List of people associated with University College London

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This is a list of people associated with University College London, including notable staff and alumni associated with the institution.

Founders and supporters[]

Founders[]

Apart from Jeremy Bentham, all these men were named (in Latin) on the Foundation Stone.^[1]

• James Abercromby, 1st Baron Dunfermline (1776–1858), Scottish peer and British statesman
• Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex (1773–1843), Grand Master of English Freemasons (the United Grand Lodge of England), 1813–1843, supporter of UCL; he laid the foundation stone of the new university on 30 April 1827
• Alexander Baring, 1st Baron Ashburton (1774–1848), British politician and financier
• Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832), English philosopher; a leading advocate for the foundation of UCL
• George Birkbeck (1776–1841), British Quaker, doctor, academic, philanthropist, and early *pioneer in adult education; founder of Birkbeck College.
• Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux (1778–1868), Scottish-born British statesman and slavery abolitionist, leading advocate in Parliament for the foundation of UCL
• Thomas Campbell (1777–1844), Scottish poet, founding father of UCL^[2]
• Francis Augustus Cox (1783–1853), Baptist Minister, active supporter of the foundation of UCL
• George Eden, 1st Earl of Auckland, British statesman
• Sir Isaac Lyon Goldsmid (1778–1859), financier, promoter of UK Jewry's emancipation; advocate for the foundation of UCL and a very generous benefactor
• Olinthus Gregory (1774–1841), English mathematician, author and editor
• George Grote (1794–1871), English classical historian
• Henry Howard, 13th Duke of Norfolk (1791–1856), Catholic peer, and advocate for the foundation of UCL^[3]
• Joseph Hume (1777–1855), Scottish doctor and politician
• Zachary Macaulay (1768–1838), Scottish-born slavery abolitionist, Governor of Sierra Leone, and active supporter of the foundation of UCL
• Sir James Mackintosh (1765–1832), Scottish jurist, politician and historian
• James Mill (1773–1836), Scottish historian, economist, political theorist, and philosopher; advocate for the foundation of UCL
• John Russell, 1st Earl Russell (1792–1878), British statesman
• Henry Warburton (1784–1858), English merchant and politician, and also an enthusiastic amateur scientist
• John Ward, 1st Earl of Dudley (1781–1833), British statesman
• William Wilkins (1778–1839), original architect of the main campus
• Thomas Wilson (1764–1843), Congregationalist benefactor of chapels and educational institutions, founder member of the UCL Council from 1825.

A translation of the Latin text engraved on a metal plate that was buried with the foundation stone reads as follows:^[4]

To God's favour the greatest and best, eternal architect of the universe may it bring you happiness and good fortune at the beginning of the eighth year of the reign of King George IV of Britain the most highest prince Augustus Frederick Duke of Sussex patron of all the fine arts the oldest order of architecture the highest among the English the foundation stone of the London University between city state [i.e. citizens] and brothers standing around will be placed by his hand to applause.

Day before the day before the Kalends of May

The work of God desired by the most fortunate citizens of this town has begun at last in the year of human greeting 1827 and in the year of light 5827.

In the name of these most illustrious men who are present and with the guidance of Henry Duke of Norfolk, Henry Marquis of Lansdown, Lord John Russell, John, Viscount Dudley and Ward, George, Baron Auckland, the Hon. James Abercrombie and Sir James Macintosh, Alexander Baring, Henry Bougham, Isaac Lyon Goldsmid, George Grote, Zachary Macaulay, Benjamin Shaw, William Tooke, Henry Waymouth, George Birkbeck, Thomas Campbell, Olinthus Gregory, Joseph Hume, James Mill, John Smith, Henry Warburton, John Wishaw, Thomas Wilson, and William Wilkins, architect.

Supporters[]

Benefactors[]

• Sir Herbert Bartlett (1842–1921), civil engineer, enabled the establishment of the UCL Bartlett School of Architecture
• Sir Isaac Lyon Goldsmid (1778–1859), financier, promoter of UK Jewry's emancipation; advocate for the foundation of UCL and a very generous benefactor

Council members[]

• Timothy Clement-Jones, Baron Clement-Jones, (1949–)
• Shreela Flather, Baroness Flather (1934–), British politician, UCL alumna, and the first South Asian woman to receive a peerage
• Sir Stephen Wall, British diplomat, leading Catholic layman, chairman of Council (2008–)^[5]
• Thomas Wilson (1764–1843),^[6] Congregationalist benefactor of chapels and educational institutions, founder member of the UCL Council from 1825.
• Thomas Field Gibson (1803-1889),^[7] Manufacturer and benefactor – on Council 1851–68
• Harry Woolf, Baron Woolf, UCL alumnus; variously Visitor, Deputy Chairman and Chairman of the Council (2005–08), and Chairman of the UCL Institute of Advanced Legal Studies.

Nobel laureates[]

Fields Medallists[]

The Fields Medal is often described as the "Nobel Prize in Mathematics". The UCL mathematical community has produced three Fields Medallists,^[8]

1998: Timothy Gowers

• Faculty member of the Department of Mathematics (1991–1995)

1970: Alan Baker

• BSc (1961), Professor (1964–1965)

1958: Klaus Roth

• MSc (1948), PhD (1950), Professor (1948–1966)

Former staff[]

Art, architecture, and design[]

• Tancred Borenius (1885–1948), art historian, diplomat and British wartime spy
• Sir Peter Cook (1936–), architect, The Bartlett Professor of Architecture^[9]
• Thorold Dickinson (1903–84), film maker; Britain's first Professor of Film Studies^[10]
• Thomas Leverton Donaldson (1795–1885), architect, first UCL Professor of Architecture
• Lucian Freud (1922–2011), painter
• Roger Fry (1866–1934), painter, art critic
• John Hooper Harvey (1911–97), architectural historian, Bartlett School of Architecture, 1950–59.
• Otto Königsberger (1908–1999), architect
• Michael (Edward) Parsons (1938–), avant-garde composer, and lecturer in fine art
• Cameron Sinclair (1973–), co-founder of Architecture for Humanity

Engineering sciences[]

• Thomas Hudson Beare (1859–1940), chair of engineering from 1889 to 1901
• Harold Barlow, staff then Pender Chair in the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering (1950–1966)
• Henry Chilver, Baron Chilver of Cranfield (1926–), 1961–69
• John Fleming (1849–1945)
• William Pole (1813–1900), 1859–76
• John William Draper - pioneer astro-photographer who also took the oldest surviving picture of a woman

Languages and literature[]

• Chimen Abramsky – Emeritus Professor of Hebrew and Jewish Studies
• Celia Britton – Emeritus Professor of French
• A. S. Byatt – Senior Lecturer in English and American Literature (1972–83); winner of the 1990 Booker Prize
• Sir Hermann Gollancz – Professor of Hebrew; British Rabbi (1902–24)
• Alan Hollinghurst – Lecturer in English; deputy editor, The Times Literary Supplement; later winner of the 2004 Booker Prize
• A. E. Housman – Professor of Latin; poet most famous as author of A Shropshire Lad
• Dan Jacobson – Professor of English; author; winner of the prestigious Somerset Maugham Award
• Sir Frank Kermode – Lord Northcliffe Professor of Modern English Literature (1967–74); literary critic
• Tomáš Masaryk – Inaugurated the London School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES), now part of UCL; later became the first President of Czechoslovakia
• David Masson – Professor of English Literature; Scottish writer
• Karl Miller – Lord Northcliffe Professor of English Literature (1976–92); first editor, The London Review of Books
• Arnaldo Momigliano – Professor of History (1951–75)
• Henry Morley – Professor of English Literature
• Dadabhai Naoroji – Professor of Gujarati (1856–1865) credited as the first British Asian UK Member of Parliament, also known as the "Grand Old Man of India"
• Sir Anthony Panizzi – Professor of Italian
• Stephen Spender – Lecturer in English; Gresham Professor of Rhetoric; English poet
• John Sutherland – Emeritus Lord Northcliffe Professor of Modern English Literature; columnist for The Guardian
• Jeremy Treglown – Professor of English; editor, The Times Literary Supplement; author
• D. P. Walker – Reader in French, musicologist, composer (1945–61)^[11]
• Stanley Wells – Emeritus Professor of Shakespeare Studies, Chairman of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust
• Moira Yip – Professor of Linguistics

Law[]

Mathematical, physical, and space sciences[]

• Jim Al-Khalili – post-doctoral Fellow
• Alan Baker, (mathematics) – winner of the 1970 Fields Medal
• Charles Bungay Fawcett – Professor of Geography
• Jocelyn Burnell, (astronomy) – discovered radio pulsars
• Paul Cohn – Astor Professor of Mathematics
• Marianna Csörnyei – Professor of Mathematics
• Harold Davenport – Astor Professor of Mathematics, number theory
• Philip Dawid – Professor of Statistics, President of the International Society for Bayesian Analysis
• Augustus DeMorgan – Professor of Mathematics, noted for his law of sets
• Sir Francis Galton – 'Father of fingerprinting'
• Tim Gowers – Professor of Mathematics; winner of the 1998 Fields Medal
• Peter Higgs – Theoretical Physicist and winner of the 2004 Wolf Prize in Physics
• James Joseph Sylvester – Professor of Mathematics, algebra and matrix theory
• Norman Lloyd Johnson – Reader in Statistics
• Sir James Lighthill – Lecturer; predecessor to Stephen Hawking as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University
• Dennis Lindley, statistician
• Sir Harrie Massey – Goldsmid Professor of Applied Mathematics, world expert on atomic and molecular collisions
• Egon Pearson – Professor of Statistics
• Karl Pearson – Goldsmid Professor of Applied Mathematics; founder of the Department of Applied Statistics
• Eugene Rabinowitch – worked in the Manhattan Project and co-founded the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
• Klaus F. Roth – Professor of Mathematics, winner of the 1958 Fields Medal
• Edward Teller – 'Father of the Hydrogen Bomb'
• Patrick du Val
• Alfred North Whitehead – Professor of Physics

Life sciences[]

• Sir Thomas Barlow, royal physician known for his research on infantile scurvy (Barlow's disease)
• Dame Carol Black, Professor of Rheumatology; National Director for Health & Work; formerly president of the Royal College of Physicians
• Patricia H. Clarke née Greene, FRS, (1919–2010), Professor of Microbial Biochemistry
• David Clary, FRS, Director of the UCL Centre for Theoretical and Computational Chemistry; Chief Scientific Advisor, UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, 2009-^[12]
• Alex Comfort, Faculty of Medicine; author of the seminal sex guide, The Joy of Sex
• George Viner Ellis, prominent anatomist. He studied Medicine at UCL Medical School and later became a Professor of Anatomy
• Sir Martin Evans, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine-winning biologist for his work with stem cells
• Lesley Fallowfield, Professor of Psycho-Oncology (1997–2001)
• Suzi Gage, psychologist, science blogger
• C. Robin Ganellin, Emeritus Professor of Medicinal Chemistry, co-discoverer of cimetidine
• Andrew J Goldberg, Clinical Senior Lecturer in orthopaedic surgery
• J. B. S. Haldane, Professor of Genetics (1933–57). He was one of the founders of population genetics.
• Victor Horsley, Professor of Clinical Surgery co-inventor of Horsley–Clarke apparatus
• Ian Jacobs, Dean of Medicine
• Roland Levinsky, Hugh Greenwood Professor of Immunology.
• Avrion Mitchison, Professor of Zoology
• Santa Ono, GlaxoSmithKline Professor of Biomedical Sciences
• Sir Richard Quain, Chair of Anatomy (?–1850), having also studied Medicine at UCL Medical School, and later physician-extraordinary to Queen Victoria
• Dunkinfield Henry Scott, Botanist
• Anthony Segal, Professor of Medicine
• John Maynard-Smith, Lecturer in Zoology (1952–65)
• David Morley, Professor of child health, a pioneer in child healthcare
• Bert Sakmann, Nobel Prize-winning cell physiologist and former researcher at UCL Department of Biophysics (1970–1973)
• Sir Edward Henry Sieveking, former Physician Extraordinary to King Edward VII
• Charles Spearman, Professor of Psychology; noted for Spearman's rank correlation coefficient
• Bernard Spilsbury, Britain's first forensic scientist.
• Ernest Starling, Physiologist, noted for the Frank–Starling law of the heart, producing the Starling equation, and for the discovery of hormones at UCL alongside his brother-in-law William Bayliss
• Patrick Wall, Professor of Neurophysiology, noted for the influential gate theory of pain with Ronald Melzack at McGill University
• Alexander Williamson – noted for the chemical synthesis of ether
• Lewis Wolpert, Professor of Biology
• John (J-Z)Young, Professor of Anatomy

Philosophy[]

• A. J. Ayer, Grote Professor of the Philosophy of Mind and Logic (1946–59)
• Myles Burnyeat, Lecturer in Philosophy
• Gerald Cohen, Reader in Philosophy; later Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory at Oxford University
• S.V. Keeling, Lecturer and Reader in Philosophy, scholar of J. M. E. McTaggart and Descartes (after whom the annual Keeling lectures on Ancient Philosophy at UCL are named).^[13]
• Stuart Hampshire, Grote Professor of the Philosophy of Mind and Logic
• W. D. Hart
• Ted Honderich, Emeritus Grote Professor of the Philosophy of Mind and Logic
• John Macmurray, Grote Professor of the Philosophy of Mind and Logic; BBC broadcaster
• John Stuart Mill, studied with John Austin at UCL.^[14]
• Carveth Read, Professor of Moral Philosophy
• Bernard Williams, Lecturer in Philosophy; later Knightbridge Professor of Philosophy at Cambridge University
• Richard Wollheim, Grote Professor of the Philosophy of Mind and Logic

Social sciences, geography, and history[]

• Michael Crawford, Professor of Ancient History
• Wendy Davies, Professor of Medieval Celtic History
• Romesh Chunder Dutt (রমেশচন্দ্র দত্ত)), student and later Professor of Indian History who translated the Ramayana and Mahabharata. He served as President of the Indian National Congress in 1899.
• G. E. M. de Ste. Croix, Marxist historian of Greek Antiquity, author of The Class Struggle in the Ancient Greek World
• Sir Andrew Dilnot, Economist; Principal, St. Hugh's College Oxford; Pro Vice-Chancellor, Oxford
• Dame Mary Douglas, Professor of Anthropology; noted for her Cultural Theory of Risk
• Hugh Gaitskell, lecturer in Political Economy (1928–1939), former leader of the Labour Party
• Georgina Herrmann, Reader in the Archaeology of Western Asia (1994-2002)
• Albert Pollard, Professor of Constitutional History; major contributor to the Dictionary of National Biography
• Conrad Russell, Professor of Early Modern British History
• Sir Eric Turner, Professor of Papyrology
• Paul Rosenstein-Rodan, taught Economics at UCL, authored the "Big Push" Theory, later Assistant Director of the Economic Department in the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, 1947-1953.^[15]

Current staff[]

For the main listing see

Art, architecture, and design[]

• Edward Allington
• Martin John Callanan
• Dryden Goodwin
• Lisa Milroy
• Liz Rideal
• Thomson & Craighead, artists

History, languages and literature[]

• Rosemary Ashton, OBE, Quain Professor of English Language and Literature
• John Dickie, Professor in Italian Studies
• Mark Ford, Professor of English
• Mary Fulbrook, Professor of German History
• Philip Horne, Professor of English
• John Mullan, Professor of English
• Li Wei, Chair of Applied Linguistics and Director of the UCL Centre for Applied Linguistics

Mathematical, physical and space sciences[]

• Tim Broyd, Professor of Built Environment Foresight and Honorary Professor of Civil Engineering
• Alan Sokal, Professor of Mathematics

Life sciences[]

• Peter Butler, Professor of Surgery
• David Colquhoun, notable for predicting the single Ion channel function, later verified by Bert Sakmann
• Martin Elliott, Professor of Paediatric Cardiothoracic Surgery
• Rob Horne, Professor of Behavioural Medicine, School of Pharmacy
• Steve Jones, Professor of Genetics
• Nick Lane, Winner of the 2015 biochemical society award and influential science writer
• Sammy Lee, expert in in vitro fertilisation
• Janet Radcliffe-Richards, Director, Centre for Biomedical Ethics and Philosophy
• Martin Raff, Professor of Zoology, Former Director of the Laboratory of Molecular Cell Biology
• Sarah Tabrizi, Professor of Neuroscience
• , Professor and Chair of Drug Discovery
• Robin Weiss, Director of the Wohl Virus Research Centre, discovered that CD4 is the co-receptor for HIV
• Semir Zeki, Professor of Neurology, proponent for the role of Visual area 4 in cognitive colour construction

Social sciences, geography, and history[]

• John Adams, Professor of geography and authority on risk compensation
• Richard Blundell, Ricardo Professor of Political Economy; Director, Institute for Fiscal Studies
• Catherine Hall, Professor of Modern British Social and Cultural History
• Gordon Hillman, Honorary Visiting Professor in Archaeobotany (Palaeoethnobotany)
• Simon Hornblower, Grote Professor of ancient history and editor of the Oxford Classical Dictionary
• Amélie Kuhrt, Historian of the ancient Near East.
• Martyn Rady, Professor of Central European History
• John Reid, Chairman of the Institute for Security and Resilience Studies at UCL, and a member of the UK Parliament.
• Christopher Tilley, Professor of Anthropology and Archaeology, he is known as one of the pioneers of the post-processual archaeology movement.

Alumni[]

Academics[]

• Roy Clive Abraham (Certificate in Anthropology, 1927), scholar of African languages
• Israel Abrahams (MA), Jewish scholar
• Sir Walter Adams (History and later lecturer), historian and former Director of the London School of Economics
• Hutton Ayikwei Addy, Professor of Public Health, first dean of the University for Development Studies Medical School
• Momtazuddin Ahmed (PhD Philosophy, 1937), Bangladeshi philosopher and academic
• Mark Allinson (PhD in German history), academic and historian of German history
• Ali Ansari (BA), historian and founder of the Institute for Iranian Studies
• Emmanuel Quaye Archampong, Emeritus Professor of Surgery at the University of Ghana
• Robert Arnott, medical archaeologist
• John Baker, UCL (LLB, PhD): Downing Professor of the Laws of England, University of Cambridge
• Trevor J. Barnes, Professor of Economic Geography at the University of British Columbia
• Peter Birks, former Regius Professor of Civil Law, University of Oxford
• Edith Clara Batho (English, 1915), Principal of Royal Holloway College
• Bernard Crick, British political theorist
• David Crystal, Professor Emeritus, UWB, prominent linguist
• Stephen Daniels (PhD), Professor of Cultural Geography at University of Nottingham
• Stephen Guest, Professor of Legal Philosophy, UCL
• Noreena Hertz, associate director, Judge Business School at Cambridge University
• David Gwilym James, Vice-Chancellor 1952-1965 University of Southampton
• William Jevons, Professor of Political Economy, UCL
• Timothy L. Killeen (BSc, PhD), President of the University of Illinois system
• R.J.B. Knight, naval historian
• David Llewellyn, Vice-Chancellor of Harper Adams University
• Julie Maxton, Registrar at Oxford University
• Lillian Penson, first woman Vice-Chancellor of London University
• Chung-Kwong Poon (潘宗光), GBS, JP, President of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University since 1991
• Henry Enfield Roscoe, former Vice-Chancellor of the University of London (1896-1902)
• Lord Randolph Quirk, Quain Professor of English Literature
• Stefan Reif, studentship, later Professor of Hebrew at the University of Cambridge
• William Scoresby Routledge (Medicine), ethnographer
• Sir Adrian Smith (UCL Mathematics, PhD), FRS, Vice-Chancellor of the University of London, 2012-
• Jonathan Wolff (MPhil), Professor of Philosophy and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at UCL

Economists[]

• Edith Abbott (Carnegie Scholarship), American economist, social reformer, academic and author. Abbott was the first women to become a Dean of an American Graduate School at the University of Chicago.
• Sophia N. Antonopoulou (PhD Economics), economist and academic
• Süleyman Başak (BSc Civil Engineering), financial economist
• Roger Bate, economist formerly of the Institute of Economic Affairs and other free market-orientated organisations
• John Stuart Mill attended UCL to study with John Austin, major political philosopher.^[14]
• Philip Wicksteed, economist and theologian
• , Governor of Central Bank of Cyprus

Engineers[]

• William Edward Ayrton, co-developer the first spiral-spring ammeter, wattmeter and electric tricycle
• Harold Barlow, engineer and UCL academic
• Arnold Beck, Professor of Engineering, University of Cambridge
• Ian McDonald Campbell, civil engineer and vice-chairman of British Rail
• Colin Chapman, Formula One designer and founder of Lotus Cars
• Demetrius Comino OBE, engineer, inventor of Dexion steel slotted angle system
• Edward Dobson (1816/17?–1908), Provincial Engineer for the Canterbury Province in New Zealand
• John Ambrose Fleming, inventor of the thermionic valve and the diode
• Helen Grimshaw OBE (BSc Engineering and PhD), aeronautical human engineering specialist at Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough. RAeSoc Wakefield medallist^[16]
• Oliver Lodge, involved in the development of wireless telegraph
• Colin Robbins, software engineer, co-inventor of LDAP
• Bruce Woodgate, Principal investigator and designer of the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope^[17]

Life scientists[]

• Agnes Arber (BSc, DSc, 1905), botanist
• Alec Bangham (Medicine), biophysicist researching liposomes and inventing clinically-useful artificial lung surfactants
• Anne Beloff-Chain, biochemist
• Margaret Jane Benson, (1859-1936) paleobotanist
• Alfred William Bennett (1833–1902), British botanist and publisher of The Friend
• G. Marius Clore FRS (Biochemistry, UCL, 1976; Medicine, University College Medical School, 1979), biophysicist and structural biologist; pioneer of multidimensional macromolecular NMR spectroscopy laying foundations of 3D structure determination of proteins in solution; member of the United States National Academy of Sciences
• Sir Philip Cohen (BSc, PhD, 1969), Royal Medal-winning biochemist^[18]
• Gillian Griffiths, cell biologist and immunologist
• Allan Octavian Hume (Medicine), political reformer, ornithologist and botanist, one of the founders of the Indian National Congress^[19]
• John Maynard-Smith, theoretical evolutionary biologist and geneticist
• Ralph Kekwick, biochemist
• Raphael Weldon (Medicine, left 1877), evolutionary biologist and a founder of biometry

Mathematicians, scientists and statisticians[]

• Alan Baker, winner of the 1970 Fields Medal
• D.J. Bartholomew (BSc, PhD Mathematics), statistician and President of the Royal Statistical Society (1993-1995)
• Laurence Baxter, professor of statistics
• Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of telephone
• Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose – one of the founders of radio telecommunication.
• George E. P. Box (1919–2013), (UCL Mathematics and Statistics, PhD, 1953), Vilas Research Professor of Statistics, University of Wisconsin–Madison
• Margaret Burbidge, astrophysicist, former American Astronomical Society President, former Royal Greenwich Observatory Director
• Ian Crawford – Professor of Planetary Science and Astrobiology, Birkbeck University of London
• Florence Nightingale David (1909–1993), statistician
• Roland Dobbs, physicist
• Thomas Eckersley, theoretical physicist and expert in radio waves
• Thomas Elger, selenographer famous for his lunar map
• John Fox, statistician
• Cecilie French, chemist specialising in magnetochemistry.
• William Gowers, winner of the 1998 Fields Medal
• Cyril Hilsum, pioneer of liquid crystal materials and devices, development of flat screen devices
• Hermann Arthur Jahn, chemist, with Edward Teller he identified the Jahn–Teller effect
• William Stanley Jevons, economist and logician
• Norman Lloyd Johnson, professor of statistics and author
• Chris Lintott, Professor of Astrophysics at Oxford
• Kathleen Lonsdale, discovered the structure of benzene
• Karl Pearson, statistician, founder of statistics department at UCL.
• Sir Roger Penrose, mathematician and Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics at Oxford, winner of the 1988 Wolf Prize
• Hans Reck, volcanologist and paleontologist
• Klaus Roth, mathematician, winner of the 1958 Fields Medal
• Walter Rouse-Ball, mathematician

• R.J.G. Savage (PhD Paleontology), palaeontologist known as Britain's leading expert on fossil mammals
• M. J. Seaton, British mathematician, atomic physicist and astronomer
• Ian Sloan, Australian applied mathematician
• Kirstine Smith, statistician, creator of optimal design of experiments
• David Spiegelhalter, statistician, Professor at Cambridge
• Russell Stannard, Professor Emeritus of Physics at the Open University, winner of the 1999
• Tan Tin Wee (陈定炜), Singaporean scientist, 2012 Inaugural Internet Hall of Fame,^[20][21] inventor of Internationalized Domain Names (IDN) (1998), bioinformatics pioneer in Asia, Director, National Supercomputing Centre Singapore.
• Percy White (Chemical Engineering), British chemist and nuclear scientist
• Heinz Wolff, scientist, television and radio presenter
• Jerzy Neyman, Polish mathematician and statistician that first introduced the modern concept of a confidence interval into statistical hypothesis testing and co-revised Ronald Fisher's null hypothesis testing

Medical figures[]

• Sir (Ernest) Donald Acheson, Chief Medical Officer and Chief Medical Adviser to H.M. Government 1983–91.
• Judy Armitage (PhD, 1976), professor of molecular and cellular biochemistry at the University of Oxford
• Tipu Aziz (Neurophysiology), professor of neurosurgery and neurophysiology
• Alan Baddeley, psychologist known for his work on working memory, including his multiple components model
• Edward Ballard (Medicine), physician and social commentator on living conditions in Victorian Britain
• Erasmus Darwin Barlow, psychiatrist, physiologist and businessman
• Sir Thomas Barlow (Medicine), British royal physician known for his research on infantile scurvy (Barlow's disease)
• Dame Josephine Barnes (Medicine), obstetrician and gynaecologist
• Ann Barrett, Emeritus Professor of Oncology at the University of East Anglia
• Herbert Barrie, neonatologist
• William Bayliss, physiologist who, along with his brother-in-law Ernest Starling, first discovered the existence and function of hormones while working at University College London
• Wilfred Bion, psychoanalyst
• Charles Bolton (MD), physician and pathologist
• John Bowlby (Medicine), psychologist, psychiatrist, pioneer of attachment theory
• Michael Brown, Director of Army Medicine and former Physician to the Queen
• Sir Cyril Lodowic Burt FBA (1883-1971). Professor and Chair of Psychology (1931–51), pioneering child psychologist, now discredited.
• Walter Carr (BS MD), physician and surgeon
• William Carpenter, physician, invertebrate zoologist and physiologist
• Dame June Clark Emeritus Professor of Community Nursing, University of Wales, Swansea
• Oscar Clayton, surgeon
• Archie Cochrane, epidemiologist, Professor of Tuberculosis and Chest Diseases, Welsh National School of Medicine, pioneer of evidence-based medicine^[22]
• Leslie Collier, virologist who helped to create the first heat stable smallpox vaccine key in the eventual eradication of the disease.^[23]
• Edward Treacher Collins, ophthalmologist and first described Treacher Collins Syndrome

• Henry Radcliffe Crocker, dermatologist
• Jane Dacre (Medicine), President of the Royal College of Physicians (2014–incumbent), only the third female President in its nearly 500-year history^[24]
• Viscount Bertrand Dawson, doctor to the British Royal Family
• Deborah Doniach, leading expert on auto-immune diseases^[25]
• George Viner Ellis (Medicine and later Professor of Anatomy), prominent anatomist
• Sir John Erichsen (Medicine and later lecturer), prominent surgeon and surgeon-extraordinary to Queen Victoria
• Sir Martin Evans (PhD, 1969, and later lecturer), 2007 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine-winning scientist
• Jeremy Farrar (BSc, MBBS), director of the Wellcome Trust 2014-
• Sir William Henry Flower (MB), comparative anatomist and 2nd director of the Natural History Museum, London
• William Tilbury Fox, dermatologist
• Eva Frommer. Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, child psychiatrist and pioneer of arts therapies in hospital, for children
• Clare Gerada (Medicine), former Chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners (2010–13), the first female Chair for 50 years^[26]
• Ben Goldacre (MB BS), academic and science writer
• Andrew J Goldberg, Clinical Senior Lecturer in orthopaedic surgery and Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon
• Rainer Guillery, Emeritus Professor of Anatomy, University of Wisconsin Medical School; formerly Dr Lee's Professor of Human Anatomy, University of Oxford
• Anita Harding, neurologist who co-authored the first paper which identified pathogenic mitochondrial DNA mutation in human disease (in Kearn-Sayre syndrome)
• John Ivor Pulsford James, known as J.I.P. James, president and honorary fellow of the British Orthopaedic Association
• Donald Jeffries, virologist, expert on HIV^[27]
• Sir William Jenner, was the first doctor to identify between typhus and typhoid
• Christian Jessen, medical doctor and television presenter best known Embarrassing Bodies
• Edwin Lankester, founder of the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science (QJMS)
• Thomas Lewis (MB BS), cardiologist
• Joseph Lister, 1st Baron Lister, associated with the rise of antiseptics in medicine
• Kalman Mann (MB BS), Israeli physician, 8th director general of Hadassah Medical Organization^[28]
• Barrie Marmion, microbiologist
• Henry Marsh (Medicine), neurosurgeon^[29]
• Clare Marx (MB BS), first female president elected at the Royal College of Surgeons of England (2014-incumbent)
• Max Pemberton, medical doctor, author and journalist
• Raj Persaud, Consultant Psychiatrist in General Adult and Community Psychiatry, Bethlem Royal & Maudsley Teaching Hospitals and Clinical Tutor to Bethlem & Maudsley Senior House Officers, since 1994
• Sir Richard Powell (Medicine), physician and Physician Royal to Queen Victoria, King Edward VII and King George V
• Sir Richard Quain (Medicine, 1840, and later Chair of Anatomy), physician who also served as physician-extraordinary to Queen Victoria
• Cornelius Odarquaye Quarcoopome, Pioneer ophthalmologist in Ghana
• Sir Philip Randle, Professor of Clinical Biochemistry, University of Oxford since 1975
• Bernard Ribeiro, Baron Ribeiro, former President of the Royal College of Surgeons of England (2005–08)
• Sydney Ringer (MB), British clinician, physiologist and pharmacologist, best known for inventing Ringer's solution
• Rosemary Rue, physician and civil servant
• Sir Edward Sharpey-Schafer, physiologist
• Elizabeth Joan Stokes (MB BS), clinical bacteriologist
• Sir Rodney Sweetnam, President, Royal College of Surgeons of England, 1995–98; formerly Orthopaedic Surgeon to The Middlesex and University College Hospitals 1960–92; Orthopaedic Surgeon to The Queen 1982–92.
• Hugh Owen Thomas, father of orthopaedic surgery in Britain
• Richard Turner-Warwick, formerly Senior Surgeon and Urologist to The Middlesex and St Peters Hospitals and Hunterian Professor Royal College of Surgeons
• Dame Margaret Turner-Warwick, President, Royal College of Physicians 1989–92
• Kenneth Walton, pathologist
• W. Roger Williams, pathologist, surgeon, cancer researcher and medical writer
• Dame Albertine Winner (BSc, MB BS, MD), physician and medical administrator
• R. A. Young (MB MD), physician and tuberculosis specialist

Architects, artists, and designers[]

• Corinne Bennett (Bartlett, 1957), conservation architect
• David Bomberg (1890–1957), Slade School of Fine Art (1913)
• Teresa Borsuk (Bartlett, 1981), architect
• Martin John Callanan
• Sir William Coldstream
• Martin Creed, conceptual artist; winner of the 2001 Turner Prize
• James Stevens Curl (History of Art), architectural historian, conservation consultant and critic
• Antony Gormley, sculptor; winner of the 1994 Turner Prize; creator of the Angel of the North
• Eileen Gray (Slade, 1898), lacquer artist and furniture designer
• Gerry Judah (Slade, 1977), artist, sculptor and designer
• Augustus John, painter
• Sir Osbert Lancaster, cartoonist, author, critic
• Gertrude Leverkus (B.A., 1919), architect
• Wyndham Lewis, co-founder of the Vorticist movement
• David Mlinaric, architect, interior designer
• Evelyn De Morgan (Slade, 1877), painter
• Ben Nicholson, abstract painter
• Sir Eduardo Paolozzi, sculptor and artist
• Stuart Pearson Wright, painter
• Monica Pidgeon, interior designer and journalist
• Patricio Pouchulu, architect and academic
• Paula Rego, painter (Slade, 1952–56)
• Jenny Saville, prominent Young British Artist
• Sir Stanley Spencer, painter
• Sir John Summerson, leading British architectural historian and Slade Professor of Fine Art at the University of Oxford (1958–59)
• Tomoko Takahashi, installation artist; shortlisted for the 2000 Turner Prize
• Rachel Whiteread, sculptor; winner of the 1993 Turner Prize
• Sir Rex Whistler, artist, designer and illustrator
• Sir Colin St John Wilson (Architecture, 1949), architect, lecturer and author. He spent over 30 years progressing the project to build a new British Library in London.

Banking, business and commercial figures[]

• Andreas Antonopoulos (Computer Science), technology entrepreneur
• Dominic Blakemore (French), CEO of Compass Group
• Richard Brown (MPhil Town and Transport Planning), current Chairman of Eurostar International and former chief executive of Eurostar UK
• Colin Chapman, founder of Lotus Cars
• (LLM), former chief executive and president of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives (CCCE)
• Paul Donovan, current CEO of Odeon UCI Cinemas Group and former CEO of Vodafone Ireland and eircom
• Lewis Evans, scientific instrument collector and businessman
• Lord Digby Jones (LLB), former Director-General of the Confederation of British Industry and Minister of State for Trade and Investment
• John Kenny, BSc, founder and Chairman, JKX Oil and Gas, since 1992. [1995].
• Ian Luder, Taxation specialist, and Lord Mayor of the City of London 2008–2009
• Roger Lyons, Joint General Secretary, AMICUS since 2001; President, Trades Union Congress, 2003–04. [1996].
• Susan Ma, managing director of Tropic Skin Care; finalist on The Apprentice series seven (2011).
• Richard Martell, Creator of the controversial social network "FitFinder".
• Ceawlin Thynn, Viscount Weymouth, Longleat Enterprises
• Roger Tomlinson, founder of Geographic Information Systems President, Tomlinson Associates Ltd, Consulting Geographers. [2003].
• Marjorie Wallace, Countess Skarbek, Chief Executive, SANE, since 1990. [2004].
• Edwin Waterhouse, founding partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers
• Dame Sharon White, Chairman of the John Lewis Partnership; former Chief Executive of Ofcom
• Farhad Moshiri, billionaire and stakeholder in Everton F.C.

Charity sector figures[]

• Baroness Delyth Morgan (Physiology), Chief Executive of Breakthrough Breast Cancer and former UK government minister
• Jeremy Farrar (University College Medical School, 1986), Director of the Wellcome Institute, 2014-
• Christopher Howe (MSc Conservation, 1989), Executive Director of WWF-New Zealand, 2007-2016^[30]

Government and public officials, heads of state and politicians[]

UCL has had a long and distinguished history in producing many prominent politicians for countries home and abroad. Notable alumni include the "Father of the Nation" of each of India, Kenya and Mauritius, the founders of Ghana, modern Japan and Nigeria among others.

Heads of state and intergovernmental organisations[]

• Nicos Anastasiades (Shipping Law), current President of Cyprus (2013-)
• Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, first Prime Minister of Nigeria (1960-1966)
• Sir Elliott Belgrave (LLB), former Governor-General of Barbados (2012-2017) (Acting 2011-2012)
• Martin Bourke (BA, 1969), Governor of the Turks and Caicos Islands (1993-1996)
• Angie Brooks (International Law, 1953), first African woman President of the United Nations General Assembly (24th Session, 1969-1970) and the second woman to head the United Nations
• Terry Davis (LLB, 1962), former Secretary General of the Council of Europe (2004-2009)
• Sir Ellis Clarke (LLB), Governor-General then first President of Trinidad and Tobago (1972-1987)
• Sir Vincent Floissac (LLB), acting Governor-General of Saint Lucia (1987-1988)
• Chaim Herzog (חיים הרצוג) (LLB), sixth President of Israel (1983-1993)
• Hirobumi Itō (伊藤 博文) (one of the "Chōshū Five"), first Prime Minister of Imperial Japan (1885-1888, 1892-1896, 1898, 1900-1901), known as ‘the Father of the Japanese Constitution’ having drafted the 1890 Meiji Constitution of the Imperial Japan^[31]
• Jomo Kenyatta, considered the "Founding Father" of Kenya, first Prime Minister then President of Kenya (1963-1978)
• Benedicto Kiwanuka (LLB, 1956), Chief Minister of the Uganda Protectorate then first Prime Minister of Uganda (1961-1962)
• Junichiro Koizumi (小泉 純一郎) (Economics, 1969), former Prime Minister of Japan (2001-2006)
• Sir Charles Lilley (Law), Premier of Queensland (1868-1870)
• Kwame Nkrumah (Philosophy), considered "The Father of African Nationalism",^[32] first Prime Minister of the Gold Coast, then first Prime Minister and then first President of Ghana (1952-1966)
• Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, considered the "Founding Father" of Mauritius, Chief Minister of British Mauritius, then first Prime Minister (1961-1982) and then Governor-General of Mauritius (1983–1985)
• Baroness Patricia Scotland (LLB), current Secretary General of the Commonwealth of Nations (2016-) and former Attorney General of England and Wales (2007-2010)
• Sir Bernard St. John, former Prime Minister of Barbados (1985-1986)
• Tingfang Wu (伍廷芳), also Ng Choy (伍才), one of the first Premiers of the Republic of China (1917)

Other politicians and public officials[]

• William Kwasi Aboah (LLM), Ghanaian politician and former Interior Minister
• Kwame Addo-Kufuor (Medicine), former Minister for the Interior and Minister for Defence of Ghana
• Sir Ryland Adkins (BA), former UK Liberal Party politician
• Solomon Adler (Economics), identified Soviet spy and economist at the US Treasury Department
• Richard Alexander (LLB), former UK Conservative Party politician
• Ghazi Abdul Rahman Algosaibi (غازي بن عبدالرحمن القصيبي) (PhD Law, 1970), former Saudi Arabian Ambassador to Great Britain and Minister for Labor
• Sir Alex Allan (MSc Statistics, 1973), former Chairman of the UK Joint Intelligence Committee
• Heidi Allen (Astrophysics), UK Conservative Party politician
• Baroness Ros Altmann (Economics and later lecturer), UK pensions expert and former government minister
• Peter Archer (LLB), former UK Labour Party politician and Solicitor General for England and Wales
• Edward Aveling (BSc Zoology, 1870), prominent UK socialist and founding member of the UK Socialist League and Independent Labour Party
• Barbara Ayrton-Gould, former UK Labour Party politician
• Baey Yam Keng (MSc, Economic Development Board scholarship), Singaporean People's Action Party politician
• Alan Baker (אלן בייקר) (LLB, 1969), international law expert and former Israeli Ambassador to Canada
• Robin Baker (BA), former Deputy Director-General of The British Council and Vice-Chancellor of Canterbury Christ Church University
• Millie Banerjee (BSc Zoology), public official and current Chairman of the British Transport Police Authority
• Sir Thomas Barclay, former UK Liberal Party politician, economic and international law expert and head of the British Chamber of Commerce
• Sir William Barton, former British government official and diplomat of the Indian Political Service
• Evangelos Bassiakos (MSc), former Greek politician who served as government minister and MP of New Democracy
• James Berry (LLB), UK Conservative Party politician
• Baroness Jane Bonham-Carter, UK Liberal Democrat Party politician
• John Albert Bright (BSc, 1867), former Liberal Unionist Party and UK Liberal Party politician
• Lord Richard Briginshaw (Diploma), former General Secretary of NATSOPA and trade unionist
• Rudranath Capildeo (BSc, MSc, PhD Mathematical Physics, 1948, and later lecturer), former Leader of the Opposition in the Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago and leader of the Democratic Labour Party of Trinidad and Tobago^[33]
• Tao-fan Chang (張道藩) (Fine Art), former President of the Legislative Yuan of the Republic of China
• Tien-Hsi Cheng (鄭天錫) (LLB, LLD, 1915), former Chinese politician, World Court judge and the last Ambassador of the Republic of China to the UK before the creation of the People's Republic of China. He was the first Chinese student to gain a doctorate in law from a British university.
• Therese Coffey (PhD Chemistry), UK Conservative Party politician and government minister
• Arthur Cohen, former UK Liberal Party politician and barrister
• Sir Arthur Colegate, former UK Conservative Party politician
• Petrus "Papo" Compton (LLM), former Minister of Foreign and External Affairs of Saint Lucia
• Edward Rider Cook (Chemistry), former UK Liberal Party politician
• Sir Daniel Cooper, 1st Baronet, first Speaker of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly and first President of the Royal Philatelic Society London
• Freda Corbet, former UK Labour Party politician
• George Courtauld, former UK Conservative Party politician
• Sir Stafford Cripps (Chemistry), former UK Chancellor of the Exchequer
• Charles Crompton, former UK Liberal Party politician and barrister
• Valerie Davey (PGCE, 1963), former UK Labour Party politician
• Bryan Davies (BA History, PGCE, 1962), UK Labour Party politician
• Geoffrey Dear (LLB, 1962), former Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Constabulary for England and Wales
• Baroness Frances D'Souza (BSc Anthropology, 1970), second Lord Speaker of the UK House of Lords and scientist
• Evan Durbin (Economics, Ricardo Scholarship, 1930?), former UK Labour Party politician
• Kinsuke Endō (遠藤 謹助) (one of the "Chōshū Five"), regarded as 'the Father of the modern Japanese mint’ as former head of the Imperial Japanese Mint
• Baroness Shreela Flather, first Asian women member of the UK House of Lords
• Vincent Floissac (LLB), former President of the Saint Lucian Senate
• Mahatma Gandhi ( મોહનદાસ કરમચંદ ) (Law), preeminent leader of the Indian Independence Movement
• Lord Peter Goldsmith (LLM), former Attorney General for England and Wales and Northern Ireland
• Lord Arnold Goodman (LLB), former lawyer, former Chairman of the Arts Council of Great Britain and political advisor to politicians including Harold Wilson
• Rupert Harrison, former Chief of Staff to UK Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne (2006-2015)
• Lord Garry Hart, former Special Adviser to the UK Lord Chancellor
• Lord Farrer Herschell (BA, 1857), former UK Lord Chancellor
• Lin Homer (LLB), former Chief Executive of UK HM Revenue and Customs
• Bola Ige (LLB, 1959), former Attorney General and Minister of Justice of Nigeria (2000–2001)
• Khairy Jamaluddin (MA Legal and Political Theory, 1998), former Minister of Youth and Sport of Malaysia (2013-2018), Minister of Science, Technology & Innovation (2020-)
• "J.B." Jeyaretnam (LLB), former leader of the Workers' Party of Singapore and Secretary-General of the Reform Party
• David Jones (LLB), UK Conservative Party politician and government minister. Former Secretary of State for Wales
• Helen Jones (BA), UK Labour Party politician
• Kaoru Inoue (井上 馨) (one of the "Chōshū Five"), first Foreign Minister of Imperial Japan credited as ‘the Father of modern Japanese diplomacy'^[31]
• Masaru Inoue (井上 勝) (Civil engineering and mining, as one of the "Chōshū Five"), credited as 'the Father of the Japanese railway' having been the first Director of the Railway Board of Imperial Japan
• Prince Philip Karađorđević of Yugoslavia and Serbia (BA)
• James Kitson (Chemistry and Natural Sciences), former President of the UK Liberal Party and first Lord Mayor of Leeds
• Sylvia Lim (LLM, 1989), chairman of the Workers' Party of Singapore
• Ian Luder (BA Economics and Economic History), UK tax expert and former Lord Mayor of the City of London
• Sir Nicholas Macpherson, Permanent Secretary to the UK Treasury
• Stavros Malas (BSc, PhD Genetics), former Minister of Health of Cyprus and Progressive Party of Working People (AKEL) politician
• Augustus Margary, former UK diplomat, and whose murder caused the 1875 "Margary Affair"
• Brian Mawhinney (PhD Radiation Physics, 1969), former Chairman of the UK Conservative Party and Secretary of State for Transport
• Alison McGovern (Philosophy), UK Labour Party politician
• Fiona Mactaggart (PGCE), UK Labour Party politician and former government minister
• Steve Matenje, Malawian civil servant and Permanent Representative to the United Nations
• Lord Tom McNally (LLB), Liberal Democrat Party politician and former Deputy Leader of the UK House of Lords. He was President of the University College London Union
• Sir William Meyer, first High Commissioner of India to the United Kingdom (1920-1922)
• Amanda Milling (Economics and Statistics, 1997), UK Conservative Party politician
• Edwin Montagu, former UK Secretary of State for India, Minister of Munitions and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
• Anil Moonesinghe (LLB), Sri Lankan government minister and Trotskyist politician
• Baroness Sally Morgan (MA Education), UK Labour Party politician and former Chair of Ofsted
• Arinori Mori (森有礼), first Japanese Ambassador to the USA and founder of Japan's modern educational system as Minister of Education
• Lord Paul Myners (BA Education, PGCE), UK businessman and former Financial Secretary to the Treasury ("City Minister")
• Stan Newens, UK Labour Co-operative politician and chair of the European Parliamentary Labour Party
• Jesse Norman (MPhil, PhD Philosophy, 2003, and later lecturer), UK Conservative Party politician and government minister
• Harry Nkumbula (Diploma), Northern Rhodesian/Zambian nationalist leader
• John Olumba (Law), American Independent Democratic politician and Member of the Michigan House of Representatives
• Stephen Owen (LLM, 1974), Minister of Western Economic Diversification of Canada and Minister of State for Sport
• Aziz Pahad (Diploma in International Relations, 1966), South African ANC Party politician and former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs (1999-2008)
• Michael Palmer (LLB, 1992), former Speaker of the Parliament of Singapore
• Sir Walter Palmer, former UK Conservative Party politician and biscuit manufacturer
• Pambos Papageorgiou (PhD Political Philosophy), AKEL Party of Cyprus politician
• Michalis Papapetrou, Cypriot politician and former President of the United Democrat Party of Cyprus
• Muhammad Ali Pate, former Minister of State for Health of Nigeria (2011-2013) and now Professor at Duke University's Global Health Institute
• Andrew Pattulo, Canadian former Ontario Liberal Party politician Member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario
• Bernard Peiris (LLB), former Cabinet Secretary of Ceylon, who drafted the 'Ceylon Order in Council', the first constitution of independent Ceylon
• Colin Phipps (BSc Geology, 1955), former UK Labour Party and UK Social Democratic Party politician
• Thomas Bayley Potter, former UK Liberal Party politician
• Sir Robert John Price (Medicine, 1876), former UK Liberal Party politician
• William Edwin Price (BA, 1959), former UK Liberal Party politician
• Murad Qureshi (MSc Environmental Economics), UK Labour Party politician and former Member of the London Assembly
• Yasmin Qureshi (LLM), UK Labour Party politician
• Sir John Randall (Serbo-Croat Language and Literature, 1979), former Government Deputy Chief Whip of the House of Commons
• Kulveer Ranger (Architecture, 1996), former advisor, Director of Transport Policy and then Environment for the Mayor of London Boris Johnson
• Baroness Patricia Rawlings, UK Conservative Party politician
• Andrew Reid (LLB), lawyer, horse racing trainer and current treasurer of the UK Independence Party
• Winston Roddick (LLB), current Police and Crime Commissioner for North Wales Police (2012-)
• Sir William Rose, former UK Conservative Party politician and Lord Mayor of London (1862)
• Christos Rozakis (LLM, 1970), former Deputy Foreign Minister of Greece, President of the Administrative Tribunal of the Council of Europe and first Vice-President of the European Court of Human Rights
• Sir Sydney Russell-Wells (BSc, 1889), former UK Conservative Party politician and Vice-Chancellor of the University of London
• James Rutherford, former Canadian Liberal Party politician
• Sir John Salmond (LLB, Gilchrist scholarship), former Solicitor-General of New Zealand (1910-1920). He represented New Zealand at the Washington Naval Conference (1921-1922).
• Sir Ernest Satow, former British Ambassador to Japan and British Ambassador to China, the UCL Chair of Japanese Law is named after him^[34]
• John Edward Sears (Architecture), former UK Liberal Party politician and architect
• Navin Shah, UK Labour Party politician and Member of the London Assembly
• Tulip Siddiq (BA English Literature), UK Labour Party politician
• Sarup Singh (PhD English Literature, 1953), former Governor of Gujarat (1990-1995) and Governor of Kerala (1990)
• Henry Smith (Philosophy), UK Conservative Party politician
• Sir Arthur Snelling, former UK Ambassador to South Africa (1970-1973) and UK High Commissioner to Ghana (1959-1961)
• Anthony Steen (LLB), UK Conservative Party politician
• Lord William Strang, former Permanent Under-Secretary of State at the UK Foreign Office (1949-1953) and diplomat. He sat on the UCL college committee.
• F.W. Strange (Medicine), former Canadian Liberal-Conservative Party politician
• Sir Dudley Stewart-Smith (LLB), former UK Liberal Party politician and barrister
• Colin Sutton (LLB, 1970), former Assistant Commissioner (Personnel and Training) of the London Metropolitan Police (1987-1988) and Director of the Police Scientific Development Branch at the UK Home Office (1991-1993)
• Sir Charles Swann, former UK Liberal Party politician
• Manuela Sykes, former UK Liberal Party, Labour Party politician and dementia campaigner
• Ernest Symons, former Director-General of the Board of the UK Inland Revenue
• William Ngartse Thomas Tam (LLB, 1923), former member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong and judge
• Sarah Teather (PhD, did not graduate), UK Liberal Democrat Party politician and former Minister of State for Children and Families (2010-2012)
• Tan Boon Teik (LLB, LLM, 1953), former Attorney-General of Singapore (1967-1992)
• Munenori Terashima (寺島宗則), former Imperial Japanese diplomat
• Stephen Terrell, former President of the UK Liberal Party (1971-1972)
• Baroness Jenny Tonge (MB BS, 1964), independent (former UK Liberal Democrat Party) politician
• Lord Denis Tunnicliffe (BSc Mathematics, 1965), UK Labour Party politician and Opposition Deputy Chief Whip in House of Lords
• Apostolos Tzitzikostas (Public Policy and Economics), Greek politician and Governor of Central Macedonia (2013-)
• Jan Vincent-Rostowski (BSc, MA Economy and History, 1964), Polish politician, former Deputy Prime Minister of Poland and Finance Minister
• V. Viswanathan, Governor of Kerala, India (1967-1973)
• Makis Voridis (Μαυρουδής (Μάκης) Χρήστου Βορίδης) (LLM), Greek politician and former Minister for Health
• William Wedgwood-Benn, Viscount Stansgate, former UK Secretary of State for India and Secretary of State for Air
• George Hammond Whalley (Metaphysics and Rhetoric), former UK Liberal Party politician
• John Whittingdale (Economics, 1982), UK Conservative Party politician and former UK Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
• Lord Michael Williams (BSc, 1971), former United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon and UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process
• Henry Wilson-Fox, former UK Conservative Party politician, businessman and associate of Cecil Rhodes
• Henry Winterbotham (BA, LLB, 1959, Hume Scholar and University Law Scholar), former UK Liberal Party politician and Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department
• Thomas McKinnon Wood, former UK Liberal Party politician, Secretary for Scotland and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
• Sidney Woolf, former UK Liberal Party politician
• Iain Wright (BA, MA History, 1995), UK Labour Party politician and former government minister
• Durmuş Yılmaz (MA), Turkish Nationalist Movement Party politician and former Governor of the Central Bank of Turkey (2006-2011)
• Lord David Young (LLB), former UK Secretary of State for Trade and Industry and Secretary of State for Employment. He was Chairman of the UCL Council from 1995 to 2005.^[35]
• Yamao Yōzō (尾 庸三) (Science and industry, as one of the "Chōshū Five"), former Imperial Japanese government minister credited as 'the Father of Japanese engineering'^[31]
• Nadhim Zahawi (BSc Chemical Engineering), UK Conservative Party politician and a co-founder of YouGov

Explorers[]

• Pen Hadow – British polar explorer and author^[36]

Royalty[]

• Tengku Muhammad Fa-iz Petra - Current Crown Prince of Kelantan, one of the Crown Princes of Malaysia, as a federal constitutional monarchy

Lawyers and judges[]

Literary figures and authors[]

• Gabriela Aguileta (PhD Genetics), author and scientist
• Karim Alrawi, playwright and writer
• M. R. Anand, writer and pioneer of the English novel in India
• Kofi Awoonor (MA), Ghanaian poet, academic and politician
• Julian Baggini (PhD Philosophy, 1996), philosopher and author
• Antonia Barber, author of books for children and adults
• Pat Barr (writer)^[37]
• Raymond Briggs
• Robert Browning
• G. K. Chesterton
• Paul Cornell (did not graduate)
• Bernard Cornwell (BA History, 1966), author of historical fiction
• David Crystal
• Nigel Davies (PhD Archaeology), historian of pre-Columbian America and former UK Conservative Party politician
• Romesh Chunder Dutt (রমেশচন্দ্র দত্ত)) (later Professor of Indian History), Indian civil servant and writer who translated the Ramayana and Mahabharata. He also served as President of the Indian National Congress (1899).
• Sir Geoffrey Elton (PhD History, 1949), prominent political historian of the Tudor period
• Ken Follett
• Clare Francis
• Stella Gibbons
• David Irving (Political Economy), Holocaust denier and author
• Laila Lalami
• David Lodge, author
• Dimitris Lyacos
• David Magarshack, biographer and translator of Russian authors
• Jon de Burgh Miller
• Jonathan Miller
• Gladys Mitchell
• Bel Mooney
• Blake Morrison
• Ian Mortimer (MA), historian and historical fiction author
• Jim Smith, writer
• Michael Smith, author of The Giro Playboy etc.
• Natsume Sōseki (夏目 漱石), foremost Japanese novelist of the Meiji Era (1868–1912)
• Marie Stopes, writer, scientist and activist
• Rabindranath Tagore (Law, did not graduate), Bengali poet and polymath. He was the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature (1913).
• Sean Thomas journalist and novelist
• Ken Wiwa
• Jerrold Yam, Singaporean poet and lawyer

Media professionals (1): film, television, theatre and radio[]

• Sir Ken Adam (Architecture), Academy Award-winning film production designer famous for designing the sets for various James Bond films (including the first Dr. No) and the famous car for the film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
• Jassa Ahluwalia (Spanish and Russian), actor
• Babar Ahmed, film director
• Franny Armstrong (Zoology), documentary film director
• Ikenna Azuike (LLB with French Law), TV broadcaster and presenter of What’s Up Africa
• David Baddiel, comedian and television presenter
• Guy de la Bédoyère (MA Archaeology, 1987), historian, TV personality and Time Team historical expert
• Brooke Burfitt, actress and radio presenter
• George Clarke (Postgraduate Diploma), architect and TV presenter of shows including George Clarke's Amazing Spaces
• Nat Coombs, presenter, writer & comedian
• Andrew Davenport, co-creator of the Teletubbies
• Andrew Davies (BA English, 1957), novelist and screenplay writer. His famous works include Mr Selfridge, House of Cards (UK) and a 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.
• Ptolemy Dean (Architecture), architect and TV presenter
• Naamua Delaney (LLB), news presenter
• Felix Dexter (LLB), actor and comedian
• Clarissa Dickson-Wright (LLB), celebrity chef, writer and TV personality^[38]
• Jonathan Dimbleby, writer and television presenter
• Frank Dunlop, former Director of the Edinburgh International Festival; founder and former Director, The Young Vic. [1979]
• Jane Fallon, English producer and novelist, most famous for her work on popular series Teachers, 20 Things To Do Before You're 30, EastEnders and This Life.
• Trey Farley, television presenter.
• Honey G, Rap music artist, X Factor 2016 Debut
• Ricky Gervais, comedian/actor, co-writer and director of The Office (studied biology and philosophy)
• Peter Ginn, archaeologist, historian, author and presenter of " Victorian Farm", "Edwardian Farm", "Wartime Farm"
• Rachel Hurd-Wood, actress; best known for playing Wendy Darling at the 2003 film Peter Pan
• Amy Jenkins, creator of This Life
• Christian Jessen, medical doctor and television presenter
• Griffith Jones, actor
• James Robertson Justice, actor
• Dominic Keating, actor, including in Star Trek: Enterprise
• Trevor Lock, comedian and actor
• Philip Mackie, film and television writer
• Jeremy Marre, film director
• Steph McGovern, BBC Breakfast television presenter
• Oliver Messel, influential leading stage designer
• Fiona Millar, journalist and campaigner on education and parenting issues
• Karen Mok, Hong Kong diva and movie star
• Michael J. Mosley, psychiatrist and TV presenter
• Maryam Moshiri, BBC newsreader
• Mary Nighy, actress
• Christopher Nolan (English, 1993), Academy Award-nominated director of films including Inception, Interstellar, Memento and The Dark Knight Trilogy
• Sean O'Connor, television and radio producer
• Raj Persaud, psychiatrist and broadcaster
• Mark Porter, doctor, journalist and TV presenter
• Jonathan Ross (Modern European History), TV presenter
• Adam Rutherford, TV presenter and editor for the journal Nature
• Irene Shubik, television producer^[39]
• Michael Smith, writer and broadcaster
• Suzie Templeton, Academy Award-winning writer, director and animator, including Peter and the Wolf
• Fagun Thakrar, actor and writer-director
• Emma Thomas (UCL History 1993), producer at Warner Brothers
• Matthew Vaughn (Anthropology and Ancient History), producer and director of films including Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Layer Cake X-Men: First Class, and Kingsman: The Secret Service
• Arthur Wimperis, Academy Award-winning screenwriter
• Patrick Wymark, actor
• Alex Zane, presenter, radio DJ and stand-up comedian

Media professionals (2): editors, journalists and publishers[]

• Fiona Armstrong (German literature), journalist
• Walter Bagehot, former editor of The Economist
• Christopher Paul Baker, travel writer, photographer, and adventure motorcyclist
• Victoria Barnsley, Editor-in-Chief at HarperCollins
• Jeremy Bowen, journalist, BBC Middle East editor
• Sarah Cullen (BA English, 1972), radio and TV journalist
• John Derbyshire, essayist, novelist, popularizer of mathematics history
• Sara Edwards (BA Medieval and Modern History), journalist and former presenter of BBC Wales Today
• Nicholas Garland, first and current political cartoonist, The Daily Telegraph
• A. A. Gill, columnist, The Sunday Times (Slade School of Fine Art)
• Jeanne Hoban, The Ceylon Observer, Jana, The Patriot, The Nation (all Sri Lanka); Anglo-Sri Lankan Trotskyist trade unionist and political activist
• Richard Hutton, former editor of The Economist
• Nicholas de Jongh, drama critic, The London Evening Standard
• Mark Lawson, columnist, The Guardian; radio and television presenter
• Walter Layton, 1st Baron Layton, former editor of The Economist
• Vivienne Parry, journalist, The Times and BBC
• Nick Paton Walsh, Emmy award-winning Senior International correspondent at CNN
• L. J. K. Setright: writer and journalist
• Carol Thatcher (LLB), journalist, author, media personality and daughter of former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
• Michael White, political editor, The Guardian
• Petronella Wyatt, writer, The Spectator

Musicians, musicologists and musical commentators[]

• Brett Anderson, Suede
• Sophie Barker, singer, occasional vocalist for Zero 7 and Groove Armada (did not graduate)
• Guy Berryman, Coldplay
• Jonny Buckland, Coldplay
• Will Champion, Coldplay
• David Conway (music historian)
• John Curwen, proponent of tonic sol-fa
• Kathleen Dale née Richards, translator, musicologist, composer and pianist (Swedish: 1926–8)^[40]
• Zarif Davidson, known professionally as Zarif
• Justine Frischmann, Elastica
• Leonard Feather, jazz musician, composer, and writer (1932)^[41]
• Joshua Hayward, The Horrors
• Philip Heseltine aka Peter Warlock, composer and music critic (English)
• Gustav Holst, composer and teacher (Sanskrit, 1909)
• Ravi Kesavaram, My Vitriol
• Chris Martin, Coldplay
• Jack Peñate, singer-songwriter
• Tim Rice-Oxley, Keane
• Harold Rosenthal, music critic
• Som Wardner, My Vitriol
• Mary Louisa White, composer
• Benjamin Zander, conductor, Boston Philharmonic

Philanthropists, cultural, educational, military and religious figures[]

• Barnett Abrahams (BA), former Principal of the London School of Jewish Studies and the first English Jewish minister to hold a British university degree
• Kaniz Ali (LLB, 2007), entrepreneur, makeup artist and columnist
• Sheikh Zaki Badawi (BSc Psychology, 1954), Egyptian Islamic scholar, interfaith-dialogue activist and founder of the Muslim College in London
• Ben Barkow, writer and director of the Wiener Library
• Lynne Brindley, former Chief Executive of the British Library
• George Cassidy (MPhil, 1967), former Bishop of Southwell and Nottingham
• Brian Castle, current Bishop of Tonbridge
• Isaac Cohen, former Chief Rabbi of Ireland
• Barry Morgan, current Archbishop of Wales
• Hugh Price-Hughes, Methodist theologian
• Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Martin-Leake (Medicine), soldier who received both the Victoria Cross and the Bar
• Lieutenant-General Jonathon Riley (Geography), former Master of the Royal Armouries (2009-2012) and Deputy Commander of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan (2008-2009)
• Jackie Tabick (BA Medieval History), the first British woman Rabbi
• F. Sherwood Taylor (PhD History of Science), former Director of the Science Museum, London (1950-1956)
• Henry Solly, founder of Working Men's Club and Institute Union; an important advocate for the extension of working class political rights, and helping to set up the Charity Organisation Society
• Samuel Bishop, former Bishop of Kingston (1915-1921) and Canon of St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle (1921-1929)
• Emma Thynn, Viscountess Weymouth

Sporting figures[]

• Donald Barrell (Anthropology), rugby union player formerly of Saracens F.C..
• Colin Chapman, founder of Lotus Cars
• Samuel Azu Crabbe (LLB), former Chief Justice of Ghana and President of the National Olympic Committee of Ghana
• Ewan Davies (LLB), former Welsh rugby union international
• David Gower, cricketer and former England Captain
• Isa Guha, cricketer, England Women's
• Patrick Head, co-founder of Formula One team WilliamsF1
• Christine Ohuruogu, sprinter and World Athletics Championships, Olympic Games and Commonwealth Games 400 metres champion
• Ebony-Jewel Rainford-Brent, cricketer, England Women's
• Gayatri Reddy (BSc Construction Management), former owner of now-defunct Deccan Chargers in the Indian Premier League
• Nathaniel "Noddy" Reilly-O'Donnell, rower, 2006 World Junior Champion and silver medallist at the 2011 World Rowing Championships
• Peter Short (Master's in International Planning), Canadian international and Olympic field hockey player
• Andrew Simpson (Economics), British Olympic Games Men's Star sailing gold medalist (2008)
• Dawson Turner (Medicine), rugby union international who represented England (1871–75).
• Demetrius Vikelas (Botany), first President of the International Olympic Committee (1894-1896)
• Maurice Watkins (LLB, LLM), Director of Manchester United's football board and club's solicitor
• Robin Williams, professional rowing coach for Team GB and former competitive World Championships rower
• Melanie Wilson (Master's in Biochemical Engineering), British rower who competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in Women's quadruple sculls

Fictional figures[]

Fictional alumni and students[]

• Pat Barker's novels, Life Class and Toby's Room, follows students and teachers at the UCL Slade School of Fine Art
• Protagonist/s in Gilbert Cannan's Mendel
• Lara Croft, protagonist of the Square Enix (previously Eidos Interactive) video game franchise Tomb Raider
• Molly MacDonald in Monarch of the Glen is a former Slade School student

References[]

External links[]

• UCL student lists