Luis Alvarez (S.B.’32, S.M.’34, Ph.D.’36) Nobel Laureate in Physics (1968)
Gary Becker (A.M.’53, Ph.D.’55) University Professor in Economics and Sociology; Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences (1992); John Bates Clark Medalist (1967), National Medal of Science for Behavioral and Social Science (2002)
Saul Bellow (X.’39) Professor in the Committee on Social Thought and in English (1962-93); Nobel Laureate in Literature (1976); winner of the Pulitzer Prize for the novel Humboldt's Gift (1976); National Medal of Arts (1988)
Herbert Brown (S.B.’36, Ph.D.’38) Nobel Laureate in Chemistry (1979)
James Buchanan (Ph.D.’48) Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences (1986)
James Cronin (S.M.’53, Ph.D.’55) University Professor Emeritus in Physics; Nobel Laureate in Physics (1980); National Medal of Science for Physical Sciences (1999)
Jerome Friedman (A.B.’50, S.M.’53, Ph.D.’56) Nobel Laureate in Physics (1990)
Milton Friedman (A.M.’33) Paul Snowden Russell Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in Economics; Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences (1976); John Bates Clark Medalist (1951)
Tsung-Dao Lee (Ph.D.’50) Nobel Laureate in Physics (1957)
Robert Lucas Jr (A.B.’59, Ph.D.’64) John Dewey Distinguished Service Professor in Economics and the College; Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences (1995)
Harry Markowitz (Ph.B.’47, A.M.’50, Ph.D.’55) Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences (1990)
Daniel Tsui (S.M.’63; Ph.D.’67) Nobel Laureate in Physics (1998)
James Dewey Watson (Ph.B.’46, S.B.’47) Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine (1962)
Frank Wilczek (A.B. '70) Nobel Laureate in Physics (2004)
Chen Ning Yang (Ph.D.’48) Nobel Laureate in Physics (1957)
Pulitzer Prize winners
David Auburn (A.B.’91) Pulitzer Prize winner and Tony Award winner for the play Proof (2001)
David Broder (A.B.’47, A.M.’51) Pulitzer Prize winner for commentary (1973); political correspondent and columnist for the Washington Post
Roger Ebert (X’70) Pulitzer Prize winner for film criticism (1975); columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times
Katharine Graham (A.B.’38) Chairman of the executive committee of the Washington Post; Pulitzer Prize winner for her memoir Personal History (1998)
Seymour Hersh (A.B.’58) Pulitzer Prize winner for international reporting (1970)
Dan Hertzberg (A.B.’68) Pulitzer Prize winner (1988) for reporting on the 1987 stock market crash; Managing Editor of The Wall Street Journal
Philip Roth (A.M.’55) Author; Pulitzer Prize winner for the novel American Pastoral (1998); National Medal of Arts (1998)
Studs Terkel (Ph.B.’32, J.D.’34) Oral historian and radio host; Pulitzer Prize winner for The Good War: An Oral History of World War II (1985); National Humanities Medal (1997)
MacArthur Fellows
Robert Axelrod (A.B.'64) MacArthur Fellow and “genius grant” winner (1990). Professor of Public Policy (Michigan).
Robert W. Kates (A.M.'60, Ph.D. '62) MacArthur Fellow and “genius grant” winner (1981). Professor Emeritus of Geography and Director Emeritus, World Hunger Program (Brown)
Stephen Lee (Ph.D. '86) MacArthur Fellow and “genius grant” winner (1983). Professor of Chemistry (Michigan)
Richard Rorty (A.B.'49, A.M.'52) MacArthur Fellow and “genius grant” winner (1981). Professor of Philosophy in Comparative Literature (Stanford)
Michael Woodford (A.B.'77) MacArthur Fellow and “genius grant” winner (1981). Professor of Economics (Princeton)
Henry Tutwiler Wright (A.M.'65, Ph.D. '67) MacArthur Fellow and "genius grant" winner (1983). Professor of Anthropology and Curator of Archaeology (Michigan)
Government, Social Service, Politics
John Ashcroft (J.D.’67) Attorney General of the United States (2000 - 2004)
Robert H. Bork (A.B.’48, J.D.’53) Attorney General of the United States (1973-1974); U.S. Court of Appeals Judge (1982-88); nominated to the Supreme Court by President Ronald Reagan (1987)
Barbara Bowman (A.M. ’52) President and founder of Chicago’s Erickson Institute for Advanced Study in Child Development (1966); President of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (1980-82)
William Holmes Brown (J.D. ’54) House Parliamentarian, House of Representatives (1974-94)
Ramsey Clark (A.M.’50, J.D.’51) Human rights activist; former U.S. Attorney General (1967-69)
Jon S. Corzine (M.B.A.’73) U.S. Senator (D, NJ); former CEO of Goldman Sachs; University trustee
Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. (X.’33) First African American General of the Air Force (1954); Commander of the Tuskegee Airmen; Assistant Secretary of Transportation under Richard Nixon
Andrew M. Greeley (A.M.’61, Ph.D.’62) Senior Study Director at the National Opinion Research Center; Priest
Charles V. Hamilton (A.M. ’57, Ph.D. ’64) Civil rights leader; Author, with Stokley Carmichael, of Black Power: The Politics of Liberation in America (1967); Professor of Political Science (Columbia)
Donald Hopkins (M.D. ’66) Deputy Director of International Health, Centers for Disease Control; recipient of the MacArthur fellowship award
James Hormel (J.D.’58) First openly gay U.S. ambassador
Patricia Kabbah (A.M’63) Former first lady of Sierra Leone
Jewel Lafontant (J.D. ’46) First African-American woman to receive a degree from the University of Chicago Law School; United Nations delegate
Edward Levi (A.B.’32, J.D.’35) President of the University of Chicago (1968-75); U.S. Attorney General (1975-77)
Omar Ramadhan Mapuri (A.M.’85) Minister of Education and Minister for Home Affairs of the United Republic of Tanzania
Ulysses G. Mason (M.D. ’36) Founder of first integrated hospital in Cleveland during the 1950's
Abner J. Mikva (J.D.’51) Visiting Professor in Law; Illinois Congressman (1956-66); U.S. Congressman (1969-73, 1975-79); U.S. Court of Appeals Judge (1979-94)
Patsy Mink (J.D.’51) First Asian-American woman elected to U.S. House of Representatives (D, HI) (1965-77 and 1990-2002)
Carol Moseley-Braun(J.D.’72) First African-American woman elected to U.S. Senate (D, Il) (1992-1998); U.S. Ambassador (1999-2001); Democratic Presidential Primary Cantidate (2004)
Nathan Hare (A.M. ’57, Ph.D. ’62) Author, activist, and sociologist; founding publisher of The Black Scholar, later cited as, "the most important journal devoted to black issues since the Crisis," by the New York Times
Joshua Cooper Ramo (A.B.’92) Senior Editor of Time magazine
Brent Staples (A.M.’76, Ph.D.’82) Editorial writer for the New York Times (1990-present); winner of the Anisfield Wolff Book Award for his memoir Parallel Time: Growing Up in Black and White (1994)
Richard C. Atkinson (Ph.B.’48) Former President of the University of California
Marguerite Ross Barnett (A.M.’66, Ph.D.’72) First African-American, female President of the University of Houston (1990-92); first African-American Chancellor of the University of Missouri (1986-90)
Henry Bienen (A.M.’62, Ph.D.’66) President of Northwestern University
Leon Botstein (A.B.’67) President of Bard College; Principal Conductor of American Symphony Orchestra
Marvin L. Goldberger (Ph.D.’48) Former President of Caltech (1978-87); Physicist
Dennis Keller (M.B.A.’68) Chairman and CEO of DeVry Inc.; University trustee
Benjamin E. Mays (A.M ’25, Ph.D. ’35) President of Morehouse College (1940-1967); Recipient of the American Educator Award (1980); Civil Rights Activist
Chimere Ikoku (S.M.’52, Ph.D.’64) Vice Chancellor of the University of Nigeria
Science and Technology
Robert McCormick Adams (Ph.B.’47, A.M.’52, Ph.D.’56) Archeologist; Secretary Emeritus of the Smithsonian Institution
Robert Bell (S.M. ’73) Research Scientist at AT&T Research Labs and AT&T Science and Technology Medalist (2003)
George Birkhoff (Ph.D.’07) Mathematician; winner of the first Bôcher Memorial Prize for his memoir Dynamical Systems with Two Degrees of Freedom (1917)
Martin Gardner(A.B.’36) Author and columnist of “Mathematical ” in the magazine Scientific American
Mack Gipson, Jr. (S.M. ’61, Ph.D. ’63) First African American to obtain a Ph.D. in Geology; Founding advisor of the National Association of Black Geologists and Geophysicists (1981)
Warren E. Henry (Ph.D. ’41) Physicist and Professor in magnetism and superconductivity; developed video amplifiers used in portable radar systems on warships in World War II for the Allies; his demonstration of the proof of non-interacting paramagnetic ions is used in a number of physics texts
Edwin Hubble (S.B.’10, Ph.D.’17) Astronomer who found first evidence for the big bang theory
Donald Johanson (A.M.’70, Ph.D.’74) Paleoanthropologist who discovered “Lucy,” a link between primates and humans
Jason Jones , (X 1997) Co-founder of Bungie Studios, the company behind Halo.
Ernest Everett Just (Ph.D. ’16) Zoologist, Biologist, Physiologist, Research Scientist
Carl Sagan (A.B.’54, S.B.’55, S.M.’56, Ph.D.’60) Astronomer; author of Contact; famous public television educator and personality
Alex Seropian , (S.B. 1991) Co-founder of Bungie Studios, the company behind Halo.
Isadore Singer (Ph.D' 1955 ) Winner of the 2004 Abel Prize in Mathematics.
Business
Casey Cowell (A.B.’75) Co-founder of U.S. Robotics Corporation; Chairman and President of Durandal Inc.; University trustee
Larry Ellison (X.’66) Founder and CEO of Oracle Corporation.
John H. Johnson (X.’42) Founder of Johnson Publishing Company; publisher of Ebony and Jet magazines
Karen Katen (A.B.’70, M.B.A.’74) President of Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Group; University trustee
Michael Klingensmith (A.B.’75, M.B.A.’76) Executive Vice President of Time Inc.; University trustee
Sherry Lansing (LAB’62) Chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures
John Meriwether (M.B.A.’73) CEO and Principal of JWM Partners, Former CEO of Long Term Capital Management
James B. Parsons (A.M.’46, J.D.’49) First African-American Federal District Court Judge (1991-92)
Peter G. Peterson (M.B.A.’51) Chairman of merchant banking firm The Blackstone Group; U.S. Secretary of Commerce (1972-73)
David Rockefeller (Ph.D.’40) Chairman of Chase Manhattan Bank (1969-81); University trustee
John Rogers (LAB’76) Chairman and CEO of Ariel Capital Management; University trustee
Dean Valentine (A.B.’76) Former President of Walt Disney Television and UPN
B. Kenneth West (M.B.A.’60) Former Chairman and CEO of Harris Bankcorp
Clifford R. Wharton, Jr. (Ph.D. ’58) Chairman and chief executive officer of TIAA CREF (1987-93); President of Michigan State University (1970-78); Chancellor of the State University of New York System (1978-87); Deputy Secretary of State under President Clinton (1993)
Luther H. Foster (A.M. ’41, Ph.D. ’51) Former President of the Tuskegee Institute (1953-1981)
Carter G. Woodson (A.B. ’08, A.M. ’08) Historian and founder of Negro History Week (1926), which evolved into Black History Month
Literature
Allan Bloom (Ph.B.’49, A.M.’53, Ph.D.’55) Charles Frankel Prize (1992); Professor in the Committee on Social Thought (1979-92); author of The Closing of the American Mind
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (A.M.’71) Author of Slaughterhouse Five, Cat's Cradle, and Breakfast of Champions
National Humanities Medallists
Luis Leal (A.M.’41; Ph.D.’50) National Humanities Medal (1997); Literary scholar
Martin Marty (Ph.D.’56) National Humanities Medal (1997); national figure in non-sectarian religous studies
Thomas Sowell (Ph.D. ’68) Economist; Winner of the National Humanities Medal (2003); Senior Fellow in the Hoover Institution at Stanford University (1980-present)
Eileen Southern (A.B. ’40, Ph.D. ’41) First African-American female professor at Harvard University; National Humanities Medal (2001)
Mark Hollmann (A.B.’85) Composer of the score of Tony-award winning musical Urinetown
Philip Kaufman (A.B.’58) Director of films The Right Stuff, Quills and The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Greg Kotis (A.B.’88) Playwright of Tony-award winning musical Urinetown
Eliot Ness (X’25) Co-author and inspiration of The Untouchables
Mike Nichols (X.’53) Director of films Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and The Graduate; co-founder of comedy troupe Second City
Sara Paretsky (A.M.’69, M.B.A.’77, Ph.D.’77) Author of V.I. Warshawski detective novels
Kimberly Peirce (A.B.’90) Director of Boys Don’t Cry (1999)
John Bates Clark Medallists
Zvi Griliches (A.M.'55; Ph.D.'57) John Bates Clark Medalist (1965)
Sanford J. Grossman (A.B.'73, M.A.'74, Ph.D.'75). John Bates Clark Medalist (1987).
Kevin M. Murphy (Ph.D.'86) John Bates Clark Medalist (1997). George J. Stigler Professor of Economics, Department of Economics and Graduate School of Business
Marc Leon Nerlove (A.B.'52) John Bates Clark Medalist (1969)
Athletics
Jay Berwanger (A.B.’36) First Heisman Trophy winner (1935)
Willie D. Davis (M.B.A.’68) Pro Football Hall of Fame member (1981); President of All Pro Broadcasting; University trustee
