Technology and the built world

Richard Blahut

Richard E. Blahut, born 1937, is an American information theorist known for the Blahut–Arimoto algorithm, a 30-year IBM career, and professorship at the University of Illinois.

Richard Bong

Richard Ira Bong, known as Dick Bong, was an American fighter ace who shot down 40 enemy planes in the Pacific during World War II, more than any other American pilot.

Richard Brent Gillespie

Richard Brent Gillespie is a mechanical engineer and roboticist, professor at the University of Michigan, whose Haptix Lab studies haptic interfaces and neuroprosthetic hand control.

Richard C. Scherrer

Richard C. Scherrer (1919–2018) was an American aeronautical engineer elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2010 for stealth designs that led to the F-117A.

Richard Chao-Fan Chu, known as Dick Chu, was a Chinese-born American mechanical engineer at IBM who pioneered electronic cooling, holding over 200 patents and elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1987.

Richard Collom Singleton

Richard Collom Singleton (c. 1928 – 2007) was an American mathematical statistician and computer scientist who spent 39 years at SRI International and published mixed-radix fast Fourier transform algorithms.

Richard D. Braatz

Richard D. Braatz is the Edwin R. Gilliland Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT, elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2019 for work on manufacturing control.

Richard D. James

Richard D. James, also published as R. D. James, is a mechanician and mathematician, Distinguished McKnight University Professor at Minnesota, known for shape-memory materials and the 2013 low-hysteresis alloy.

Richard D. Tabors

Richard D. Tabors is an American energy-systems economist whose theory of spot pricing of electricity became the basis for locational marginal pricing and financial transmission rights.

Richard D. Woods (scientist)

Richard D. Woods (1935–2021) was an American geotechnical engineer at the University of Michigan who helped establish soil dynamics and co-authored the 1970 textbook Vibrations of Soils and Foundations.

Richard E. Balzhiser

Richard E. Balzhiser (1932–2012) was an American chemical and nuclear energy engineer who led the Electric Power Research Institute as president and CEO from 1988 to 1996.

Richard E. Byrd

Richard Evelyn Byrd Jr., known as Admiral Byrd, was an American naval aviator and polar explorer who claimed the first flights over both poles and led five Antarctic expeditions.

Richard E. Emmert

Richard E. Emmert is an American chemical engineer who retired from DuPont as Vice President-Electronics and was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1985.

Richard E. Korf

Richard E. Korf is an American computer scientist and UCLA professor emeritus whose 1985 IDA algorithm enabled memory-efficient heuristic search, yielding the first optimal Rubik's Cube solutions.

Richard E. Ladner

Richard E. Ladner is an American computer scientist and professor emeritus at the University of Washington, known for Ladner's 1975 theorem and for co-founding AccessComputing.

Richard E. Palmer

Richard E. Palmer is a British nanoscale physicist and materials scientist, head of the Nanomaterials Lab at Swansea University and professor at Nanjing University, known for size-selected atomic clusters and nanocatalysis.

Richard E. Stearns

Richard Edwin Stearns (1936–2026) was an American computer scientist who, with Juris Hartmanis, founded computational complexity theory in their 1965 paper, work recognized by the 1993 Turing Award.

Richard G. Baraniuk

Richard G. Baraniuk is an American electrical engineer and signal processing researcher at Rice University, known for compressive sensing, the single-pixel camera, and founding OpenStax.

Richard G. Folsom

Richard G. Folsom was an American mechanical engineer and fluid dynamics researcher who taught at UC Berkeley and served as president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute from 1958 to 1971.

Richard G. Luthy

Richard G. Luthy (1945–2025) was an American environmental engineer and Stanford professor who pioneered in-situ treatment of contaminated sediments and directed the NSF center ReNUWIt.

Richard H. Frenkiel

Richard H. Frenkiel, born in 1943, is an American engineer who helped design the first US cellular telephone system at Bell Labs and later taught at Rutgers.

Richard H. Gallagher

Richard H. Gallagher, born Richard Hugo Gallagher, was an American civil and aerospace engineer who advanced the finite element method and led Clarkson University from 1988 to 1995.

Richard H. Lyon

Richard H. Lyon (1929–2019) was an American acoustical engineer and MIT professor emeritus who pioneered statistical energy analysis, machinery diagnostics, and product sound quality, founding two acoustics companies.

Richard H. MacNeal

Richard H. MacNeal (1923–2018) was an American electrical engineer who co-founded the MacNeal-Schwendler Corporation in 1963, led development of the NASTRAN finite element analysis program, and was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1996.

Richard H. Petersen

Richard H. "Pete" Petersen is an American aeronautical engineer who led NASA's Langley Research Center and served as NASA Associate Administrator for Aeronautics and Space Technology.

Richard H. Wilhelm

Richard H. Wilhelm was an American chemical engineer who chaired Princeton's chemical engineering department from 1954 to 1968 and pioneered fluidized-bed research and parametric pumping.

Richard Halsey Best

Richard Halsey Best was a US Navy dive-bomber pilot who hit the Japanese carriers Akagi and Hiryu in one day at the Battle of Midway.

Sep 20, 2026

Richard Henry Friend

Sir Richard Henry Friend is a British physicist at Cambridge who created the first polymer LEDs, founded plastic electronics, and won the 2010 Millennium Technology Prize.

Richard J. Daley Center

Richard J. Daley Center, originally the Chicago Civic Center, is a 31-story, 648-foot Cor-Ten steel International Style courthouse at 50 W. Washington St., Chicago, completed 1965, designed by Jacques Brownson of C.F. Murphy Associates, home of the Cook County courts and the 1967 Picasso sculpture.