34 Notable alumni of
Vytautas Magnus University
Updated:
Vytautas Magnus University is 1230th in the world, 428th in Europe, and 3rd in Lithuania by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 34 notable alumni from Vytautas Magnus University sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff.
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Marija Gimbutas
- Occupations
- prehistoriananthropologistuniversity teacherarchaeologist
- Biography
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Marija Gimbutas was a Lithuanian archaeologist and anthropologist known for her research into the Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures of "Old Europe" and for her Kurgan hypothesis, which located the Proto-Indo-European homeland in the Pontic Steppe.
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Leah Goldberg
- Years
- 1911-1970 (aged 59)
- Occupations
- literary criticpoettranslatorplaywrightwriter
- Biography
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Leah Goldberg or Lea Goldberg was a prolific Hebrew-language poet, author, playwright, literary translator, illustrater and painter, and comparative literary researcher.
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Rūta Meilutytė
- Occupations
- swimmer
- Biography
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Rūta Meilutytė is a Lithuanian swimmer. An Olympic gold medalist, she is a world record holder in the short course 50 metre breaststroke, 100 metre breaststroke and long course 50 metre breaststroke. She is a former world record holder in the long course 100 metre breaststroke.
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Algirdas Julien Greimas
- Occupations
- semiologistuniversity teacherlinguistphilosopher
- Biography
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Algirdas Julien Greimas was a Lithuanian literary scientist who wrote most of his body of work in French while living in France. Greimas is known among other things for the Greimas Square (le carré sémiotique). He is, along with Roland Barthes, considered the most prominent of the French semioticians. With his training in structural linguistics, he added to the theory of signification, plastic semiotics, and laid the foundations for the Parisian school of semiotics. Among Greimas's major contributions to semiotics are the concepts of isotopy, the actantial model, the narrative program, and the semiotics of the natural world. He also researched Lithuanian mythology and Proto-Indo-European religion, and was influential in semiotic literary criticism.
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Jonas Mačiulis
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
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Jonas Mačiulis is a Lithuanian former professional basketball player. Standing at 1.98 m (6 ft 6 in), he mainly played at the small forward position. As a member of the senior Lithuanian national team, he earned an All-EuroBasket Team selection in 2015, as Lithuania won the silver medal.
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Mantas Kalnietis
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
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Mantas Kalnietis is a Lithuanian former professional basketball player who last played for Žalgiris Kaunas of the Lithuanian Basketball League (LKL) and the EuroLeague. He was also a member of the Lithuanian national basketball team. He would preferably take the point guard position, but could play shooting guard as well.
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Salomėja Nėris
- Occupations
- writerpoliticianteacherpoettranslator
- Biography
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Salomėja Bačinskaitė-Bučienė, mostly known by her pen name Nėris was a Lithuanian poet.
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Paulius Jankūnas
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
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Paulius Jankūnas is a Lithuanian former professional basketball player who mainly played for Žalgiris Kaunas of the Lithuanian Basketball League (LKL) and the EuroLeague. He was also a member of the senior Lithuanian national team. Jankūnas played at either center or power forward, with power forward being his main position. He earned an All-EuroLeague Second Team selection in 2018.
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Justas Paleckis
- Occupations
- journalistpoettranslatorpolitician
- Biography
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Justas Paleckis was a Lithuanian Soviet author, journalist and politician. He was nominal acting president of Lithuania after the Soviet invasion while Lithuania was still ostensibly independent, in office from 17 June to 3 August 1940. He then remained the head of state of the Lithuanian SSR until 1967.
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Juozas Lukša
- Biography
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Juozas Lukša, also known among other pseudonyms as Daumantas and Skirmantas, was a leader of the anti-Soviet Lithuanian partisan armed resistance movement.
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Klaudzi Duzh-Dusheuski
- Enrolled in Vytautas Magnus University
- Studied in 1927
- Occupations
- journalistarchitectpoliticiandiplomat
- Biography
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Kłaŭdzij Sciapanavič Duž-Dušeŭski was a Belarusian civil engineer, architect, diplomat and journalist. He is believed to be the creator of the Flag of Belarus in 1917.
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Bernardas Brazdžionis
- Occupations
- writerliterary criticpoet
- Biography
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Bernardas Brazdžionis was a Lithuanian poet. Bernardas Brazdžionis also used various pen names, such as Vytė Nemunėlis, Jaunasis Vaidevutis.
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Jacob Gens
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Jacob Gens was the head of the Vilnius Ghetto government. Originally from a merchant family, he joined the Lithuanian Army shortly after the independence of Lithuania, rising to the rank of captain while also securing a college degree in law and economics. He married a non-Jew and worked at several jobs, including as a teacher, accountant, and administrator.
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Kazys Boruta
- Occupations
- politicianpoet
- Biography
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Kazys Boruta was a Lithuanian writer, poet and political activist.
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Jonas Aistis
- Occupations
- writerpoet
- Biography
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Jonas Aleksandravičius, better known as Jonas Aistis or Jonas Kuosa-Aleksandravičius, was a Lithuanian writer, poet, and essayist. Aistis was one of the most prominent neoromantic poets of Lithuania.
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Antanas Venclova
- Occupations
- politicianliterary criticpoet
- Biography
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Antanas Venclova was a Soviet and Lithuanian politician, poet, journalist and translator.
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Vincentas Sladkevičius
- Occupations
- Catholic bishopCatholic priest
- Biography
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Vincentas Sladkevičius, M.I.C. was a Lithuanian Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Kaunas from 1989 to 1996, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1988.
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Kęstutis Kėvalas
- Occupations
- university teacherCatholic priestCatholic bishop
- Biography
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Kęstutis Kėvalas is a Lithuanian prelate of the Catholic Church who has been the Metropolitan Archbishop of Kaunas since 2020. He has been a bishop since 2012, serving first as an auxiliary bishop of Kaunas from 2012 to 2017 and then as bishop of Telšiai from 2017 to 2012.
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Simonas Kairys
- Occupations
- international forum participantpolitician
- Biography
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Simonas Kairys is a Lithuanian politician, former Deputy Mayor of Kaunas and Kaunas City Councillor.
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Meilė Lukšienė
- Occupations
- literary scholarhistorianuniversity teacherpedagogue
- Biography
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Meilutė Julija Lukšienė née Matjošaitytė was a Lithuanian university professor, cultural historian, and activist.
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Kazys Bobelis
- Occupations
- university teachersurgeonpolitician
- Biography
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Kazys Bobelis was a Lithuanian surgeon and politician.
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Juozas Girnius
- Years
- 1915-1994 (aged 79)
- Occupations
- philosopher
- Biography
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Juozas Girnius was a Lithuanian existentialist philosopher. His philosophy combined existentialism, Catholicism, and Lithuanian nationalism. Together with Antanas Maceina and Stasys Šalkauskis, Girnius became a cornerstone of modern Lithuanian philosophy. In 1994, he was awarded the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas.
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Adolfas Jucys
- Occupations
- physicisttheoretical physicistmathematicianuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Adolfas Pranaitis Jucys was a Lithuanian theoretical physicist and mathematician, and inducted member of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences in 1953. He graduated from Kaunas University in 1931 and later worked with both creators of the self-consistent field method – Douglas Hartree in Manchester (in 1938) and Vladimir Fock in Leningrad (1949–1951). Adolfas Jucys created the scientific school of theoretical physics in Vilnius, was the head of the Department of Theoretical Physics at Vilnius University (1944–1971). He organized the first Institute of Physics and Mathematics in Lithuania and was its first director (1956–1963), and later (1971–1974) the head of the Institute's Department of Quantum Mechanical Calculations.
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Antanas Vaičiulaitis
- Occupations
- diplomat
- Biography
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Antanas Augustinas Vaičiulaitis was a Lithuanian fiction writer of the 20th century, and also known for his literary criticism and translations. His most prominent work is the novel Valentina.
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Zenonas Puzinauskas
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
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Zenonas Puzinauskas was a Lithuanian basketball player. He won two gold medals with the Lithuania national basketball team during EuroBasket 1937 and EuroBasket 1939.
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Genadijus Linas Vodopjanovas
- Occupations
- Catholic priestCatholic bishopCatholic deacon
- Biography
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Linas Vodopjanovas is a Lithuanian clergyman and bishop for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Panevėžys. He was ordained in 2000. He was appointed bishop in 2016.
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Augustinas Povilaitis
- Occupations
- politicianmilitary personnel
- Biography
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Augustinas Povilaitis was a captain of the Lithuanian Army and Director of the State Security Department of Lithuania. Together with Minister of the Interior Kazys Skučas, Povilaitis was a target of anti-Lithuanian Soviet propaganda in the days leading to the 1940 Soviet ultimatum and occupation of Lithuania. Directly after the Red Army invaded Lithuania on 15 June 1940, Povilaitis was arrested and transported to Moscow. He was executed in 1941. In 2006 he was awarded the Order of the Cross of Vytis.
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Leonas Prapuolenis
- Occupations
- economist
- Biography
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Leonas Prapuolenis was a Lithuanian public figure, commander and leader of the June Uprising of 1941 in Lithuania.
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Juozas Paukštelis
- Occupations
- writer
- Biography
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Juozas Paukštelis born Juozas Ptašinskas was a Lithuanian author and translator. His works have been translated into Russian, Polish, and Kazakh.
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Vaclovas Sidzikauskas
- Occupations
- juristdiplomat
- Biography
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Vaclovas Sidzikauskas was a prominent diplomat in interwar Lithuania and post-war anti-communist.
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Jonas Puzinas
- Occupations
- archaeologist
- Biography
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Jonas Puzinas was a Lithuanian archaeologist and specialist on the prehistory of Lithuania. He belonged to the first generation of Lithuanian scholars who matured in independent Lithuania (1918–40). He was the first scientifically trained archaeologist of Lithuania and he laid the foundations, including some of the basic terminology and periodization, for future archaeological studies. His work in Lithuania was cut short by World War II. In 1944, he retreated to Germany and then to the United States. There he continued his academic work, notably editing Lithuanian encyclopedias.
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Dalia Leinartė
- Occupations
- academichistorianauthoruniversity teacherpolitician
- Biography
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Dalia Leinartė is a member and former Chair of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), Professor at Vytautas Magnus University, and Fellow Commoner at Lucy Cavendish College, University of Cambridge, and a joint candidate of the Baltic States to the UN Human Rights Committee for the term 2025-2028. In 2018, Apolitical selected her as one of the 100 most influential people in gender policy around the world.
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Vytautas Augustaitis
- Occupations
- sports executive
- Biography
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Vytautas Augustauskas-Augustaitis was a Lithuanian educator, scientist, sports organizer, and one of the Lithuanian physical education system creators.
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Jonas Acus-Acukas
- Occupations
- chemist
- Biography
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Jonas Asevicius-Acus-Acukas was a Lithuanian army officer and chemist. From 1909 to 1918, he served in the Imperial Russian Army at Kaunas Fortress. He fought in the First World War and the Russian Civil War. In 1921 he returned to Lithuania and was mobilized into the Lithuanian Armed Forces, where he attained the rank of colonel (1927) and served until 1940. Acus graduated from Vytautas Magnus University in 1930. He lectured on chemistry and commodity science at Vytautas Magnus University (1934–1940), Vilnius University (1940–1950), and Lithuanian University of Agriculture (1951–1957). He wrote textbooks on foundations of commodity science (1949) and a short course in physical chemistry (1957). Acus was awarded the Commander's Crosses of the Order of Vytautas the Great (1938) and the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas (1928).
