This page lists noted alumni and students of the University of California, Berkeley. Alumni who also served as faculty are listed in bold font, with degree and year in parenthesis.

Nobel laureates

See also: List of Nobel laureates associated with UC Berkeley

• Thomas Cech , Ph.D. 1975 - Nobel laureate (1989, Chemistry)
• Steven Chu, Ph.D. 1976 - Nobel laureate (1997, Physics)
• Robert Curl, Ph.D. 1957- Nobel laureate (1996, Chemistry)
• Joseph Erlanger, 1895 - Nobel laureate (1944, Physiology or Medicine)
• William F. Giauque (B.S. 1920, Ph.D. 1922) - Nobel laureate (1949, Chemistry)
• David Gross, Ph.D. 1966 - Nobel laureate (2004, Physics)
• Alan Heeger, Ph.D. 1961 - Nobel laureate (2000, Chemistry)
• Lawrence Klein, 1942 - Nobel laureate (1980, Economics)
• Willis Lamb, 1934, Ph.D. 1938 - Nobel laureate (1955, Physics)
• Robert Laughlin, 1972 - Nobel laureate (1998, Physics)
• Yuan T. Lee (Ph.D. 1962) - Nobel laureate (1986, Chemistry), Professor of Chemistry, Principal Investigator, Materials and Molecular Research Division, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory
• Willard Libby (B.S. 1931, Ph.D. 1930) - Professor of Chemistry, Nobel laureate (1960, Chemistry)
• Daniel Kahneman, Ph.D. 1961 - Nobel laureate (2002, Economics)
• Mario Molina, Ph.D. 1972- Nobel laureate (1995, Chemistry)
• Kary Mullis, Ph.D. 1972 - Nobel laureate (1993, Chemistry)
• Douglas North, 1942, Ph.D. 1952- Nobel laureate (1993, Economics)
• Glenn T. Seaborg (Ph.D. 1937) - Nobel laureate (1951, Chemistry), University Professor of Chemistry, Associate Director, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Chancellor, Berkeley campus (1958-1961)
• Hamilton Smith, 1952 - Nobel laureate (1978, Physiology or Medicine)
• Otto Stern, L.L.D 1930 - Nobel laureate (1943, Physics)
• Henry Taube, Ph.D. 1940 - Nobel laureate (1983, Chemistry )
• Harold Urey, Ph.D. 1923 - Nobel laureate (1934, Chemistry)
• Selman Waksman, Ph.D. 1918 - Nobel laureate (1952, Physiology or Medicine)

Turing Award laureates

The Turing Award is considered to be the "Nobel Prize" of computer science.

• Leonard Adleman, 1968, Ph.D. 1976, the "A" in the RSA encryption algorithm for computer security. Co-recipient of the Turing Award in 2002.
• Douglas Engelbart, B. of Engineering 1952, Ph.D. 1955 - Inventor of the computer mouse. Recipient of the 1997 Turing Award.
• James Gray, 1966 BSME, 1969 Ph.D. - Recipient of the 2001 Turing Award
• Butler Lampson, Ph.D. 1967 - computer scientist, founding member of Xerox PARC, major contributor to the development of the personal computer, and recipient of the 1992 Turing Award
• Dana Scott (B.S. 1954) - computer scientist, recipient of the 1976 Turing Award, Associate Professor of Math
• Ken Thompson, 1965 BSEE, 1966 MSEE - Co-creator of the Unix operating system and co-recipient of the 1983 Turing Award
• Niklaus Wirth, Ph.D. 1967 - computer scientist, creator of the Pascal programming language, recipient of the 1984 Turing Award

Academia

• John Bahcall, 1956 - physicist, co-winner of the Fermi award in 2003
• Stephen Bronner Ph.D. 1975 - Political Theorist, Professor at Rutgers University
• Robert E. Connick (Ph.D. 1942) - professor of chemistry, dean of college of chemistry, vice-chancellor
• Clark Kerr (Ph.D. 1939) - Professor of Industrial Relations, Chancellor (1952-58), UC President (1958-67)
• Maxine Hong Kingston (B.A. 1962) - author, Senior Lecturer
• Josiah Royce, 1875 - philosopher, professor at Harvard University
• T. Y. Lin (M.S. 1933) - Professor of Civil Engineering, bridgebuilder
• Kenneth Pitzer (Ph.D. 1937) - Dean of the College of Chemistry (1951-60), Professor of Chemistry, President of Rice University and Stanford University
• William Thurston, (Ph.D. 1972) - mathematician, winner of the Fields Medal in 1982
• Shing-Tung Yau (Ph.D. 1971) - mathematician, winner of the Fields Medal in 1983, winner of the United States National Medal of Science in 1997
• Chien-Shiung Wu, Ph.D. 1940 - physicist

Arts and media

• Scott Adams, MBA 1986 - creator of Dilbert
• Bill Bixby, 1957 - actor, director
• David Brock, political author
• John Cho, actor, Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle
• Suzanne Ciani , composer
• Liz Claman - Anchor, CNBC's Wake Up Call
• Beverly Cleary, ?? - author
• Henry Cowell, ?? - composer
• Sara Davidson , 1962 - author
• Philip K. Dick - science fiction author whose stories inspired Blade Runner and Total Recall
• Joan Didion, 1956 - author
• Ralph Edwards , 1935 - National television star
• Rube Goldberg, 1904 - cartoonist
• Sanaa Lathan, actor
• Christopher Kasparek, 1966 - author, translator
• Stacy Keach, 1963 - actor
• Jack London, attended 1896-7 - novelist
• Jerry Mathers, 1974 - actor
• Karen McKinnon , 1982 - author
• Julia Morgan, 1894 - architect
• Dhan Gopal Mukerji, first successful Indian man of letters in the United States of America
• Gregory Peck, 1939 - actor
• Mary Pipher , 1969 - author
• Michael Savage, radio talk show host
• James Schamus , 1982 - screenwriter, moving picture producer
• Irving Stone, 1923 - novelist
• Robert Penn Warren, 1926 - author, poet

Business

See also: Technology, Haas School of Business.

• Donald Fisher, 1951 - Founder and Chair, The Gap
• Walter Haas , 1910 - Co-founder of Levi Strauss & Co.
• William Randolph Hearst, Jr., 1959 - newspaper publisher
• Brian Maxwell, 1975 - founder of PowerBar
• Teresa Meng , MS 1984, PhD 1988- founder, Atheros Communications
• Ryan Petersen - Founder, Faculty Imports
• John Schaeffer , 1971 - founder of ecologically-friendly Real Goods solar energy store and the Solar Living Center
• Eric E. Schmidt, MS 1979, PhD 1982 - CEO of Google
• Cher Wang , chair of VIA Technologies
• Dean Witter , 1909 - partner in Morgan Stanley Dean Witter

Politics and government

See also: Boalt Hall, Law

• Michael Boskin , 1967, Ph.D. 1971 - Chair, Presidential Council of Economic Advisors , professor at Stanford University
• James H. Budd, 1873 - Governor of California
• Jerry Brown, 1961 - Governor of California, mayor of Oakland, California
• Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, 1950 - President of Pakistan, Prime Minister of Pakistan
• Ron Dellums, M.S.W. 1962 - Congressman
• John Morton Eshleman, 1903, M.A. 1905 - Lieutenant Governor of California, 1915-1916.
• John Kenneth Galbraith, M.S. 1932, Ph.D. 1934 - Harvard professor emeritus of economics, ambassador to India
• Walter Gordon, 1918, J.D. 1922 - Governor of the Virgin Islands , judge, member of National Football Foundation Hall of Fame
• Sun Ke, 1916 - Premier of the Republic of China
• Franklin Lane , 1887 - United States Secretary of the Interior
• Stephen Mather, 1887 - Director, National Park Service
• Robert Matsui, 1963 - Congressman
• Robert McNamara, 1937 - President of World Bank, United States Secretary of Defense, Chair of Ford Motor Company
• Edwin Meese III, J.D. 1958 - United States Attorney General
• Norman Mineta, 1953 - Congressman, United States Secretary of Commerce, United States Secretary of Transportation
• Richard Neustadt, 1939 - political historian and advisor to several U.S. Presidents
• Theodore Olson, J.D. 1965 - United States Solicitor General
• James Robertson, 1923 - National Chair of the Spartacist League
• Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, M.A., Ph.D. - President of Costa Rica
• Dean Rusk, 1940 - United States Secretary of State
• James Soong, M.A. 1967 - Governor of Taiwan Province
• Pete Wilson, J.D. 1962 - U.S. Senator, Governor of California

Law

See also: Boalt Hall, Politics and government

• Melvin Belli, J.D. 1929 - attorney
• Lance Ito, J.D. 1975 - judge, presided over O. J. Simpson trial
• Earl Warren, B.A. 1912, J.D., 1914 - Attorney General of California, 1939-1943; Governor of California, 1943-1953; 14th Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1953-1969.

Technology

See also: Business, Turing Award laureates, UC_Berkeley_College_of_Chemistry

• Allan Alcorn , 1971 - Atari employee #3, electronics designer behind Atari's seminal Pong video arcarde unit, and erstwhile boss of Steve Jobs at Atari
• Gary Chevsky, 199? - Co-founder of Ask Jeeves, where he served as the chief software architect of its natural language processing search engine
• Lee Felsenstein, 1972 - pioneer in the personal computer industry, founder of Community Memory , designer of the Osborne 1 computer, and influential leading mediator of the Homebrew Computer Club, from which would emerge 23 companies, including Apple Computer
• Andrew Grove, Ph.D., 1963 - 4th employee of Intel, and eventually its president, CEO, and chairman, and TIME magazine's Man of the Year in 1997
• Eugene Jarvis, 1976 - Creator of the classic Defender video arcade game
• Lynne Greer Jolitz , 1978? - Co-author, with husband William Jolitz , of 386BSD, which is the ancestor of FreeBSD, which is the ancestor of Apple's Darwin core.
• William Jolitz , 1978? - Co-author, with wife Lynne Greer Jolitz , of 386BSD, which is the ancestor of FreeBSD, which is the ancestor of Apple's Darwin core.
• Bill Joy, M.S. 1982, co-founder of Sun Microsystems
• E. Floyd Kvamme , 1959 - co-founder of National Semiconductor.
• Barbara Liskov, 1961 - first woman in the United States to earn a Ph.D. in Computer Science (in 1968 at Stanford), creator of CLU, professor at MIT.
• Jay Miner, 1958 - inventor of the Amiga personal computer
• Gordon E. Moore, 1950 - co-founder of Intel and the originator of Moore's Law
• Charles Simonyi, 1972 - computer scientist. At Xerox PARC, he created the first WYSIWYG word processor, Bravo, then joined Microsoft to spread the WYSIWYG and computer mouse gospel. Originally from Hungary, he is the "Hungarian" in Hungarian notation, which he created.
• Andrew Tanenbaum, Ph.D. 1971 - computer scientist and creator of Minix, the precursor to Linux
• Steve Wozniak, Class of 1976, graduated 1987 - co-founder of Apple Computer

Athletics

• Matt Biondi, 1988 - three-time Olympian, winner of 8 gold medals
• Pete Cipollone , 1994 - Coxswain for the gold medal winning rowing team at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece
• Natalie Coughlin, 2004 - Olympic swimmer, winner of two gold medals at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, three-time NCAA Swimmer of the Year
• Joy Fawcett , 1990 - member of the gold winning United States women's soccer team at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, and the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta
• Mark Henderson , 1991 - swimmer, gold medalist at the 1996 Summer Olympics where he broke the world record in the 400 meter medley swimming relay
• Jackie Jensen, 1950 - professional baseball player
• Kevin Johnson, 1987 - professional basketball player
• Joe Kapp , 1959 - professional football player
• Jason Kidd - professional basketball player with the New Jersey Nets
• Mary T. Meagher , 1987 - Olympic swimmer, winner of three gold medals
• Leigh Steinberg, 1970, J.D. 1973 - sports agent
• Staciana Stitts , 2003, - Olympic swimmer, gold medalist in 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia

One of a kind

• Jimmy Doolittle, 1922 - aviator, United States Army Lt. General
• Ed Roberts (Independent Living Movement) , 1964 - Founder of the Independent Living Movement
• R.J. Rushdoony, B.A. 1938, M.A. 1940 - prominent author of the Christian right
• Alice Waters, 1967 - chef
• Haakon Magnus, Crown Prince of Norway, 1999

Students (currently enrolled)

• William Hung - Of American Idol Fame
• Adam Lamberg - star of the Disney Channel show Lizzie McGuire
• Jonny Moseley - Gold Medalist in 1998 Winter Olympics

See also

• List of UC Berkeley faculty