeologist, currently Professor of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies at Pennsylvania State University. Professor Redford has directed a number of important excavations in Egypt, notably at Karnak and Mendes. Along with his wife, he is the director of the Akhenaten Temple Project. Redford has presented some controversial theories concerning the Bible and history.

Boris Weisfeiler is a Russian-born mathematician who lived in the United States before going missing in Chile in 1984. The Chilean government claimed that he drowned, but his family believes he was forced to disappear near Colonia Dignidad, an enclave lead by ex-Nazi Paul Schäfer.