Paul Butler
Astronomer
As a young SF State astronomy student, he and astronomer Geoff Marcy helped start a new space race by becoming the first to discover planets outside our solar system. In 2003 he was named "Space Scientist of the Year" by Discover Magazine.
Yvonne Cagle
Astronaut
SF State was the launch pad for this biochemistry major, now a medical doctor and NASA astronaut assigned to the Johnson Space Center's Space and Life Sciences Directorate.
Debra Fischer
Planet hunter/professor
Part of a planet-searching team formed at SF State in 1983, she has helped locate the majority of the 130-plus known planets beyond our solar system, including three she found as a student studying under Professor Geoff Marcy.
Kenneth Fong
Scientist
He chopped vegetables to pay his way through SF State and stayed on the cutting edge as the founder of Clontech Laboratories Inc., which makes tools for gene mapping and genetic engineering.
Read more at: http://www.sfsu.edu/~science/newsletters/fall1998/kennethfong.
Eric Kelly
Technology CEO
The CEO of San Diego-based Overland Storage, he was named one of the 50 Most Important African Americans in Technology by Black Money and U.S. Black Engineer magazines.
Stan Mazor
Microprocessor inventor
Then working at a little company called Intel, this mathematics major and three colleagues set off the computer revolution in 1971 when they invented the first microprocessor.
Bob Pasker
High-tech developer
As a history major, he studied the past, but he had his eyes on the future as the chief architect of the market-dominant WebLogic Application Server, now part of BEA Systems.
Jayshree Ullal
Tech executive
President and CEO of Arista Networks, this electrical engineering grad was named one of the "Top Ten Executives" at 2011's VMWorld, the global conference for virtualization and cloud computing.
Jody Vandergriff
CEO
Though she started in biomedical research, her experience designing software for scientists sparked a new passion: product development. She went on to co-found and build WebDAM, a leading cloud-based digital asset management platform for enterprise marketing teams. In March 2014, WebDAM was acquired by Shutterstock.
David Walden
Internet pioneer
Part of a team that developed ARPANET, the precursor of the Internet, this math major spent much of his time at SF State playing bridge and hanging out at the computer center.
Lisa White
Geoscientist/SF State professor
Lisa White thought she was going be a photographer when she enrolled at SF State as an undergraduate. Then she took her first geology class. Now this paleontologist supports her hobby by taking pictures in the field.