56 Notable alumni of
Rockefeller University
Updated:
Rockefeller University is 954th in the world, 348th in North America, and 326th in the United States by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 56 notable alumni from Rockefeller University sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff. 19 individuals affiliated with Rockefeller University won Nobel Prizes in Chemistry and Physiology or Medicine.
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Karl Landsteiner
- Occupations
- pathologistuniversity teacherbiologistphysiologistimmunologist
- Biography
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Karl Landsteiner ForMemRS was an Austrian-American biologist, physician, and immunologist. He emigrated with his family to New York in 1923 at the age of 55 for professional opportunities, working for the Rockefeller Institute.
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Miriam Adelson
- Occupations
- publisherphysician
- Biography
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Miriam Adelson is an Israeli-American physician, businesswoman, philanthropist, and conservative political donor. She was married to Sheldon Adelson until his death in 2021.
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Yoshinori Ohsumi
- Enrolled in Rockefeller University
- Studied in 1974-1977
- Occupations
- biologist
- Biography
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Yoshinori Ohsumi is a Japanese cell biologist specializing in autophagy, the process that cells use to destroy and recycle cellular components.
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Robert Sapolsky
- Enrolled in Rockefeller University
- Graduated with Doctor of Philosophy
- Occupations
- university teacherbiologistwriterneurologistneuroscientist
- Biography
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Robert Morris Sapolsky is an American academic, neuroscientist, and primatologist. He is the John A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn Professor at Stanford University and is a professor of biology, neurology, and neurosurgery. Sapolsky's research has focused on neuroendocrinology, particularly relating to stress. He is also a research associate with the National Museums of Kenya.
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Manuel Elkin Patarroyo Murillo
- Occupations
- immunologistresearcherpathologist
- Biography
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Manuel Elkin Patarroyo Murillo was a Colombian immunologist, pathologist and academic who was Professor of Pathology and Immunology. He was behind the world's first attempt to create a synthetic vaccine against the protozoal parasite Plasmodium falciparum, the cause of severe malaria, and which is responsible for the death of ~1.5 million people per year in tropical and subtropical regions, including parts of the Americas, Asia, and Africa.
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Alexis Carrel
- Occupations
- biologistphysiologistsociologistsurgeon
- Biography
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Alexis Carrel was a French surgeon and biologist who spent most of his scientific career in the United States. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1912 for pioneering vascular suturing techniques. He invented the first perfusion pump with Charles Lindbergh opening the way to organ transplantation. In later time however, it was acknowledged that Carrel and Lindbergh's version of the perfusion pump, which initially had media prominence, was impractical and difficult to use, and would lose influence by the 1940s. Carrel was also a pioneer in tissue culture, transplantology and thoracic surgery. He is known for his leading role in implementing eugenic policies in Vichy France.
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Barbara Ehrenreich
- Occupations
- immunologistjournalistessayistwriternovelist
- Biography
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Barbara Ehrenreich was an American author and political activist. During the 1980s and early 1990s, she was a prominent figure in the Democratic Socialists of America. She was a widely read and award-winning columnist and essayist and the author of 21 books. Ehrenreich was best known for her 2001 book Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, a memoir of her three-month experiment surviving on a series of minimum-wage jobs. She was a recipient of a Lannan Literary Award and the Erasmus Prize.
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David Baltimore
- Enrolled in Rockefeller University
- 1961-1964 graduated with Doctor of Philosophy
- Occupations
- virologistuniversity teachergeneticistbiochemistmicrobiologist
- Biography
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David Baltimore was an American biologist, university administrator, and 1975 Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine. He was a professor of biology at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), where he served as president from 1997 to 2006. He founded the Whitehead Institute and directed it from 1982 to 1990. In 2008, he served as president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
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Peter J. Hotez
- Occupations
- writervaccinologistuniversity teacherpediatrician
- Biography
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Peter Jay Hotez is an American scientist, pediatrician, and advocate in the fields of global health, vaccinology, and neglected tropical disease control. He serves as founding dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine, Professor of Pediatrics and Molecular Virology & Microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine, where he is also Director of the Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development and Endowed Chair in Tropical Pediatrics. He also serves as a University Professor of Biology at Baylor University.
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Rocky Tuan
- Occupations
- engineer
- Biography
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Rocky Tuan Sung-chi is a Hong Kong medical researcher and bioengineer who served as the vice-chancellor and president of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) from 2018 to 2025. Prior to his vice-chancellorship, Tuan served as distinguished visiting professor and director of the Institute for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine.
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Christian de Duve
- Awards
- Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1974
- Born in
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United Kingdom - Years
- 1917-2013 (aged 96)
- Occupations
- chemistbiologistuniversity teacherbiochemistphysiologist
- Biography
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Christian René Marie Joseph, Viscount de Duve was a Nobel Prize-winning Belgian cytologist and biochemist. He made serendipitous discoveries of two cell organelles, peroxisomes and lysosomes, for which he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1974 with Albert Claude and George E. Palade ("for their discoveries concerning the structural and functional organization of the cell"). In addition to peroxisome and lysosome, he invented scientific names such as autophagy, endocytosis, and exocytosis on a single occasion.
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Ralph Steinman
- Occupations
- biologistresearcherprofessorimmunologistphysician
- Biography
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Ralph Marvin Steinman was a Canadian physician and medical researcher at Rockefeller University, who in 1973 discovered and named dendritic cells while working as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Zanvil A. Cohn, also at Rockefeller University. Steinman was one of the recipients of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
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Gerald Edelman
- Awards
- Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1972
- Born in
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United States - Years
- 1929-2014 (aged 85)
- Occupations
- biologistchemistphysicistuniversity teacherimmunologist
- Biography
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Gerald Maurice Edelman was an American biologist who shared the 1972 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for work with Rodney Robert Porter on the immune system. Edelman's Nobel Prize-winning research concerned discovery of the structure of antibody molecules. In interviews, he has said that the way the components of the immune system evolve over the life of the individual is analogous to the way the components of the brain evolve in a lifetime. There is a continuity in this way between his work on the immune system, for which he won the Nobel Prize, and his later work in neuroscience and in philosophy of mind.
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Sally Kornbluth
- Occupations
- microbiologist
- Biography
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Sally Ann Kornbluth is an American cell biologist, currently serving as the 18th president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology since January 2023. She served as provost of Duke University from July 2014 to December 2022.
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Michael W. Young
- Occupations
- university teacherchronobiologistgeneticist
- Biography
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Michael Warren Young is an American biologist and geneticist. He has dedicated decades to research studying genetically controlled patterns of sleep and wakefulness within Drosophila melanogaster.
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Günter Blobel
- Occupations
- university teacherbiologistcell biologistbiochemistphysician
- Biography
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Günter Blobel was a Silesian German and American biologist and 1999 Nobel Prize laureate in Physiology for the discovery that proteins have intrinsic signals that govern their transport and localization in the cell.
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Wendell Meredith Stanley
- Occupations
- virologistuniversity teacherwriterchemistbiochemist
- Biography
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Wendell Meredith Stanley was an American biochemist, virologist and Nobel laureate. Stanley's work contributed to lepracidal compounds, diphenyl stereochemistry, and the chemistry of the sterols. His research on the virus causing the mosaic disease in tobacco plants led to the isolation of a nucleoprotein which displayed tobacco mosaic virus activity.
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Paul Greengard
- Awards
- Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2000
- Born in
- United States
- Years
- 1925-2019 (aged 94)
- Occupations
- biochemistneuroscientistpharmacologistuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Paul Greengard was an American neuroscientist best known for his work on the molecular and cellular function of neurons. In 2000, Greengard, Arvid Carlsson and Eric Kandel were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries concerning signal transduction in the nervous system. He was Vincent Astor Professor at Rockefeller University, and served on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Cure Alzheimer's Fund, as well as the Scientific Council of the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation. He was married to artist Ursula von Rydingsvard.
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Charles M. Rice
- Occupations
- researchervirologist
- Biography
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Charles Moen Rice is an American virologist and Nobel Prize laureate whose main area of research is the hepatitis C virus. He is a professor of virology at the Rockefeller University and an adjunct professor at Cornell University and Washington University School of Medicine. At the time of the award he was a faculty at Rockefeller.
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Roderick MacKinnon
- Occupations
- chemistbiophysicistcrystallographerinternistuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Roderick MacKinnon is an American biophysicist, neuroscientist, and businessman. He is a professor of molecular neurobiology and biophysics at Rockefeller University who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry together with Peter Agre in 2003 for his work on the structure and operation of ion channels.
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Seth Lloyd
- Years
- 1960-.. (age 66)
- Occupations
- university teacherphysicistcomputer scientistnon-fiction writerengineer
- Biography
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Seth Lloyd is an American quantum information scientist and professor in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Mechanical Engineering.
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Sidarta Ribeiro
- Enrolled in Rockefeller University
- 1995-2000 graduated with Doctor of Philosophy
- Occupations
- neuroscientistbiologist
- Biography
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Sidarta Tollendal Gomes Ribeiro is a Brazilian neuroscientist, writer, science communicator, and deputy director of the Brain Institute at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), which he joined in 2008 as full professor.
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Robert Bruce Merrifield
- Occupations
- university teacherbiochemistchemist
- Biography
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Robert Bruce Merrifield was an American biochemist who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1984 for the invention of solid phase peptide synthesis.
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John Howard Northrop
- Occupations
- biochemistscientistchemistuniversity teacher
- Biography
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John Howard Northrop was an American biochemist who, with James Batcheller Sumner and Wendell Meredith Stanley, won the 1946 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The award was given for these scientists' isolation, crystallization, and study of enzymes, proteins, and viruses. Northrop was a Professor of Bacteriology and Medical Physics, Emeritus, at University of California, Berkeley.
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David Albert
- Years
- 1954-.. (age 72)
- Enrolled in Rockefeller University
- In 1981 graduated with Doctor of Philosophy
- Occupations
- physicistphilosopher
- Biography
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David Z. Albert is Professor of Philosophy and Director of the MA Program in The Philosophical Foundations of Physics at Columbia University in New York.
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Rafael Yuste
- Enrolled in Rockefeller University
- 1987-1992 graduated with Doctor of Philosophy in neurobiology
- Occupations
- neurobiologistuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Rafael Yuste is a Spanish–American neurobiologist. He is one of the initiators of the BRAIN Initiative announced in 2013. He is currently a professor at Columbia University.
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Edward Tatum
- Awards
- Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1958
- Born in
- United States
- Years
- 1909-1975 (aged 66)
- Occupations
- geneticistbiochemist
- Biography
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Edward Lawrie Tatum was an American geneticist. He shared half of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1958 with George Beadle for showing that genes control individual steps in metabolism. The other half of that year's award went to Joshua Lederberg. Tatum was an elected member of the United States National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
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Herbert Spencer Gasser
- Awards
- Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1944
- Born in
- United States
- Years
- 1888-1963 (aged 75)
- Occupations
- physicianphysiologistpsychologistuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Herbert Spencer Gasser was an American physiologist, and recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1944 for his work with action potentials in nerve fibers while on the faculty of Washington University in St. Louis, awarded jointly with Joseph Erlanger.
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Odile Jacob
- Years
- 1954-.. (age 72)
- Occupations
- psychologistpublisher
- Biography
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Odile Jacob is a French publisher who founded Les Éditions Odile Jacob in the middle of the 1980s. She is also a trained scientist, studying the workings of the brain, the mind and thought. She is a member of Le Siècle.
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Chang Yi Wang
- Occupations
- chairpersonentrepreneur
- Biography
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Wang Chang-yi is a Taiwanese biochemist and immunologist. She is the founder of United Biomedical, Inc. (UBI), headquartered in Hauppauge, New York, and its group of companies in Asia.
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Haldan Keffer Hartline
- Awards
- Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1967
- Born in
- United States
- Years
- 1903-1983 (aged 80)
- Occupations
- biologistneurologistphysiologistphysicianneuroscientist
- Biography
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Haldan Keffer Hartline ForMemRS was an American physiologist who was a co-recipient (with George Wald and Ragnar Granit) of the 1967 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work in analyzing the neurophysiological mechanisms of vision.
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Bruce McEwen
- Occupations
- neuroscientistresearcher
- Biography
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Bruce Sherman McEwen was an American neuroendocrinologist and head of the Harold and Margaret Milliken Hatch Laboratory of Neuroendocrinology at Rockefeller University. He was known for his work on the effects of environmental and psychological stress, having coined the term allostatic load.
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Peter Walter
- Occupations
- biologistbiochemistmolecular biologistuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Peter Walter is a German-American molecular biologist and biochemist. He is currently the Director of the Bay Area Institute of Science at Altos Labs and an emeritus professor at the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Investigator until 2022.
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Jeffrey M. Friedman
- Occupations
- geneticistuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Jeffrey M. Friedman is a molecular geneticist at New York City's Rockefeller University and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. His discovery of the hormone leptin and its role in regulating body weight has had a major role in the area of human obesity. Friedman is a physician scientist studying the genetic mechanisms that regulate body weight. His research on various aspects of obesity received national attention in late 1994, when it was announced that he and his colleagues had isolated the mouse ob gene and its human homologue. They subsequently found that injections of the encoded protein, leptin, decreases body weight of mice by reducing food intake and increasing energy expenditure. Current research is aimed at understanding the genetic basis of obesity in human and the mechanisms by which leptin transmits its weight-reducing signal.
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Harvey Lodish
- Occupations
- biologist
- Biography
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Harvey Franklin Lodish is a molecular and cell biologist, professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Founding Member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, and lead author of the textbook Molecular Cell Biology. Lodish's research focused on cell surface proteins and other important areas at the interface between molecular cell biology and medicine.
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Stephen Grossberg
- Occupations
- university teacherneuroscientistmathematician
- Biography
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Stephen Grossberg is a cognitive scientist, theoretical and computational psychologist, neuroscientist, mathematician, biomedical engineer, and neuromorphic technologist. He is the Wang Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems and a professor emeritus of Mathematics & Statistics, Psychological & Brain Sciences, and Biomedical Engineering at Boston University.
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Nina Fedoroff
- Enrolled in Rockefeller University
- In 1972 graduated with Doctor of Philosophy
- Occupations
- geneticistuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Nina Vsevolod Fedoroff is an American molecular biologist known for her research in life sciences and biotechnology, especially transposable elements or jumping genes. and plant stress response. In 2007, President George W. Bush awarded her the National Medal of Science, she is also a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the European Academy of Sciences, and the American Academy of Microbiology.
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David J. Anderson
- Years
- 1956-.. (age 70)
- Occupations
- researcherneuroscientistneurobiologist
- Biography
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David Jeffrey Anderson is an American neurobiologist. He is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. His lab is located at the California Institute of Technology, where he currently holds the position of Seymour Benzer Professor of Biology, TianQiao and Chrissy Chen Leadership Chair and Director, TianQiao and Chrissy Chen Institute for Neuroscience. Anderson is a founding adviser of the Allen Institute for Brain Research, a non-profit research institute funded by the late Paul G. Allen, and spearheaded the Institute's early effort to generate a comprehensive map of gene expression in the mouse brain.
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Erich Jarvis
- Occupations
- neuroscientistresearcher
- Biography
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Erich Jarvis is an American professor at Rockefeller University. He is the head of a team of researchers who study the neurobiology of vocal learning, a critical behavioral substrate for spoken language. By studying animals including songbirds, parrots, and hummingbirds, his research attempts to show that bird groups have similar learning abilities to humans in the context of sound, such as learning new sounds and then passing on vocal repertoires from one generation to the next. Jarvis focuses on the molecular pathways involved in the perception and production of learned vocalizations, and the development of brain circuits for vocal learning.
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Prabhjot Singh
- Years
- 1982-.. (age 44)
- Biography
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Prabhjot Singh is an American scientist, physician and healthcare researcher.
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Daniel W. Stroock
- Occupations
- mathematicianuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Daniel Wyler Stroock was an American mathematician and probabilist.
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Vanessa Ruta
- Occupations
- neuroscientistresearcher
- Biography
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Vanessa Julia Ruta is an American neuroscientist known for her work on the structure and function of chemosensory circuits underlying innate and learned behaviors in the fly Drosophila melanogaster. She is the Gabrielle H. Reem and Herbert J. Kayden Professor and Head of the Laboratory of Neurophysiology and Behavior at The Rockefeller University and, as of 2021, an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
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Anthony Cerami
- Enrolled in Rockefeller University
- 1962-1967 graduated with Doctor of Philosophy in biochemistry
- Occupations
- biochemist
- Biography
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Anthony Cerami is an American entrepreneur and medical research scientist.
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Amos Smith
- Occupations
- chemist
- Biography
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Amos Brittain Smith III was an American chemist and academic who was a professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
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Olaf Sporns
- Enrolled in Rockefeller University
- In 1990 graduated with Doctor of Philosophy
- Occupations
- university teacherteacherpsychologistopinion journalistneuroscientist
- Biography
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Olaf Sporns is Provost Professor in Psychological and Brain Sciences at Indiana University and scientific co-director of the university's Network Science Institute. He is the founding editor of the academic journal Network Neuroscience, published by MIT Press.
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Linda-Gail Bekker
- Occupations
- university teacherHIV/AIDS activistphysician
- Biography
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Linda-Gail Bekker MBChB, DTMH, DCH, FCP is a professor of Medicine and Chief Executive Officer of the Desmond Tutu Health Foundation. She is also Director of the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre at the University of Cape Town. She is a Past President of the International AIDS Society (2016–18).
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M. R. C. Greenwood
- Occupations
- academic administrator
- Biography
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Mary Rita Cooke Greenwood is an American academic and nutritionist.
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Marina Picciotto
- Enrolled in Rockefeller University
- In 1992 graduated with Doctor of Philosophy in molecular neurobiology
- Occupations
- neuroscientistresearcher
- Biography
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Marina Rachel Picciotto is an American neuroscientist known for her work on the role of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in addiction, memory, and reward behaviors. She is the Charles B. G. Murphy Professor of Psychiatry and professor in the Child Study Center and the Departments of Neuroscience and of Pharmacology at the Yale University School of Medicine. She was named Director of the Yale University Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program in September 2023. From 2015 to 2023, she was editor-in-chief of the Journal of Neuroscience. She served as President of the Society for Neuroscience from 2023-2024. She is currently President Elect of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
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Cheng-Ming Chuong
- Occupations
- university teacherpathologistresearcherpaleontologistornithologist
- Biography
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Cheng-Ming Chuong is a Taiwanese-American physician-scientist specializing in biomedical science. He is a professor of pathology at the University of Southern California and an academician of Academia Sinica in Taiwan.
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Hazel Sive
- Years
- 1956-.. (age 70)
- Occupations
- university teacherbiologist
- Biography
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Hazel L. Sive is a South African-born research pioneer, award-winning educator, and innovator in the higher education space. She is Dean of the College of Science and Mathematics at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and Professor of Biology. From 2020-2025, she was Dean of the College of Science at Northeastern University, Boston. Prior to June 2020, she was a Member of Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Professor of Biology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Associate Member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. Sive studies development of the vertebrate embryo, and has made unique contributions to understanding how the face forms and how the brain develops its structure. Her lab also seeks to understand the origins of neurological and neurodevelopmental disorders, such as epilepsy, autism, and 16p11.2 deletion syndrome.
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Mandë Holford
- Occupations
- diplomatresearcherchemist
- Biography
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Mandë Holford is Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University and Curator of Malacology in Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology. She was formerly a professor in chemistry at Hunter College with scientific appointments at the American Museum of Natural History and Weill Cornell Medical College. Her interdisciplinary research covering 'mollusks to medicine' spans chemistry and biology and aims to discover, characterize, and deliver novel peptides from venomous marine snails as tools for manipulating cellular physiology in pain and cancer.
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Bruce R. Korf
- Years
- 1944-.. (age 82)
- Occupations
- physicianresearchergeneticist
- Biography
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Bruce Richard Korf is a medical geneticist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. In April 2009, he began a two-year term as president of the American College of Medical Genetics (ACMG), a professional organization.
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Nina Papavasiliou
- Years
- 20th Century
- Occupations
- biologistimmunologist
- Biography
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Nina Papavasiliou is an immunologist and Helmholtz Professor in the Division of Immune Diversity at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg, Germany. She is also an adjunct professor at the Rockefeller University, where she was previously associate professor and head of the Laboratory of Lymphocyte Biology. She is best known for her work in the fields of DNA and RNA editing.
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Erik van Nimwegen
- Occupations
- university teacher
- Biography
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Erik van Nimwegen is a Dutch computational biologist and Professor at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel, Switzerland.
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Marius Sudol
- Occupations
- biologist
- Biography
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Marius Sudol is an American molecular and cellular biologist. He was born in 1954 in Tarnow, Poland. In 1978, he immigrated to the United States to study at The Rockefeller University in New York City, where he received his Ph.D. in 1983. He is currently an Adjunct Faulty at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in NYC.
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Jessica R. Barson
- Occupations
- neuroscientist
- Biography
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Jessica Barson is an American neuroscientist and associate professor at Drexel University College of Medicine. Barson investigates neuropeptide signalling in the paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus as well as the nucleus accumbens to understand the neurobiological basis of addiction and elucidate targets for therapy.
