100 Notable alumni of
University of Chicago

Updated:

EduRank

The University of Chicago is 18th in the world, 12th in North America, and 12th in the United States by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 100 notable alumni from the University of Chicago sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff. 21 individuals affiliated with the University of Chicago won Nobel Prizes in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, and Economics.

  1. Barack Obama

    Barack Obama
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1961-.. (age 63)
    Enrolled in the University of Chicago
    1997-2002 graduated with Bachelor of Science in law
    Occupations
    political writerinternational forum participantjuristpodcastercommunity organizer
    Biography

    Barack Hussein Obama II is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African-American president in U.S. history. Obama previously served as a U.S. senator representing Illinois from 2005 to 2008, as an Illinois state senator from 1997 to 2004, and as a civil rights lawyer and university lecturer.

  2. Bernie Sanders

    Bernie Sanders
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1941-.. (age 83)
    Enrolled in the University of Chicago
    In 1964 graduated with Bachelor of Arts in political science
    Occupations
    politician
    Biography

    Bernard Sanders is an American politician and activist who is the senior United States senator from Vermont. Sanders is the longest-serving independent in U.S. congressional history but has a close relationship with the Democratic Party, having caucused with House and Senate Democrats for most of his congressional career and sought the party's presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020, coming second in both campaigns. He is often seen as a leader of the U.S. progressive movement.

  3. Carl Sagan

    Carl Sagan
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1934-1996 (aged 62)
    Enrolled in the University of Chicago
    In 1955 graduated with Bachelor of Science in physics
    In 1956 graduated with Master of Science in physics
    In 1960 graduated with doctorate in astronomy and astrophysics
    Occupations
    television presenterphysicistscience communicatorspace scientistscience fiction writer
    Biography

    Carl Edward Sagan was an American astronomer and science communicator. His best known scientific contribution is his research on the possibility of extraterrestrial life, including experimental demonstration of the production of amino acids from basic chemicals by exposure to light. He assembled the first physical messages sent into space, the Pioneer plaque and the Voyager Golden Record, which were universal messages that could potentially be understood by any extraterrestrial intelligence that might find them. He argued in favor of the hypothesis, which has since been accepted, that the high surface temperatures of Venus are the result of the greenhouse effect.

  4. David Rockefeller

    David Rockefeller
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1915-2017 (aged 102)
    Occupations
    writerbankerart collectorentrepreneurbusinessperson
    Biography

    David Rockefeller was an American investment banker who served as chairman and chief executive of Chase Manhattan Corporation. He was the oldest living member of the third generation of the Rockefeller family, and family patriarch from 2004 until his death in 2017. Rockefeller was the fifth son and youngest child of John D. Rockefeller Jr. and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, and a grandson of John D. Rockefeller and Laura Spelman Rockefeller.

  5. Milton Friedman

    Milton Friedman
    Awards
    Nobel Prize in Economics in 1976
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1912-2006 (aged 94)
    Enrolled in the University of Chicago
    In 1933 graduated with Master of Arts in economics
    Occupations
    statisticianeconomistuniversity teacheressayist
    Biography

    Milton Friedman was an American economist and statistician who received the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his research on consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and the complexity of stabilization policy. With George Stigler, Friedman was among the intellectual leaders of the Chicago school of economics, a neoclassical school of economic thought associated with the work of the faculty at the University of Chicago that rejected Keynesianism in favor of monetarism until the mid-1970s, when it turned to new classical macroeconomics heavily based on the concept of rational expectations. Several students, young professors and academics who were recruited or mentored by Friedman at Chicago went on to become leading economists, including Gary Becker, Robert Fogel, and Robert Lucas Jr.

  6. Kurt Vonnegut

    Kurt Vonnegut
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1922-2007 (aged 85)
    Occupations
    writer
    Biography

    Kurt Vonnegut was an American writer and humorist known for his satirical and darkly humorous novels. In a career spanning over 50 years, he published fourteen novels, three short-story collections, five plays, and five nonfiction works; further collections have been published after his death.

  7. Larry Ellison

    Larry Ellison
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1944-.. (age 80)
    Enrolled in the University of Chicago
    Studied in 1964-1966
    Occupations
    computer scientistaircraft pilotactorentrepreneur
    Biography

    Lawrence Joseph Ellison is an American businessman and entrepreneur who co-founded software company Oracle Corporation. He was Oracle's chief executive officer from 1977 to 2014 and is now its chief technology officer and executive chairman.

  8. James Comey

    James Comey
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1960-.. (age 64)
    Enrolled in the University of Chicago
    Graduated with Juris Doctor
    Occupations
    lawyerjuristpoliticianuniversity teacher
    Biography

    James Brien Comey Jr. is an American lawyer who was the seventh director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 2013 until his termination in May 2017. Comey was a registered Republican for most of his adult life; however, in 2016, he described himself as unaffiliated.

  9. Elizabeth Cheney

    Elizabeth Cheney
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1966-.. (age 58)
    Enrolled in the University of Chicago
    In 1996 graduated with Juris Doctor
    Occupations
    punditexecutivelawyerjuristpolitical staffer
    Biography

    Elizabeth Lynne Cheney is an American attorney and politician. She represented Wyoming's at-large congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2017 to 2023, and served as chair of the House Republican Conference—the third-highest position in the House Republican leadership—from 2019 to 2021. Cheney is known for her vocal opposition to former President Donald Trump. As of March 2023, she is a professor of practice at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

  10. Anna Chlumsky

    Anna Chlumsky
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1980-.. (age 44)
    Occupations
    film actorstage actortelevision actor
    Biography

    Anna Maria Chlumsky is an American actress. She began acting as a child, and first became known for playing Vada Sultenfuss in the film My Girl (1991) and its sequel, My Girl 2. Following her early roles, she went on hiatus from 1999 to 2005 to attend college.

  11. Ed Asner

    Ed Asner
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1929-2021 (aged 92)
    Occupations
    comedianfilm producertrade unionistscreenwritervoice actor
    Biography

    Eddie Asner was an American actor. He is best remembered for portraying Lou Grant during the 1970s and early 1980s, on both The Mary Tyler Moore Show and its spin-off series Lou Grant, making him one of the few television actors to portray the same character in both a comedy and a drama.

  12. Roger Ebert

    Roger Ebert
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1942-2013 (aged 71)
    Occupations
    film critictelevision presenterwriterscreenwriterreporter
    Biography

    Roger Joseph Ebert was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. Ebert was known for his intimate, Midwestern writing voice and critical views informed by values of populism and humanism. Writing in a prose style intended to be entertaining and direct, he made sophisticated cinematic and analytical ideas more accessible to non-specialist audiences. Ebert frequently endorsed foreign and independent films he believed would be appreciated by mainstream viewers, which often resulted in such films receiving greater exposure. In 1975, Ebert became the first film critic to win the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. Neil Steinberg of the Chicago Sun-Times said Ebert "was without question the nation's most prominent and influential film critic," and Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times called him "the best-known film critic in America."

  13. Ted Levine

    Ted Levine
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1957-.. (age 67)
    Occupations
    television actorscreenwriterfilm actoractorcharacter actor
    Biography

    Frank Theodore Levine is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Jame Gumb in the film The Silence of the Lambs (1991) and Leland Stottlemeyer in the television series Monk (2002–2009).

  14. Eliot Ness

    Eliot Ness
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1903-1957 (aged 54)
    Occupations
    politiciancriminologistscreenwriterpolice officerjurist
    Biography

    Eliot Ness was an American Prohibition agent known for his efforts to bring down Al Capone while enforcing Prohibition in Chicago. He was leader of a team of law enforcement agents nicknamed The Untouchables, handpicked for their incorruptibility. The release of his memoir The Untouchables, months after his death, launched several screen portrayals establishing a posthumous fame for Ness as an incorruptible crime fighter.

  15. Philip Roth

    Philip Roth
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1933-2018 (aged 85)
    Enrolled in the University of Chicago
    In 1955 graduated with Master of Arts in English literature
    Studied in 1956
    Occupations
    university teacherwriterscreenwriterscience fiction writeressayist
    Biography

    Philip Milton Roth was an American novelist and short-story writer. Roth's fiction—often set in his birthplace of Newark, New Jersey—is known for its intensely autobiographical character, for philosophically and formally blurring the distinction between reality and fiction, for its "sensual, ingenious style" and for its provocative explorations of American identity. He first gained attention with the 1959 short story collection Goodbye, Columbus, which won the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction. Ten years later, he published the bestseller Portnoy's Complaint. Nathan Zuckerman, Roth's literary alter ego, narrates several of his books. A fictionalized Philip Roth narrates some of his others, such as the alternate history The Plot Against America.

  16. Amy Klobuchar

    Amy Klobuchar
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1960-.. (age 64)
    Enrolled in the University of Chicago
    In 1985 graduated with Juris Doctor
    Occupations
    lawyerpoliticianinternational forum participantjuristautobiographer
    Biography

    Amy Jean Klobuchar is an American politician and lawyer serving as the senior United States senator from Minnesota, a seat she has held since 2007. A member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), Minnesota's affiliate of the Democratic Party, she previously served as the county attorney of Hennepin County, Minnesota.

  17. Misha Collins

    Misha Collins
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1974-.. (age 50)
    Enrolled in the University of Chicago
    Studied social theory
    Occupations
    film actorscreenwriterpoettelevision actorfilm producer
    Biography

    Dmitri "Misha" Collins is an American actor best known for his role as the angel Castiel on the CW television series Supernatural (2008–2020).

  18. James D. Watson

    James D. Watson
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1928-.. (age 96)
    Enrolled in the University of Chicago
    1943-1947 graduated with Bachelor of Science in zoology
    Occupations
    biophysicistbiochemistphysicistuniversity teachermolecular biologist
    Biography

    James Dewey Watson is an American molecular biologist, geneticist, and zoologist. In 1953, he co-authored with Francis Crick the academic paper proposing the double helix structure of the DNA molecule. Watson, Crick and Maurice Wilkins were awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material".

  19. Robert Todd Lincoln

    Robert Todd Lincoln
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1843-1926 (aged 83)
    Occupations
    diplomatpoliticianlawyer
    Biography

    Robert Todd Lincoln was an American lawyer, military officer, businessman and politician. The eldest son of President Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln, he was the only one of their four children to outlive his parents. Robert Lincoln became a business lawyer and company president, and served as both United States Secretary of War and the U.S. ambassador to Great Britain.

  20. Thomas Sowell

    Thomas Sowell
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1930-.. (age 94)
    Occupations
    economisteducatorcolumnistuniversity teacher
    Biography

    Thomas Sowell is an American economist, social philosopher, and political commentator. He is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. With widely published commentary and books—and as a guest on TV and radio—he became a well-known voice in the American conservative movement as a prominent black conservative. He was a recipient of the National Humanities Medal from President George W. Bush in 2002.

  21. Philip Glass

    Philip Glass
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1937-.. (age 87)
    Enrolled in the University of Chicago
    In 1952 studied mathematics and philosophy
    Occupations
    film score composerpianistlibrettistcomposersupporting actor
    Biography

    Philip Glass is an American composer and pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. Glass's work has been associated with minimalism, being built up from repetitive phrases and shifting layers. Glass describes himself as a composer of "music with repetitive structures", which he has helped to evolve stylistically.

  22. Mike Nichols

    Mike Nichols
    Born in
    Germany Flag Germany
    Years
    1931-2014 (aged 83)
    Occupations
    film actorfilm producertheatrical directorscreenwriterdirector
    Biography

    Mike Nichols was an American film and theatre director. He worked across a range of genres and had an aptitude for getting the best out of actors regardless of their experience. He is one of 18 people to have won all four of the major American entertainment awards: Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony (EGOT). His other honors included three BAFTA Awards, the Lincoln Center Gala Tribute in 1999, the National Medal of Arts in 2001, the Kennedy Center Honors in 2003 and the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2010. His films received a total of 42 Academy Award nominations, and seven wins.

  23. Susan Sontag

    Susan Sontag
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1933-2004 (aged 71)
    Enrolled in the University of Chicago
    Graduated with Bachelor of Arts
    Occupations
    screenwriterfilm directorphilosophertheatrical directornovelist
    Biography

    Susan Lee Sontag was an American writer, critic, and public intellectual. She mostly wrote essays, but also published novels; she published her first major work, the essay "Notes on 'Camp' ", in 1964. Her best-known works include the critical works Against Interpretation (1966), On Photography (1977), Illness as Metaphor (1978) and Regarding the Pain of Others, as well as the fictional works The Way We Live Now (1986), The Volcano Lover (1992), and In America (1999).

  24. Harry Morgan

    Harry Morgan
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1915-2011 (aged 96)
    Occupations
    television actortelevision directorstage actorscreenwriterfilm actor
    Biography

    Harry Morgan was an American actor whose television and film career spanned six decades. Morgan's major roles included Pete Porter in both December Bride (1954–1959) and Pete and Gladys (1960–1962); Officer Bill Gannon on Dragnet (1967–1970); Amos Coogan on Hec Ramsey (1972–1974); and his starring role as Colonel Sherman T. Potter in M*A*S*H (1975–1983) and AfterMASH (1983–1985). Morgan also appeared as a supporting player in more than 100 films.

  25. Shel Silverstein

    Shel Silverstein
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1930-1999 (aged 69)
    Occupations
    composerscreenwriterwritersingeractor
    Biography

    Sheldon Allan Silverstein was an American writer, poet, cartoonist, singer-songwriter, musician, and playwright. Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, Silverstein briefly attended university before being drafted into the United States Army. During his rise to prominence in the 1950s, his illustrations were published in various newspapers and magazines, including the adult-oriented Playboy. He also wrote a satirical, adult-oriented alphabet book, Uncle Shelby's ABZ Book.

  26. John B. Watson

    John B. Watson
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1878-1958 (aged 80)
    Occupations
    politicianpsychologist
    Biography

    John Broadus Watson was an American psychologist who popularized the scientific theory of behaviorism, establishing it as a psychological school. Watson advanced this change in the psychological discipline through his 1913 address at Columbia University, titled Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It. Through his behaviorist approach, Watson conducted research on animal behavior, child rearing, and advertising, as well as conducting the controversial "Little Albert" experiment and the Kerplunk experiment. He was also the editor of Psychological Review from 1910 to 1915. A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Watson as the 17th most cited psychologist of the 20th century.

  27. Marilu Henner

    Marilu Henner
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1952-.. (age 72)
    Occupations
    screenwriterfilm actoractorfilm producerwriter
    Biography

    Marilu Henner is an American actress. She began her career appearing in the original production of the musical Grease in 1971, before making her screen debut in the 1977 comedy-drama film Between the Lines. In 1978, Henner was cast in her breakthrough role as Elaine O'Connor Nardo in the ABC/NBC sitcom Taxi, a role she played until 1983 and received five Golden Globe Award nominations for. She later had co-starring roles in films such as Hammett (1982), The Man Who Loved Women (1983), Cannonball Run II (1984), Johnny Dangerously (1984), Rustlers' Rhapsody (1985), Ladykillers (1988), L.A. Story (1991), and Noises Off (1992). She returned to television with a starring role in the CBS sitcom Evening Shade (1990–1994), and later had leading roles in many television films.

  28. Edwin Hubble

    Edwin Hubble
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1889-1953 (aged 64)
    Occupations
    astrophysicistcosmologistastronomer
    Biography

    Edwin Powell Hubble was an American astronomer. He played a crucial role in establishing the fields of extragalactic astronomy and observational cosmology.

  29. Lori Lightfoot

    Lori Lightfoot
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1962-.. (age 62)
    Enrolled in the University of Chicago
    Graduated with Juris Doctor
    Occupations
    lawyercivil servantprosecutorpolitician
    Biography

    Lori Elaine Lightfoot is an American politician and attorney who was the 56th mayor of Chicago from 2019 until 2023. She is a member of the Democratic Party. Before becoming mayor, Lightfoot worked in private legal practice as a partner at Mayer Brown and held various government positions in Chicago. She served as president of the Chicago Police Board and chair of the Chicago Police Accountability Task Force. In 2019, Lightfoot defeated Toni Preckwinkle in a runoff election for Chicago mayor. She ran again in 2023 but failed to qualify for the runoff, becoming the city's first incumbent mayor to not be reelected since Jane Byrne in 1983.

  30. Adam Silver

    Adam Silver
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1962-.. (age 62)
    Occupations
    cinematographerlawyerjuristbusinessperson
    Biography

    Adam Silver is an American lawyer and sports executive who serves as the fifth and current commissioner of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He joined the NBA in 1992 and has held various positions within the league, becoming chief operating officer and deputy commissioner under his predecessor and mentor David Stern in 2006. When Stern retired in 2014, Silver was named commissioner.

  31. Joseph E. Stiglitz

    Joseph E. Stiglitz
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1943-.. (age 81)
    Occupations
    science writerwriteruniversity teachernon-fiction writereconomist
    Biography

    Joseph Eugene Stiglitz is an American New Keynesian economist, a public policy analyst, and a full professor at Columbia University. He is a recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (2001) and the John Bates Clark Medal (1979). He is a former senior vice president and chief economist of the World Bank. He is also a former member and chairman of the (US president's) Council of Economic Advisers. He is known for his support for the Georgist public finance theory and for his critical view of the management of globalization, of laissez-faire economists (whom he calls "free-market fundamentalists"), and of international institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

  32. Katharine Graham

    Katharine Graham
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1917-2001 (aged 84)
    Occupations
    publishereditorbusinesspersonwriterart collector
    Biography

    Katharine Meyer Graham was an American newspaper publisher. She led her family's newspaper, The Washington Post, from 1963 to 1991. Graham presided over the paper as it reported on the Watergate scandal, which eventually led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon. She was the first 20th century female publisher of a major American newspaper and the first woman elected to the board of the Associated Press.

  33. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

    Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
    Born in
    Croatia Flag Croatia
    Years
    1934-2021 (aged 87)
    Occupations
    university teacherpsychologistpsychiatrist
    Biography

    Mihaly Robert Csikszentmihalyi was a Hungarian-American psychologist. He recognized and named the psychological concept of "flow", a highly focused mental state conducive to productivity. He was the Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Management at Claremont Graduate University. Earlier he served as the head of the department of psychology at the University of Chicago and of the department of sociology and anthropology at Lake Forest College.

  34. Erving Goffman

    Erving Goffman
    Born in
    Canada Flag Canada
    Years
    1922-1982 (aged 60)
    Enrolled in the University of Chicago
    In 1953 graduated with Doctor of Philosophy in sociology
    Occupations
    non-fiction writeranthropologistsociologist
    Biography

    Erving Goffman was a Canadian-born American sociologist, social psychologist, and writer, considered by some "the most influential American sociologist of the twentieth century".

  35. John Paul Stevens

    John Paul Stevens
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1920-2019 (aged 99)
    Enrolled in the University of Chicago
    In 1941 graduated with Bachelor of Arts in English studies
    Occupations
    naval officerjudgelawyer
    Biography

    John Paul Stevens was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1975 to 2010. At the time of his retirement, he was the second-oldest justice in the history of the U.S. Supreme Court and the third-longest-serving justice. At the time of his death in 2019 at age 99, he was the longest-lived Supreme Court justice ever. His long tenure saw him write for the Court on most issues of American law, including civil liberties, the death penalty, government action, and intellectual property. Despite being a registered Republican who throughout his life identified as a conservative, Stevens was considered to have been on the liberal side of the Court at the time of his retirement.

  36. Saul Alinsky

    Saul Alinsky
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1909-1972 (aged 63)
    Occupations
    sociologistwriterhuman rights activistcommunity organizertrade unionist
    Biography

    Saul David Alinsky was an American community activist and political theorist. His work through the Chicago-based Industrial Areas Foundation helping poor communities organize to press demands upon landlords, politicians, bankers and business leaders won him national recognition and notoriety. Responding to the impatience of a New Left generation of activists in the 1960s, Alinsky – in his widely cited Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer (1971) – defended the arts both of confrontation and of compromise involved in community organizing as keys to the struggle for social justice.

  37. David Graeber

    David Graeber
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1961-2020 (aged 59)
    Occupations
    writersocial anthropologistuniversity teacheranthropologisttrade unionist
    Biography

    David Rolfe Graeber was an American anthropologist and anarchist activist. His influential work in economic anthropology, particularly his books Debt: The First 5,000 Years (2011), Bullshit Jobs (2018), and The Dawn of Everything (2021), and his leading role in the Occupy movement, earned him recognition as one of the foremost anthropologists and left-wing thinkers of his time.

  38. Samuel P. Huntington

    Samuel P. Huntington
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1927-2008 (aged 81)
    Occupations
    writeruniversity teacherpolitical scientistphilosophergeopolitical analyst
    Biography

    Samuel Phillips Huntington was an American political scientist, adviser, and academic. He spent more than half a century at Harvard University, where he was director of Harvard's Center for International Affairs and the Albert J. Weatherhead III University Professor.

  39. Philip Kotler

    Philip Kotler
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1931-.. (age 93)
    Occupations
    writeruniversity teachereconomistbusinesspersonmathematician
    Biography

    Philip Kotler is an American marketing author, consultant, and professor emeritus; the S. C. Johnson & Son Distinguished Professor of International Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University (1962–2018). He is known for popularizing the definition of marketing mix. He is the author of over 80 books, including Marketing Management, Principles of Marketing, Kotler on Marketing, Marketing Insights from A to Z, Marketing 4.0, Marketing Places, Marketing of Nations, Chaotics, Market Your Way to Growth, Winning Global Markets, Strategic Marketing for Health Care Organizations, Social Marketing, Social Media Marketing, My Adventures in Marketing, Up and Out of Poverty, and Winning at Innovation. Kotler describes strategic marketing as serving as "the link between society's needs and its pattern of industrial response."

  40. Magdi Yacoub

    Magdi Yacoub
    Born in
    Egypt Flag Egypt
    Years
    1935-.. (age 89)
    Occupations
    university teachersurgeonprofessor
    Biography

    Sir Magdi Habib Yacoub, is an Egyptian retired professor of cardiothoracic surgery at Imperial College London, best known for his early work in repairing heart valves with surgeon Donald Ross, adapting the Ross procedure, where the diseased aortic valve is replaced with the person's own pulmonary valve, devising the arterial switch operation (ASO) in transposition of the great arteries, and establishing the heart transplantation centre at Harefield Hospital in 1980 with a heart transplant for Derrick Morris, who at the time of his death was Europe's longest-surviving heart transplant recipient. Yacoub subsequently performed the UK's first combined heart and lung transplant in 1983.

  41. Herbert Simon

    Herbert Simon
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1916-2001 (aged 85)
    Occupations
    university teachersociologistpolitical scientisteconomistcomputer scientist
    Biography

    Herbert Alexander Simon was an American political scientist whose work also influenced the fields of computer science, economics, and cognitive psychology. His primary research interest was decision-making within organizations and he is best known for the theories of "bounded rationality" and "satisficing". He received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1978 and the Turing Award in computer science in 1975. His research was noted for its interdisciplinary nature and spanned across the fields of cognitive science, computer science, public administration, management, and political science. He was at Carnegie Mellon University for most of his career, from 1949 to 2001, where he helped found the Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science, one of the first such departments in the world.

  42. Ajit Pai

    Ajit Pai
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1973-.. (age 51)
    Enrolled in the University of Chicago
    In 1997 graduated with Juris Doctor
    Occupations
    commissionerlawyerinternational forum participantchairperson
    Biography

    Ajit Varadaraj Pai is an American lawyer who served as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from 2017 to 2021. He has been a partner at the private-equity firm Searchlight Capital since April 2021.

  43. Saul Bellow

    Saul Bellow
    Born in
    Canada Flag Canada
    Years
    1915-2005 (aged 90)
    Enrolled in the University of Chicago
    Studied in 1933
    Occupations
    writernovelistuniversity teacheressayistauthor
    Biography

    Saul Bellow was a Canadian–American writer. For his literary work, Bellow was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the 1976 Nobel Prize in Literature, and the National Medal of Arts. He is the only writer to win the National Book Award for Fiction three times, and he received the National Book Foundation's lifetime Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters in 1990.

  44. Robert Bork

    Robert Bork
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1927-2012 (aged 85)
    Occupations
    judgelawyerpoliticianpedagoguejurist
    Biography

    Robert Heron Bork was an American legal scholar who served as solicitor general of the United States from 1973 until 1977. A professor by training, he was acting United States Attorney General and a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit from 1982 to 1988. In 1987, President Ronald Reagan nominated Bork to the U.S. Supreme Court, but the Senate rejected his nomination after a contentious and highly publicized confirmation hearing.

  45. Nate Silver

    Nate Silver
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1978-.. (age 46)
    Occupations
    journalistpoker playerstatistician
    Biography

    Nathaniel Read Silver is an American statistician, writer, and poker player who analyzes baseball (see sabermetrics), basketball, and elections (see psephology). He is the founder of FiveThirtyEight, and held the position of editor-in-chief there, along with being a special correspondent for ABC News, until May 2023.

  46. Craig Robinson

    Craig Robinson
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1962-.. (age 62)
    Occupations
    investment bankerbasketball coachbasketball player
    Biography

    Craig Malcolm Robinson is an American college basketball coach, basketball executive, and broadcaster. He is a former head men's basketball coach at Oregon State University and Brown University. He was a star forward as a player at Princeton University in the early 1980s and a bond trader during the 1990s. He currently is the Executive Director of the National Association of Basketball Coaches. He is former First Lady Michelle Obama's brother.

  47. Seymour Hersh

    Seymour Hersh
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1937-.. (age 87)
    Occupations
    genocide denialhistorianconspiracy theoristwriterjournalist
    Biography

    Seymour Myron "Sy" Hersh is an American investigative journalist and political writer. He gained recognition in 1969 for exposing the My Lai massacre and its cover-up during the Vietnam War, for which he received the 1970 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting. During the 1970s, Hersh covered the Watergate scandal for The New York Times, also reporting on the secret U.S. bombing of Cambodia and the CIA's program of domestic spying. In 2004, he detailed the U.S. military's torture and abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib in Iraq for The New Yorker. Hersh has won a record five George Polk Awards, and two National Magazine Awards. He is the author of 11 books, including The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House (1983), an account of the career of Henry Kissinger which won the National Book Critics Circle Award.

  48. Sessue Hayakawa

    Sessue Hayakawa
    Born in
    Japan Flag Japan
    Years
    1889-1973 (aged 84)
    Occupations
    film actorscreenwriteractorfilm directorstage actor
    Biography

    Kintarō Hayakawa, known professionally as Sessue Hayakawa (早川 雪洲, Hayakawa Sesshū), was a Japanese actor and a matinée idol. He was a popular star in Hollywood during the silent film era of the 1910s and early 1920s. Hayakawa was the first actor of Asian descent to achieve stardom as a leading man in the United States and Europe. His "broodingly handsome" good looks and typecasting as a sexually dominant villain made him a heartthrob among American women during a time of racial discrimination, and he became one of the first male sex symbols of Hollywood.

  49. Lynn Margulis

    Lynn Margulis
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1938-2011 (aged 73)
    Occupations
    evolutionary biologistuniversity teacherbotanistzoologistmicrobiologist
    Biography

    Lynn Margulis was an American evolutionary biologist, and was the primary modern proponent for the significance of symbiosis in evolution. Historian Jan Sapp has said that "Lynn Margulis's name is as synonymous with symbiosis as Charles Darwin's is with evolution." In particular, Margulis transformed and fundamentally framed current understanding of the evolution of cells with nuclei – an event Ernst Mayr called "perhaps the most important and dramatic event in the history of life" – by proposing it to have been the result of symbiotic mergers of bacteria. In 2002, Discover magazine recognized Margulis as one of the 50 most important women in science.

  50. Richard thaler

    Richard thaler
    Awards
    Nobel Prize in Economics in 2017
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1945-.. (age 79)
    Occupations
    economistinternational forum participant
    Biography

    Richard H. Thaler is an American economist and the Charles R. Walgreen Distinguished Service Professor of Behavioral Science and Economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. In 2015, Thaler was president of the American Economic Association.

  51. Bill Browder

    Bill Browder
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1964-.. (age 60)
    Enrolled in the University of Chicago
    Graduated with Bachelor of Science
    Occupations
    entrepreneurbusinesspersoninvestoreconomistinternational forum participant
    Biography

    William Felix Browder is an American-born British financier and political activist. He is the CEO and co-founder of Hermitage Capital Management, the investment advisor to the Hermitage Fund, which at a time was the largest foreign portfolio investor in Russia. The Hermitage Fund was founded in partnership with Republic National Bank, with $25 million in seed capital. The fund, and associated accounts, eventually grew to $4.5 billion of assets under management. In 1997, the Hermitage Fund was the best-performing fund in the world, up by 238%. Browder's primary investment strategy was shareholder rights activism. Browder took on large Russian companies such as Gazprom, Surgutneftegaz, Unified Energy Systems, and Sidanco. In retaliation, on 13 November 2005, Browder was refused entry to Russia, deported to the UK, and declared a threat to Russian national security.

  52. William Lyon Mackenzie King

    William Lyon Mackenzie King
    Born in
    Canada Flag Canada
    Years
    1874-1950 (aged 76)
    Occupations
    ministereconomistdiaristpoliticianlawyer
    Biography

    William Lyon Mackenzie King was a Canadian statesman and politician who was the tenth prime minister of Canada for three non-consecutive terms from 1921 to 1926, 1926 to 1930, and 1935 to 1948. A Liberal, he was the dominant politician in Canada from the early 1920s to the late 1940s. King is best known for his leadership of Canada throughout the Great Depression and the Second World War. He played a major role in laying the foundations of the Canadian welfare state and established Canada's international reputation as a middle power fully committed to world order. With a total of 21 years and 154 days in office, he remains the longest-serving prime minister in Canadian history.

  53. İlber Ortaylı

    İlber Ortaylı
    Born in
    Austria Flag Austria
    Years
    1947-.. (age 77)
    Occupations
    military historianhistorianuniversity teacherart historian
    Biography

    İlber Ortaylı is a Turkish historian and professor of history of Crimean Tatar origin at the MEF University, Galatasaray University in Istanbul and at Bilkent University in Ankara. In 2005, he was appointed as the director of the Topkapı Museum in Istanbul, until he retired in 2012.

  54. Chen-ning Yang

    Chen-ning Yang
    Years
    1922-.. (age 102)
    Enrolled in the University of Chicago
    1946-1948 graduated with Doctor of Philosophy
    Occupations
    university teacherphysicisttheoretical physicist
    Biography

    Yang Chen-Ning or Chen-Ning Yang, also known as C. N. Yang or by the English name Frank Yang, is a Chinese theoretical physicist who made significant contributions to statistical mechanics, integrable systems, gauge theory, and both particle physics and condensed matter physics. He and Tsung-Dao Lee received the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physics for their work on parity non-conservation of weak interaction. The two proposed that one of the basic quantum-mechanics laws, the conservation of parity, is violated in the so-called weak nuclear reactions, those nuclear processes that result in the emission of beta or alpha particles. Yang is also well known for his collaboration with Robert Mills in developing non-abelian gauge theory, widely known as the Yang–Mills theory.

  55. Elaine May

    Elaine May
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1932-.. (age 92)
    Occupations
    directorscreenwriterfilm actoractorplaywright
    Biography

    Elaine Iva May is an American comedian, filmmaker, playwright, and actress. She first gained fame in the 1950s for her improvisational comedy routines with Mike Nichols, before transitioning her career regularly breaking the mold as a writer and director of several critically acclaimed films. She has received numerous awards, including a BAFTA Award, a Grammy Award, and a Tony Award. She was honored with the National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama in 2013, and an Honorary Academy Award in 2022.

  56. Harvey Levin

    Harvey Levin
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1950-.. (age 74)
    Enrolled in the University of Chicago
    Graduated with Juris Doctor
    Occupations
    reporterlawyertelevision producer
    Biography

    Harvey Robert Levin is an American television producer, legal analyst, journalist, and former lawyer. He founded the celebrity news website TMZ in 2005, and later briefly served as the host of OBJECTified (2016–present), which aired on the Fox News Channel.

  57. Tommy Douglas

    Tommy Douglas
    Born in
    United Kingdom Flag United Kingdom
    Years
    1904-1986 (aged 82)
    Occupations
    Christian ministerpoliticiancleric
    Biography

    Thomas Clement Douglas was a Canadian politician who served as the seventh premier of Saskatchewan from 1944 to 1961 and Leader of the New Democratic Party from 1961 to 1971. A Baptist minister, he was elected to the House of Commons of Canada in 1935 as a member of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF). He left federal politics to become Leader of the Saskatchewan Co-operative Commonwealth Federation and then the seventh Premier of Saskatchewan. His government introduced the continent's first single-payer, universal health care program.

  58. Ro Khanna

    Ro Khanna
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1976-.. (age 48)
    Enrolled in the University of Chicago
    In 1998 graduated with Bachelor of Arts
    Occupations
    lawyerwriterpoliticianuniversity teacher
    Biography

    Rohit Khanna is an American politician and lawyer serving as the U.S. representative from California's 17th congressional district since 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he defeated eight-term incumbent Democratic Representative Mike Honda in the general election on November 8, 2016, after first running for the same seat in 2014. Khanna also served as the deputy assistant secretary in the United States Department of Commerce under President Barack Obama from August 8, 2009, to August 2011.

  59. Jane C. Ginsburg

    Jane C. Ginsburg
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1955-.. (age 69)
    Occupations
    legal scholar
    Biography

    Jane Carol Ginsburg is an American attorney. She is the Morton L. Janklow Professor of Literary and Artistic Property Law at the Columbia Law School. She also directs the law school's Kernochan Center for Law, Media and the Arts. In 2011, Ginsburg was elected to the British Academy.

  60. Avril Haines

    Avril Haines
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1969-.. (age 55)
    Enrolled in the University of Chicago
    1988-1992 graduated with Bachelor of Arts in physics
    Occupations
    international forum participantlawyerofficial
    Biography

    Avril Danica Haines is an American lawyer and senior government official who serves as the director of national intelligence in the Biden administration. She is the first woman to serve in this role. Haines previously served as Deputy National Security Advisor and Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the Obama administration. Prior to her appointment to the CIA, she served as Deputy Counsel to the President for National Security Affairs in the Office of White House Counsel.

  61. Ernest Lawrence

    Ernest Lawrence
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1901-1958 (aged 57)
    Occupations
    nuclear physicistuniversity teacherphysicist
    Biography

    Ernest Orlando Lawrence was an American nuclear physicist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1939 for his invention of the cyclotron. He is known for his work on uranium-isotope separation for the Manhattan Project, as well as for founding the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

  62. Samuel Reshevsky

    Samuel Reshevsky
    Born in
    Poland Flag Poland
    Years
    1911-1992 (aged 81)
    Occupations
    chess playerjournalistbookkeeper
    Biography

    Samuel Herman Reshevsky was a Polish chess prodigy and later a leading American chess grandmaster. He was a contender for the World Chess Championship from the mid-1930s to the mid-1960s: he tied for third place in the 1948 World Chess Championship tournament, and tied for second in the 1953 Candidates tournament. He was an eight-time winner of the US Chess Championship, tying him with Bobby Fischer for the all-time record.

  63. Evan Sharp

    Evan Sharp
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1982-.. (age 42)
    Occupations
    businessperson
    Biography

    Evan Sharp is an American billionaire Internet entrepreneur. He is the co-founder and chief design and creative officer of Pinterest, a visual discovery engine. He joined the company's board of directors in March 2019.

  64. Michael Stevens

    Michael Stevens
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1986-.. (age 38)
    Enrolled in the University of Chicago
    Graduated with neuropsychology
    Occupations
    editorcomedianoratorscience communicatorYouTuber
    Biography

    Michael David Stevens is an American educator, public speaker, entertainer, and editor best known for creating and hosting the education YouTube channel Vsauce. His channel initially released video game-related content until the popularity of his educational series DOT saw discussions of general interest become the focus of Vsauce, encompassing explanations of science, philosophy, culture, and illusion.

  65. David Suzuki

    David Suzuki
    Born in
    Canada Flag Canada
    Years
    1936-.. (age 88)
    Occupations
    climate activistinternational forum participantscience writerbiologistwriter
    Biography

    David Takayoshi Suzuki is a Canadian academic, science broadcaster, and environmental activist. Suzuki earned a PhD in zoology from the University of Chicago in 1961, and was a professor in the genetics department at the University of British Columbia from 1963 until his retirement in 2001. Since the mid-1970s, Suzuki has been known for his television and radio series, documentaries and books about nature and the environment. He is best known as host and narrator of the popular and long-running CBC Television science program The Nature of Things, seen in over 40 countries. He is also well known for criticizing governments for their lack of action to protect the environment.

  66. John Ashcroft

    John Ashcroft
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1942-.. (age 82)
    Enrolled in the University of Chicago
    In 1967 graduated with Juris Doctor
    Occupations
    lawyerteachermusicianpoliticianinternational forum participant
    Biography

    John David Ashcroft is an American lawyer, lobbyist, and former politician who served as the United States Attorney General in the George W. Bush administration from 2001 to 2005. He previously held various positions in Missouri politics; as Auditor of Missouri (1973–1975), Attorney General of Missouri (1976–1985), Governor of Missouri (1985–1993), and as a United States Senator representing Missouri (1995–2001). He later founded The Ashcroft Group, a Washington D.C. lobbying firm.

  67. Paul Wolfowitz

    Paul Wolfowitz
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1943-.. (age 81)
    Occupations
    diplomatpoliticianbankereconomistpolitical scientist
    Biography

    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.

  68. John B. Goodenough

    John B. Goodenough
    Born in
    Germany Flag Germany
    Years
    1922-2023 (aged 101)
    Enrolled in the University of Chicago
    Graduated with Doctor of Philosophy
    Occupations
    physicistinventormeteorologist
    Biography

    John Bannister Goodenough was an American materials scientist, a solid-state physicist, and a Nobel laureate in chemistry. From 1996 he was a professor of Mechanical, Materials Science, and Electrical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. He is credited with identifying the Goodenough–Kanamori rules of the sign of the magnetic superexchange in materials, with developing materials for computer random-access memory and with inventing cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries.

  69. David Rubenstein

    David Rubenstein
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1949-.. (age 75)
    Occupations
    juristentrepreneurlawyerphilanthropistpodcaster
    Biography

    David Mark Rubenstein is an American lawyer, businessman, and philanthropist. A former government official, he is a co-founder and co-chairman of the private equity firm The Carlyle Group, a global private equity investment company based in Washington, D.C.

  70. Nicholas Ray

    Nicholas Ray
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1911-1979 (aged 68)
    Occupations
    film directorscreenwriteractordirector
    Biography

    Nicholas Ray was an American film director, screenwriter, and actor. Described by the Harvard Film Archive as "Hollywood's last romantic" and "one of postwar American cinema’s supremely gifted and ultimately tragic filmmakers," Ray was considered an iconoclastic auteur director who often clashed with the Hollywood studio system of the time, but would prove highly influential to future generations of filmmakers.

  71. Richard Rorty

    Richard Rorty
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1931-2007 (aged 76)
    Occupations
    writeruniversity teacherphilosopherpedagogue
    Biography

    Richard McKay Rorty was an American philosopher. Educated at the University of Chicago and Yale University, he had strong interests and training in both the history of philosophy and in contemporary analytic philosophy. Rorty's academic career included appointments as the Stuart Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University, Kenan Professor of Humanities at the University of Virginia, and Professor of Comparative literature at Stanford University. Among his most influential books are Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature (1979), Consequences of Pragmatism (1982), and Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity (1989).

  72. David Brooks

    David Brooks
    Born in
    Canada Flag Canada
    Years
    1961-.. (age 63)
    Occupations
    punditjournalisteditor
    Biography

    David Brooks is an American conservative political and cultural commentator who writes for The New York Times. He has worked as a film critic for The Washington Times, a reporter and later op-ed editor for The Wall Street Journal, a senior editor at The Weekly Standard from its inception, a contributing editor at Newsweek, and The Atlantic Monthly, in addition to working as a commentator on NPR and the PBS NewsHour.

  73. Robert A. Millikan

    Robert A. Millikan
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1868-1953 (aged 85)
    Occupations
    university teacherphysicist
    Biography

    Robert Andrews Millikan was an American experimental physicist who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1923 for the measurement of the elementary electric charge and for his work on the photoelectric effect.

  74. J. Allen Hynek

    J. Allen Hynek
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1910-1986 (aged 76)
    Occupations
    academicastrophysicistwriteruniversity teacherufologist
    Biography

    Josef Allen Hynek was an American astronomer, professor, and ufologist. He is perhaps best remembered for his UFO research. Hynek acted as scientific advisor to UFO studies undertaken by the U.S. Air Force under three projects: Project Sign (1947–1949), Project Grudge (1949–1951) and Project Blue Book (1952–1969).

  75. Lien Chan

    Lien Chan
    Born in
    China Flag China
    Years
    1936-.. (age 88)
    Enrolled in the University of Chicago
    1959-1961 graduated with master's degree
    1961-1965 graduated with doctorate
    Occupations
    diplomatuniversity teacherpolitician
    Biography

    Lien Chan is a Taiwanese politician. He was the Chairman of the Taiwan Provincial Government from 1990 to 1993, Premier of the Republic of China from 1993 to 1997, Vice President of the Republic of China from 1996 to 2000, and was the Chairman of the Kuomintang (KMT) from 2000 to 2005, apart from various ministerial posts he had also held. Lien ran for the President of the Republic of China on behalf of the Kuomintang twice in 2000 and 2004, but both lost to Chen Shui-bian of the Democratic Progressive Party. Upon his retirement as KMT Chairman in August 2005, he was given the title Honorary Chairman of KMT. He is highly credited after holding a groundbreaking visit to Mainland China in his capacity as the Chairman of the Kuomintang to meet with the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Hu Jintao on 29 April 2005, the first meeting between the two party leaders after the end of Chinese Civil War in 1949, which subsequently helped thaw the long-stalled cross-strait relations.

  76. Celeste Holm

    Celeste Holm
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1917-2012 (aged 95)
    Occupations
    stage actortelevision actorfilm actorsinger
    Biography

    Celeste Holm was an American stage, film and television actress.

  77. Ramsey Clark

    Ramsey Clark
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1927-2021 (aged 94)
    Occupations
    peace activistpoliticianlawyer
    Biography

    William Ramsey Clark was an American lawyer, activist, and federal government official. A progressive, New Frontier liberal, he occupied senior positions in the United States Department of Justice under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, serving as United States Attorney General from 1967 to 1969; previously, he was Deputy Attorney General from 1965 to 1967 and Assistant Attorney General from 1961 to 1965.

  78. Philip Kaufman

    Philip Kaufman
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1936-.. (age 88)
    Occupations
    film actordirectorscreenwriterfilm producerfilm director
    Biography

    Philip Kaufman is an American film director and screenwriter who has directed fifteen films over a career spanning nearly five decades. He has received numerous accolades including a BAFTA Award along with nominations for an Academy Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award. He has been described as a "maverick" and an "iconoclast," notable for his versatility and independence often directing eclectic and controversial films. He is considered an "auteur" whose films have always expressed his personal vision. Kaufman's works have included genres such as realism, horror, fantasy, erotica, western, and crime.

  79. Robert Gallo

    Robert Gallo
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1937-.. (age 87)
    Occupations
    university teacheroncologistimmunologistvirologistphysician
    Biography

    Robert Charles Gallo is an American biomedical researcher. He is best known for his role in establishing the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) as the infectious agent responsible for acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) and in the development of the HIV blood test, and he has been a major contributor to subsequent HIV research.

  80. John Scalzi

    John Scalzi
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1969-.. (age 55)
    Occupations
    film criticwriterscience fiction writerjournalistblogger
    Biography

    John Michael Scalzi II is an American science fiction author and former president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. He is best known for his Old Man's War series, with three novels fron the series being nominated for the Hugo Award, and for his blog Whatever, where he has written on a number of topics since 1998. He won the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer in 2008 based predominantly on that blog, which he has also used for several charity drives. His novel Redshirts won the 2013 Hugo Award for Best Novel. He has written non-fiction books and columns on diverse topics such as finance, video games, films, astronomy, writing and politics, and served as a creative consultant for the TV series Stargate Universe.

  81. Bill Odenkirk

    Bill Odenkirk
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1965-.. (age 59)
    Occupations
    actorscreenwritertelevision producer
    Biography

    William Leonard Odenkirk is an American comedy writer.

  82. Luis Walter Alvarez

    Luis Walter Alvarez
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1911-1988 (aged 77)
    Occupations
    physicistinventornuclear physicistuniversity teacher
    Biography

    Luis Walter Alvarez was an American experimental physicist, inventor, and professor who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1968 for his discovery of resonance states in particle physics using the hydrogen bubble chamber. In 2007 the American Journal of Physics commented, "Luis Alvarez was one of the most brilliant and productive experimental physicists of the twentieth century."

  83. Elvin Bishop

    Elvin Bishop
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1942-.. (age 82)
    Occupations
    songwriterguitaristsingermusicianrecording artist
    Biography

    Elvin Richard Bishop is an American blues and rock music singer, guitarist, bandleader, and songwriter. An original member of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of that group in 2015 and the Blues Hall of Fame in his own right in 2016.

  84. Joi Ito

    Joi Ito
    Born in
    Japan Flag Japan
    Years
    1966-.. (age 58)
    Occupations
    activistentrepreneurinternational forum participantengineerblogger
    Biography

    Joichi "Joi" Ito is a Japanese entrepreneur and venture capitalist. He is the President of Chiba Institute of Technology. He is a former director of the MIT Media Lab, former professor of the practice of media arts and sciences at MIT, and a former visiting professor of practice at Harvard Law School. Ito has received recognition for his role as an entrepreneur focused on Internet and technology companies and has founded, among other companies, PSINet Japan, Digital Garage, and Infoseek Japan. Ito is general partner of Neoteny Labs, and former board member of Creative Commons (where he served as CEO), The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The New York Times Company, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, The Mozilla Foundation, The Open Source Initiative, and Sony Corporation. Ito wrote a monthly column in the Ideas section of Wired.

  85. Bret Stephens

    Bret Stephens
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1973-.. (age 51)
    Occupations
    journalistinternational forum participantcolumnistpundit
    Biography

    Bret Louis Stephens is an American conservative journalist, editor, and columnist. He has been an opinion columnist for The New York Times and a senior contributor to NBC News since 2017. Since 2021, he has been the inaugural editor-in-chief of SAPIR: A Journal of Jewish Conversations.

  86. Sarah Koenig

    Sarah Koenig
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1969-.. (age 55)
    Occupations
    journalistpodcasterradio personality
    Biography

    Sarah Koenig is an American journalist, public radio personality, former producer of the television and radio program This American Life, and the host and executive producer of the podcast Serial.

  87. Gary Becker

    Gary Becker
    Awards
    Nobel Prize in Economics in 1992
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1930-2014 (aged 84)
    Enrolled in the University of Chicago
    In 1955 graduated with Doctor of Philosophy
    Occupations
    criminologisteducatoreconomistuniversity teacher
    Biography

    Gary Stanley Becker was an American economist who received the 1992 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. He was a professor of economics and sociology at the University of Chicago, and was a leader of the third generation of the Chicago school of economics.

  88. Tsung-Dao Lee

    Tsung-Dao Lee
    Born in
    China Flag China
    Years
    1926-.. (age 98)
    Occupations
    university teacherphysicisttheoretical physicist
    Biography

    Tsung-Dao Lee is a Chinese-American physicist, known for his work on parity violation, the Lee–Yang theorem, particle physics, relativistic heavy ion (RHIC) physics, nontopological solitons, and soliton stars. He was a university professor emeritus at Columbia University in New York City, where he taught from 1953 until his retirement in 2012.

  89. Robert M. Pirsig

    Robert M. Pirsig
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1928-2017 (aged 89)
    Occupations
    novelistautobiographerwriterphilosopher
    Biography

    Robert Maynard Pirsig was an American writer and philosopher. He is the author of the philosophical novels Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values (1974) and Lila: An Inquiry into Morals (1991), and he co-authored On Quality: An Inquiry Into Excellence: Selected and Unpublished Writings (2022) along with his wife and editor, Wendy Pirsig.

  90. Ronald Coase

    Ronald Coase
    Awards
    Nobel Prize in Economics in 1991
    Born in
    United Kingdom Flag United Kingdom
    Years
    1910-2013 (aged 103)
    Occupations
    economisthistorianwriteruniversity teacher
    Biography

    Ronald Harry Coase was a British economist and author. Coase was educated at the London School of Economics, where he was a member of the faculty until 1951. He was the Clifton R. Musser Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago Law School, where he arrived in 1964 and remained for the rest of his life. He received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1991.

  91. Thomas S. Ricketts

    Thomas S. Ricketts
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1963-.. (age 61)
    Occupations
    businesspersoninvestment banker
    Biography

    Thomas Stuart Ricketts is the Chairman of the Chicago Cubs, and the Chairman, co-founder and former CEO of Incapital LLC, a firm that provides securities firms and individual investors more efficient access to corporate bonds. Together with his sister Laura and brothers Pete and Todd, the Ricketts siblings serve as the board of directors for the Cubs. He is the son of TD Ameritrade Holding Corporation founder J. Joseph Ricketts. Joe Ricketts has a net worth of US$2.3 billion as of 2018 according to Forbes.

  92. Carter Godwin Woodson

    Carter Godwin Woodson
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1875-1950 (aged 75)
    Occupations
    journalisthistorianwriteruniversity teacher
    Biography

    Carter Godwin Woodson was an American historian, author, journalist, and the founder of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH). He was one of the first scholars to study the history of the African diaspora, including African-American history. A founder of The Journal of Negro History in 1916, Woodson has been called the "father of black history." In February 1926, he launched the celebration of "Negro History Week," the precursor of Black History Month. Woodson was an important figure to the movement of Afrocentrism, due to his perspective of placing people of African descent at the center of the study of history and the human experience.

  93. Jon Corzine

    Jon Corzine
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1947-.. (age 77)
    Enrolled in the University of Chicago
    In 1973 graduated with Master of Business Administration
    Occupations
    chief executive officerbankerpolitician
    Biography

    Jonathan Stevens "Jon" Corzine is an American financial executive and retired politician who served as a United States Senator from New Jersey from 2001 to 2006, and the 54th governor of New Jersey from 2006 to 2010. Corzine ran for a second term as governor but lost to Republican Chris Christie. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously worked at Goldman Sachs; after leaving politics, he was CEO of MF Global from 2010 until its collapse in 2011.

  94. Zalmay Khalilzad

    Zalmay Khalilzad
    Born in
    Afghanistan Flag Afghanistan
    Years
    1951-.. (age 73)
    Occupations
    politiciandiplomat
    Biography

    Zalmay Mamozy Khalilzad is an American diplomat and foreign policy expert. Khalilzad was U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation from September 2018 to October 2021. Khailzad was appointed by President George W. Bush to serve as United States Ambassador to the United Nations, serving in the role from 2007 to 2009. Khalilzad was the highest ranking Muslim-American in government at the time he left the position. Prior to this, Khalilzad served in the Bush administration as Ambassador to Afghanistan from 2004 to 2005 and Ambassador to Iraq from 2005 to 2007.

  95. Tucker Max

    Tucker Max
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1975-.. (age 49)
    Occupations
    screenwriterfilm producer
    Biography

    Tucker Max is an American author and public speaker. He chronicles his drinking and sexual encounters in the form of short stories on his website TuckerMax.com, which has received millions of visitors since Max launched it as the result of a bet in 2000.

  96. Stanley Miller

    Stanley Miller
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1930-2007 (aged 77)
    Occupations
    biochemistbiologistuniversity teacherchemist
    Biography

    Stanley Lloyd Miller was an American chemist who made important experiments concerning the origin of life by demonstrating that a wide range of vital organic compounds can be synthesized by fairly simple chemical processes from inorganic substances. In 1952 he performed the Miller–Urey experiment, which showed that complex organic molecules could be synthesised from inorganic precursors. The experiment was widely reported, and provided evidence for the idea that the chemical evolution of the early Earth had caused the natural synthesis of organic compounds from inanimate inorganic molecules.

  97. Sandra Cisneros

    Sandra Cisneros
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1954-.. (age 70)
    Occupations
    novelistteacherarts administratorwritershort story writer
    Biography

    Sandra Cisneros is an American writer. She is best known for her first novel, The House on Mango Street (1983), and her subsequent short story collection, Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories (1991). Her work experiments with literary forms that investigate emerging subject positions, which Cisneros herself attributes to growing up in a context of cultural hybridity and economic inequality that endowed her with unique stories to tell. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, was awarded one of 25 new Ford Foundation Art of Change fellowships in 2017, and is regarded as a key figure in Chicano literature.

  98. Madeline Miller

    Madeline Miller
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1978-.. (age 46)
    Occupations
    novelistwriterteacher
    Biography

    Madeline Miller is an American novelist, author of The Song of Achilles (2011) and Circe (2018). Miller spent ten years writing The Song of Achilles while she worked as a teacher of Latin and Greek. The novel tells the story of the love between the mythological figures Achilles and Patroclus; it won the Orange Prize for Fiction, making Miller the fourth debut novelist to win the prize. She is a 2019 recipient of the Alex Awards.

  99. Eugene Scalia

    Eugene Scalia
    Born in
    United States Flag United States
    Years
    1963-.. (age 61)
    Occupations
    lawyersolicitorinternational forum participantofficial
    Biography

    Eugene Scalia is an American lawyer who served as the 28th United States Secretary of Labor during the final 16 months of the Trump administration from 2019 to 2021. Scalia previously served as the United States Solicitor of Labor under President George W. Bush. He is a son of the late Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia.

  100. Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada

    Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada
    Born in
    Bolivia Flag Bolivia
    Years
    1930-.. (age 94)
    Occupations
    politicianentrepreneureconomist
    Biography

    Gonzalo Daniel Sánchez de Lozada Sánchez Bustamante, often referred to as Goni, is a Bolivian businessman and politician who served as the 61st president of Bolivia from 1993 to 1997 and from 2002 to 2003. A member of the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement (MNR), he previously served as minister of planning and coordination under Víctor Paz Estenssoro and succeeded him as the MNR's national chief in 1990.