100 Notable alumni of
Cornell University
Updated:
Cornell University is 21st in the world, 14th in North America, and 14th in the United States by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 100 notable alumni from Cornell University sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff. 8 individuals affiliated with Cornell University won Nobel Prizes in Physics, Chemistry, and Physiology or Medicine.
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Christopher Reeve
- Occupations
- voice actorstage actoractortelevision actordirector
- Biography
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Christopher D'Olier Reeve was an American actor, activist, director, and author. He amassed several stage and screen credits in his 34-year career, including playing the title character in the Superman film series (1978–1987). He won a British Academy Film Award, an Emmy Award, a Grammy Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award. He was also known for his activism.
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Gillian Anderson
- Enrolled in Cornell University
- Studied in 1987-1987
- Occupations
- voice actorstage actorhuman rights defendertelevision actorfilm actor
- Biography
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Gillian Leigh Anderson is an American actress. Her credits include the roles of FBI Special Agent Dana Scully in the series The X-Files, socialite Lily Bart in Terence Davies's film The House of Mirth (2000), DSU Stella Gibson in the BBC/RTÉ crime drama television series The Fall, sex therapist Jean Milburn in the Netflix comedy-drama Sex Education, and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the fourth season of Netflix drama series The Crown. Among other honors, she has won two Primetime Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, and four Screen Actors Guild Awards. She has resided in London since 2002, after earlier years divided between the United Kingdom and the United States.
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Ruth Bader Ginsburg
- Occupations
- juristlawyerjudge
- Biography
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Joan Ruth Bader Ginsburg was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1993 until her death in 2020. She was nominated by President Bill Clinton to replace retiring justice Byron White, and at the time was viewed as a moderate consensus-builder. Ginsburg was the first Jewish woman and the second woman to serve on the Court, after Sandra Day O'Connor. During her tenure, Ginsburg authored the majority opinions in cases such as United States v. Virginia (1996), Olmstead v. L.C. (1999), Friends of the Earth, Inc. v. Laidlaw Environmental Services, Inc. (2000), and City of Sherrill v. Oneida Indian Nation of New York (2005). Later in her tenure, Ginsburg received attention for passionate dissents that reflected liberal views of the law.
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Tsai Ing-wen
- Enrolled in Cornell University
- 1978-1980 graduated with Master of Laws
- Occupations
- juristlawyeruniversity teacherpolitician
- Biography
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Tsai Ing-wen is a Taiwanese politician and legal scholar who served as the seventh president of the Republic of China from 2016 to 2024. A member of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), she intermittently served as chair of the DPP from 2008 to 2012, 2014 to 2018, and 2020 to 2022. She was the first woman to hold the presidency in Taiwan's history.
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Kurt Vonnegut
- Occupations
- writer
- Biography
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Kurt Vonnegut was an American author known for his satirical and darkly humorous novels. His published work includes fourteen novels, three short-story collections, five plays, and five nonfiction works over fifty years; further works have been published since his death.
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Bill Maher
- Occupations
- television presenterfilm producercomedianjournalistactor
- Biography
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William Maher is an American television host, comedian, actor and political commentator. Known for his political satire, he is the host of the HBO political talk show Real Time with Bill Maher (2003–present) and podcast Club Random (2022–present). He previously hosted late-night show called Politically Incorrect (1993–2002) on ABC and Comedy Central.
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Ann Coulter
- Enrolled in Cornell University
- Graduated with Bachelor of Arts in history
- Occupations
- authorcolumnistlawyerwriterpundit
- Biography
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Ann Hart Coulter is an American conservative political activist, author, syndicated columnist, and lawyer. She became known as a media pundit in the late 1990s, appearing in print and on cable news as an outspoken critic of the Clinton administration. Her first book concerned the impeachment of Bill Clinton and drew from her experience writing legal briefs for Paula Jones's attorneys, as well as columns she wrote about the cases. Coulter's syndicated column for Universal Press Syndicate appears in newspapers and is featured on conservative websites. Coulter has also written 13 books.
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Abraham Maslow
- Occupations
- university teacherpsychologist
- Biography
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Abraham Harold Maslow was an American psychologist who created Maslow's hierarchy of needs, a theory of psychological health predicated on fulfilling innate human needs in priority, culminating in self-actualization.
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Jane Lynch
- Occupations
- voice actorstage actorgame show hosttelevision actorwriter
- Biography
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Jane Marie Lynch is an American actress, comedian, and singer. Known for playing starring and recurring roles in comedic television, her accolades include one Golden Globe, five Primetime Emmys and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. In 2013, Lynch received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
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Toni Morrison
- Enrolled in Cornell University
- Graduated with Master of Arts
- Occupations
- university teacherchildren's writerwriterlibrettistaudiobook narrator
- Biography
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Chloe Anthony Wofford "Toni" Morrison was an American novelist and editor. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993. Her first novel, The Bluest Eye, was published in 1970. The critically acclaimed Song of Solomon (1977) brought her national attention and won the National Book Critics Circle Award. In 1988, Morrison won the Pulitzer Prize for Beloved (1987).
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Jimmy Smits
- Occupations
- television actorfilm produceractorfilm actor
- Biography
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Jimmy L. Smits is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Attorney Victor Sifuentes on the legal drama L.A. Law, NYPD Detective Bobby Simone on the police drama NYPD Blue, Matt Santos on the political drama The West Wing and Bail Organa in the Star Wars franchise. He has also appeared as ADA Miguel Prado in Dexter, Nero Padilla in Sons of Anarchy and Elijah Strait in Bluff City Law, and appeared in the films Switch (1991), My Family (1995), The Jane Austen Book Club (2007), and In the Heights (2021).
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Lee Teng-hui
- Years
- 1923-2020 (aged 97)
- Enrolled in Cornell University
- 1965-1968 graduated with Doctor of Philosophy
- Occupations
- agricultural economistpolitician
- Biography
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Lee Teng-hui was a Taiwanese statesman, economist, and agronomist who served as the president of the Republic of China and chairman of the Kuomintang from 1988 to 2000. He was the first president to be born in Taiwan, the last to be indirectly elected, and the first to be directly elected.
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Huey Lewis
- Occupations
- actorstreet artistsinger-songwriterfilm actormusician
- Biography
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Hugh Anthony Cregg III, known professionally as Huey Lewis, is an American actor and former singer-songwriter.
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Thomas Pynchon
- Enrolled in Cornell University
- 1953-1959 graduated with Bachelor of Arts in English literature
- Occupations
- writerscience fiction writernovelistessayist
- Biography
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Thomas Ruggles Pynchon Jr. is an American novelist. He is known for his dense, complex works of postmodern fiction, which are distinguished by their paranoid tone, absurd humor, and references to history, art, science, and popular culture. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American novelists. Pynchon is notoriously reclusive. Few photographs of him have been published, and rumors about his location and identity have circulated since the 1960s.
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Isaac Herzog
- Occupations
- advocatelawyerpolitician
- Biography
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Isaac "Bougie" Herzog is an Israeli politician who has been serving since 2021 as the president of Israel. He is the first president to have been born in Israel after its Declaration of Independence.
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William Sadler
- Occupations
- film actoractortelevision actor
- Biography
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William Thomas Sadler is an American actor. He began his career in various Broadway productions including Neil Simon's Biloxi Blues (1985). Known as a character actor, his best known film roles include Die Hard 2 (1990), Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey (1991), The Shawshank Redemption (1994), The Green Mile (1999), The Mist (2007), and Bill & Ted Face the Music (2020). He portrayed President Matthew Ellis in various Marvel Cinematic Universe media including Iron Man 3 (2013) and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2015–2016), and he also portrayed Gino Fish in the Jesse Stone television films.
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Francis Fukuyama
- Occupations
- economistpolitical scientistwriterbloggerphilosopher
- Biography
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Francis Yoshihiro Fukuyama is an American political scientist, political economist, and international relations scholar. He is best known for his book The End of History and the Last Man (1992), which controversially argued that the worldwide spread of liberal democracies and Western free-market capitalism may represent the final step in humanity's sociocultural evolution and political struggle and the final form of human government.
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Edward Bernays
- Occupations
- public relations scholarjournalistnon-fiction writerpsychologist
- Biography
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Edward Louis Bernays was an Austrian-American pioneer in the field of public relations and propaganda, referred to in his obituary as "the father of public relations". While credited with advancing the profession of public relations, his techniques have been criticized for manipulating public opinion, often in ways that undermined individual autonomy and democratic values.
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Janet Reno
- Occupations
- prosecutorlawyerpolitician
- Biography
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Janet Wood Reno was an American lawyer and public official who served as the 78th United States attorney general from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. A member of the Democratic Party, Reno was the second-longest serving attorney general, behind only William Wirt, and the first woman to serve in the position.
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Robert F. Smith
- Occupations
- investment bankerinvestor
- Biography
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Robert Frederick Smith is an American businessman. He is the founder, chairman, and CEO of private equity firm Vista Equity Partners. Globally, Smith is among theThe World's Billionaires with a net worth exceeding US$10.6 billion as of 2025.
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Andrea Savage
- Occupations
- screenwritertelevision actorfilm directorfilm actor
- Biography
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Andrea Kristen Savage is an American actress and comedian best known for creating, writing and starring in the show I'm Sorry (2017–2019). The show originally aired on TruTV but became a hit when it streamed on Netflix. In 2022, she starred as Stacy Beale opposite Sylvester Stallone in the series Tulsa King on Paramount+. That same year she also starred in Look Both Ways on Netflix and Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe for Paramount+. Savage is also known for roles in projects such as the Comedy Central mockumentary series Dog Bites Man (2006), the comedy film Step Brothers (2008), Hulu's reality TV parody series The Hotwives (2014–2015), and the HBO comedy Veep (2016–2017). She also has appeared in Curb Your Enthusiasm.
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Peter Ostrum
- Occupations
- film actorstage actorbasketball playersongwritertelevision actor
- Biography
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Peter Gardner Ostrum is an American retired veterinarian and former child actor, whose only film role was as Charlie Bucket in the 1971 motion picture Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.
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Leo Frank
- Occupations
- mechanical engineer
- Biography
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Leo Max Frank was an American lynching victim wrongly convicted of the murder of 13-year-old Mary Phagan, an employee in a factory in Atlanta, Georgia, where he was the superintendent. Frank's trial, conviction, and unsuccessful appeals attracted national attention. His kidnapping from prison and lynching became the focus of social, regional, political, and racial concerns, particularly regarding antisemitism. Modern researchers agree that Frank was innocent.
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Pearl S. Buck
- Occupations
- novelistwriterautobiographertranslatormissionary
- Biography
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Pearl Comfort Sydenstricker Buck was an American writer and humanitarian. She is best known for The Good Earth, the best-selling novel in the United States in 1931 and 1932, which won her the Pulitzer Prize in 1932. In 1938, Buck became the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature "for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China" and for her "masterpieces", two memoir-biographies of her missionary parents.
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Martin D. Ginsburg
- Occupations
- lawyer
- Biography
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Martin David Ginsburg was an American lawyer who specialized in tax law and was the husband of American lawyer and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. He taught law at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C., and was of counsel in the Washington, D.C., office of the American law firm Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson.
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Howard Hawks
- Occupations
- producerwriterfilm editoraircraft pilotfilm screenwriter
- Biography
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Howard Winchester Hawks was an American film director, producer, and screenwriter of the classic Hollywood era. The critic Leonard Maltin called him "the greatest American director who is not a household name." Roger Ebert called Hawks "one of the greatest American directors of pure movies, and a hero of auteur critics because he found his own laconic values in so many different kinds of genre material." He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director for Sergeant York (1941) and earned the Honorary Academy Award in 1974.
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Rebekah Neumann
- Occupations
- business executive
- Biography
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Rebekah Victoria Neumann is an American businesswoman. Until September 22, 2019, she served as chief brand and impact officer at WeWork, a company founded by her husband, Adam Neumann, and oversaw its education program WeGrow.
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Keith Olbermann
- Occupations
- writerjournalisttelevision presentertelevision producer
- Biography
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Keith Theodore Olbermann is an American sports and political commentator and writer. Olbermann spent the first 20 years of his career in sports journalism. He was a sports correspondent for CNN and for local TV and radio stations in the 1980s, winning the Best Sportscaster award from the California Associated Press three times. He co-hosted ESPN's SportsCenter from 1992 to 1997. From 1998 to 2001, he was a producer and anchor for Fox Sports Net and a host for Fox Sports' coverage of Major League Baseball.
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Harry Chapin
- Occupations
- film directorpianistbanjoistsinger-songwriterguitarist
- Biography
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Harry Forster Chapin was an American singer-songwriter, philanthropist, and hunger activist best known for his folk rock and pop rock songs. He achieved worldwide success in the 1970s. Chapin, a Grammy Award-winning artist and Grammy Hall of Fame inductee, has sold over 16 million records worldwide.
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Huang Kuo-chang
- Enrolled in Cornell University
- 1998-1999 graduated with Master of Laws
- 1999-2002 graduated with Doctor of Juridical Science
- Occupations
- researcherlegal scholarlawyerpolitician
- Biography
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Huang Kuo-chang is a Taiwanese legal scholar and politician. A member of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), he has led the party's caucus in the Legislative Yuan since 2024, after being elected from its party list. He has served as the TPP’s chairman since 2025.
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Ari Melber
- Occupations
- news presentercorrespondentlawyerjournalistanalyst
- Biography
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Ari Naftali Melber is an American attorney and Emmy Award-winning journalist who is the Chief Legal Correspondent for MS NOW and host of The Beat with Ari Melber.
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Catherine Hicks
- Enrolled in Cornell University
- Graduated with Master of Fine Arts
- Occupations
- film actortelevision actorstage actor
- Biography
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Catherine Mary Hicks is an American retired actress. She played the character Annie Camden on the long-running television series 7th Heaven. Other roles included Dr. Faith Coleridge on the soap opera Ryan's Hope (1976–1978), her Emmy Award-nominated performance as Marilyn Monroe in Marilyn: The Untold Story (1980), Dr. Gillian Taylor in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), Carol Heath in Peggy Sue Got Married (1986), and Karen Barclay in Child's Play (1988).
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Willis Carrier
- Occupations
- technicianengineerinventorbusinessperson
- Biography
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Willis Haviland Carrier was an American engineer, best known for inventing modern air conditioning, inventing the 1st electrical air conditioning unit in 1902. In 1915, he founded Carrier Corporation, a company specializing in the manufacture and distribution of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (now abbreviated "HVAC") systems.
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Elissa Slotkin
- Enrolled in Cornell University
- 1994-1998 graduated with Bachelor of Arts in rural sociology
- Occupations
- expertcivil servantpolitician
- Biography
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Elissa Blair Slotkin is an American politician and former intelligence analyst serving since 2025 as the junior United States senator from Michigan. A member of the Democratic Party, she served in the United States House of Representatives from 2019 to 2025.
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Steve Reich
- Enrolled in Cornell University
- Studied in 1953-1957
- Occupations
- videographercomposermusician
- Biography
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Stephen Michael Reich is an American composer best known as a pioneer of minimal music in the mid to late 1960s. Reich's work is marked by its use of repetitive figures, slow harmonic rhythm, and canons. Reich describes this concept in his essay "Music as a Gradual Process" by stating, "I am interested in perceptible processes. I want to be able to hear the process happening throughout the sounding music." For example, his early works experiment with phase shifting, in which one or more repeated phrases plays slower or faster than the others, causing it to go "out of phase." This creates new musical patterns in a perceptible flow.
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S. E. Cupp
- Occupations
- ballet dancerpolitical punditjournalisttelevision presenter
- Biography
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Sarah Elizabeth Cupp is an American television host, political commentator, and writer. In August 2017, she began hosting S. E. Cupp: Unfiltered, a political panel show, co-hosted by Andrew Levy, on HLN and later CNN.
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Frank Morgan
- Occupations
- film actorcharacter actorstage actor
- Biography
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Francis Phillip Wuppermann, known professionally as Frank Morgan, was an American character actor. He was best known for his appearances in films starting in the silent era in 1916, and then numerous sound films throughout the 1930s and 1940s, with a career spanning 35 years mostly as a contract player at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He was also briefly billed early in his career as Frank Wupperman and Francis Morgan.
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Ato Essandoh
- Occupations
- film actoractortelevision actor
- Biography
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Ato Essilfi Bracato Essandoh is an American television and film actor. He has appeared in numerous films and TV series, including a major role in the 2023 Netflix political drama series The Diplomat.
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Hu Shih
- Occupations
- writeruniversity teacherphilosopherpoliticianjournalist
- Biography
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Hu Shih was a Chinese academic, writer, diplomat, and politician. Hu contributed to Chinese liberalism and language reform, and was a leading advocate for the use of written vernacular Chinese. He participated in the May Fourth Movement and China's New Culture Movement. He was a president of Peking University and Academia Sinica.
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Justin H. Min
- Enrolled in Cornell University
- Graduated with Bachelor of Arts
- Occupations
- television actoractorphotographerreality television participant
- Biography
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Justin Hong-Kee Min is an American actor. He began his acting career with roles in several Wong Fu productions. He is known for portraying Ben Hargreeves in the Netflix original series The Umbrella Academy (2019–2024), and for portraying the title role in After Yang (2021).
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Peter Yarrow
- Enrolled in Cornell University
- In 1959 graduated with Bachelor of Arts in psychology
- Occupations
- singerguitaristcomposersinger-songwriterstring player
- Biography
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Peter Yarrow was an American singer and songwriter who found fame as a member of the 1960s folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary along with Paul Stookey and Mary Travers.
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Bajrakitiyabha, Princess Rajasarinisiribajra
- Occupations
- lawyerdiplomatmilitary officersocial worker
- Biography
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Bajrakitiyabha, Princess Rajasarini Siribajra is a Thai princess and diplomat of Thailand, the first grandchild of King Bhumibol Adulyadej and Queen Sirikit of Thailand, and the only one of the seven children of King Vajiralongkorn born to his first wife Princess Soamsawali.
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Andrew Ross Sorkin
- Occupations
- writerjournalisttelevision producerscreenwriter
- Biography
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Andrew Ross Sorkin is an American journalist and author. He is a financial columnist for The New York Times and a co-anchor of CNBC's Squawk Box. He is also the founder and editor of DealBook, a financial news service published by The New York Times. He wrote the bestselling book Too Big to Fail and co-produced a movie adaptation of the book for HBO Films. He is also a co-creator of the Showtime series Billions.
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Cheryl Crane
- Occupations
- writerreal-estate agent
- Biography
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Cheryl Christina Crane is an American former model, real estate broker, author, and the only child of actress Lana Turner. Her father was Turner's second husband, actor-turned-restaurateur Steve Crane. She was the subject of significant media attention in 1958 when, at fourteen years old, she stabbed to death her mother's lover, Johnny Stompanato, during a domestic struggle; she was not charged, and his death was deemed a justifiable homicide.
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E. B. White
- Enrolled in Cornell University
- Studied in 1921
- Occupations
- journalistwriterchildren's writerpoetnovelist
- Biography
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Elwyn Brooks White was an American writer. He was the author of highly popular books for children: Stuart Little (1945), Charlotte's Web (1952), and The Trumpet of the Swan (1970).
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Harold Bloom
- Occupations
- literary criticwriteruniversity teacherliterary theoristliterary historian
- Biography
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Harold Bloom was an American literary critic and the Sterling Professor of humanities at Yale University. In 2017, Bloom was called "probably the most famous literary critic in the English-speaking world". After publishing his first book in 1959, Bloom wrote more than 50 books, including over 40 books of literary criticism, several books discussing religion, and one novel. He edited hundreds of anthologies concerning numerous literary and philosophical figures for the Chelsea House publishing firm. Bloom's books have been translated into more than 40 languages. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1995.
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Václav Klaus
- Occupations
- economistteacherpolitician
- Biography
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Václav Klaus is a Czech economist and politician who served as the second president of the Czech Republic from 2003 to 2013. From July 1992 until the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in January 1993, he served as the second and last prime minister of the Czech Republic while it was a federal subject of the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic, and then as the first prime minister of the newly independent Czech Republic from 1993 to 1998.
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Thomas Midgley
- Enrolled in Cornell University
- In 1911 studied mechanical engineering
- Occupations
- chemistengineerinventor
- Biography
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Thomas Midgley Jr. was an American mechanical and chemical engineer. He played a major role in developing leaded gasoline (tetraethyl lead) and some of the first chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), better known in the United States by the brand name Freon; both products were later banned from common use due to their harmful impact on human health and the environment. He was granted more than 100 patents over the course of his career.
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Reggie Fils-Aimé
- Enrolled in Cornell University
- Studied applied economics
- Occupations
- businesspersonbusiness executive
- Biography
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Reginald Fils-Aimé is an American businessman best known for being the president and chief operating officer of Nintendo of America, the North American branch of the Japanese video game company Nintendo, from 2006 to 2019. Prior to his promotion to president and COO, Fils-Aimé was executive vice president of sales and marketing.
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Hans Bethe
- Occupations
- physicistuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Hans Albrecht Eduard Bethe was a German-American physicist who made major contributions to nuclear physics, astrophysics, quantum electrodynamics and solid-state physics, and received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1967 for his work on the theory of stellar nucleosynthesis. For most of his career, Bethe was a professor at Cornell University.
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Herb Edelman
- Occupations
- television actorstage actoractorfilm actor
- Biography
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Herbert "Herb" Edelman was an American comedian, and actor of stage, film and television. He was twice nominated for an Emmy Award for his television work. His best-known role was as Stanley Zbornak, the ex-husband of Dorothy Zbornak (played by Bea Arthur) on The Golden Girls. He also had a recurring role on the 1980s medical drama St. Elsewhere.
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Robert Smigel
- Occupations
- television actorfilm directoractorvoice actorfilm producer
- Biography
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Robert Smigel is an American actor, comedian, writer, director, producer, and puppeteer, known for his Saturday Night Live "TV Funhouse" cartoon shorts and as the puppeteer and voice behind Triumph the Insult Comic Dog. He also co-wrote the first two Hotel Transylvania films, You Don't Mess with the Zohan, and Leo, all starring Adam Sandler.
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Gad Saad
- Occupations
- political scientistYouTuberwriteruniversity teachertelevision producer
- Biography
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Gad Saad is a Canadian marketing professor at the John Molson School of Business at Concordia University. He has argued for applying evolutionary psychology to marketing and consumer behaviour. He wrote a blog for Psychology Today and hosts a podcast titled "The Saad Truth".
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Lauren Weisberger
- Occupations
- novelistwriterjournalist
- Biography
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Lauren Weisberger is an American writer. She is author of the 2003 bestseller The Devil Wears Prada, a roman à clef of her experience as an assistant to Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour. Weisberger worked as a writer and editor for Vogue and Departures magazines prior to writing The Devil Wears Prada, which was adapted into a film of the same name in 2006. She has since published seven other novels.
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Paul Wolfowitz
- Occupations
- bankerpoliticiandiplomatpolitical scientisteconomist
- Biography
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Paul Dundes Wolfowitz is an American political scientist and diplomat who served as the 10th President of the World Bank, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense, U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia, and dean of Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University. He is currently a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.
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Harold Gould
- Occupations
- film actoractortelevision actor
- Biography
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Harold Vernon Goldstein, better known as Harold Gould, was an American character actor. He appeared as Martin Morgenstern on the sitcom Rhoda (1974–78) and Miles Webber on the sitcom The Golden Girls (1985–92). A five-time Emmy Award nominee, Gould acted in film and television for nearly 50 years, appearing in more than 300 television shows, 20 major motion pictures, and over 100 stage plays. He was known for playing elegant, well-dressed men (as in The Sting), and he regularly played Jewish characters and grandfather-type figures on television and in film.
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Simon Chang
- Enrolled in Cornell University
- 1977-1981 graduated with doctorate
- Occupations
- university teacherpolitician
- Biography
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Chang San-cheng, also known by his English name Simon Chang, is a Taiwanese civil engineer, academic, and politician who has served as the mayor of Taoyuan City since 2022. He previously served as premier of Taiwan from 1 February 2016 to 20 May 2016 after being appointed by President Ma Ying-jeou. Before assuming the premiership, he had served as vice premier from 8 December 2014 under the Mao Chi-kuo cabinet. Chang was the first nonpartisan premier of Taiwan.
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Ethan Phillips
- Occupations
- playwrighttelevision actoractorfilm actor
- Biography
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John Ethan Phillips is an American actor. He is best known for his television roles as Neelix on Star Trek: Voyager (1995–2001) and PR man Pete Downey on Benson (1979–1986). His film roles include Critters (1986) and its sequel Critters 3 (1991), as well as The Island (2005), Inside Llewyn Davis (2013), and Irrational Man (2015).
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Steven Weinberg
- Occupations
- cosmologistuniversity teacherphysicistwritertheoretical physicist
- Biography
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Steven Weinberg was an American theoretical physicist. He shared the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics with Abdus Salam and Sheldon Glashow "for their contributions to the theory of the unified weak and electromagnetic interaction between elementary particles, including, inter alia, the prediction of the weak neutral current".
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Dan Duryea
- Occupations
- film actoractortelevision actor
- Biography
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Dan Duryea was an American actor in film, stage, and television. Known for portraying villains, he had a long career in a variety of leading and secondary roles.
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Franchot Tone
- Occupations
- stage actorproducerdirectoractorfilm producer
- Biography
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Stanislaus Pascal Franchot Tone was an American actor, producer, and director of stage, film and television. He was a leading man in the 1930s and early 1940s, and at the height of his career was known for his gentlemanly sophisticate roles, with supporting roles by the 1950s. His acting crossed many genres including pre-Code romantic leads to noir layered roles and World War I films. He appeared as a guest star in episodes of several golden age television series, including The Twilight Zone and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour while continuing to act and produce in the theater and movies throughout the 1960s.
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Barbara McClintock
- Enrolled in Cornell University
- Graduated with Doctor of Philosophy in botany
- Occupations
- cytogeneticist
- Biography
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Barbara McClintock was an American scientist and cytogeneticist who was awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. McClintock received her PhD in botany from Cornell University in 1927. There she started her career as the leader of the development of maize cytogenetics, the focus of her research for the rest of her life. From the late 1920s, McClintock studied chromosomes and how they change during reproduction in maize. She developed the technique for visualizing maize chromosomes and used microscopic analysis to demonstrate many fundamental genetic ideas. One of those ideas was the notion of genetic recombination by crossing-over during meiosis—a mechanism by which chromosomes exchange information. She is often erroneously credited with producing the first genetic map for maize, linking regions of the chromosome to physical traits. She demonstrated the role of the telomere and centromere, regions of the chromosome that are important in the conservation of genetic information. She was recognized as among the best in the field, awarded prestigious fellowships, and elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1944.
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Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak
- Occupations
- literary criticuniversity teacherwriterphilosophertranslator
- Biography
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Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak ( Bengali pronunciation: [ɡajotri t͡ʃɔkɾoborti spiβak]; FBA is an Indian scholar, literary theorist, and feminist critic. She is a University Professor at Columbia University and a founding member of the establishment's Institute for Comparative Literature and Society.
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Ricky Jay
- Occupations
- television actor
- Biography
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Richard Jay Potash was an American stage magician, actor, and writer. In a 1993 profile for The New Yorker, Mark Singer called Jay "perhaps the most gifted sleight of hand artist alive". In addition to sleight of hand, he was known for his card tricks, card throwing, memory feats, and stage patter. He also wrote extensively on magic and its history. His acting credits include The Prestige, The Spanish Prisoner, Mystery Men, Heist, Boogie Nights, Tomorrow Never Dies, Heartbreakers, State and Main, House of Games, Magnolia, Deadwood and Sneaky Pete. In 2015, he was the subject of an episode of PBS's American Masters, the only magician ever profiled in the series.
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Paul Graham
- Enrolled in Cornell University
- Graduated with Bachelor of Arts
- Occupations
- writeressayistventure capitalistprogrammerjournalist
- Biography
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Paul Graham is an English-American computer scientist, writer, essayist, entrepreneur and investor. His work includes the programming language Arc, the startup Viaweb (later renamed Yahoo! Store), co-founding the startup accelerator and seed capital firm Y Combinator, a number of essays and books, and the media webpage Hacker News.
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Greg Graffin
- Enrolled in Cornell University
- Graduated with Doctor of Philosophy in history of science
- Occupations
- biologistmusiciancomposerguitaristsinger
- Biography
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Gregory Walter Graffin is an American singer who is the lead vocalist and only constant member of the punk band Bad Religion, which he co-founded in 1980. He has also released three solo albums.
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Anna Roosevelt Halsted
- Occupations
- writersocialitejournalist
- Biography
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Anna Eleanor Roosevelt Halsted was an American writer who worked as a newspaper editor and in public relations. Halsted also wrote two children's books published in the 1930s. She was the eldest child and only daughter of U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. Halsted assisted her father as his advisor during World War II.
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Christopher Rich
- Occupations
- actor
- Biography
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Christopher Rich Wilson is an American actor, best known for his roles on Murphy Brown, Reba, and Boston Legal.
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Leonard Susskind
- Enrolled in Cornell University
- In 1965 graduated with Doctor of Philosophy
- Occupations
- scientistuniversity teacherphysiciststring theoristnon-fiction writer
- Biography
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Leonard Susskind is an American theoretical physicist, professor of theoretical physics at Stanford University and founding director of the Stanford Institute for Theoretical Physics. His research interests are string theory, quantum field theory, quantum statistical mechanics and quantum cosmology. He is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, an associate member of the faculty of Canada's Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, and a distinguished professor of the Korea Institute for Advanced Study.
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Gary Bettman
- Occupations
- juristNHL Commissionerlawyer
- Biography
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Gary Bruce Bettman is an American sports executive who serves as the commissioner of the National Hockey League (NHL), a post he has held since February 1, 1993. Previously, Bettman was a senior vice president and general counsel to the National Basketball Association (NBA). Bettman is a graduate of Cornell University and New York University School of Law. Bettman was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2018.
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Ed Marinaro
- Occupations
- actortelevision actorAmerican football player
- Biography
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Ed Marinaro is an American actor and former professional football running back who played in the National Football League (NFL) for the Minnesota Vikings. He played college football for the Cornell Big Red, where he was a unanimous All-American and won the Maxwell Award in 1971.
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Vera Rubin
- Occupations
- scientistastronomerphysicist
- Biography
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Vera Florence Cooper Rubin was an American astronomer who pioneered work on galaxy rotation rates. She uncovered the discrepancy between the predicted and observed angular motion of galaxies by studying galactic rotation curves, the first evidence for the galaxy rotation problem, one key piece of evidence for dark matter. Measurements by other astronomers using 21 centimeter hydrogen line radio telescopes clinched the case.
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Thomas Nagel
- Occupations
- university teacherphilosopherwriter
- Biography
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Thomas Nagel is an American philosopher. He is the University Professor of Philosophy and Law Emeritus at New York University, where he taught from 1980 until his retirement in 2016. His main areas of philosophical interest are political philosophy, ethics and philosophy of mind.
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Ronald D. Moore
- Occupations
- showrunneractorwritertelevision producerblogger
- Biography
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Ronald Dowl Moore is an American screenwriter and television producer. He is best known for his work on Star Trek, as well as on the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica television series, for which he won a Peabody Award, and on Outlander, based on the novels of the same name by Diana Gabaldon. In 2019, he created and wrote the series For All Mankind for Apple TV+.
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Edmund Muskie
- Occupations
- lawyerdiplomatmilitary officerpolitician
- Biography
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Edmund Sixtus Muskie was an American statesman and politician who served as the 58th United States Secretary of State under President Jimmy Carter from 1980 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as a U.S. Senator from Maine from 1959 to 1980, the 64th governor of Maine from 1955 to 1959, and a member of the Maine House of Representatives from 1946 to 1951. Muskie was the Democratic vice presidential nominee in the 1968 presidential election.
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Ernst Albrecht
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Ernst Carl Julius Albrecht was a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union and a former high-ranking European civil servant. He was one of the first European civil servants appointed in 1958 and served as director-general of the Directorate-General for Competition from 1967 to 1970. He served as Minister President of the state of Lower Saxony from 1976 to 1990. He was the father of the politician Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission.
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George Friedman
- Occupations
- geopolitical analystbusinesspersonnon-fiction writerpolitical scientist
- Biography
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George Friedman is a Hungarian-born American futurologist, political scientist, and writer. He is a geopolitical author on international relations. He is the founder and chairman of Geopolitical Futures. Prior to founding Geopolitical Futures, he was chairman of the publishing company Stratfor. He is best known for his 1991 book The Coming War With Japan, co-authored with his wife Meredith LeBard, which predicted a military conflict between the United States and Japan around 2020.
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Junot Díaz
- Occupations
- writerscience fiction writernovelistuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Junot Díaz is a Dominican American writer, creative writing professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a former fiction editor at Boston Review. Central to Díaz's work is the immigrant experience, particularly the Latino immigrant experience.
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Barry Weiss
- Occupations
- music executive
- Biography
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Barry Weiss is an American music executive. He co-founded the record label RECORDS in 2015, an imprint of Sony Music Entertainment which specializes in young recording artists.
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Mark Kirk
- Enrolled in Cornell University
- In 1981 graduated with Bachelor of Arts
- Occupations
- congressional stafflawyermilitary officerpolitician
- Biography
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Mark Steven Kirk is an American retired politician and attorney who served as a United States senator from Illinois from 2010 to 2017, and as the United States representative for Illinois's 10th congressional district from 2001 to 2010. A member of the Republican Party, Kirk describes himself as socially liberal and fiscally conservative. As of 2025, he is the last Republican to represent Illinois in the U.S. Senate.
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Jim Bridenstine
- Enrolled in Cornell University
- In 2009 graduated with Master of Business Administration
- Occupations
- consultantmilitary officerpolitician
- Biography
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James Frederick Bridenstine is a politician who served as the 13th administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Bridenstine was the United States representative for Oklahoma's 1st congressional district, based in Tulsa from January 3, 2013, to April 23, 2018. He is a member of the Republican Party. Bridenstine currently works in the private sector and holds positions at Voyager Space Holdings, Viasat, Acorn Growth Companies and Firefly Aerospace.
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Hubert Reeves
- Enrolled in Cornell University
- Graduated with Doctor of Philosophy
- Occupations
- astrophysicistenvironmentalistuniversity teacherscience communicator
- Biography
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Hubert Reeves CC GOQ was a French-Canadian astrophysicist and popularizer of science.
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Ryosei Akazawa
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Ryōsei Akazawa is a Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party and member of the House of Representatives in the Diet (national legislature), representing the Tottori 2nd district in Tottori Prefecture.
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Rob Manfred
- Occupations
- sports executive
- Biography
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Robert Dean Manfred Jr. is an American lawyer and business executive who is serving as the tenth commissioner of Major League Baseball (MLB). He previously served as MLB's chief operating officer. Manfred succeeded Bud Selig as commissioner on January 25, 2015. Manfred's tenure has seen a number of rule changes to the sport, including the introduction of the pitch clock and ghost runner rule. He has also overseen the expansion of the World Baseball Classic, MLB's reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Houston Astros sign stealing scandal.
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Ken Dryden
- Occupations
- executive directorlawyerentrepreneurwriterjurist
- Biography
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Kenneth Wayne Dryden PC OC was a Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender, politician, lawyer, businessman and author. He played for the Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1971 to 1979, winning the Stanley Cup six times, the Vezina Trophy as the goaltender on the team allowing the fewest goals five times, and the Conn Smythe Trophy along with the Calder Memorial Trophy as the most valuable player of the playoffs and rookie of the year respectively over the course of his rookie campaign. He was elected as member of the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1983. Thereafter, Dryden served as a Liberal Member of Parliament from 2004 to 2011 and was appointed Minister of Social Development from 2004 to 2006 for which he was named an Officer of the Order of Canada. In 2017, the NHL commemorated him as one of the league's 100 Greatest Players. He received the Order of Hockey in Canada in 2020.
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Mark Whitacre
- Occupations
- businesspersonbiochemist
- Biography
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Mark Edward Whitacre is an American business executive who came to public attention in 1995 when, as president of the Decatur, Illinois-based BioProducts Division at Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), he became the highest-level corporate executive in U.S. history to become a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) whistleblower. For three years (1992–95), Whitacre acted as a cooperating witness for the FBI, which was investigating ADM for price fixing. In the late 1990s, Whitacre was sentenced to nine years in federal prison for embezzling $9.5 million from ADM at the same time he was assisting the federal price-fixing investigation.
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Robert Moog
- Occupations
- musical instrument makerinventoruniversity teachermusician
- Biography
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Robert Arthur Moog was an American engineer and electronic music pioneer. He was the founder of the synthesizer manufacturer Moog Music and the inventor of the first commercial synthesizer, the Moog synthesizer, which debuted in 1964. In 1970, Moog released a more portable model, the Minimoog, described as the most famous and influential synthesizer in history. Among Moog's honors are a Technical Grammy Award, received in 2002, and an induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
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Gordon G. Chang
- Occupations
- writerjuristlawyerjournalist
- Biography
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Gordon Guthrie Chang is an American lawyer, political analyst and conservative columnist known for his hawkish rhetoric on China. He is the author of the 2001 book The Coming Collapse of China in which he predicted the collapse of China by 2011. In December 2011, he changed the timing of the year of the predicted collapse to 2012.
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Iddo Netanyahu
- Occupations
- playwrightradiologist
- Biography
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Iddo Netanyahu is an Israeli physician, author, and playwright. He is the younger brother of Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, and Yonatan Netanyahu, a highly decorated soldier who was killed leading the Entebbe raid, a hostage rescue mission in 1976.
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Alan Keyes
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Alan Lee Keyes is an American politician, political scientist, and perennial candidate who served as the Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs from 1985 to 1987. A member of the Republican Party, Keyes sought the nomination for President of the United States in 1996, 2000, and 2008.
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Thelma Schoonmaker
- Occupations
- film editortelevision actor
- Biography
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Thelma Schoonmaker is an American film editor, best known for her collaboration over five decades with director Martin Scorsese. She has received numerous accolades, including three Academy Awards, two BAFTA Awards, and four ACE Eddie Awards. She has been honored with the British Film Institute Fellowship in 1997, the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in 2014, and the BAFTA Fellowship in 2019.
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Barry Voight
- Occupations
- volcanologistgeologist
- Biography
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Barry Voight is an American geologist, volcanologist, author, and engineer. After earning his PhD at Columbia University, Voight worked as a professor of geology at several universities, including Pennsylvania State University, where he taught from 1964 until his retirement in 2005. He remains an emeritus professor there and still conducts research, focusing on rock mechanics, plate tectonics, disaster prevention, and geotechnical engineering.
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Sarah Spain
- Occupations
- journalist
- Biography
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Sarah Colby Spain is an American sports reporter. She hosts the daily iHeart women's sports podcast "Good Game with Sarah Spain," is the co-author of the book "Runs In The Family," and works as an espnW "talent." Previous jobs including ESPN television personality, ESPN podcast and radio host, espnW columnist, and occasional SportsCenter reporter.
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Katherine Clark
- Occupations
- prosecutorpoliticianlawyerlaw clerkgeneral counsel
- Biography
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Katherine Marlea Clark is an American lawyer and politician who has served as House Minority Whip since 2023 and is currently in her seventh term as the U.S. representative for Massachusetts's 5th congressional district, having held the post since 2013. She previously served as Assistant Speaker from 2021 to 2023 and Vice Chair of the House Democratic Caucus from 2019 to 2021. Clark was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 2008 to 2011 and the Massachusetts Senate from 2011 to 2013.
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Kate Snow
- Enrolled in Cornell University
- Graduated with Bachelor of Science
- Occupations
- journalist
- Biography
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Kate Snow is an American television journalist for NBC News, serving as Senior National Correspondent to various NBC platforms, including Today, NBC Nightly News, Dateline NBC, and MSNBC. Snow also anchors NBC News Daily, and frequently substitutes for the weekday and weekend broadcast. Snow also previously hosted MSNBC Live and anchored the Sunday edition of NBC Nightly News.
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José Serra
- Occupations
- economistwriterpolitician
- Biography
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José Serra Chirico is a Brazilian politician who has served as a Congressman, Senator, Minister of Planning, Minister of Health, Mayor of São Paulo, Governor of São Paulo state, and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Brazil.
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Mark Hyman
- Years
- 1959-.. (age 67)
- Occupations
- medical writerphysician
- Biography
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Mark Adam Hyman is an American physician and author. He is the founder and medical director of The UltraWellness Center. Hyman was a regular contributor to the Katie Couric Show until the show's cancellation in 2013. He hosts an eponymous podcast, The Dr. Hyman Show, which examines many topics related to human health. He is the author of several books on nutrition and longevity, of which 15 have become New York Times bestsellers, including Food Fix, Eat Fat, Get Thin, and Young Forever.
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Margaret Bourke-White
- Occupations
- war photographerartistwriterphotojournalistphotographer
- Biography
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Margaret Bourke-White was an American documentary photographer and photojournalist. She was known as an architectural and commercial photographer for the first half of her career, representing corporate clients and highlighting the success of industrial capitalism with black and white images of steel factories and skyscrapers. In 1930, she became the first foreign photographer permitted to take pictures of the Soviet Union. In 1933, NBC commissioned her to create a monumental photo mural about radio for its rotunda at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, then considered the largest photo mural in the world. The success of her corporate commissions led her to work at Fortune magazine in the 1930s. She took the photograph of the construction of Fort Peck Dam that became the cover of the first issue of Life magazine.
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Karen Chen
- Occupations
- figure skater
- Biography
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Karen Chen is an American figure skater. She is a 2022 Olympic Games team event gold medalist, two-time CS U.S. Classic bronze medalist (2016, 2017), the 2015 CS Golden Spin of Zagreb bronze medalist, the 2017 U.S. national champion, 2022 U.S. national silver medalist, and a three-time U.S. national bronze medalist (2015, 2018, 2021). She graduated from Cornell University in 2025.
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Sister Souljah
- Occupations
- songwriterwriterautobiographerfilm producerrapper
- Biography
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Lisa Williamson, known as Sister Souljah, is an American author, activist, rapper, and film producer.
