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This is a partially sorted list of notable persons who have had ties to Columbia University. For further listing of notable Columbians see: Notable alumni at Columbia College of Columbia University; Columbia University School of General Studies; Columbia Law School; Columbia Business School; Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism; Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation; Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons; Columbia University Graduate School of Education (Teachers College); Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science; Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences; Columbia University School of Professional Studies; Columbia University School of the Arts; the School of International and Public Affairs; and Barnard College. The following lists are incomplete.
As of October 2020, 84 Nobel laureates were affiliated with Columbia University.[1][2][3][4] 43 Nobel laureates are the alumni of Columbia University.[4] 19 of these alumni have also served on the faculty or staff of the university. There are 41 non-alumni Nobel laureates who have been in service—as faculty, research scientists, research or postdoctoral fellows—to the university. Columbia University does not count a visiting professor as one of its own. Only those Nobel laureates who have spent a year or more at the university are counted. If Nobel laureates who have spent less than a year at the university were counted, the number of Nobel laureates affiliated with Columbia would be 96, more than any other academic institution.[5] In addition, Columbia ranks third in the number of Nobel Laureates it has graduated compared to other institutions in the world, surpassed only by the University of Cambridge and Harvard University. See List of Nobel Laureates by university affiliation.
Alumni and former students[]
Chemistry[]
1932
Irving Langmuir
(B.S., 1903; M.A., 1906)
1946
John H. Northrop
(B.S., 1912; M.A., 1913; Ph.D., 1915)
1972
William H. Stein
(Ph.D., 1938)
1981
Roald Hoffmann
(B.A., 1958)
1985
Herbert A. Hauptman
(M.A., 1939)
1989
Sidney Altman
(graduate student; teaching assistant, 1960 to 1962)
2001
William S. Knowles
(Ph.D., 1942)
2005
Robert H. Grubbs
(Ph.D., 1968)
2012
Robert J. Lefkowitz
(B.A., 1962; M.D., 1966; Presbyterian Hospital staff, 1966 to 1967)
Economic science[]
1971
Simon S. Kuznets
(B.S., 1923; M.A., 1924; Ph.D., 1926)
1972
Kenneth J. Arrow
(M.A., 1941; Ph.D., 1951)
1976
Milton Friedman
(Researcher, 1943 to 1945; Ph.D., 1946; faculty member, 1937 to 1940 and 1964 to 1965)
1993
Robert W. Fogel
(M.A., 1960)
1996
William S. Vickrey
(M.A., 1937; Ph.D., 1948; faculty member, 1946 to 1996)
(postdoctoral fellow, 1980 to 1984; research scientist, 1984 to 1991)
Field Medalists[]
Jesse Douglas—(attended Columbia College from 1920 to 1924), one of two winners of the first Fields Medal in 1936
Heisuke Hironaka—former professor of mathematics, Columbia; winner of the Fields Medal in 1970
Shigefumi Mori—former professor of mathematics, Columbia; winner of the Fields Medal and the Cole Prize (both in 1990)
Andrei Okounkov—professor of mathematics, Columbia; winner of the Fields Medal in 2006
Stephen Smale—professor of mathematics, Columbia; winner of the Fields Medal in 1966 and the Wolf Prize in Mathematics in 2006/7, one of only twelve Fields Medallists to win both prizes
Wolf Prize[]
Robert Brout—(Ph.D.) Belgian theoretical physicist; 2004 Wolf Prize in Physics; 2010 Sakurai Prize; significant contributions in elementary particle physics
Chien-Shiung Wu—physics professor and particle physicist, first woman to head the American Physical Society and the first woman to become a tenured professor in the physics department; 1978 Wolf Prize in Physics among other awards
Robert J. Winchester—(faculty) Crafoord Prize in Polyarthritis (2013)
Templeton Prize[]
Francisco J. Ayala—(Ph.D. 1964) Templeton Prize for life's work in evolutionary biology and genetics (2010), National Medal of Science (2001), among other awards
ACM Turing Award[]
John Backus—(B.S. 1949, M.A. 1950 Mathematics) Inventor of Fortran programming language, Draper Prize[7]
Founding Fathers of the United States are the political leaders who signed the Declaration of Independence or the United States Constitution, or otherwise participated in the American Revolution as leaders of the Patriots.
Alexander Hamilton—Founding Father, American Revolutionary War officer and aide-de-camp to George Washington, initiator and co-author of The Federalist Papers, the first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, economist, one of the first U.S. constitutional lawyers (picture appears on U.S. ten-dollar bill)
John Jay—Founding Father, president of the Continental Congress, co-author of The Federalist Papers, second U.S. Secretary of Foreign Affairs, first chief justice of the United States Supreme Court, diplomat, architect of Jay's Treaty with Great Britain
Robert Livingston—Founding Father, drafter of the Declaration of Independence, first U.S. Secretary of Foreign Affairs, U.S. Minister to France, negotiator of the Louisiana Purchase
Gouverneur Morris—Founding Father, author of large sections of the Constitution of the United States, U.S. Minister Plenipotentiary to France, United States Senator from New York, creator of the Manhattan street grid system, a builder of the Erie canal
Egbert Benson—Founding Father, member of the Continental Congresses; with Alexander Hamilton, delegate from New York to the Annapolis Convention; ratifier of the United States Constitution; served in the First and Second United States Congresses
Presidents of the United States[]
Theodore Roosevelt—(law, attended 1880 to 1881) (posthumous J.D., class of 1882),[8] 26th president of the United States (1901–1909); hero of the Spanish–American War (Medal of Honor, posthumously awarded 2001); Nobel Peace Prize recipient; Governor of New York; Assistant Secretary of the Navy; professional historian, explorer, author
Franklin Delano Roosevelt—(law, attended fall of 1904 to spring 1907) (posthumous J.D., class of 1907),[8] 32nd president of the United States (1933–1945); consistently ranked as one of the three greatest U.S. presidents in scholarly surveys; Governor of New York; Assistant Secretary of the navy
Dwight Eisenhower—34th president of the United States (1953–1961); Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force; president of Columbia University
Barack Obama—(B.A. 1983) 44th president of the United States (2009–2017); Nobel Peace Prize recipient; Democratic senator from Illinois (2005–2008); first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review
Vice presidents of the United States[]
Daniel D. Tompkins—6th Vice President of the United States, 4th Governor of New York, declined appointment as United States Secretary of State by President James Madison
Theodore Roosevelt—(Law) 25th Vice President of the United States, organized and helped command the Rough Riders in the Spanish–American War, Medal of Honor
Presidents and prime ministers (international)[]
Ashraf Ghani—(M.A. 1977, Ph.D. 1983) President of Afghanistan; finance minister; chancellor of Kabul University
Muhammad Fadhel al-Jamali—(M.A.) twicePrime Minister of Iraq (40th PM); six times Foreign Minister; member of both houses of Iraqi Parliament
Kassim al-Rimawi—(M.A. 1954, Ph.D. 1956) Prime Minister of Jordan (1980); Minister on six occasions (from 1962 through 1980)
Giuliano Amato—(M.A., Law 1963) twicePrime Minister of Italy (72nd and 78th PM); Minister of the Interior; Minister of Foreign Affairs
Nahas Angula—(M.A., MEd) Prime Minister of the Republic of Namibia (incumbent as of 2010); member of the National Assembly since 1990
Marek Belka—11th Prime Minister of Poland; twice Minister of Finance
Fernando Henrique Cardoso—(faculty) 34th president of Brazil (1995–2003); Minister of External Relations (1992–1993); Minister of Finance (1993–1994)
Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz—(Fulbright scholar, research, 1980 through 1981) Prime Minister of Poland (1996–97); Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland (2001–05); speaker, Sejm (lower chamber, Polish parliament) (2005); Minister of Justice of the Republic of Poland (1993–95); senator (2007–)
Gaston Eyskens—(MSc 1927) six-timePrime Minister of Belgium (1949–1950, 1958–1961, 1968–1973)
Mark Eyskens—(M.A. 1957) Prime Minister of Belgium (1981); Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs (1989–92); Belgian Minister of Finance; Belgian Minister of Economic Affairs
Sun Fo—(M.S. 1917) twicePremier of the Republic of China (1931–32, 48–49); President of the Legislative Yuan (1932–48); President of the Examination Yuan (1966–73)
Chen Gongbo—(M.A., Economics, 1925) Chinese politician; president of the Republic of China (Nanjing regime) (1944–1945)
Václav Havel—(visiting artist in residence, 2006); 1st president of the Czech Republic (1993–2003); last president of Czechoslovakia (1989–1992)
Jose Ramos Horta—Nobel Laureate; President of East Timor (2007–2012); Prime Minister (2006–2007)
Toomas Hendrik Ilves—(B.A.) twicePresident of Estonia ( 2011–, 2006–11); twice Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs (1999–2002, 1996–1998); Member of the European Parliament (2004–2006)
Radovan Karadžić—(M.D. 1975) Serb politician, 1st president of Republika Srpska (1992–1996), psychiatrist, poet; accused of committing war crimes against Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats during the Siege of Sarajevo, as well as ordering the Srebrenica massacre
Wellington Koo—(B.A., Ph.D.) twicePremier of China (1924; '26–27); interim President ('26–27); Amb. to the U.S. ('46–56); co-founder League of Nations, United Nations
Benjamin Mkapa—(M.A.) 3rd president of Tanzania (1995–2005); twice Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (1984–1990, 1977–1980)
Nwafor Orizu—(M.A.) Acting President of Nigeria (1965–1966); second President of the Nigerian Senate (1960–1966) (during the Nigerian First Republic)
Lucas Papademos—(faculty 1975–84) Prime Minister of Greece (November 2011–12); economist; former governor, Bank of Greece (1994–02) and vice president, European Central Bank (2002–10)
Hans-Gert Pottering—(graduate studies) 23rd president of European Parliament (2007–2009)
Mary Robinson—(faculty 2004–) 7th president of Ireland (1990–1997)
Mikhail Saakashvili—(Law 1994) twicePresident of Georgia (2004–2007, 2008–present); leader of Rose Revolution
Ernesto Samper—(M.A.) 56th president of Colombia (1994–98); 17th Secretary General of Non-Aligned Movement (1995–98); 1st Minister of Economic Development (1990–91)
Mohammad Musa Shafiq—(M.A.) Prime Minister of Afghanistan (1972–1973); Foreign Minister of Afghanistan (1971–1972)
Tang Shaoyi—twicePrime Minister of the Republic of China (1912, 1922); first president, Shandong University
T. V. Soong—(Ph.D.) twicePremier of Republic of China (1930 and 1945–1947); minister of finance (1932–1933); governor, Central Bank of China (1928–1931)
Charles Robberts Swart—(M.S.) firstState President of the Republic of South Africa (1961–1967); last Governor-General of the Union of South Africa (1960–1961); Acting Prime Minister (1958)
Nur Mohammed Taraki—3rd president and 12th Prime Minister of Afghanistan (1978–1979)
See also above at Nobel Laureates ("Alumni" and "Faculty") for separate listing of 41 notable faculty
Alfred Aho—Canadian computer scientist known for co-authorship of the AWK programming language; IEEE John von Neumann Medal (2003)
Anne Marie Albano–professor of medical psychology; known for clinical work and research on anxiety disorders
Hattie Alexander—professor of pediatrics, microbiologist; known for Haemophilus influenzae, antibiotic resistance
Dimitris Anastassiou—professor of electrical engineering, developer of MPEG-2 technology
Edwin Armstrong—professor, winner of the 1941 Franklin Medal and the 1942 Edison Medal, inventor and the Father of FM Radio
Karen Barkey—professor of sociology
Charles A. Beard—(Ph.D. 1904) American historian of the first half of the 20th century
Peter Bearman—professor of sociology
Daniel Bell—(graduate study, 1938–1939) professor of sociology
J. Bowyer Bell—adjunct professor at the School of International and Public Affairs, and research associate at the Institute of War and Peace Studies
Jagdish Bhagwati—professor of economics and law, author of In Defense of Globalization
Franz Boas—father of American Anthropology
C. Louise Boehringer, first female superintendent of schools, Yuma County and first female to be elected to office in Arizona.
Lee Bollinger—(J.D.) University President/law professor, First Amendment scholar, Affirmative Action advocate
Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen—professor of Germanic languages
Ronald Breslow—university professor of chemistry, biology, pharmacology, and engineering; Priestley Medal (1999); Perkin Medal (2010)
Alan Brinkley—professor of American history and university provost; son of newscaster David Brinkley
Zbigniew Brzezinski—National Security Advisor under the Carter Administration, taught Foreign Affairs
Richard Bulliet—history professor and Middle East scholar, author of Kicked to Death by a Camel
John Burgess—founder of modern political science
Santiago Calatrava—(honorary doctorate, 2007), architect, sculptor and structural engineer, designer of Montjuic Communications Tower and World Trade Center Transportation Hub
Stephen Cameron—financial analyst and adjunct associate professor (2003–present) and former associate professor (1994–2003) of International and Public Affairs; noted for studies on GED
Gabo Camnitzer—Artist, and educator
Neil W. Chamberlain—business professor and industrial relations scholar
Charles F. Chandler—American chemist, first Dean of Columbia University's School of Mines
Partha Chatterjee—anthropologist and scholar of postcolonial nationalism
Richard Clarida—C. Lowell Harriss Professor of Economics and International Affairs at Columbia University and current vice chair of the Federal Reserve
Lee Saunders Crandall—ornithologist and general curator of the Bronx Zoo
Hamid Dabashi—cultural and literary critic
Alexander Dallin—history and political science professor, director of Russian Institute
Samuel J. Danishefsky—professor of chemistry, winner of the Wolf Prize in Chemistry in 1995/96
Pierre Dansereau—Canadian ecologist known as one of the "fathers of ecology".
Arthur Danto—Johnsonian Professor of Philosophy emeritus, art critic
William Theodore de Bary—scholar and translator of East Asian texts, particularly classical Chinese canon
Lawrence R. Jacobs— American political scientist and founder and director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance (CSPG) at the University of Minnesota
Jon Jaques—professional basketball player, assistant basketball coach (Cornell University)
Eric Kandel—neuroscientist, 2000 Nobel laureate; Biophysicist, uncovered secrets of synapses. Professor Physicians & Surgeons (1974–); research with the Biomedical Engineering department
James Kent—first professor of law at Columbia College (1793–98), legal scholar and jurist, author of seminal "Commentaries on American Law"; the "Commentaries" treated state, federal, and international law, and the law of personal rights and property
Rashid Khalidi—Middle East historian
Cinta Laura Kiehl— Indonesian actress, singer, model and ambassador of anti-violence against women and children by the Indonesian Ministry of Women Empowerment and Child Protection
Philip Kim—professor of applied physics and mathematics
Grayson L. Kirk—former president and instrumental in the founding of the United Nations Security Council
Kenneth Koch—poet
Masatake Kuranishi—professor emeritus of mathematics
Klaus Lackner—professor of environmental engineering
Serge Lang—former professor of mathematics, recipient of the 1960 Cole Prize, and political activist
Arthur M. Langer—professor of professional practice, academic director of the M.S. in professional technology program and founder of Workforce Opportunity Services
Jaron Lanier—visiting scholar at the Computer Science department
Leon M. Lederman—Nobel Laureate, discoverer of muon neutrino '62, bottom quark '77. Professor (1951–1989); M.A., Ph.D. Columbia
Tsung Dao Lee—physics professor, Nobel laureate
Rudolph Leibel—Christopher J. Murphy Memorial Professor of Diabetes; Co-discovered the hormoneleptin, and cloned the leptin and leptin receptor genes, which have had a major role in the area of understanding human obesity.[11][12]
Mark Lilla—professor of humanities; historian of ideas[13]
Konrad Lorenz—psychology professor, Nobel laureate (Physiology or Medicine, 1973)
Jacob Millman—professor of electrical engineering, creator of Millman's Theorem
C. Wright Mills—professor of sociology
Eben Moglen—Law and the Internet Society, general counsel of FSF
Sidney Morgenbesser—John Dewey Professor of Philosophy
Robert Mundell—economics professor, 1999 Nobel laureate in Economics
Tristan Murail—professor of music composition, French composer
P. T. Narasimhan—theoretical chemist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
Mira Nair—director of Monsoon Wedding, film studies professor
Shree K. Nayar—professor of computer science, scholar noted for his work in the fields of Computational Imaging and Computer Vision
Franz Leopold Neumann—political science professor, Communist spy in Redhead group
Gertrude Fanny Neumark— expert on doping wide-band semiconductors
Robert S. Neuwirth—Babcock Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology; pioneer in the use of gynecological endoscopy
Kevin O'Rourke—Irish economist, now Chichele Professor of Economic History at the University of Oxford
John Ordronaux—Civil War army surgeon, professor of medical jurisprudence, mental health commissioner
Victor Perlo—economics professor, Soviet spymaster involved in Harold Ware spy ring and Perlo group as shown in Venona list of suspected subversives in the U.S.
Edmund Phelps—economist and Nobel laureate
Lorenzo da Ponte—first professor of Italian language and literature at Columbia; librettist to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Charles Lane Poor—astronomer
Peter Pouncey— classicist, novelist, college dean 1972–1976, former president of Amherst College
Mihajlo Idvorski Pupin—professor, Serbianphysicist and physical chemist whose inventions include the Pupin coil
Isidor Isaac Rabi—professor, Ph.D. from Columbia (1927), Nobel Laureate, discoverer of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance
Eliezer Rafaeli—founding President of the University of Haifa
Shivaram Rajgopal Vice Dean for research at Columbia Business School and a professor of accounting and auditing
Norman Foster Ramsey Jr.—professor (1940–1947) (B.A. 1935, Ph.D. 1940, Columbia); 1989 Nobel Prize in Physics, IEEE Medal of Honor, Discovery of deuteron electric quadrupole moment, molecular beam spectroscopy
Hyman G. Rickover—developer of the nuclear submarine, master's degree in electrical engineering
Michael Riffaterre—university professor, French & Romance philology, semiotician
Mary Robinson—7th president of Ireland, professor of practice in international affairs
Joseph Rothschild—political science and history professor, teacher of Contemporary Civilization
Jeffrey Sachs—head of the United Nations Millennium Project to end poverty, author of The End of Poverty.
Edward W. Said—university professor, professor of English and comparative literature, Palestinian activist, author of Orientalism, widely considered founder of Postcolonial studies
Mario Salvadori—architect, structural engineer, professor (1940s–1990s), consultant on Manhattan Project, inventor of thin concrete shells
Andrew Sarris—film studies professor and auteur theorist
Saskia Sassen—Dutch-American sociologist noted for analyses of globalization and international human migration; coined the term global city
Simon Schama—history Professor
James Schamus—film studies professor, co-president of Focus Features, three-time Academy Award-nominated and BAFTA Award-winning film screenwriter and producer
Warner R. Schilling—political scientist and international relations scholar
Marshall D. Shulman—scholar of Soviet studies and the founding director of the Russian Institute
Justice Sonia Sotomayor—lecturer in law, Columbia Law School (1999–); nominated by President Barack Obama, on May 26, 2009, to be a justice of the United States Supreme Court
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak—English professor
Henry Spotnitz—affiliate professor of biomedical engineering
Clifford Stein—professor of operations research and industrial engineering
Julian Steward—anthropologist, authority of Cultural ecology
Joseph Stiglitz—economics professor, 2001 Nobel laureate in Economics
Gilbert Stork—winner of the Wolf Prize in Chemistry in 1995/6
Horst Ludwig Störmer—I.I. Rabi professor of physics and applied physics, winner of 1998 Nobel Prize in Physics
Mark Strand—poet, former U.S. Poet Laureate, Bollingen and Pulitzer Prize-winner
David Weiss Halivni—rabbi, founder of Union for Traditional Judaism and developer of source-critical analysis of the Talmud
Nancy Wexler—Higgins Professor of Neuropsychology
Harrison White—professor of sociology
Enos Wicher—professor and Soviet spy named in Venona list of suspected subversives in the U.S., stepfather of State DepartmentSoviet spyFlora Wovschin
Peter Woit—mathematics professor, skeptic of string theory
Michael Wood— professor of English and comparative literature, holds endowed chair of English at Princeton
Howard Wriggins—political science and international relations professor, also U.S. ambassador to Sri Lanka and the Maldives
Chien-Shiung Wu—physics professor, first woman to head the American Physical Society and winner of the Wolf Prize in Physics in 1978
David Tannor (born 1958), theoretical chemist, visiting professor, Hermann Mayer Professorial Chair in the Department of Chemical Physics at the Weizmann Institute of Science
Mihalis Yannakakis—professor of computer science, scholar noted for his work in the fields of Computational complexity theory, Databases
Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi—Salo Wittmayer Baron Professor of Jewish History at Culture and Society
Shou-Wu Zhang, former professor of mathematics; specializes in number theory and arithmetical algebraic geometry; winner of the Guggenheim Fellowship in 2009 and Fields Medal finalist
Theodore Zoli—adjunct professor of civil engineering and structural engineer
University Professors[]
Richard Axel, molecular biology and neuroscience, 1999
^Shell E (January 1, 2002). "Chapter 4: On the Cutting Edge". The Hungry Gene: The Inside Story of the Obesity Industry. Atlantic Monthly Press. ISBN978-1422352434.
^Shell E (January 1, 2002). "Chapter 5: Hunger". The Hungry Gene: The Inside Story of the Obesity Industry. Atlantic Monthly Press. ISBN978-1422352434.
