SUNY graduates have gone on to achieve greatness in science, medicine, business, broadcasting, arts and entertainment, and dozens of other fields.
There are Pulitzer Prize winners, astronauts, war heroes and top executives, many of whom credit SUNY for helping them get to where they are today.

Among the top-achieving graduates from SUNY’s 29 state-operated campuses are:

Albany—Gregory Maguire, author of the Wicked series, the basis for the Tony Award-winning Broadway hit musical;

Alfred—Brett Bodine, NASCAR driver;

Binghamton—Paul Reiser, writer/comedian/ actor, and Mario Paniccia, Intel inventor of world’s fastest silicon photonic chip;

Brockport—Justin Ziemniak, founder and editor of Computerlink magazine;

Buffalo—Terry Gross, host of NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross, and Wolf Blitzer, anchor of CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Reports;

Buffalo State—Lee Ann Daffner, conservator of photographs, Museum of Modern Art;

Canton—Fergal Foley, holds the two-star rank of Major General in the New York Guard;

Cobleskill—Amanda Tripple-Guariglia, wild animal keeper, Bronx Zoo.;

Cortland—Ted Demme, film director/producer;

Delhi—Actor Bill Pullman;

Downstate Medical—Martin Friedlander, principal investigator, The Friedlander Laboratory at The Scripps Research Institute;

Empire State College— Caroline Kava, actress in Little Nikita. and Bob Wilbur, jazz saxophonist;

ESF—Ronald Eby, researcher/developer of child vaccines;

Farmingdale—Fernando Caldeiro, NASA astronaut;

Fredonia—Academy Award-nominated actress Mary McDonnell;

Geneseo—Glenn Gordon Caron, executive producer of TV series Medium and Moonlighting, and Greg Fox, artist/writer of nationally syndicated comic strip Kyle’s Bed & Breakfast;

Maritime—Scott Kelly, NASA astronaut and Space Shuttle commander;

Morrisville—Tom Steitz, former U.S. Olympic Team head coach;

New Paltz—James Dolan, chair and CEO of Cablevision Inc.;

Old Westbury—Maryann DeLeo, Academy Award-winning independent documentary film director/producer;

Oneonta—Sal Paolantonio, national correspondent for ESPN;

Optometry—Andrea P. Thau, first woman president of the NYS Optometric Association and NY Academy of Optometry;

Oswego—Linda Cohn, first full-time female sports anchor on a national radio network (ABC);

Plattsburgh—Nancy Kress, award-winning science fiction author;

Potsdam—Renee Fleming, world-renowned soprano, NY Metropolitan Opera; and C.J. Rapp, creator of Jolt cola;

Purchase—Actress Edie Falco, Sopranos and Nurse Jackie, Jill Bargonetti-Chavarria, award-winning molecular geneticist, and actress Sherry Stringfield, ER and Guiding Light;

Stony Brook—Russell Lewis, retired CEO of The New York Times Co.; and Laura Schlessinger, host of the Dr. Laura radio call-in show;

SUNYIT—J. Douglas Robinson, CEO, Utica Life;

Upstate Medical—Joe Dervay, NASA flight surgeon.