Women's volleyball head coach since 1979 and university professor Mary Beth Rosson Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Empire Falls; his novel Straight Man was drawn from his experiences teaching at Penn State Altoona Saad Ali Shire, Minister of Finance of Somaliland Cael Sanderson, 2004 Olympic gold medalist in freestyle wrestling at 84 kg; current head wrestling coach Jerry Sandusky, former assistant football coach 1969–1999, a period during which he committed crimes that led to the Penn State child sex abuse scandal Kenneth Bernard Schade, sexual offender; founder of the Singing Boys of Pennsylvania Lee Smolin, theoretical physicist William Tenn (pen name of Philip Klass), science fiction writer David Titley professor of meteorology, NOAA's chief operating office 2012–2013, US Navy rear admiral and chief oceanographer Susan Trolier-McKinstry, materials scientist Alan Walker, paleoanthropologist James Z. Wang Frank C. Whitmore, pioneering organic chemist who described the mechanism of carbocation reactions James Wines, artist, founder of SITE Aleksander Wolszczan, discoverer of first extrasolar planets and pulsar planets Qiming Zhang, professor of Electrical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering Jerry Zolten, music historian and producer of Grammy Award winning gospel and roots music albums References Penn State University people