Former A&M President Robert Gates, who is now Defense Secretary, in 2002 led the plan called Vision 2020 to raise the school's academic reputation.
A relationship with famed scientist Stephen Hawking helped put Texas A&M on the map in cosmology, the study of the fundamental nature of the universe.
Billionaire oilman George Mitchell, who developed The Woodlands, has funded nine chairs and professorships in physics and astronomy at his alma mater.
