100 Notable alumni of
University of Geneva
Updated:
The University of Geneva is 191st in the world, 67th in Europe, and 1st in Switzerland by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 100 notable alumni from the University of Geneva sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff. 2 individuals affiliated with the University of Geneva won Nobel Prizes in Physics.
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Ian Fleming
- Occupations
- sailorprose writerwriterscreenwriterjournalist
- Biography
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Ian Lancaster Fleming was a British writer, best known for his postwar James Bond series of spy novels. Fleming came from a wealthy family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co., and his father was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Henley from 1910 until his death on the Western Front in 1917. Educated at Eton, Sandhurst, and, briefly, the universities of Munich and Geneva, Fleming moved through several jobs before he started writing.
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Queen Rania of Jordan
- Occupations
- international forum participantqueen consort
- Biography
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Rania Al Abdullah is Queen of Jordan, as the wife of King Abdullah II.
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Kofi Annan
- Occupations
- economistinternational forum participantpoliticiandiplomat
- Biography
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Kofi Atta Annan was a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh secretary-general of the United Nations from 1997 to 2006. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize. He was the founder and chairman of the Kofi Annan Foundation, as well as chairman of The Elders, an international organisation founded by Nelson Mandela.
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Karl Landsteiner
- Occupations
- biologistpathologistresearcherhematologistphysician
- Biography
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Karl Landsteiner was an Austrian American biologist, physician, and immunologist. He emigrated with his family to New York in 1923 at the age of fifty five for professional opportunities, working for the Rockefeller Institute.
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Ferdinand de Saussure
- Enrolled in the University of Geneva
- Studied in 1875-1876
- Occupations
- linguist
- Biography
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Ferdinand de Saussure was a Swiss linguist, semiotician and philosopher. His ideas laid a foundation for many significant developments in both linguistics and semiotics in the 20th century. He is widely considered one of the founders of 20th-century linguistics and one of two major founders (together with Charles Sanders Peirce) of semiotics, or semiology, as Saussure called it.
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Henri, Grand Duke of Luxembourg
- Occupations
- politicianmonarcharistocrat
- Biography
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Henri is Grand Duke of Luxembourg. He has reigned since 7 October 2000. Henri is the eldest son of Grand Duke Jean and Princess Joséphine-Charlotte of Belgium. He is a first cousin of King Philippe of Belgium. In 2019, Henri's net worth was estimated around US$4 billion.
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Prince Emanuele Filiberto, Prince of Venice
- Occupations
- aristocratfilm actoractorbusinesspersonfilm producer
- Biography
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Emanuele Filiberto Umberto Reza Ciro René Maria di Savoia is a member of the House of Savoy. He is the son of Vittorio Emanuele of Savoy and only male-line grandson of Umberto II, the last King of Italy. In 2024, Emanuele Filberto became one of two claimants to the headship of the House of Savoy after the death of his father.
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Joël Dicker
- Enrolled in the University of Geneva
- 2005-2010 graduated with bachelor's degree in law
- Occupations
- journalistnovelistwriterpoet lawyer
- Biography
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Joël Dicker is a Swiss novelist.
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Diane von Fürstenberg
- Enrolled in the University of Geneva
- Studied economics
- Occupations
- fashion designersocialitebusinessperson
- Biography
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Diane von Fürstenberg is a Belgian fashion designer best known for her wrap dress. She initially rose to prominence in 1969 when she married into the German princely House of Fürstenberg, as the wife of Prince Egon von Fürstenberg. Following their separation in 1972 and divorce in 1983, she has continued to use his family name.
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Tariq Ramadan
- Occupations
- theologianIslamicist
- Biography
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Tariq Ramadan is a Swiss Muslim academic, philosopher, and writer. He was a professor of contemporary Islamic studies at St Antony's College, Oxford and the Faculty of Theology and Religion, University of Oxford, but since 2018 has been taking an agreed leave of absence due to being held in prison following two rape allegations. He is a senior research fellow at Doshisha University in Japan, and is also a visiting professor at the Université Mundiapolis in Morocco. He was a visiting professor at the Faculty of Islamic Studies at Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar, and used to be the director of the Research Centre of Islamic Legislation and Ethics (CILE), based in Doha. He is a member of the UK Foreign Office Advisory Group on Freedom of Religion or Belief. He was listed by Time magazine in 2000 as one of the seven religious innovators of the 21st century and in 2004 as one of the 100 most influential people in the world and was voted by Foreign Policy readers (2005, 2006, 2008–2010, 2012–2015) as one of the top 100 most influential thinkers in the world and Global Thinkers. Ramadan describes himself as a "Salafi reformist".
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Fuad II of Egypt
- Biography
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Fuad II, or alternatively Ahmed Fuad II, is a member of the Egyptian Muhammad Ali dynasty. As an infant, he formally reigned as the last King of Egypt and the Sudan from July 1952 to June 1953, when he was deposed.
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Kurt Tucholsky
- Occupations
- prose writerwriterpoet lawyerjournalistsatirist
- Biography
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Kurt Tucholsky was a German journalist, satirist, and writer. He also wrote under the pseudonyms Kaspar Hauser (after the historical figure), Peter Panter, Theobald Tiger and Ignaz Wrobel.
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Teresa Heinz Kerry
- Occupations
- entrepreneur
- Biography
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Teresa Heinz, also known as Teresa Heinz Kerry, is an American businesswoman and philanthropist. Heinz is the widow of former U.S. Senator John Heinz and the current wife of United States Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, longtime U.S. Senator, and 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry. Heinz is Chair of the Heinz Endowments and the Heinz Family Philanthropies.
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Manolo Blahnik
- Occupations
- artistdressmakershoe designerbusinessperson
- Biography
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Manuel "Manolo" Blahnik Rodríguez is a Spanish fashion designer and founder of the eponymous high-end shoe brand.
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Maria Teresa, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg
- Occupations
- aristocrat
- Biography
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Maria Teresa is the Grand Duchess of Luxembourg as the wife of Grand Duke Henri, who acceded to the throne in 2000.
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José Manuel Durão Barroso
- Occupations
- politicianinternational forum participanteconomist
- Biography
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José Manuel Durão Barroso is a Portuguese politician and law professor. He previously served as the 115th prime minister of Portugal and from 2004–2014 as the 11th president of the European Commission.
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Duarte Pio of Braganza
- Biography
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Dom Duarte Pio, Duke of Braganza is the current Duke of Braganza and a claimant to the dormant Portuguese throne, as the head of the House of Braganza. The Miguelist Braganzas, to whom Duarte Pio belongs as great-grandson of King Miguel I, is a cadet branch of the House of Braganza. With the extinction of male-line dynasts descended from Queen Maria II in 1932, King Miguel's descendants became the only male-line Braganzas remaining and the closest male-line heirs to the defunct Portuguese throne.
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Jacques Piccard
- Occupations
- inventorengineerexploreroceanographer
- Biography
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Jacques Piccard was a Swiss oceanographer and engineer, known for having developed underwater submarines for studying ocean currents. In the Challenger Deep, he and Lieutenant Don Walsh of the United States Navy were the first people to explore the deepest known part of the world's ocean, and the deepest known location on the surface of Earth's crust, the Mariana Trench, located in the western North Pacific Ocean.
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Princess Astrid, Archduchess of Austria-Este
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Princess Astrid of Belgium, Archduchess of Austria-Este, is the second child and first daughter of King Albert II and Queen Paola, and the younger sister to the current Belgian monarch, King Philippe. She is married to Prince Lorenz of Belgium, head of the Austria-Este branch of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, and is fifth in line of succession to the Belgian throne.
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Ferenc Molnár
- Occupations
- writerscreenwriterchildren's writerplaywrightjournalist
- Biography
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Ferenc Molnár, often anglicized as Franz Molnar, was a Hungarian-born author, stage director, dramatist, and poet, widely regarded as Hungary's most celebrated and controversial playwright. His primary aim through his writing was to entertain by transforming his personal experiences into literary works of art. He never connected to any one literary movement. However, he did utilize the precepts of naturalism, Neo-Romanticism, Expressionism, and Freudian psychoanalytic theories, but only as long as they suited his desires. "By fusing the realistic narrative and stage tradition of Hungary with Western influences into a cosmopolitan amalgam, Molnár emerged as a versatile artist whose style was uniquely his own."
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Ricardo Bofill
- Occupations
- film directorwriterurban plannerarchitect
- Biography
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Ricardo Bofill Leví was a Spanish architect from Barcelona, Spain. He founded Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura in 1963 and developed it into a leading international architectural and urban design practice. According to architectural historian Andrew Ayers, his creations rank "among the most impressive buildings of the 20th century."
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Princess Joséphine-Charlotte of Belgium
- Biography
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Princess Joséphine-Charlotte of Belgium was the Grand Duchess of Luxembourg as the wife of Grand Duke Jean. She was the first child of King Leopold III of Belgium, and sister of the late King Baudouin and former King Albert II and aunt of King Philippe. She was also the first cousin of King Harald V of Norway, second cousin of Margrethe II of Denmark, and a maternal third cousin of Queen Elizabeth II.
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François Guizot
- Occupations
- translatorwriterliterary criticdiplomathistorian
- Biography
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François Pierre Guillaume Guizot was a French historian, orator, and statesman. Guizot was a dominant figure in French politics prior to the Revolution of 1848.
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Princess Maria Gabriella of Savoy
- Occupations
- historian
- Biography
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Princess Maria Gabriella of Savoy is the middle daughter of Italy's last king, Umberto II, and Marie José of Belgium, the "May Queen". She is a historical writer.
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Davoud Rashidi
- Occupations
- television actorexecutive produceractorfilm producer
- Biography
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Davoud Rashidi was an Iranian actor. Rashidi, along with Ali Nasirian, Ezatollah Entezami, Jamshid Mashayekhi and Mohammad Ali Keshavarz is known as one of "the five most important actors in the history of Iranian cinema" due to their significant influence. His daughter, Leili Rashidi, is also an actress.
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Jean Ziegler
- Occupations
- writerpoliticianuniversity teachersociologistphilosopher
- Biography
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Jean Ziegler is a Swiss former professor of sociology at the University of Geneva and the Sorbonne, Paris, and former vice-president of the Advisory Committee to the United Nations Human Rights Council. He was previously Member of the Swiss Parliament for the Social Democrats from 1981 to 1999. He has also held several positions with the United Nations, especially as Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food from 2000 to 2008, and as a member of the Advisory Committee of the UN Human Rights Council from 2008 to 2012. Ziegler has authored numerous works, is a lecturer, and is well known for this sentence: "A child who dies from hunger is a murdered child."
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Pëtr Voykov
- Occupations
- diplomat
- Biography
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Pyotr Lazarevich Voykov was a Ukrainian Bolshevik revolutionary and Soviet diplomat known as one of the participants in the decision to execute the former Russian Emperor Nicholas II and his family members.
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Edmond Adolphe de Rothschild
- Occupations
- bankerlawyerart collector
- Biography
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Baron Edmond Adolphe Maurice Jules Jacques de Rothschild or Baron Edmond de Rothschild was a French-Swiss banker, the founder of the Edmond de Rothschild Group in 1953. His investments extended to vineyards, yacht racing, farming and hospitality.
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Albert Cohen
- Occupations
- poetprose writerwriterplaywright
- Biography
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Abraham Albert Cohen was a Greek-born Romaniote Jewish Swiss novelist who wrote in French. He worked as a civil servant for various international organizations, such as the International Labour Organization. He became a Swiss citizen in 1919.
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Seymour Papert
- Occupations
- university teacherartificial intelligence researchercomputer scientistpsychologisteducator
- Biography
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Seymour Aubrey Papert was a South African-born American mathematician, computer scientist, and educator, who spent most of his career teaching and researching at MIT. He was one of the pioneers of artificial intelligence, and of the constructionist movement in education. He was co-inventor, with Wally Feurzeig and Cynthia Solomon, of the Logo programming language.
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Carla Del Ponte
- Occupations
- judgelawyerpoliticianambassadorjurist
- Biography
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Carla Del Ponte is a former Chief Prosecutor of two United Nations international criminal law tribunals. A former Swiss attorney general, she was appointed prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in August 1999, replacing Louise Arbour.
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Darius Rochebin
- Occupations
- television presenterjournalistinternational forum participant
- Biography
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Darius Rochebin, born Darius Khoshbin on 25 December 1966 in Geneva, is a Swiss journalist of Iranian origin. From 1998 to 2020, he presented the newscast of the national broadcaster Radio Télévision Suisse as well as the RTS program Pardonnez-moi, which interviews Swiss and international personalities. In August 2020, he left RTS and joined the French channel LCI to carry out daily interviews.
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Zhang Weiwei
- Occupations
- international forum participantpolitical scientist
- Biography
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Zhang Weiwei is a Chinese professor of international relations at Fudan University and the director of its China Institute. Zhang is also an Internet celebrity, spreading his political ideas through online video platforms such as Xigua Video, Bilibili, TikTok and YouTube.
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Albert Gallatin
- Occupations
- ethnologistpeace activistlinguistwriterpolitician
- Biography
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Abraham Alfonse Albert Gallatin was a Genevan–American politician, diplomat, ethnologist and linguist. Often described as "America's Swiss Founding Father", he was a leading figure in the early years of the United States, helping shape the new republic's financial system and foreign policy. Gallatin was a prominent member of the Democratic-Republican Party, represented Pennsylvania in both chambers of Congress, and held several influential roles across four presidencies, most notably as the longest serving U.S. Secretary of the Treasury. He is also known for his contributions to academia, namely as the founder of New York University and cofounder of the American Ethnological Society.
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Jovan Dučić
- Enrolled in the University of Geneva
- In 1899 studied law
- Occupations
- diplomatwriterteacherpoetjournalist
- Biography
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Jovan Dučić was a Bosnian Serb poet-diplomat and academic.
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Nasser Mohammed Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah
- Occupations
- politiciandiplomat
- Biography
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Nasser Al-Mohammed Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah is a Kuwaiti politician who served as Prime Minister of Kuwait from 7 February 2006 until resigning on 28 November 2011.
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Alexander Lowen
- Enrolled in the University of Geneva
- 1947-1951 graduated with Doctor of Medicine
- Occupations
- psychotherapist
- Biography
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Alexander Lowen was an American physician and psychotherapist.
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Afet İnan
- Years
- 1908-1985 (aged 77)
- Occupations
- historianpoliticianuniversity teachersociologist
- Biography
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Ayşe Afet İnan was a Turkish historian and sociologist. She was one of the eight adopted daughters of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. She was known to be involved in the practice of physical anthropology, as she measured over sixty thousand skulls in Anatolia, which was aimed to support the Turkish History Thesis.
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Agrippa d'Aubigné
- Occupations
- military personnelpoetwriterpolitician
- Biography
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Théodore-Agrippa d'Aubigné was a French poet, soldier, propagandist and chronicler. His epic poem Les Tragiques (1616) is widely regarded as his masterpiece. In a book about his Catholic contemporary Jean de La Ceppède, English poet Keith Bosley has called d'Aubigné, "the epic poet of the Protestant cause," during the French Wars of Religion. Bosley added, however, that after d'Aubigné's death, he, "was forgotten until the Romantics rediscovered him."
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Rafael Grossi
- Enrolled in the University of Geneva
- Studied in 1991-1997
- Occupations
- United Nations officialdiplomat
- Biography
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Rafael Mariano Grossi is an Argentine diplomat. He is serving as Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) since December 3, 2019. He was formerly the Argentine Ambassador to Austria, concurrent with Slovenia, Slovakia and International Organisations based in Vienna (2013–2019).
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Michel Mayor
- Occupations
- physicistastronomerastrophysicistuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Michel Gustave Édouard Mayor is a Swiss astrophysicist and professor emeritus at the University of Geneva's Department of Astronomy. He formally retired in 2007, but remains active as a researcher at the Observatory of Geneva. He is co-laureate of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics along with Jim Peebles and Didier Queloz, and the winner of the 2010 Viktor Ambartsumian International Prize and the 2015 Kyoto Prize.
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Karl Anton, Prince of Hohenzollern
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Karl Anton, Prince of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen was the last prince of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen before the territory was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia in 1849. Afterwards he continued to be titular prince of his house and, with the death of the last prince of Hohenzollern-Hechingen in 1869, of the entire House of Hohenzollern. He served as Minister President of Prussia from 1858 to 1862, the only Hohenzollern prince to hold the post. His second son, Karl, became king of Romania. The offer of the throne of Spain to his eldest son, Leopold, was one of the causes of the Franco-Prussian War, which led to the unification of Germany and the creation of the German Empire.
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Stamen Grigorov
- Enrolled in the University of Geneva
- Studied medicine
- Occupations
- physicianmicrobiologistscientist
- Biography
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Stamen Gigov Grigorov was a prominent Bulgarian physician and microbiologist. He discovered the Lactobacillus bulgaricus bacillus, used in the making of yogurt.
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Gabriel Cramer
- Occupations
- university teacherphysicistmathematician
- Biography
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Gabriel Cramer was a Genevan mathematician. He was the son of physician Jean Cramer and Anne Mallet Cramer.
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Wolfgang Ischinger
- Occupations
- diplomatpoliticianuniversity teacherinternational forum participantjurist
- Biography
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Wolfgang Friedrich Ischinger is a German diplomat who served as chairman of the Munich Security Conference from 2008 to 2022.
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Hans Luther
- Occupations
- lawyerbankerpoliticiandiplomat
- Biography
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Hans Luther was a German politician and Chancellor of Germany for 482 days in 1925 to 1926. As Minister of Finance he helped stabilize the Mark during the hyperinflation of 1923. From 1930 to 1933, Luther was head of the Reichsbank and from 1933 to 1937 he served as German Ambassador to the United States.
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Nicolas Bouvier
- Occupations
- writerphotographer
- Biography
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Nicolas Bouvier was a 20th-century Swiss traveller, writer, picture editor and photographer. He studied in Geneva in the 1950s and lived there later between his travels.
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Didier Queloz
- Occupations
- astrophysicistuniversity teacherastronomer
- Biography
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Didier Patrick Queloz is a Swiss astronomer. He is the Jacksonian Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Cambridge, where he is also a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, as well as a professor at the University of Geneva. Together with Michel Mayor in 1995, he discovered 51 Pegasi b, the first extrasolar planet orbiting a Sun-like star, 51 Pegasi. For this discovery, he shared the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics with Mayor and Jim Peebles. In 2021, he was announced as the founding director of the Center for the Origin and Prevalence of Life at ETH Zurich.
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Martin Hairer
- Occupations
- mathematician
- Biography
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Sir Martin Hairer is an Austrian-British mathematician working in the field of stochastic analysis, in particular stochastic partial differential equations. He is Professor of Mathematics at EPFL (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) and at Imperial College London. He previously held appointments at the University of Warwick and the Courant Institute of New York University. In 2014 he was awarded the Fields Medal, one of the highest honours a mathematician can achieve. In 2020 he won the 2021 Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics.
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Martin Selmayr
- Enrolled in the University of Geneva
- Studied in 1991-1992
- Occupations
- lawyerlegal scholarpoliticianuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Martin Selmayr is a European civil servant from Germany who was Secretary-General of the European Commission from 2018 to 2019 and chief of staff to Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker from 2014 to 2018. During his time in the Juncker Commission, Selmayr was widely described as one of the most influential figures within the European Union. After taking office as secretary-general, he was described in a debate in the European Parliament as "the most powerful bureaucrat in the world." A resident of Brussels since 2000, he is a member of the Christian Democratic and Flemish (CD&V) party of Belgium. He is considered by many to be close to the Christian Democratic Union of Germany and its leadership, but the European Commission said he has never been a member of that party.
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Brad Smith
- Occupations
- international forum participantlawyer
- Biography
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Bradford Lee Smith is an American attorney and business executive who became Vice Chairman of Microsoft in 2021, and President in 2015. He previously served as a senior vice president and general counsel from 2002 to 2015.
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Reuven Feuerstein
- Occupations
- psychologisteducatorpedagogue
- Biography
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Reuven Feuerstein was a Romanian-born Israeli clinical, developmental, and cognitive psychologist, known for his theory of intelligence. Feuerstein is recognized for his work in developing the theories and applied systems of structural cognitive modifiability, mediated learning experience, cognitive map, deficient cognitive functions, learning propensity assessment device, instrumental enrichment programs, and shaping modifying environments. These interlocked practices provide educators with the skills and tools to systematically develop students’ cognitive functions and operations to build meta-cognition.
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Micheline Calmy-Rey
- Occupations
- international forum participantpolitician
- Biography
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Micheline Anne-Marie Calmy-Rey is a Swiss politician who served as a Member of the Swiss Federal Council from 2003 to 2011. A member of the Social Democratic Party (SP/PS), she was the head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs during her tenure as a Federal Councillor. She was President of the Swiss Confederation twice, in 2007 and 2011.
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Saul Friedländer
- Occupations
- historianuniversity teacherwriter
- Biography
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Saul Friedländer is a Czech-Jewish-born historian and a professor emeritus of history at UCLA.
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Slobodan Jovanović
- Occupations
- writerdiplomathistorianuniversity teacherteacher
- Biography
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Slobodan Jovanović was a Serbian and Yugoslav writer, historian, lawyer, philosopher, literary critic, diplomat, politician and one of the most prominent intellectuals of his time. He was the professor at the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law (1897—1940), Rector of the University of Belgrade (1913–14 and 1920–21), and the President of the Serbian Royal Academy (1928–1931). He took part at the Paris Peace Conference (1919) as an expert for the Yugoslav Government.
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Hugo Duminil-Copin
- Occupations
- university teachermathematician
- Biography
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Hugo Duminil-Copin is a French mathematician specializing in probability theory. He was awarded the Fields Medal in 2022.
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Jacques Dubochet
- Occupations
- molecular biologist
- Biography
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Jacques Dubochet is a retired Swiss biophysicist. He is a former researcher at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany, and an honorary professor of biophysics at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland.
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Ruth Dreifuss
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Ruth Dreifuss is a Swiss economist, unionist and politician who served as a member of the Federal Council (Switzerland) from 1993 to 2002. She served as Vice President of Switzerland in 1998 and as President of Switzerland in 1999 for the Social Democratic Party.
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Heinrich Greinacher
- Occupations
- university teacherphysicist
- Biography
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Heinrich Greinacher was a Swiss physicist. He is regarded as an original experimenter and is the developer of the magnetron and the Greinacher multiplier.
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Frank Dikötter
- Occupations
- historianwriteruniversity teacherprofessor
- Biography
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Frank Dikötter is a Dutch historian who specialises in modern China. Dikötter has been Chair Professor of Humanities at the University of Hong Kong since 2006. Prior to that, he taught modern Chinese history at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. He holds an honorary doctorate from Leiden University and is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University.
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Meda Mládková
- Occupations
- art historianexhibition curatorart collector
- Biography
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Marie Magdalena Františka "Meda" Mládková was a Czech art collector. Her husband, Jan Viktor Mládek (1911–1989), was an economist and a governor of the IMF. Having spent several years in exile, she returned to Czechoslovakia after the Velvet Revolution of 1989.
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Claude Nicollier
- Occupations
- physicistastronautastrophysicistaircraft pilot
- Biography
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Claude Nicollier is the first astronaut from Switzerland. He has flown on four Space Shuttle missions. His first spaceflight (STS-46) was in 1992, and his final spaceflight (STS-103) was in 1999. He took part in two servicing missions to the Hubble Space Telescope (called STS-61 and STS-103). During his final spaceflight he participated in a spacewalk, becoming the first European Space Agency astronaut to do so during a Space Shuttle mission (previous ESA astronauts conducted spacewalks aboard Mir, see List of spacewalks and moonwalks 1965–1999). In 2000 he was assigned to the Astronaut Office Extravehicular Activity Branch, while maintaining a position as Lead ESA Astronaut in Houston. Nicollier retired from ESA in April 2007.
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Norman Angell
- Occupations
- writerpolitical scientistlectureropinion journalistjournalist
- Biography
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Sir Ralph Norman Angell was an English Nobel Peace Prize winner. He was a lecturer, journalist, author and Member of Parliament for the Labour Party.
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Édouard Claparède
- Occupations
- teacheruniversity teacherphysicianpsychologistneurologist
- Biography
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Édouard Claparède was a Swiss neurologist, child psychologist, and educator.
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Karl Korsch
- Occupations
- politicianuniversity teacherphilosopheressayist
- Biography
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Karl Korsch was a German Marxist theoretician and political philosopher. He is recognized as one of the "dissidents" that challenged the Marxism of the Second International of Karl Kautsky, Georgi Plekhanov and Lenin. Along with György Lukács, Korsch is considered to be one of the major figures responsible for laying the groundwork for Western Marxism in the 1920s.
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Jean Starobinski
- Occupations
- medical historianuniversity teacherphilosopherphysician writerliterary historian
- Biography
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Jean Starobinski was a Swiss literary critic.
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Andon Zako Çajupi
- Occupations
- writerlawyerpoet
- Biography
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Andon Zako Çajupi was an Albanian lawyer, playwright, poet and rilindas.
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Nazim al-Kudsi
- Occupations
- diplomat
- Biography
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Nazim al-Qudsi, was a Syrian politician who served as President of Syria from 14 December 1961 to 8 March 1963.
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Vasil Kolarov
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Vasil Petrov Kolarov was a Bulgarian communist political leader and leading functionary in the Communist International (Comintern).
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Alain Tanner
- Occupations
- film producerfilm directorscreenwriter
- Biography
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Alain Tanner was a Swiss film director.
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Andreas Embirikos
- Occupations
- psychoanalystwriterpoet
- Biography
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Andreas Embirikos was a Greek surrealist poet, writer, photographer, and one of the first Greek psychoanalysts. As a writer, he emerged from the Generation of the '30s and is considered one of the most important representatives of Greek surrealism. He studied psychoanalysis in France and was the first to practice it as a profession in Greece in the years 1935–1951. Out of his entire literary work, his first collection of poetry, titled Ypsikaminos, stands out as the first purely surrealist Greek text. Among his prose works, his bold erotic novel The Great Eastern was completed over a period of several decades becoming the lengthiest modern Greek novel. Described as Embirikos' "lifework", It was received with both praise and criticism for its libertine nature and highly erotic content. A large part of Embirikos' work was published well after his death.
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Derenik Demirchian
- Enrolled in the University of Geneva
- Studied in 1905-1910
- Occupations
- translatorwriterpoetliterary criticplaywright
- Biography
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Derenik Karapeti Demirchian was a Soviet and Armenian writer, novelist, poet, translator and playwright. He began his career as a poet, but later transitioned into prose writing. He was a prolific writer whose works deal with a wide variety of subjects. He is perhaps best known for his historical novel Vardanank (1943), which is a dramatization of the 5th-century Armenian rebellion led by Vardan Mamikonian.
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Vyacheslav Lypynsky
- Occupations
- historiandiplomat
- Biography
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Vyacheslav Kazymyrovych Lypynsky (5 April 1882 — 14 June 1931) was a Ukrainian historian, social and political activist, an ideologue of Ukrainian conservatism. He was also the founder of the Ukrainian Democratic–Agrarian Party. Under the government of Hetmanate, he served as the Ukrainian ambassador to Austria.
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Mikhail Tsvet
- Enrolled in the University of Geneva
- Studied in 1893
- Occupations
- biologistbotanistbiochemistphysiologistchemist
- Biography
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Mikhail Semyonovich Tsvet, also spelt Tsvett, Tswett, Tswet, Zwet, and Cvet was a Russian-Italian botanist who invented chromatography. His last name is Russian for "colour" and is also the root word of "flower."
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Augustin-Pyramus de Candolle
- Occupations
- naturalistzoologistbotanistprofessor
- Biography
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Augustin Pyramus de Candolle was a Swiss botanist. René Louiche Desfontaines launched de Candolle's botanical career by recommending him at a herbarium. Within a couple of years de Candolle had established a new genus, and he went on to document hundreds of plant families and create a new natural plant classification system. Although de Candolle's main focus was botany, he also contributed to related fields such as phytogeography, agronomy, paleontology, medical botany, and economic botany.
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Werner Arber
- Occupations
- biologistgeneticistphysicianuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Werner Arber is a Swiss microbiologist and geneticist. Along with American researchers Hamilton Smith and Daniel Nathans, Werner Arber shared the 1978 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of restriction endonucleases. Their work would lead to the development of recombinant DNA technology.
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Emilia Ferreiro
- Occupations
- educational researcherwriterpsychologist
- Biography
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Emilia Beatriz María Ferreiro Schiavi was an Argentine psychologist, writer, and educator, based in Mexico, with a doctorate from the University of Geneva, under the guidance of Jean Piaget. She was recognized for her contributions to understanding the evolutionary process of written language acquisition.
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Edmond H. Fischer
- Years
- 1920-2021 (aged 101)
- Occupations
- biochemistuniversity teacherchemist
- Biography
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Edmond Henri Fischer was a Swiss-American biochemist. He and his collaborator Edwin G. Krebs were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1992 for describing how reversible phosphorylation works as a switch to activate proteins and regulate various cellular processes. From 2007 until 2014, he was the Honorary President of the World Cultural Council. At the time of his death at age 101 in 2021, he was the oldest living Nobel Prize laureate.
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Karl III Wilhelm of Baden-Durlach
- Occupations
- margrave
- Biography
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Charles III William was Margrave of Baden-Durlach between 1709 and 1738. He was the son of Margrave Frederick Magnus of Baden-Durlach and Augusta Maria of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp. In 1715, he established Karlsruhe (Charles' repose), where he built his residence. Karlsruhe has since grown to a large city. With the consolidation of public finances and the creation of a reliable administration, he laid the foundations for the reform policies of his grandson, Charles Frederick.
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Princess Nora, Marchioness of Mariño
- Occupations
- aristocratsports executive
- Biography
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Princess Norberta of Liechtenstein, Marquesa de Mariño, popularly known as Princess Nora, is a member of Liechtenstein princely family. She is the fourth child and only daughter of Franz Joseph II, Prince of Liechtenstein and his wife Georgina von Wilczek, and the younger sister of Hans-Adam II, Prince of Liechtenstein.
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Daniel Bovet
- Occupations
- university teacherpharmacologistneuroscientistpharmacistphysician
- Biography
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Daniel Bovet was a Swiss-born Italian pharmacologist who won the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of drugs that block the actions of specific neurotransmitters. He is best known for his discovery in 1937 of antihistamines, which block the neurotransmitter histamine and are used in allergy medication. His other research included work on chemotherapy, sulfa drugs, the sympathetic nervous system, the pharmacology of curare, and other neuropharmacological interests.
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Birgit Breuel
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Birgit Breuel is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as president of the Treuhand Agency and as Commissioner General of Expo 2000 in Hannover. She later worked in several honorary positions.
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Shane Ross
- Occupations
- journaliststockbrokerpolitician
- Biography
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Shane Peter Nathaniel Ross is an Irish former Independent politician who served as Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport from May 2016 to June 2020. He was a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin Rathdown constituency from 2016 to 2020, and previously from 2011 to 2016 for the Dublin South constituency. He was a member of Seanad Éireann for the Dublin University from 1981 to 2011, until his election to Dáil Éireann at the 2011 general election.
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Hans-Gert Pöttering
- Occupations
- politicianuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Hans-Gert Pöttering is a German lawyer, historian and conservative politician (CDU, European People's Party), who served as President of the European Parliament from January 2007 to July 2009 and as Chairman of the CDU-affiliated Konrad Adenauer Foundation from 2010 to 2017.
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Albrecht Freiherr von Boeselager
- Occupations
- politicianentrepreneurlawyer
- Biography
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Albrecht Freiherr von Boeselager is a German lawyer and forester and was formerly a member of the Sovereign Council of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. He served as Grand Hospitaller from 1989 to 2014, and from 2014 until September 3rd, 2022 as its grand chancellor. Boeselagar was at the centre of a leadership controversy within the Order of Malta in late 2016 and early 2017. After Boeslager was suspended as grand chancellor, Pope Francis intervened to restore him to office and require the resignation of the prince and grand master of the order, Matthew Festing. Pope Francis dissolved the Sovereign Council on September 3, 2022, and appointed H.E. Ricardo Paternò di Montecupo as grand chancellor.
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Abdellah Taïa
- Occupations
- journalistfilm directornovelistscreenwriter
- Biography
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Abdellah Taïa is a Moroccan writer and filmmaker who writes in the French language and has been based in Paris since 1999. He has published eight novels, many of them heavily autobiographical. His books have been translated into Basque, Dutch, German, English, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Swedish, Danish and Arabic.
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Ehsan Naraghi
- Occupations
- sociologisttranslatorwriter
- Biography
-
Ehsān Narāghi was an Iranian sociologist, writer and Farah Pahlavi adviser
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Paul Friedrich I, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
- Occupations
- sovereign
- Biography
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Paul Friedrich ruled as Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin from 1837 to 1842.
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Théophile Obenga
- Occupations
- egyptologisthistorianpoliticianlinguist
- Biography
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Théophile Obenga is professor emeritus in the Africana Studies Center at San Francisco State University. He is a politically active proponent of Pan-Africanism and an Afrocentrist. Obenga is an Egyptologist, linguist, and historian.
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Vaughan Jones
- Occupations
- university teachermathematician
- Biography
-
Sir Vaughan Frederick Randal Jones was a New Zealand mathematician known for his work on von Neumann algebras and knot polynomials. He was awarded a Fields Medal in 1990.
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Rudi Dornbusch
- Occupations
- economistprofessor
- Biography
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Rüdiger Dornbusch was a German economist who worked in the United States for most of his career.
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Teodor Meleșcanu
- Occupations
- diplomatpoliticianlawyer
- Biography
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Teodor Viorel Meleșcanu is a Romanian politician, diplomat, and jurist. He served as Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Romania (SIE) between 2012 and 2014. He was a three times senator on behalf of the National Liberal Party (PNL), Minister of Defense between 2007 and 2008, and Minister of Foreign Affairs between 1992 and 1996, in November 2014 and since January 2017 to July 2019. On 27 February 2012, upon his appointment as head of the SIE, he suspended himself from PNL and was later expelled from the party. On 10 September 2019, he was elected President of the Senate. He resigned from office on 3 February 2020.
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David A. Marcus
- Occupations
- entrepreneur
- Biography
-
David Marcus is an American entrepreneur. He was the co-creator of Diem, a cryptocurrency project initiated by Facebook. He is the former president of PayPal and Vice President of Messaging Products at Facebook where he ran the Facebook Messenger unit from 2014 until 2018. In December 2017, Marcus was appointed to the Coinbase Board of Directors, from which he stepped down in 2018. In 2021, he stepped down from Facebook. As of May 2022 he is the co-founder and CEO of Lightspark, a cryptocurrency startup which works on bitcoin and the Lightning Network.
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Friedrich Wilhelm, Prince of Hohenzollern
- Occupations
- entrepreneur
- Biography
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Friedrich Wilhelm Ferdinand Joseph Maria Manuel Georg Meinrad Fidelis Benedikt Michael Hubert Fürst von Hohenzollern was the head of the House of Hohenzollern for over 45 years.
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Constanze Stelzenmüller
- Occupations
- journalistjuristpolitical scientistopinion journalist
- Biography
-
Constanze Stelzenmüller is a German international relations analyst, policy and law scholar, and journalist. She is an expert in German, European, and trans-Atlantic foreign policy and global affairs. She writes academic and journalistic analyses in English and German media about international relations in general, and German–American relations in particular, as well as questions in the politics of Germany and the United States.
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Abdol Hossein Sardari
- Occupations
- diplomat
- Biography
-
Abdol Hossein Sardari was an Iranian diplomat. He is credited with saving thousands of Jews in Europe. He has since been known as "The Iranian Schindler" or "The Schindler of Iran".
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Louis de Jaucourt
- Occupations
- biologistwriterphysicianencyclopédistesphilosopher
- Biography
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Chevalier Louis de Jaucourt was a French scholar and the most prolific contributor to the Encyclopédie. He wrote about 18,000 articles on subjects including physiology, chemistry, botany, pathology, and political history, or about 25% of the entire encyclopaedia, all done voluntarily. In the generations after the Encyclopédie's, mainly due to his aristocratic background, his legacy was largely overshadowed by the more bohemian Denis Diderot, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and others, but by the mid-20th century more scholarly attention was being paid to him.
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Stefania Wilczyńska
- Occupations
- pedagoguewriterteacher
- Biography
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Stefania "Stefa" Wilczyńska was a Polish educator who was murdered in the Holocaust.
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Bohdan Hawrylyshyn
- Occupations
- diplomatengineereconomist
- Biography
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Bohdan Dmytrovych Hawrylyshyn was a Canadian, Swiss and Ukrainian economist, thinker, benefactor and advisor to governments and large companies worldwide. He was a full member of the Club of Rome, a long-time director of Switzerland's International Management Institute (now International Institute for Management Development), a founder of the European Management Forum in Davos (now World Economic Forum), a fellow and member of the Board of the World Academy of Art and Science. Hawrylyshyn also was a consultant of General Electric, IBM, Unilever, Philips and advisor to several countries. After Ukraine declared independence in 1991, he was an advisor to several Ukrainian prime ministers, and to most chairmen of the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada.
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Hartley Shawcross
- Occupations
- barristerautobiographerpoliticianbusinessperson
- Biography
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Hartley William Shawcross, Baron Shawcross, GBE, PC, QC, known from 1945 to 1959 as Sir Hartley Shawcross, was an English barrister and Labour politician who served as the lead British prosecutor at the Nuremberg War Crimes tribunal. He also served as Britain's principal delegate to the United Nations immediately after the Second World War and as Attorney General for England.
