List of Yale University people

Yalies are persons affiliated with Yale University, commonly including alumni, current and former faculty members, students, and others. Here follows a list of notable Yalies.

Alumni

For a list of notable alumni of Yale Law School, see List of Yale Law School alumni.

Prize recipients

Nobel laureates

George Akerlof (B.A. 1962), Economics, 2001^[1]
Raymond Davis Jr. (Ph.D. 1942),^[2] Physics, 2002
Douglas Diamond (M.A. 1976, M.Phil. 1977, PhD 1980), Economics, 2022
Peter A. Diamond (B.A. 1960), Economics, 2010^[3]
Philip H. Dybvig (M.A. 1978, M.Phil. 1978, PhD 1979), Economics, 2022
John F. Enders (B.A. 1920),^[4] Physiology or Medicine, 1954
John Fenn (Ph.D. 1940),^[5]^[6] Chemistry, 2002
Murray Gell-Mann (B.S. 1948),^[7] Physics, 1969
Alfred G. Gilman (B.S. 1962),^[8] Physiology or Medicine, 1994
John B. Goodenough (B.S. 1944),^[9] Chemistry, 2019
Brian Kobilka (M.D. 1981), Chemistry, 2012
Paul Krugman (B.A. Economics, 1974), Economics, 2008; architect of "New Trade Theory"; winner of the John Bates Clark Medal; Princeton University economics professor; New York Times columnist
Ernest Lawrence (Ph.D. 1925),^[10] Physics, 1939; Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the element Lawrencium are named for him^[11]
Joshua Lederberg (Ph.D. 1948),^[12] Physiology or Medicine, 1958
David Lee (Ph.D. 1959),^[13] Physics, 1996
Sinclair Lewis (B.A. 1908),^[14] Literature, 1930
Joel Mokyr (Ph.D. 1974),^[15] Economics, 2025
William Nordhaus (B.A. 1963),^[16] Economics, 2018
Lars Onsager (Ph.D. 1935),^[17] Chemistry, 1968
Edmund Phelps (Ph.D. 1959), Economics, 2006
Dickinson W. Richards (B.A. 1917),^[18] Physiology or Medicine, 1956
James A. Robinson (Ph.D. 1993),^[19] Economics, 2024
James Rothman (B.A. 1971), Physiology or Medicine, 2013
William Vickrey (B.S. 1935),^[20] Economics, 1996
George Whipple (A.B. 1900),^[21] Physiology or Medicine, 1934
Eric Wieschaus (Ph.D. 1974),^[22] Physiology or Medicine, 1995

Pulitzer Prize winners

Anne Applebaum (B.A. 1986), 2004 Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction^[23]
Ellen Barry (B.A. 1993), 2011 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting
Charles Bartlett (B.A. 1943), 1956 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting
Stephen Vincent Benét (B.A. 1919, M.A. 1920), 2× Pulitzer-winning author
Ron Chernow (B.A. 1970), 2011 Pulitzer Prize for biography of George Washington
Anthony R. Dolan (B.A. 1970), 1978 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting^[24]
Charles Forelle (B.A. 2002), co-author of articles for which The Wall Street Journal Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 2007^[25]
John Lewis Gaddis, 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Biography, Cold War historian
Paul Goldberger (B.A. 1972), 1984 Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Criticism
Stephen Greenblatt (B.A. 1964, M.Phil 1968, Ph.D. 1969), general editor of The Norton Shakespeare, 2012 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction
Linda Greenhouse (M.A. 1978),^[26] U.S. Supreme Court correspondent for The New York Times, received the Pulitzer in 1998^[26]
John Hersey (B.A. 1936),^[27] Pulitzer-winning author in 1945 for the novel A Bell for Adano, namesake of the annual John Hersey Lecture at Yale
Quiara Alegría Hudes (B.A. 1999), playwright, writer of In the Heights, 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Charles Ives (B.A. 1898), 1947 Pulitzer Prize for Music
Michiko Kakutani (B.A. 1976), book critic for The New York Times, 1998 Pulitzer Prize for Criticism
David M. Kennedy (M.A. 1964, Ph.D. 1968), 2000 Pulitzer Prize for History^[28] for "Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929–45"
Elizabeth Kolbert (B.A. 1983), 2015 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction
David McCullough (B.A. 1955),^[29] popular historian, winner of two Pulitzers, best known for his books on American presidents Harry S. Truman and John Adams^[30]
J.R. Moehringer (B.A. 1986),^[31] Los Angeles Times reporter, 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing^[28]
Douglas Moore (B.A. 1915), 1951 Pulitzer, Music
Wesley Morris (B.A. 1997), critic-at-large for New York Times, former film critic at The Boston Globe, 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Criticism
Lynn Nottage (M.F.A.),^[32] playwright and Pulitzer Prize–winning dramatist of Ruined
Mel Powell (B.A. 1952),^[33] 1990 Pulitzer Prize for Music for Duplicates: A Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra; founding dean and professor of music of the California Institute of the Arts
Samantha Power (B.A. 1992),^[34] Pulitzer Prize for the book A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide^[35]
Kevin Puts (M.M. 1996), 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Music
Thomas E. Ricks (B.A. 1977), 2000 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting (on The Wall Street Journal team); former reporter who writes on defense topics
Mark Schoofs (B.A. 1985),^[36] reporter, 2000 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting^[28]
Lewis Spratlan (B.A. 1962, M.M. 1965),^[36] composer, 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Music for Life is a Dream, Opera in Three Acts: Act II, Concert Version^[28]
Jeffrey C. Stewart, Pulitzer Prize in 2019 for his biography of Alain LeRoy Locke, The New Negro
Garry Trudeau (B.A. 1970, M.F.A. 1973), Pulitzer Prize in 1975 for his comic strip Doonesbury
Wendy Wasserstein (M.F.A. 1976), playwright and Pulitzer Prize-winning dramatist of The Heidi Chronicles^[37]
Thornton Wilder (B.A. 1920),^[38] playwright, winner of two Pulitzers, the first in 1928 for The Bridge of San Luis Rey, and the second in 1938 for the play Our Town; recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963
Bob Woodward (B.A. 1965), journalist, co-author of the Pulitzer-winning book All the President's Men, won a second Pulitzer in 2002 for National Reporting
Doug Wright (B.A. 1985),^[39] screenwriter, winner of the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for drama, winner of a Tony Award^[40]
Yehudi Wyner (B.A. 1950, B. Mus. 1951, M. Mus. 1953),^[41] composer, recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2006^[42] for his piano concerto 'Chiavi in Mano'; professor emeritus of musical composition at Brandeis University
Daniel Yergin (B.A. 1968),^[43] wrote Pulitzer-winning The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power; founded Cambridge Energy Research Associates

Abel laureates

Robert Langlands (Ph.D. 1960), 2018^[44]
John G. Thompson (B.A. 1955), 2008^[45]

Architecture and visual arts

Richard Anuszkiewicz (M.F.A. 1955), painter
Graham Arader (B.A. 1972), art dealer
Matthew Barney (B.A. 1989), artist
Jennifer Bartlett (M.F.A 1965), painter
Eve Blau (M.A. 1974, Ph.D. 1978), art historian
Barbara Bloemink (M.Phil., Ph.D.), art historian
Jonathan Borofsky (M.F.A. 1966), artist
Robert Branner (B.A. 1948, Ph.D. 1953), art historian
Theophilus Brown (B.F.A. 1941), painter
Norman Carlberg (B.F.A. 1958, M.F.A. 1961), sculptor
Kermit S. Champa (B.A. 1960), art historian
Chuck Close (M.F.A. 1964), painter
William Cordova (M.F.A. 2004), cultural practitioner
Gregory Crewdson (M.F.A. 1988), photographer
Sumner McKnight Crosby (B.A. 1932, Ph.D. 1937), art historian
John Currin (M.F.A. 1986), painter
Brian D'Amato (B.A. 1984), sculptor and novelist
Edward D. Dart (B.A. 1949), architect
Philip-Lorca diCorcia (M.F.A. 1979), photographer
Rackstraw Downes (B.F.A. 1963, M.F.A 1964), painter
Leya Evelyn (M.F.A.), painter
Janet Fish (M.F.A. 1963), painter
Paul Fontaine (B.F.A. 1935), painter
Norman Foster (M.Arch. 1961), architect
Helen Frank, painter and printmaker
Ann Gale (M.F.A. 1991), painter and educator
Aaron Gilbert (M.F.A. 2008), painter
Brendan Gill (B.A. 1936), architecture critic
Steve Giovinco (M.F.A. 1989), photographer
John Graham Jr. (1931), architect
Nancy Graves (B.F.A. 1962, M.F.A. 1964), sculptor
George Heard Hamilton (B.A. 1932, M.A. 1934, Ph.D. 1942), art historian
Jodi Hauptman (M.A., Ph.D. 1995), art historian
Phoebe Helander (M.F.A. 2019), painter
Linda Dalrymple Henderson (M.A. 1972, Ph.D. 1975), art historian
Barkley L. Hendricks (B.F.A. 1970, M.F.A. 1972), painter
Eva Hesse (M.F.A. 1959), sculptor
Muzharul Islam (M.Arch. 1961), architect
Norman Ives (M.F.A. 1952), artist and educator
Johannes Knoops (M.Arch. II 1995), architect and educator
Jack Lembeck (MFA 1970), painter and sculptor
Neil Levine (Ph.D. 1975), art historian and educator
Maya Lin (B.A. 1981, M.Arch. 1986, honorary Ph.D. 1987), architect
Holly Lynton (B.A. 1994), photographer
Tala Madani (M.F.A. 2006), painter
Robert Mangold (B.F.A. 1961, M.F.A. 1963), painter
Brice Marden (M.F.A. 1963), painter
Malerie Marder (M.F.A. 1998), photographer
Herbert P. McLaughlin (B.A. 1956, M.Arch. 1958), architect
Patrick McNaughton (M.A. 1972, Ph.D. 1977), art historian
Joshua Meyer (B.A. 1996), painter
Amy Meyers (Ph.D. 1985), art historian
Alexander Nemerov (M.A. 1987, Ph.D. 1992), art historian
Hally Pancer (M.F.A. 1988), photographer
Scott Pask (M.F.A. 1997), scenic designer
Hayal Pozanti (M.F.A. 2011), painter
Joshua Prince-Ramus (B.A. 1991), architect
Martin Puryear (M.F.A. 1971), sculptor
Romita Ray (M.A. 1994, M.Phil. 1995, Ph.D. 1999), art historian
Richard Rogers (M.Arch. 1962), architect
Mark Rothko (B.A. 1924), painter
Leo Rubinfien (M.F.A. 1976), photographer
Eero Saarinen (B.Arch. 1934), architect
Vincent Scully (B.A. 1940), art historian
Richard Serra (B.F.A., M.F.A. 1964), sculptor
Daniel Sherer (BA, 1985), architectural and art historian
Sewell Sillman (B.F.A., M.F.A. 1953)
Rodney Smith (Th.M. 1973), photographer
Henry Steiner (M.A. 1958). graphic designer
Robert A. M. Stern (M.Arch. 1965), architect and educator
Peter C. Sutton (M.A. 1975, Ph.D. 1978), art historian
Sarah Sze (B.A. 1991), sculptor
Ann Temkin (Ph.D. 1984), curator
Constance Thalken (M.F.A 1988), photographer
Garry Trudeau (B.A. 1970, M.F.A. 1973), cartoonist
Marc Trujillo (M.F.A. 1994), painter
Katie Vida (M.F.A. 2010), artist and curator
Kehinde Wiley (M.F.A. 2001), painter
William T. Williams (M.F.A. 1968), artist
Evans Woollen III (B.A., M.Arch. 1952), architect

Arts and humanities

Frank Aarebrot, professor of comparative politics at University of Bergen
James S. Ackerman (B.A.), Arthur Kingsley Porter Professor of History of Art and Architecture, Harvard
Diogenes Allen (B.D., Ph.D. 1964), philosopher, theologian, professor at Princeton Theological Seminary (1981–2002)
Edward J. Balleisen (Ph.D. 1995), professor of history at Duke University^[46]
Jean Blackburn (M.F.A.), visual artist, illustrator, and professor of illustration
Christopher James Bonner, historian
David Boren (B.A. 1963), governor of Oklahoma (1975–1979), U.S. senator (1979–1994), president of University of Oklahoma
Robert Brandom (B.A. 1972), philosopher at the University of Pittsburgh
Leo Braudy (Ph.D. 1967), university professor, University of Southern California, literary and cultural critic
Susan Buck-Morss (M.A.), philosopher, intellectual historian, professor of political science at CUNY Graduate Center
Michael Burns (Ph.D. 1980), actor on Wagon Train and It's a Man's World, and emeritus professor of history at Mount Holyoke College
Judith Butler (Ph.D. 1984), author of Gender Trouble, philosopher, queer theorist, and feminist scholar
Susan Casteras (M.A. 1973, M.Phil. 1975, Ph.D. 1977), art historian
Steve Charnovitz (B.A. 1975, J.D. 1998), law professor at George Washington University
Janet Coleman (B.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.), professor of Ancient & Medieval Political Thought, London School of Economics
William Cornyn (A.M. 1942, Ph.D. 1944), professor of Slavic and South East Asian Linguistics^[47]
Catherine Cusset (Ph.D. 1991), French novelist and author of Life of David Hockney: A Novel.
Leo Damrosch (B.A. 1963), professor at Harvard University, 2005 National Book Award finalist for Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Restless Genius
Alan Dershowitz (LL.B. 1962), law professor at Harvard University
Jeff Dolven, professor of English at Princeton University^[48]
David Bates Douglass, professor at the U.S. Military Academy, President of Kenyon College, designer of Green-Wood Cemetery, member of Lewis Cass expedition of 1820^[49]
Jacques Ehrmann, literary theorist and French Department professor, 1961–1972
John C. Ewers (M.A. 1934), ethnologist and first Director of the National Museum of American History
Robert Fagles (M.A., 1956, Ph.D. 1959), professor of English and Comparative Literature at Princeton University, poet, translator of classics
Tommy Fitzpatrick (M.F.A., 1993), professor, painter
Edward Foley, theorist of the blue shift and former Ohio Solicitor General
Donald Gallup, bibliographer and curator of the Yale Collection of American Literature
Henry Louis Gates Jr. (B.A., M.A. 1973), professor, chair of Harvard's African and African American Studies department
Roxane Gay, writer and professor
Roberto S. Goizueta (B.A., 1976), professor of theology, Boston College
Daniel Harrison (Ph.D 1986), chairman of Department of Music, Yale University
Lena Hill (Ph.D. 2005), professor of English and Africana studies, provost of Washington and Lee University
Faye Hirsch (Ph.D.), art critic, writer, educator
Benjamin Hoffmann (Ph.D. 2015), French creative writer and professor at Ohio State University
Annette Insdorf (Ph.D. 1975), film historian and author
Fredric Jameson (Ph.D. 1959), cultural theorist; author of Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism; chair of Duke University's Literature Program
Mimi Jennewein (B.A. 1942), painter and muralist
Mitchell James Kaplan (B.A. 1979), novelist
David Kolb (M.Phil. 1970, Ph.D. 1972), philosopher at Bates College
Hart Day Leavitt (B.A. 1934), English teacher, Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, 1937–1975
Lawrence Lessig (J.D. 1989), copyright activist, law professor at Harvard University^[50]
Anya Liftig (B.A., 1999), performance artist
Hilary Liftin, author^[51]
Robert Oscar Lopez (B.A. 1993), associate professor of English and classics at California State University, Northridge^[52]
F. O. Matthiessen (B.A. 1923), literary historian, professor at Harvard University
Christie McDonald (Ph.D.), Smith Research Professor of French Language and Literature at Harvard University
Scotty McLennan (B.A. 1970), dean for Religious Life at Stanford University
Thomas V. Morris (Ph.D.), former University of Notre Dame philosophy professor, currently founding chairman of the Morris Institute of Human Values^[53]
Nicholas Muellner (B.A. 1991), photographer and writer; professor of media arts, sciences and studies at Ithaca College
Don Nakanishi (B.S. 1971), former professor of Asian American studies at University of California, Los Angeles
Robert C. Neville (B.A., M.A., Ph.D. 1963), professor of philosophy, professor of religious studies and professor of theology at Boston University
Reinhold Niebuhr (B.D. 1914), author, theologian, Serenity Prayer
Bilal Orfali (Ph.D. 2009), professor of Arabic language and Islamic studies at the American University of Beirut
Camille Paglia (Ph.D. 1972), author of Sexual Personae, cultural critic and feminist scholar
Andrew Pessin, philosopher at Connecticut College
Alvin Plantinga (Ph.D. 1958), Christian philosopher, professor at University of Notre Dame
Eileen Pollack (B.S.), professor of creative writing at University of Michigan
Stone Roberts (B.A. 1973), visual artist
Richard Rorty (Ph.D. 1956), philosopher and professor of Humanities at University of Virginia, 1982–1998 and Stanford University, 1998–2007
Ofelia Schutte, professor of philosophy at the University of South Florida
T. K. Seung (B.A., Ph.D.), professor of philosophy, government, and law at the University of Texas at Austin
Derek Shearer (B.A.), director of the McKinnon Center for Global Affairs and Chevalier Professor of Diplomacy and World Affairs of Occidental College, former United States Ambassador to Finland^[54]
Robert B. Stepto, professor of English, pioneering African-American studies scholar
Matthias Storme, professor of law at the Catholic University of Louvain and the University of Antwerp
Richard Sugarman (born 1944) (B.A. & M.A.), professor of philosophy and religion at the University of Vermont; advisor to Bernie Sanders
Frank Bigelow Tarbell (B.A. 1873, Ph.D. 1879), historian, archeologist and professor of classic studies at Yale and University of Chicago
Dominic Thomas (Ph.D. 1996), chair of the department of French and Francophone Studies at UCLA^[55]
Amor Towles (B.A.), novelist and author of A Gentleman in Moscow
Donald Goddard Wing, librarian and bibliographer, of Yale University Library
Yung Wing (B.A. 1854), first Chinese person to receive an American college degree
Sarah E. Winter (Ph.D. 1992), professor of English at the University of Connecticut
Bess Wohl (M.F.A.), playwright of Liberation
Jada Yuan (B.A. 2000), journalist and author
Hossein Ziai (B.A. 1967), intensive mathematics and physics; (Ph.D. Harvard 1976), medieval philosophy. Jahangir and Eleanor Amuzegar Chair in Iranian Studies UCLA.
Rose Zimbardo (M.A. 1957, Ph.D. 1960), professor of English at Stony Brook University
Deborah Zlotsky (B.A. 1985), visual artist and educator

Athletics

Paul Atkinson, professional basketball player^[56]
Susannah Beck (B.A. 1990), USA Champion distance runner
Joel Benjamin (B.A. 1985), chess Grandmaster, 3× U.S. chess champion (1987, 1997, 2000)^[57]
Steve Benjamin (B.A. 1978), competitive sailor; silver medalist in sailing at the 1984 Summer Olympics^[58]
Johnny Bent, silver medalist with the American hockey team in the 1932 Winter Olympics^[59]
Chaim Bloom (2004), Chief Baseball Officer of the Boston Red Sox
Craig Breslow (2002), Major League Baseball pitcher and Chief Baseball Officer of the Boston Red Sox^[60]
Jordan Bruner, professional basketball player^[61]
Johnny Broaca, Major League Baseball player, 1936 World Series champion^[62]
Eric Brodkowitz, Israeli-American baseball pitcher for the Israel National Baseball Team
Walter Camp (B.A. 1880), the "father of American football"^[63]
Nathan Chen (B.A. 2024), 2× Olympic champion (2022), 3× world champion (2018, 2019 and 2021), 3× Grand Prix final champion (2017–19), and 6× U.S. champion (2017–22) in figure skating^[64]
Steve Clark (1964), swimmer, 2× Olympian
Alan Lyle Corey Jr., polo player, 5× winner of the Monty Waterbury Cup^[65]
Ron Darling, Major League Baseball pitcher^[66]
Bob Davis, Major League Baseball pitcher
Irvin Dorfman, tennis player ranked No. 15 in singles in the US in 1947, and No. 3 in doubles in the US in 1948^[67]^[68]
Brian Dowling (B.A. 1969), quarterback^[69]
Chris Dudley (B.A. 1987), former NBA player^[70]
Eddie Eagan (B.A. 1921), AAU Heavyweight Boxing Champion 1919, Olympic gold medal in boxing 1920, Winter Olympics men's four-man bobsleigh gold medal 1932; only Olympian to win gold medals in Summer and Winter Olympics in different sports; New York State boxing commissioner^[71]^[72]^[73]
Theo Epstein (B.A. 1995), became Red Sox general manager at age 28, youngest in Major League Baseball history; currently president of Baseball Operations for the Chicago Cubs^[74]
Eva Fabian (born 1993), American-Israeli world champion swimmer
Pete Falsey (Ph.B., 1914), Major League Baseball player^[75]
Gary Fencik (Class of 1975, B.A. 1976), professional football player twice selected for the Pro Bowl as a defensive back for the Chicago Bears^[76]
Robert A. Gardner (Class of 1912), 2× U.S. Amateur golf champion^[77]
Earl G. Graves Jr. (B.A. 1984), former NBA player, all-time leading scorer in Yale's men's basketball history (3rd Ivy)^[78]
Stephen Greenberg (B.A. 1970), former minor league player, baseball executive and sports agent, Deputy Commissioner of Baseball (1990–93); son of Hall of Fame baseball player Hank Greenberg^[79]
Bob Griffin (M.A. '80, M.Phil. '82, Ph.D. '85), American-Israeli basketball player, and English Literature professor
Howdy Groskloss, was oldest living former Major League Baseball player when he died aged 100 in 2006^[80]
George Haas Jr., polo player, 3× winner of the Monty Waterbury Cup^[81]
Chris Hetherington (B.A. 1996), NFL running back^[82]
Chris Higgins, forward for the National Hockey League Vancouver Canucks^[83]
Calvin Hill (B.A. 1969), football player with the NFL's Cowboys, Redskins and Browns^[84]
Kenny Hill (B.A. 1980), football player with the NFL's Raiders, Giants and Chiefs^[85]
Sarah Hughes (Class of 2008), gold medalist in 2002 Olympic figure skating^[86]
Bill Hutchison, former Major League Baseball player^[87]
Philip L. B. Iglehart, Chilean polo player^[88]
Julian Illingworth (B.A. 2006), professional squash player, highest world ranking of no. 24^[89]
Levi Jackson (1926–2000), first African-American elected by his teammates to captain an Ivy League football team^[90]
Sada Jacobson^[91] (B.A. 2006), bronze medalist in 2004, and silver medalist in 2008, Olympic women's saber^[92]
EJ Jarvis (B.A. 2023), former basketball player^[93]
Dick Jauron (B.A. 1973), head coach of the National Football League's Buffalo Bills (2006–09)^[94]
Eric Johnson (B.A. 2001), NFL tight end^[95]
Jack Langer (born 1948/1949), basketball player and investment banker
Ryan Lavarnway, major league baseball catcher (Boston Red Sox/Los Angeles Dodgers)
Nate Lawrie (B.A. 2004), NFL tight end^[96]
Glenn Layendecker (B.A. 1983), professional tennis player^[97]
Mike McDaniel (B.A. 2005), head coach of the National Football League's Miami Dolphins^[98]
Bob McKeown (B.A. 1971), Canadian Football League Grey Cup champion, award-winning journalist with CBC News, NBC and CBS^[99]
David Meckler, professional ice hockey player^[100]
Chuck Mercein (B.A. 1964), football player with the NFL's Giants, Packers, Redskins and Jets^[101]
Wendell Mottley (B.A. 1964), Olympic medalist, and subsequently a government minister for Trinidad and Tobago^[102]
Kate O'Neill (B.A. 2003), long distance runner, 2004 Summer Olympics competitor in 10,000 m^{[citation needed]}
Miye Oni, NBA player for Utah Jazz^[103]^[104]
John Poulakidas (B.A. 2025), professional basketball player^[105]
Winthrop Palmer, silver medalist with the American hockey team in the 1932 Winter Olympics^[106]
Mike Pyle (B.A. 1960), professional football player selected for the Pro Bowl as a center for the Chicago Bears^[107]
Barney Reilly, Major League Baseball infielder^[108]
Renée Richards, former professional tennis player, captain of the 1954 men's team as Richard Raskind^[109]
Mike Richter (B.A. 2006), former goaltender for the New York Rangers^[110]
Ryan Max Riley, World Cup ski racer and 2× national champion on the US Ski Team^[111]
John Rogan, former CFL quarterback^[112]
Jeff Rohrer (B.A. 1981), football player with the NFL's Dallas Cowboys^[113]
Don Schollander (B.A. 1968), swimmer, 5× U.S. Olympic gold medalist: 1964, 4 gold; 1968, 1 gold, 1 silver; one of the first inductees into U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame (1983)^[114]
Justin Sears (B.A. 2016), professional basketball player^[115]
George C. Sherman Jr., polo player^[116]
Frank Shorter (B.A. 1969), gold medal (1972) and silver medal (1976), Olympic marathon^[117]
Adam Snow, polo player, played varsity hockey and lacrosse at Yale against Harvard University^[118]
John Spagnola (B.A. 1978), football player with the NFL's Eagles, Seahawks and Packers^[119]
Dick Tettelbach, former MLB player^[120]
Jeff Van Gundy (attended Yale College for his freshman year), head coach for the NBA's New York Knicks and Houston Rockets^[121]
Ben Wanger (2019), American-Israeli baseball pitcher, Team Israel
Anne Warner (B.A. 1976), first Yale College female undergraduate to win an Olympic medal (bronze, rowing)^[122]^[123]
Josh West (born 1977), British-American Olympic medalist rower and Earth Sciences professor^[124]
Danny Wolf, American-Israeli college basketball player for Yale and then for the Michigan Wolverines; drafted in the first round of the NBA draft by the Brooklyn Nets^[125]^[126]
Joe Wood, former MLB player^[127]

Business

John Fellows Akers (B.A. 1956), former CEO and Chairman of IBM
Wallace M. Alexander (1869–1939), heir, corporate director, philanthropist^[128]^[129]
Herbert M. Allison (B.A. 1965), former assistant secretary of the Treasury for Financial Stability; former chairman, president, and CEO of TIAA-CREF; former president and COO of Merrill Lynch
Hugh D. Auchincloss (1879), Standard Oil
Edward P. Bass (B.A. 1968), Texas heir and billionaire
Lee Bass (BA 1971), Fort Worth, Texas billionaire and current board member of Vanderbilt University
Perry Richardson Bass (1914–2006), investor and philanthropist^[130]
Robert M. Bass (B.A. 1971), former chairman, Aerion, member and former chair of the Stanford University Board of Trustees
Sid Bass (B.A. 1965), billionaire, founder of Bass Brothers Energy
Joshua Bekenstein (B.A. 1980), co-founder of Bain Capital
Morris Burke Belknap (B.A. 1878), Belknap Hardware and Manufacturing Company Vice President
Roland W. Betts (B.A. 1968), investor, film producer (Gandhi), owner of Chelsea Piers, lead owner in George W. Bush's Texas Rangers partnership
Jeffrey Bewkes (B.A. 1974), Time Warner President and COO^[131]^[132]
Jules Blankfein (B.A. 1921), physician & financier; founder, Physicians' Hospital, New York; uncle of Lloyd Blankfein^[133]
William Boeing (1903), founder of the Boeing Company and United Airlines
Hibbard Casselberry (B.S. 1916), founder and first mayor of Casselberry, Florida, real estate developer, agricultural innovator, and wartime manufacturer.
James Chanos (B.A. 1980), billionaire hedge fund investor, founder of Kynikos Associates
Tim Collins (M.B.A. 1982), founder and CEO, Ripplewood Holdings LLC
S. Sloan Colt (1914), banker, philanthropist, and chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
Granger Kent Costikyan (1929), banker, partner of Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.
Charles B. Finch (B.A. 1941, L.L.B. 1944), CEO and chairman of the board, Allegheny Power Systems, and political activist
Henry Ford II (1940), chairman and CEO of the Ford Motor Company
Ted Forstmann (B.A. 1961 (TC)), co-founder and senior partner of Forstmann Little & Company, member of the Forbes 400
Roberto Goizueta (B.A., 1953), CEO and Chairman of the Board, The Coca-Cola Company
Robert Greenhill (B.A. 1958), founder of M&A department at and former president of Morgan Stanley, former chairman of Smith Barney, CEO of investment banking firm Greenhill & Co.
Briton Hadden (B.A. 1920), co-founder of Time magazine^[134]
Peter Halloran (B.A. 1984), investment banker specializing in Russia and the surrounding region; founder and CEO of Pharos Financial Group
Henry Holt (B.A. 1862), founder of publishing firm Henry Holt & Company, which would later merge with other companies to become Holt, Rinehart & Winston
George H. Hume, president and CEO of Basic American Foods
Robert S. Ingersoll (1937), former CEO and chairman, BorgWarner
Brewster Jennings (1920), founder and president of the Socony Mobil Oil Company (Standard Oil of New York, now ExxonMobil), president of Memorial Center for Cancer and Allied Diseases and Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research
Charles B. Johnson (B.A. 1954), chairman, Franklin Templeton Investments
Henry Bourne Joy, president of Packard
Clarence King (Sheffield 1862), first head of the U.S. Geological Survey
John R. Kimberly (B.A. 1964), Henry Bower Professor Emeritus of Management at The Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania
Herbert Kohler (B.S. 1965), billionaire, chairman and former president, Kohler Company
Julius Kruttschnitt II (B. Phil. 1906), general manager of Mount Isa Mines
Edward Lampert (B.A. 1984), founder and chairman, ESL Investments (hedge fund), chairman of Sears Holding Company^[135]
William K. Lanman (B.S. Sheffield 1928), aviator, benefactor
Henry Luce (B.A. 1920), co-founder of Time magazine^[136]
John C. Malone (B.A. 1963), CEO of TCI, chairman of Liberty Media, and largest individual landowner in the U.S.
Aaron Marcus (B.F.A., M.F.A. 1968), founder of Aaron Marcus and Associates, Inc. (AM+A) in 1982
John Franklyn Mars (B.S. 1957), CEO, Mars, Incorporated^[137]
Robert McCormick (1903), owner, president, editor and publisher of the Chicago Tribune; co-founder of Kirkland & Ellis
Robert L. McNeil Jr. (B.S. 1936), developer of paracetamol (acetaminophen) and chairman of McNeil Laboratories^[138]
W. James McNerney (B.A. 1971), CEO of The Boeing Company^[139]
Roger Milliken, textiles magnate and promoter of American conservatism^[140]
Indra Krishnamurthy Nooyi (M.P.P.M. Yale School of Management 1980), CEO and president, Pepsi^[141]
Eric Ober (B.A. 1966), president, CBS News, Food Network
Joseph M. Patterson (1901), media mogul, manager of the Chicago Tribune; founder and president, New York Daily News
John Pepper (B.A. 1960), former chairman and CEO of Procter & Gamble
James Stillman Rockefeller, president and chairman, the First National City Bank of New York; Olympic gold medal for crew, 1924
Joel Root (1770–1847), supercargo on the sealing ship Huron, author of a journal of his voyage around the world on that ship
Elihu Rose (B.A. 1954), real estate developer and military historian
Joseph Rosenberg (B.A. 1903), Bank of America vice president, head of motion picture lending
Vivek Ramaswamy (J.D. 2013), founder of Roivant Sciences, former 2024 Republican presidential candidate^[142]^[143]
Wilbur Ross (B.A. 1959), investor, steel magnate, secretary of commerce in the Trump presidential administration
Stacy H. Schusterman (B.A. 1985), former CEO and chairman of Samson Resources, philanthropist^[144]
Stephen A. Schwarzman (B.A. 1969), co-founder and CEO of the Blackstone Group, member of the Forbes 400
Daniel C. Searle (1950), heir, CEO of G. D. Searle & Company, conservative philanthropist^[145]
Neil Shen (M.B.A. 1992), billionaire venture capitalist, Founding and Managing Partner of HongShan Capital Group
Timothy Shriver (B.A. 1981), Chairman and CEO of Special Olympics and member of Kennedy Family
Chip Skowron, hedge fund portfolio manager convicted of insider trading
Frederick W. Smith (B.A. 1966), founder and CEO, FedEx
Charles F. Spalding (a.k.a. Chuck Spalding) (1919–2000), vice president of Lazard, political campaigner for John F. Kennedy, television writer
Harold Stanley, founder, Morgan Stanley
Tom Steyer, billionaire, environmentalist and founder of Farallon Capital
John Butler Talcott (1846), industrialist and founder of the New Britain Museum of American Art
Richard Thalheimer (B.A. 1970), founder and CEO of The Sharper Image
John L. Thornton (M.P.P.M. Yale School of Management 1980), former president and co-COO, Goldman Sachs
Juan Trippe (B.A. 1921), founder and CEO, Pan Am^[146]
Frederick William Vanderbilt (Sheffield 1893), philanthropist, director of the New York Central Railroad
Friedrich Weyerhäuser, founded Weyerhaeuser
Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney (1922), businessman, film producer, writer, and government official, owner of thoroughbred racehorses
John (Jock) Hay Whitney (B.A. 1926), philanthropist and founder of J.H. Whitney & Co., first U.S. venture capital firm
Payne Whitney (B.A. 1898)
Elisha Wiesel (B.S. 1994), businessman; chief information officer of Goldman Sachs
Lei Zhang (M.B.A., M.A. 2002), billionaire private equity investor, founder and chairman of Hillhouse Investment

College founders and presidents

Frederick Barnard (B.A. 1828),^[147]^[148]^[149] mathematician, educator, president (1856–58) and chancellor (1858–61) of the University of Mississippi, president (1864–89) of Columbia University, posthumous namesake of Barnard College, active in the founding of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Academy of Sciences
Isaac K. Beckes (Ph.D. 1943), president of Vincennes University, 1950–80
J. Seelye Bixler (Ph.D. 1924), 16th president of Colby College, 1960–79
Richard H. Brodhead (B.A. 1968),^[150] president of Duke University
Samuel Palmer Brooks, president of Baylor University, 1902–31
Aaron Burr Sr. (B.A. 1735),^[151] second president of Princeton University, father of the third vice president of the United States, Aaron Burr
Michael T. Cahill (B.A. 1993), dean and president of Brooklyn Law School
Gerhard Casper (LL.B. 1962; honorary doctorate, 2000), ninth president of Stanford University, former provost at the University of Chicago, member of the Yale Corporation^[152]
Daniel Chamovitz, biologist, author of What a Plant Knows, and president of Ben Gurion University of the Negev^[153]
William Chauvenet (B.A. 1840), Chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis (1863–69)
Carol T. Christ (Ph.D. 1970), first female chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley^[154]
Pinkhos Churgin (1894–1957), first president of Bar-Ilan University
Henry Roe Cloud, first full-blooded Native American to attend Yale, reformer, educator, president of Haskell Indian Nations University; first Native American member of a Yale secret society (Elihu)
Vincent Cooke, S.J., 23rd president of Canisius College (1993–2010)^[155]
Oscar Henry Cooper, president of Baylor University 1899–1902, and of Simmons College, now known as Hardin-Simmons University, 1902–09
Raymond Culver, fourth president of Shimer College
Jonathan Dickinson (B.A. 1706, when Yale was still named the Collegiate School of Connecticut), founder of the College of New Jersey, later named Princeton University^[156]^[157]
James Johnson Duderstadt (B.E. 1964), president of the University of Michigan^[158]
Henry Durant (B.A. 1827), first president of the University of California (Berkeley)
Peter Tyrrell Flawn (Ph.D. 1951), geologist and former president of the University of Texas at Austin
Edward "Tad" Foote (B.A.), former president of the University of Miami
Thomas H. Gallaudet (B.A. 1805, M.A. 1810), educator for the deaf, co-founder and principal (1817–30) of the American School for the Deaf, namesake of Gallaudet University^[159]
Thomas F. George (M.A. 1968, Ph.D. 1970), chemist and current chancellor of the University of Missouri-St. Louis^[160]
Daniel Coit Gilman (B.A. 1852), second president of the University of California (Berkeley); first president of Johns Hopkins University (1876–1901); first president of the Carnegie Institution^[161]
William Rainey Harper (Ph.D. 1874), first president of the University of Chicago^[162]
Robert Hess (1938–1994), president of Brooklyn College
Catharine Bond Hill (Ph.D. 1974), tenth president of Vassar College
Elliot Hirshman (1983), eighth president of San Diego State University
Jonathan Scott Holloway (Ph.D. 1995), 21st president of Rutgers University
Joseph Gibson Hoyt (B.A. 1840), first chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis^[163]
Robert M. Hutchins (B.A. 1921, LL.B 1925), president (1929–45) and chancellor (1945–51) of the University of Chicago^[164]
John Wesley Johnson (1862), first president of the University of Oregon^[165]
Samuel Johnson (B.A. 1714, M.A. 1717), first president of Columbia University (then known as King's College), father of William Samuel Johnson, signer of the US Constitution and third president of Columbia College (Columbia University)
William Samuel Johnson (B.A. 1744, M.A. 1747), signer of the U.S. Constitution, third president of Columbia College (now Columbia University) and first US senator from Connecticut
Joseph D. Kearney (1986), dean at Marquette University Law School
Yamakawa Kenjirō (ca. 1876), founder of Kyūshū Institute of Technology^[166]
John Kneller (M.A., 1948 and Ph.D. in French, 1950), English-American professor and fifth president of Brooklyn College^[167]
Aptullah Kuran (B.A.1952, M.A.1954), founder and first president (1971–79) of Boğaziçi University, Istanbul^[168]
Ted Landsmark (B.A. 1973, J.D. 1973), president of Boston Architectural College (1997–2014)^[169]
Anthony W. Marx (B.A. 1981),^[170]^[171] president (2003–11) of Amherst College
Mario Monti (M.Sc.), rector and then president of Bocconi University, Milan, Italy and Italian prime minister
Douglas M. North (B.A. 1962), president of Prescott College and Alaska Pacific University; head of The Albany Academies
G. Dennis O'Brien (B.A. 1952), former president of Bucknell University and the University of Rochester
Helen Parkhurst (M.A. 1943), progressive educator, created the Dalton Plan, founder of The Dalton School^[172]
Harris Pastides (MPH 1977, MPhil 1978, Ph.D. 1980), 29th president of the University of South Carolina
Ravi Rajan (M.Mus. 2000), 4th president of California Institute of the Arts
Aurelia Henry Reinhardt (Ph.D. 1905), president of Mills College (1916–43)
L. Song Richardson (JD), president of Colorado College (2021–present)
Andrew Sledd (Ph.D. 1903), first president of the University of Florida (1905–09); president of Southern University (1910–14); first Professor of New Testament Literature at Emory University's Candler School of Theology (1914–39)^[173]
Frank Strong (Ph.D. 1897), third president of the University of Oregon and sixth chancellor of the University of Kansas^[174]
Charles Burt Sumner (B.A. 1862), founding trustee and de facto first president of Pomona College^[175]
Andrea Talentino (B.A.), ninth president of Augustana College^[176]
Ambrose Tighe (B.A. 1879, M.A. 1891), co-founder of William Mitchell College of Law^[177]
Ella King Torrey (B.A. 1980), art historian, former president of San Francisco Art Institute^[178]^[179]
Eleazar Wheelock (B.A. 1733), founder of Dartmouth College^[180]
Andrew Dickson White (B.A. 1853), co-founder and first president of Cornell University^[181]^[182]
Menahem Yaari (born 1935), Israeli economist, S.A. Schonbrunn Professor of Mathematical Economics at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, president of the Open University of Israel
Hagit Messer Yaron (born 1953), Israeli electrical engineer, businesswoman, and president of Open University of Israel

Film and television

Max Barbakow (B.A. 2011, American Studies), director of Palm Springs
Angela Bassett (B.A. 1980 African-American Studies, MFA 1983), Academy Award-nominated actress^[183]^[184]
Jennifer Beals (B.A. 1987 American Literature), actress, best known for Flashdance and The L Word
Henry Bean, screenwriter/director The Believer
Jordana Brewster, actress, plays Mia in The Fast and the Furious
Mary Ellen Bute (studied stage lighting in the Department of Drama, 1925–26), animator and director
Rob Campbell (MFA 1990), actor, debuted in Unforgiven
Juliana Canfield (B.A. 2014, MFA 2017), actress, appeared in Succession and received a Tony nomination for Stereophonic
Lee Isaac Chung, Academy Award-nominated director of Minari
Michael Cimino (B.A. 1961, M.A. 1963), Academy Award-winning director of The Deer Hunter
Enrico Colantoni, actor and director
Bruce Cohen, film producer, won an Academy Award for American Beauty
Jennifer Connelly (Class of 1992), Academy Award-winning actress
Whitfield Cook, author, playwright and screenwriter
Robert Curtis Brown (B.A. 1979), television, film, and stage actor
Claire Danes (Class of 2002), actress
Winston Duke (MFA 2013), actor
Noah Emmerich (B.A. 1992), actor
Jodie Foster (B.A. 1985 in literature, magna cum laude), Academy Award-winning actress and director^[185]^[186]
James Franco, actor, comedian
Paul Giamatti (B.A. 1989, MFA 1994), actor, starred in Sideways
Alex Gibney, Academy Award-winning documentary-filmmaker (Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, 2005; Taxi to the Dark Side, 2007)
Larry Gottheim (Ph.D. 1965), avant-garde filmmaker
David Alan Grier, actor, comedian
Kathryn Hahn (MFA), actress
Brian Tyree Henry (MFA), actor
Michael Herz, director, founder of Troma Studios
George Hickenlooper (B.A. 1985), film director
George Roy Hill (B.A. 1943), Academy Award-winning director
Moses Ingram (MFA 2019), actress
Lloyd Kaufman (B.A. 1968), director, actor, president of Troma Studios, IFTA chairman
Elia Kazan (studied 1930–32), Academy Award-winning director
Zoe Kazan (B.A. 2005, Theatre), film and stage actress, Elia's granddaughter
Fran Kranz (B.A. 2004), actor
Phil LaMarr (B.A. 1989), actor, comedian
Adam Leipzig (B.A. 1979 in literature), film and theater producer
Thomas F. Lennon (B.A. 1973), Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker
Ron Livingston (B.A. 1989), actor, best known for Office Space
Jefferson Mays (B.A. 1987), Tony Award-winning actor
Jonathan Majors (MFA 2016), actor^[187]
Tom McCarthy (MFA), Academy Award-winning director, best known for Spotlight
Frances McDormand (MFA 1982), Academy Award-winning actress
Peter McRobbie (B.A. 1966), actor
William Cameron Menzies (studied art in the School of Fine Arts 1913–14), production designer, art director, director
Rebecca Miller (B.A. 1984), award-winning filmmaker and novelist
Bill Moseley, actor
Paul Newman (DRA 1954), Academy Award-winning actor
Thomas Newman (B.A. 1977, M.M. 1978), film composer
Alessandro Nivola (B.A. 1994), actor
Edward Norton (B.A. 1991), Academy Award-nominated actor (American History X), known for Fight Club
Lupita Nyong'o (MFA 2012), Academy Award-winning actress (12 Years A Slave)
Alan J. Pakula (B.A. 1948), director
Kip Pardue (B.A. 1998), actor
D.A. Pennebaker (B.A.), documentarian and director of Dont Look Back
Bronson Pinchot (B.A. 1981), actor
James Ponsoldt (B.A.), director
Vincent Price (B.A. 1933, History & English), actor
Sarah Rafferty (MFA), actress
Da'Vine Joy Randolph (M.F.A. 2011), Academy Award-winning actress (The Holdovers)
Ira Sachs (B.A. 1988), director
Michael Sarnoski (B.A. 2010), director
Liev Schreiber (MFA 1992), actor
Robert Simonds (B.A. 1985 in Philosophy, summa cum laude), film producer, best known for Happy Gilmore, Cheaper by the Dozen, and The Wedding Singer; also the founder and chairman of STX Entertainment
Josh Singer (B.A.), screenwriter, best known for Spotlight
Gene Siskel (B.A. 1967), movie critic
Todd Solondz (B.A. 1981), director, Welcome to the Dollhouse and Happiness
Oliver Stone (Class of 1968), Academy Award-winning director
Meryl Streep (MFA, 1975), Academy Award-winning actress
Jeremy Strong (B.A.), actor
Ted Tally (B.A.), Academy Award-winning screenwriter
John Turturro (MFA 1983), actor
Sam Waterston (B.A. 1961), actor
Sigourney Weaver (MFA 1974), actress
Jon Weinbach (B.A. 1998), director, writer, producer
Joe Weisberg (B.A. 1987), creator and showrunner of The Americans
Sam Weisman (B.A. 1969), director, producer, actor
Jennifer Westfeldt (B.A. 1991), actress, screenwriter (Kissing Jessica Stein)
James Whitmore, actor
Douglas Wick (B.A. 1976), film producer
Allison Williams (B.A. 2010), actress (Get Out), comedian, singer
Rob Wright (B.A.), producer/writer
Jessica Yu (B.A. 1987), Academy Award-winning film director

Inventors and innovators

Joseph P. Allen (Ph.D. 1965), NASA astronaut with two STS missions experience
Herbert Boyer (1963–66), co-founder of Genentech; genetic engineering pioneer^[188]
David Bushnell (ca. 1776), inventor of the screw propeller, submarine, naval mine, and time bomb
Ben Carson (B.A. 1973), pediatric neurosurgeon, first surgeon to successfully separate twins conjoined at the back of the head^[189]
Francis S. Collins (Ph.D. 1974), director, Human Genome Project
Harry B. Combs (B.S. 1935, Sheffield Scientific School), aviation pioneer
Harvey Williams Cushing (B.A.), pioneer of modern brain surgery and considered by many the greatest neurosurgeon of the 20th century
Lee De Forest (B.S. 1896, Ph.D. 1899), inventor of the triode
Helen Flanders Dunbar (M.D. 1930), important early figure in U.S. psychosomatic medicine
Henry Leavitt Ellsworth (B.A. 1810), first commissioner of United States Patent Office, founder of United States Department of Agriculture
Eric Fossum (Ph.D. 1984), inventor of CMOS image sensor
J. Willard Gibbs (1858, Ph.D. 1863), mathematician, physical chemist, thermodynamicist, known for Gibbs' Phenomenon
Grace Hopper (M.A. 1930, Ph.D. 1934), inventor of COBOL programming language
Maurice Karnaugh (B.Sc. 1949, M.Sc. 1950, Ph.D. 1952), developer of Karnaugh map
L. L. Langstroth (1831), apiarist, clergyman, and teacher, considered to be the father of American beekeeping; namesake and creator of the Langstroth hive
Paul B. MacCready (1947), "Engineer of the Century", won the Kremer prize for first human-powered flying machine (the Gossamer Condor); pioneer in solar powered flight; founder of AeroVironment
Aaron Marcus (B.F.A., M.F.A. 1968), the first graphic designer in the world to work with computer graphics
Elmer McCollum (Ph.D. 1904), biochemist, co-discovered vitamins A, B, and D
Warren Sturgis McCulloch (B.A. 1921), cybernetics pioneer, created the first computational models for studying the brain
Samuel F. B. Morse (1810), telegraph pioneer, inventor of Morse code
Harry Nyquist (Ph.D. 1917), engineer known for the Nyquist theorem
John Ousterhout (B.S. 1975), creator of the Tcl programming language
Ronald Rivest (B.S. 1969), computer scientist, the "R" in the RSA cryptography, 2002 Turing Award recipient
George B. Selden, awarded the first United States patent for an automobile in 1895
Benjamin Silliman (1779–1864), early chemist and science educator; one of the first professors of science at Yale College; the first person to distill petroleum; a founder of the American Journal of Science, the oldest scientific journal in the United States
Benjamin Silliman Jr., professor of chemistry at Yale University, instrumental in developing the oil industry
Benjamin Spock (B.A. 1925), child psychology guru
Eli Whitney (1792), inventor of the cotton gin

Life sciences and medicine

A. Elizabeth Adams (Ph.D. 1926), professor of Zoology at Mount Holyoke College
Christina Agapakis (B.S. 2006), synthetic biologist and Creative Director of Ginkgo Bioworks
Michael L.J. Apuzzo (B.A. 1961), academic neurosurgeon, surgical pioneer, Editor and educator; professor of Neurological Surgery, Radiation Oncology, Biology and Physics, University of Southern California; Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Neurosurgery, Yale
Shy Arkin (Ph.D. 1966 in Cell Biology), Israeli Professor of Structural Biochemistry at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
George Alfred Baitsell (M.A. 1909, Ph.D. 1914), biologist, official of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
Oxiris Barbot, Commissioner of Health of the City of New York
Aaron Beck (M.D. 1946), "father of cognitive behavioral therapy"; founder of the Beck Institute for Cognitive Behavior Therapy at the University of Pennsylvania; winner of the Lasker Award
Jules Blankfein, Class of 1921, physician and financier; founder of Physicians' Hospital, New York; uncle of Lloyd Blankfein^[133]
Katharine Jeanette Bush (Ph.D. 1901), zoologist, first woman to receive a Ph.D. in sciences from Yale
Alice Chen (B.S. 2001 ), founding member and former director of Doctors for America
Mandy Cohen (M.D. 2005), physician, Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Robley Dunglison (1798–1869), personal physician to Thomas Jefferson, chair of medicine at University of Maryland and Jefferson Medical College
John Elefteriades (M.D. 1976), cardiac surgeon, professor at Yale School of Medicine
Nathan Havill (M.S. 2003, Ph.D. 2006), entomologist and evolutionary biologist
Rani Hoff (MPH and PhD), Yale professor of psychiatry
Peter Hotez (B.A. 1980), dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine and Professor of Pediatrics and Molecular Virology & Microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine
Howard A. Howe (B.A. 1925), polio researcher at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Allyn Merriam Hungerford (M.D. 1839), prominent Connecticut physician, legislator and judge
Ebenezer Kingsbury Hunt (B.A. 1833), president of the Connecticut State Medical Society, director of the Retreat for the Insane
Howard Koh (B.A. 1973, M.D. 1977), professor, Harvard School of Public Health
Jeffrey Laitman (Ph.D 1977), anatomist and physical anthropologist, Distinguished Professor of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, president-elect of the American Association of Anatomists
Arthur Lander, B.A., developmental biologist at University of California, Irvine
Aldo Leopold (Master's degree in Forestry, 1909), pioneer in the field of wildlife management at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, author of A Sand County Almanac
Othniel Charles Marsh (1862), preeminent paleontologist, discovered numerous dinosaur species
Harold J. Morowitz (B.S. 1947, M.S. 1950, Ph.D. 1951), professor of biology and natural philosophy at George Mason University
Vivek Murthy (MD 2003, MBA 2003), vice admiral in the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, 19th and 21st surgeon general of the United States
Johnathan Oberlander (M.A. 1990, M.Phil 1993, Ph.D. 1995), author and professor of social medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Mary I. O'Connor (B.S. 1979), chair of orthopedic surgery at Mayo Clinic; director of the Center for Musculoskeletal Care at the Yale School of Medicine
H.T. Odum (Ph.D. 1950), ecologist, professor at the University of Florida
J. Roger Porter (Ph.D. 1938), microbiology professor at University of Iowa, 1938–79
Tia Powell (M.D.), psychiatrist, former head of NY State Task Force on Life & the Law
Megan Ranney, Dean of the Yale School of Public Health (2023 – )
Christian R. H. Raetz (B.S. 1967), professor of biochemistry at Duke University
Marjorie S. Rosenthal (M.D. 1995; Fellow 2016), Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the Yale University School of Medicine; Co-Director of Yale's National Clinician Scholars Program (NCSP) and Director of the NCSP Community Research Initiative; former Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar at both Yale and the University of North Carolina^[190]
Jonathan Rothberg (Ph.D. 1921), first to sequence an individual human genome; serial biotechnology entrepreneur; professor of genetics at Yale
James Rothman (B.A. 1971), biologist, winner of 2002 Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research (sometimes called "America's Nobel Prize")
David Sanders (B.S. 1983), structural biologist at Purdue University
William Thompson Sedgwick (B.A. 1877), bacteriologist, epidemiologist, founder of the MIT-Harvard School of Public Health
Florence B. Seibert (Ph.D. 1923),^[191] biochemist, winner of 1942 Garvan–Olin Medal and member of the National Women's Hall of Fame
Robert Shope (faculty 1965–95), arbovirologist and emerging infectious diseases expert
Linda Siegel (M.S., 1964 and Ph.D., 1966), wrote doctoral dissertation on information processing in children;^[192]^[193] worked as a cognitive psychologist and was holder of the Dorothy C. Lam Chair in Special Education at the University of British Columbia 1996–2010
Julian M. Sturtevant (Ph.D., 1931), professor of biochemistry, Yale University

Mathematics and computer science

James Arthur (Ph.D. 1970), Wolf Prize medallist, mathematician known for Arthur-Selberg trace formula and Arthur conjectures
Jeffrey Brock (B.A. 1992), Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Yale University, Guggenheim Fellow known for his work on classifying hyperbolic 3-manifolds
Jaime Carbonell (Ph.D. 1979), University Professor, Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science
Bernard Chazelle (Ph.D. 1980), Eugene Higgins Professor of Computer Science at Princeton University
Bruce Donald (B.A. 1980), James B. Duke Professor of Computer Science and Mathematics, Chemistry and Biochemistry, at Duke University and the Duke University Medical Center
Theodore Gamelin (B.S. 1960), professor emeritus of mathematics at the University of California, Los Angeles
Andrew M. Gleason (B.A. 1942), chair of Mathematics at Harvard, World War II codebreaker, made fundamental contributions to Lie Groups, Quantum Mechanics and Combinatorics
Leslie Greengard (M.D., Ph.D. 1987), former director of the NYU Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences; inventor of the fast multipole method
Marshall Hall (B.A. 1932), mathematician, who made significant contributions to the development of group theory and combinatorics
Richard S. Hamilton (B.A. 1963), discovered Ricci flow, instrumental to the solution of the Poincaré conjecture, winner of the Shaw Prize, Clay Research Award and AMS Leroy P. Steele Prize
Brendan Hassett (B.A. 1992), mathematician who made significant contributions to higher-dimensional arithmetic geometry and birational geometry, fellow of the American Mathematical Society
Paul Hudak, professor of computer science, co-creator of the programming language Haskell
Janet Kolodner (Ph.D. 1980), Cognitive Scientist, Regents' Professor, College of Computing, Georgia Tech
Robert Langlands (Ph.D. 1960), Abel Prize winner, emeritus professor, Institute for Advanced Study, author of the Langlands Program
Charles E. Leiserson (B.S. 1975), bestselling co-author of Introduction to Algorithms, inventor of Cilk, professor of Computer Science at MIT
Saunders Mac Lane (B.A. 1930), mathematician, one of the founders of category theory
Andreas Mandelis (B.Sc. 1974), expert on photonics; professor at the University of Toronto
Alan Perlis, professor of computer science and first ever recipient of the Turing Award
Matt Pharr (B.S. 1993), Academy Award winner for the formalization and reference implementation of the concepts behind physically based rendering
Yoav Shoham (Ph.D. 1987), Allan Newell Award winner, Professor Emeritus at Stanford University
Daniel Spielman (B.S. 1992), MacArthur Fellow, Godel, Polya and Nevanlinna Prize Winner, Applied Mathematics and Computer Science professor at Yale University
John Griggs Thompson (B.A. 1955), mathematician, winner of the Fields Medal in 1970
Daniel S. Weld (B.A., B.S. 1982), professor of Computer Science and Engineering at University of Washington^[194]
John H. Wharton, software engineer specializing in microprocessors
Brian White (B.A. 1977), professor of mathematics at Stanford University who specializes in differential geometry and geometric measure theory
Hassler Whitney (B.S. 1928) (B.A. 1929), mathematician, founder of singularity theory, foundational work in manifolds and embedding, Wolf Prize medallist
Robert Wilensky (B.A. 1971, Ph.D. 1978), former chair of Computer Science at UC Berkeley, doctoral advisor of Peter Norvig

Physical sciences and engineering

Richard Lee Armstrong (BSc 1959, Ph.D. Geology 1964), American-Canadian geochemist
Walter A. Bell (MSc 1911, Ph.D. Geology 1920), Canadian geologist and paleontologist
Edward Bouchet (B.A. 1874, Ph.D. Physics 1876), first African-American to graduate from Yale and the first to receive a Ph.D. at an American university
Emanuel Fritz (M.A. Forestry 1914), professor of forestry and noted consultant on California redwoods
Milton Harris (Ph.D. 1929), chemist
McAllister Hull (B.S. 1948, Ph.D. 1951), Manhattan Project explosive lens expert, Yale physics professor, SUNY Buffalo dean, University of New Mexico professor and provost
Michael E. Mann (Ph.D. 1998), climatologist and geophysicist at Penn State University, originator of the "hockey stick graph"
Henry Margenau (Ph.D. 1929), physicist and philosopher of science, expert on spectral analysis and microwave theory
Clark Blanchard Millikan (B.A. 1924), professor of aeronautics, noted researcher, administrator and advisor at California Institute of Technology
E. R. Ward Neale (M.S. 1951; Ph.D. 1952), geologist, professor at Memorial University of Newfoundland
Benjamin Silliman (B.A. 1796) (M.A. 1799), "father of American scientific education"
Lyman Spitzer (B.S. 1935), theoretical physicist, National Medal of Science winner, namesake of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope
Eugene Stevens (B.S. 1960), professor at Binghamton University, known for research in biodegradable plastics
Josiah Whitney (B.A. 1839), geologist, chief of California Geological Survey, and geology professor at Harvard University
Arthur Wightman (B.A. 1942), founding father of modern mathematical physics, Poincare Prize Winner
Zhan Tianyou (Ph.B. 1881), pioneering Chinese railroad engineer, considered the "father of China's railroad"

Law and politics

Presidents and vice presidents, royalty, other heads of state, prime ministers and ministers

Abd al-Karim al-Iryani (Ph.D. 1968), prime minister of the Republic of Yemen (1980–83, 1998–2001), and Foreign Minister (1993–98)^[195]
Olympia Bonaparte, Princess Napoléon, consort of Jean-Christophe, Prince Napoléon^[196]
George H. W. Bush (B.A. 1948), president of the United States (1989–93), vice president of the United States (1981–89), member of the House of Representatives (R-Texas) (1967–71), played baseball while attending and was on the 1947 and 1948 College World Series runner-up teams^[197]^[198]
George W. Bush (B.A. 1968), president of the United States (2001–09), governor of Texas (1995–2000)^[199]
John C. Calhoun (B.A. 1804), seventh vice president of the United States, for two different presidents, John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson; senator; member of the House of Representatives; Secretary of State in the Tyler presidential administration^[200]
Karl Carstens (L.L.M. 1949), fifth president of Germany (1979–84)^[201]
Dick Cheney (Attended, transferred to Wyoming), vice president of the United States (2001–09)^[202]
Tansu Çiller (Postdoctoral Fellow), prime minister of Turkey (1993–96)^[203]
Bill Clinton (J.D. 1973), president of the United States (1993–2001), governor of Arkansas (1979–81, 1983–92)^[204]
Kristrún Frostadóttir (M.A. 2016), prime minister of Iceland (2024–present)^[205]
Gerald Ford (LL.B. 1941), president of the United States (1974–77), vice president of the United States (1973–74), member of the House of Representatives^[206]
Jiang Yi-huah, Premier of the Republic of China (2012–13)
Stavros Lambrinidis (J.D. 1988), vice president of the European Parliament (2009–11), Minister for Foreign Affairs of Greece (2011)
José P. Laurel, president of the Philippines in World War II
Salvador H. Laurel (LL.M 1953) (J.S.D.1960), vice president of the Philippines (1986–92)
Lee Hong-koo (Ph.D. 1968), prime minister of South Korea (1994–95)
Mario Monti (M.Sc. 1968), prime minister of Italy (2011–13)
Wendell Mottley (B.A. 1964), Olympic medalist and subsequently a government of Trinidad and Tobago minister
Peter Mutharika (LL.M. 1966, J.S.D. 1969), 5th president of Malawi
Ivan Sergeyevich Obolensky, prince, aristocrat, financier, grandson of Tsar Alexander II of Russia^[207]
Jovito R. Salonga (J.S.D.1949), senator of the Philippines (1965–72) (1987–92)
William Howard Taft (B.A. 1878, honorary LL.D. 1893), 27th president of the United States (1909–13), 10th Chief Justice of the United States (1921–30)^[208]
JD Vance (J.D. 2013), vice president of the United States (2025–present), U.S. senator (R-Ohio, 2023–25)^[209]^[210]
Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden of the House of Bernadotte (Class of 2000, attended for two years)^[211]
Valdis Zatlers, president of Latvia (2007–11)
Ernesto Zedillo (Ph.D. 1981), president of Mexico (1994–2000)^[212]

Supreme Court justices

Information can be verified through the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges.^[213]

Samuel Alito (J.D. 1975), Supreme Court justice (2006–present)^[214]
Henry Baldwin (1797), Supreme Court justice (1830–44)^[215]
David J. Brewer (1856), Supreme Court justice (1889–1910)^[216]
Henry Billings Brown (1856, and law study, LL.D. 1891), Supreme Court justice (1891–1906)^[217]
David Davis (Law 1835), Supreme Court justice (1862–77)^[218]
Oliver Ellsworth (Class of 1766),^[219] Supreme Court justice (1796–1800)
Abe Fortas (Law 1933), Supreme Court justice (1965–69)^[220]
Brett Kavanaugh (J.D 1990), Supreme Court justice (2018–present)^[221]
Sherman Minton (YLS one-year degree, 1917), Supreme Court justice (1949–56)^[222]
George Shiras Jr. (1853), Supreme Court justice (1892–1903)^[223]
Sonia Sotomayor (J.D. 1979), Supreme Court justice (2009–present)^[224]
Potter Stewart (1937, Law 1941), Supreme Court justice (1958–81)^[225]
William Strong (1828, GRD 1831, briefly attended YLS), Supreme Court justice (1870–80)^[226]
William Howard Taft (B.A. 1878, LL.D. 1893), 27th president of the United States (1909–13), 10th chief justice of the United States (1921–30)^[227]
Clarence Thomas (J.D. 1974), Supreme Court justice (1991–present)^[228]
Morrison R. Waite (1837), chief justice of the United States (1874–88)^[229]
Byron White (Law 1946), Supreme Court justice (1962–93)^[230]
William B. Woods (1845), Supreme Court justice (1881–87)^[231]

U.S. senators

Information can be verified at the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress.^[232]

Alva B. Adams (1896), U.S. senator (D-Colorado, 1923–24, 1932–41)^[233]
John Ashcroft (B.A. 1964 cum laude), U.S. attorney general (2001–05), U.S. senator (R-Missouri, 1995–2001), governor of Missouri (1985–93)^[234]
Abraham Baldwin (B.A. 1772), U.S. representative (1789–99), U.S. senator (1799–1807); author of the charter for, and president of, the University of Georgia (1786–1801)^[235]
Roger Sherman Baldwin (B.A. 1811), governor of Connecticut (1844–46), U.S. senator (Whig-Connecticut, 1847–51)^[236]
John Beall (B.A. 1950), U.S. senator (R-Maryland, 1971–76)^[237]
Michael Bennet (J.D. 1993), U.S. senator (D-Colorado, 2009–)^[238]
Hiram Bingham III (1898), governor of Connecticut (1925), U.S. senator (R-Connecticut, 1924–33); explorer who rediscovered the lost city of Machu Picchu, Peru; said to be the inspiration behind the fictional character Indiana Jones^[239]
Richard Blumenthal (J.D. 1973), U.S. senator (D-Connecticut, 2011–)^[240]
Cory Booker (J.D. 1997), U.S. senator (D-New Jersey, 2013–), former mayor of Newark^[241]
David Boren (B.A. 1963), governor of Oklahoma (1975–79), U.S. senator (D-Oklahoma, 1979–94), president of University of Oklahoma^[242]
Stephen R. Bradley (B.A. 1775, M.A. 1778), U.S. senator (Democratic-Republican Party), Vermont, 1801–13^[243]
Nicholas F. Brady (B.A. 1952), U.S. senator (R-New Jersey, 1982)^[244]
Sherrod Brown (B.A. 1974), U.S. representative (1993–2007), U.S. senator (D-Ohio, 2007–2025)^[245]
James L. Buckley (B.A. 1943, Law 1949), U.S. senator (C-New York, 1971–77); president of Radio Free Europe, 1982–85; federal judge for the United States Court of Appeals (District of Columbia Circuit) (1985–96)^[246]
Prescott Bush (B.A. 1917), U.S. senator (R-Connecticut, 1953–63), father of George H. W. Bush, grandfather to George W. Bush^[247]
John Chafee (B.A. 1947), governor of Rhode Island (1962–69), secretary of the navy (1969–72), U.S. senator (R–Rhode Island, 1976–99)^[248]
John M. Clayton (1815), secretary of state in the Taylor administration, U.S. senator (AJ–Delaware, 1829–36; W-Delaware, 1845–49; O-Delaware 1853–56)^[249]
Hillary Clinton (J.D. 1973), U.S. senator (D-New York (2001–09)^[250]
LeBaron Colt (B.A. 1868), U.S. senator (R-Rhode Island, 1913–24)^[251]
Chris Coons (J.D./M.A.), U.S. senator (D-Delaware, 2010–)^[252]
David Daggett (1783), U.S. senator (F-Connecticut, 1813–19)^[253]
John Danforth (J.D. DIV 1963), U.S senator (R-Missouri, 1976–95)^[254]
David Davis (Law 1835), appointed associate justice of the Supreme Court by Lincoln (1862–77); U.S. senator (I-Illinois, 1877–83)^[255]
John Davis (1787–1854), U.S. senator (W/NR-Massachusetts, 1835–41 and 1845–53)^[256]
Henry L. Dawes (1839), U.S. senator (R-Connecticut, 1875–93)^[257]
Mark Dayton (B.A. 1969), U.S. senator (D-Minnesota, 2001–07)^[258]
Fred Dubois (B.A. 1872), U.S. senator (R-Idaho, 1891–97; D-Idaho, 1901–07)^[259]
William M. Evarts (1837), secretary of state under Hayes, U.S. senator (R-New York, 1885–91)^[260]
Gary Hart (DIV 1961, LLB 1964), U.S. senator (D-Colorado, 1975–87)^[261]
John Heinz (B.A. 1960), U.S. senator (R-Pennsylvania)^[262]
James Hillhouse (B.A. 1773), U.S. senator (F-Connecticut, 1796–1810)^[263]
James Jeffords (B.A. 1956), U.S. senator (I-Vermont, 1989–2007)^[264]
William Samuel Johnson (B.A. 1744, M.A. 1747), United States Founding Father, member of the Continental Congress (1785–1787), delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1787, president (1787–1800) of Columbia University (he was its first president under its new name of Columbia College; his father was the first president of the institution when it was known as King's College), U.S. senator (Connecticut, 1789–1791)^[265]
John Kean (1852–1914), U.S. senator (R-New Jersey)^[266]
Amy Klobuchar (B.A. 1982), U.S. senator (D-Minnesota, 2007–)^[267]
James Lanman (1788), U.S. senator (D-Connecticut, 1819–25)^[268]
Joseph Lieberman (B.A. 1964, J.D. 1967), U.S. senator (I-Connecticut, 1989–2013)^[269]
Joseph Medill McCormick (1900), U.S. Senate 1919–24, publisher, Chicago Tribune^[270]
Return J. Meigs Jr. (B.A. 1785), U.S. senator (DR–Ohio, 1808–10), 4th governor of Ohio (1810–14), 8th U.S. postmaster general (1814–23); namesake of Meigs County, Ohio^[271]
Henry Mitchell (1804), U.S. representative (Jacksonian-New York, 1833–35)^[272]
Thurston Morton (B.A. 1929), U.S. senator (R-Kentucky, 1957–68)^[273]
Bill Nelson (B.A. 1965), U.S. representative (D-Florida, 1979–91), astronaut (STS-61-C, 1986), U.S. senator (D-Florida, 2001–19)^[274]
Truman Newberry, U.S. senator (R-Michigan, 1919–22), secretary of the navy 1908–09^[275]
Francis Newlands (ca. 1859), U.S. senator (D-Nevada, 1903–17)^[276]
William Proxmire (B.A. 1948), U.S. senator (D-Wisconsin, 1957–89)^[277]
Ben Sasse (Ph.D. 2004), U.S. senator (R-Nebraska, 2014–)^[278]
Arlen Specter (LL.B. 1956), U.S. senator (D-Pennsylvania, 1981–2011)^[279]
Stuart Symington (B.A. 1923), United States Secretary of the Air Force, U.S. senator (D-Missouri, 1953–76)^[280]
Robert A. Taft (B.A. 1910), U.S. senator (R-Ohio, 1939–53)^[281]
Robert Taft Jr. (B.A. 1939), U.S. representative (R-Ohio, 1963–64, 1967–70), U.S. senator (R-Ohio, 1971–76)^[282]
John V. Tunney (B.A. 1956), U.S. representative (D-California, 1965–70), U.S. senator (D-California, 1971–77); inspiration for Robert Redford's character in the film The Candidate^[283]
Frederic Walcott (1891), U.S. senator (R-Connecticut, 1929–35)^[284]
John Wales (B.A. 1801), U.S. senator (W-Delaware, 1849–51); co-founder of Delaware College^[285]
Malcolm Wallop (B.A. 1954), U.S. senator (R-Wyoming, 1977–95)^[286]
Lowell Weicker (B.A. 1953), U.S. representative (R-Connecticut, 1968–71), U.S. senator (R-Connecticut, 1971–89), governor of Connecticut (1990–94)^[287]
Sheldon Whitehouse (B.A. 1978), U.S. senator (D-Rhode Island, 2006–)^[288]
Pete Wilson (B.A. 1956), U.S. senator (R-California, 1983–91), governor of California 1991–99^[289]

Other legislators

Joel M. Acker (1836), Mississippi state senator (1846, 1854–1856), Mississippi State House (1840–1844, 1865–1866)
Richard S. Aldrich (B.A. 1906), U.S. representative, R-Rhode Island^[290]
William L. Borden (B.A. 1942, J.D. 1947), executive director of United States Congress Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, 1949–53
Carolyn Bourdeaux (B.A. 1992), U.S. representative, D-Georgia (2021–23)^[291]
Winfield S. Braddock, Wisconsin State Assembly
Edwin Corning Jr. (B.A. 1942), New York State Assembly^[292]
Parker Corning (B.A. 1895), U.S. representative, D-New York^[293]
Lawrence Coughlin, Republican representative from Pennsylvania, 1969–91
Nelson Antonio Denis (J.D., 1980), New York state assemblyman
Ron DeSantis (B.A., 2001), Republican representative from Florida (2013–18), governor of Florida
Charles S. Dewey, Republican representative from Illinois (1941–42)
Jerome F. Donovan (Law 1894), U.S. representative, D-New York (1918–21)
E. D. Estilette (B.A. 1857), Speaker of the Louisiana House of Representatives in 1876; state district court judge in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana^[294]
Porter J. Goss, U.S. representative, R-FL, 1989–2004, and director of CIA
Anne P. Graham (M.S. 1986), Maine House of Representatives^[295]
George Hambrecht (LL.B. 1904), Wisconsin State Assembly (1909–10, 1915)
Ro Khanna (J.D. 2001), U.S. representative, D-California (2017–present)^[296]
Roland Kotani, member of Hawaii State House of Representatives
Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins (B.A. 2012), Alaska House of Representatives (2013–)
Sheila Jackson Lee (B.A. 1972), U.S. representative, D-Texas^[297]
Philip Livingston (B.A. 1737), delegate and signer of the Declaration of Independence from New York, state senator
Dwight Loomis (1847), U.S. representative from Connecticut (1859–63)
Seth Magaziner (M.B.A. 2010), U.S. representative, D-Rhode Island (2023–present)^[298]
Samuel Augustus Maverick (B.A. 1828), member of the Texas State Senate, namesake for eponym "maverick"
Edward Ralph May (1838), sole delegate to the Indiana Constitutional Convention of 1850 to support African American suffrage
David M. McIntosh (B.A. 1980), U.S. representative, R-Indiana (1994–2001)
Warren A. Morton (1945), member of the Wyoming House of Representatives
Eleanor Holmes Norton (M.A. 1963, LL.B. 1964), non-voting congressional delegate for District of Columbia (1991–)^[299]
Hugh Q. Parmer (B.A. 1961), Democratic member of both houses of the Texas State Legislature, 1963–65 and 1983–91; mayor of Fort Worth, Texas, 1977–79
Katie Porter (B.A. 1996), U.S. representative, D-California (2019–present)^[300]
William S. Reyburn, Republican representative from Pennsylvania, 1911–13
Carlos Romero Barceló (B.A. 1953), U.S. representative (Resident commissioner), D-Puerto Rico (1993–2000), governor of Puerto Rico (1977–85)^[301]
Daniel Sayre (B.A. 1985), Maine state representative^[302]
Joe Sempolinski (M.A. 2006, M.Phil. 2008), U.S. representative, R-New York, 2022–23
Brinley D. Sleight (B.A. 1858), New York State Assembly
Gerry Studds (B.A. 1959, M.A. 1961), U.S. representative, D-Massachusetts, 1973–97
Richard Swett (B.A. 1979), U.S. representative, D-New Hampshire, 1991–95

(See also: #Diplomats)

Governors, mayors, other city and state officials

Alumni who have served as governors may also have served in other government capacities, such as president or senator. In such cases, the names are left un-linked, but are annotated with a "See also:" which links to the section on this page where a more detailed entry can be found.

James Hopkins Adams (1831), governor of South Carolina (1854–56)
John Ashcroft (B.A. 1964), governor of Missouri (1985–93)^[303] (See also: #U.S. senators)
Roger Sherman Baldwin (B.A. 1811), governor of Connecticut (1844–46)^[304] (See also: #U.S. senators)
Hiram Bingham III (B.A. 1898), governor of Connecticut (1925)^[305] (See also: #U.S. senators)
Rob Bonta (B.A. 1993, J.D. 1998), 34th Attorney General of California (2021–present)
David L. Boren (B.A. 1963), governor of Oklahoma (1975–79)^[306] (See also: #U.S. senators)
Chesa Boudin (J.D. 2011), district attorney of San Francisco (2020–22)
Jabez Bowen (B.A. 1757), Federalist supporter, deputy governor of Rhode Island
Edmund Gerald "Jerry" Brown Jr. (J.D. 1964), 34th and 39th governor of California^[307]
George W. Bush (B.A. 1968), governor of Texas (1995–2000) (See also: #Presidents and vice presidents, royalty, other heads of state, prime ministers and ministers)^[308]
Susan Bysiewicz (B.A. 1983), Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut (since 2019), Secretary of State of Connecticut (1999–2010)
Hibbard Casselberry (B.S. 1916), founder and first mayor of Casselberry, Florida, serving two terms.
Dick Celeste (B.A. magna cum laude 1959), governor of Ohio (1983–91) (See also: #Diplomats)
John Chafee (B.A. 1947), governor of Rhode Island (1962–69)^[309] (See also: #U.S. senators)
Bill Clinton (J.D. 1973), governor of Arkansas (1983–92) (See also: #Presidents and vice presidents, royalty, other heads of state, prime ministers and ministers)
Edwin Corning (B.A. 1906), Lieutenant Governor of New York^[310]
Erastus Corning 2nd (B.A. 1932), mayor of Albany, New York^[310]
Wilbur L. Cross (B.A. 1885, Ph.D. 1889), governor of Connecticut (1931–39), Yale professor of English^[311]
Jack Dalrymple (B.A. 1970), 32nd Governor of North Dakota (2010–16)
John Davis (1787–1854), governor of Massachusetts (1834–35 and 1841–43)
Mark Dayton (B.A. 1969), governor of Minnesota (2011–)
Howard Dean (B.A. 1971), governor of Vermont (1991–2003)^[312]
Justin Elicker (M.E.M./M.B.A. 2010), mayor of New Haven, Connecticut
Stephen Clark Foster (1815–1898), first American mayor of Los Angeles, California
Henry Huntly Haight (B.A. 1844), governor of California (1867–71)
W. Averell Harriman (B.A. 1913), governor of New York (1955–58), U.S. Ambassador to Russia (1943–46), Ambassador to Britain (1946), Secretary of Commerce (1946–48)^[313]
Tony Knowles (B.A. 1968), governor of Alaska (1994–2002), mayor of Anchorage, Alaska (1981–87)
Ned Lamont (M.B.A. 1980), governor of Connecticut (2019–present)
John Lindsay (B.A. 1944, LL.B. 1948), mayor of New York City
William Livingston (B.A. 1741), first governor of New Jersey (1776–90) after the signing of the Declaration of Independence^[314]
Gary Locke (B.A. 1972), governor of Washington (1997–2005) (thereby the first Chinese American governor in the United States)^[315]
Return J. Meigs Jr. (B.A. 1785), 4th governor of Ohio (1810–14)^[316] (See also: #U.S. senators)
Marshall F. Moore, 7th governor of Washington Territory^[317]
Robert Moses (B.A. 1909), New York City Parks Commissioner, chairman of the New York State Council of Parks, head of the Triborough Bridge Authority
George Pataki (B.A. 1967), governor of New York (1995–2007)^[318]
Gifford Pinchot (Yale College graduate, 1889), governor of Pennsylvania (1923–27, 1931–35), first chief of the United States Forest Service (1905–10), and founder of and professor in Yale School of Forestry
Winthrop Rockefeller (Class of 1935), attended Yale 1931–34; governor of Arkansas (1967–71)
Carlos Romero Barceló (B.A. 1953), governor of Puerto Rico (1977–85)^[301] (See also: #Other legislators)
William Scranton (B.A. 1939, J.D. 1946), governor of Pennsylvania (1963–67), United States Ambassador to the United Nations (1976–77), member of the United States House of Representatives^[319]
Israel Smith (Yale College graduate, 1781), governor of Vermont (1807–08), member of the United States House of Representatives and member of the United States Senate^[320]
Robert Taft (B.A. 1953), governor of Ohio (1999–2007)
James Camp Tappan (B.A. 1845), Speaker of the Arkansas House of Representatives (1897–99)^[321]
Samuel J. Tilden (B.A. 1837, LL.D. 1875), governor of New York (1875–76), Democratic nominee for President in 1876^[322]^[323]
Lowell Weicker (B.A. 1953), governor of Connecticut (1990–94)^[324] (See also: #U.S. senators)
Anthony A. Williams (B.A. 1979), mayor of Washington, D.C., 1999–2007
Pete Wilson (B.A. 1956), governor of California (1991–99)^[325] (See also: #U.S. senators)

Cabinet members, chairpersons/administrators and advisers

The following have worked within the cabinet for their respective governments.

Dean Acheson (B.A. 1915), U.S. Secretary of State (1949–1953)^[326]
James Jesus Angleton (B.A. 1941), chief of Counterintelligence Staff for the Central Intelligence Agency (1954–1974)
Les Aspin (B.A. 1960), U.S. Secretary of Defense (1993–1994)^[327]
Michael J. Astrue (B.A. 1978), Commissioner of the Social Security Administration (2007–2013)
Scott Bessent (B.A. 1984), U.S. Secretary of the Treasury (2025–present)
McGeorge Bundy (B.A. 1940), National Security Advisor (1961–1966)
Jay Carney (B.A. 1987), White House Press Secretary (2011–2014)
Ash Carter (B.S. 1976), U.S. Secretary of Defense (2015–2017), professor at Harvard Kennedy School^[328]
John Chafee (B.A. 1947), U.S. Secretary of the Navy (1969–1972) (also listed under Senators and Governors)
Fredrick Chien (M.A. 1959, Ph.D. 1962), Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of China (1990–1996), Speaker of the National Assembly (1996–1999), President of the Control Yuan (1999–2005)
John M. Clayton (1815), U.S. Secretary of State (1849–1850)^[329] (also listed under Senators)
Hillary Clinton (J.D. 1973), U.S. Secretary of State (2009–2013)^[330] (also listed under Senators)
William H. Donaldson (B.A. 1954), chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (2003–2005), chair of the board of directors of the New York Stock Exchange (1991–1995), founder and 1st dean of the Yale School of Management (1975–1980), co-founder of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette
William M. Evarts (1837), U.S. Secretary of State (1877–1881)^[331] (also listed under Senators)
Olu Falae, Finance Minister of Nigeria (1989–1991), presidential candidate (1999)
David Frum (B.A. and M.A. 1982), White House speechwriter under President George W. Bush, who coined the phrase "Axis of Evil"
Roswell Gilpatric (B.A. 1928), U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense (1961–1964), presiding partner of the Cravath, Swaine & Moore (1966–1977)^[332]
T. Keith Glennan (B.S. 1927), Administrator of NASA (1958–1961)
Austan Goolsbee (B.A. 1991, M.A. 1991), chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisors (2010–2011), professor of economics at University of Chicago
Porter Goss (B.A. 1960), Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (2004–2006)
Jamie Harrison (B.A. 1998), former chairman of South Carolina Democratic Party and Democratic National Committee^[333]
Stephen Hadley (J.D. 1972), National Security Advisor (2005–2009), Deputy National Security Advisor (2001–2005)
Robert S. Ingersoll (1937), U.S. Deputy Secretary of State (1974–1976)
John Kerry (B.A. 1966), U.S. Secretary of State (2013–2017)^[334] (also listed under Senators)
Lina Khan (J.D. 2017), former commissioner and Chair of the Federal Trade Commission^[335]
Lewis Libby (B.A. 1972), former aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, principal figure in the Plame Affair
Robert Marjolin (Economics, 1934), French Marshall Plan implementer, European Commissioner (1958–1967)
William McChesney Martin (B.A. ca. 1926), Chair of the Federal Reserve (1951–1970)^[336]
Edwin Meese (B.A. 1953), U.S. attorney general (1985–1988)^[337]
Steven Mnuchin (B.A. 1985), U.S. Secretary of the Treasury (2017–2021)^[338]
Rogers Morton (B.A.), U.S. Secretary of Commerce (1975–1976) and U.S. Secretary of Interior (1971–1975)
John Negroponte (B.A. 1960), U.S. Deputy Secretary of State (2007–2009) and Director of National Intelligence (2005–2007)
Urjit Patel, Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (2016–2018)
Wilbur Ross (B.A.), Secretary of Commerce (2017–2021)^[339]
Robert Rubin (LL.B. 1964), U.S. Secretary of the Treasury (1995–1999), director of the National Economic Council (1993–1995)^[340]
Henry L. Stimson (B.A. 1888), U.S. Secretary of War (1911–1913; 1940–1945), U.S. Secretary of State (1929–1933), Governor-General of the Philippines (1927–1929)^[341]
Jake Sullivan (B.A. 1998, J.D. 2003), National Security Advisor (2021–present)^[342]
Alphonso Taft (B.A. 1833, Law), U.S. attorney general (1876–1877), U.S. Secretary of War (1876)^[343]
Strobe Talbott (B.A. 1968), U.S. Deputy Secretary of State (1994–2001), president of the Brookings Institution (2002–2017)
Cyrus Vance (B.A. 1939, LL.B. 1942), U.S. Secretary of State (1977–1980)^[344]
Janet Yellen (Ph.D. 1971), U.S. Secretary of the Treasury (2021–2025), Chair of the Federal Reserve (2014–2018)^[345]

Diplomats

Edgard Kagan, U.S. ambassador to Malaysia (2024-Present)
Roy L. Austin, U.S. ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago (2001–09)
Hiram Bingham IV, U.S. vice consul in Marseille, France (1940–41)
Bradford Bishop, former Foreign Service officer, indicted for murder, still at large
L. Paul Bremer (B.A. 1963), U.S. ambassador
Dick Celeste (B.A. magna cum laude 1959), U.S. ambassador to India (1997–2001)
Robert P. De Vecchi (B.A. 1952, L.H.D.H honorary 2005), president emeritus of the International Rescue Committee
Donald Burnham Ensenat (BA, 1968), US ambassador to Brunei (1992–1993); US Chief of Protocol (2001–2007)
Carl Gershman (B.A. magna cum laude 1965), U.N. Representative and National Endowment for Democracy President
Donald Gips (MBA), U.S. ambassador to South Africa (2009–13)
Gordon Gray III (B.A. 1978), U.S. ambassador to Tunisia (2009–12)
David Huebner (J.D.), U.S. ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa (2009–14)
Rashad Hussain (J.D.), U.S. special envoy to the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation
Howard Leach (B.A.), U.S. ambassador to France (2001–05)
Gary Locke (B.A. 1972), U.S. ambassador to China (2011–14)
Robert D. McCallum Jr., U.S. ambassador to Australia (2006–09)
John Negroponte (B.A. 1960), U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (2001–04) and Deputy Secretary of State (2007–09)
John O'Leary (B.A. 1969), U.S. ambassador to Chile (1998–2001)
Samantha Power (B.A. 1992), U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (2013–17)
Clark T. Randt Jr., U.S. ambassador to China (2001–09)
Philip T. Reeker (B.A. 1986), U.S. ambassador to Macedonia (2008–11)
Ogden Reid, U.S. ambassador to Israel (1959–61)
Charles Rivkin (B.A. 1984), U.S. ambassador to France and Monaco (2009–13)
Herbert Salzman, U.S. Ambassador to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
Andrew Schapiro (B.A. 1985), U.S. ambassador to the Czech Republic (2014–17)
William Scranton (B.A. 1939, J.D. 1946), U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (1976–77)
Derek Shearer (B.A.), U.S. ambassador to Finland (1994–97)^[54]
R. Douglas Stuart Jr. (J.D. 1946), U.S. ambassador to Norway (1994–89)
Richard Swett (B.A. 1979), U.S. ambassador to Denmark (1998–2001)
Katherine Tai (B.A.), U.S. Trade Representative (2020–)
David Thorne (B.A. 1966), U.S. ambassador to Italy (2009–13), U.S. ambassador to San Marino (2009–13)
Peter Tufo (J.D.), U.S. ambassador to Hungary (1997–2001)
Kori Udovički (Ph.D. 1999 in Economics), Governor of the National Bank of Serbia (2003–04), assistant secretary-general of United Nations (2007–)
Frederick Vreeland (B.A. 1951), U.S. ambassador to Morocco (1992–93)

Judges and attorneys

Cecilia Altonaga (J.D. 1986), federal judge, first Cuban American woman to be appointed as a federal judge in the United States
R. Lanier Anderson III (B.A., 1958), federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
Richard S. Arnold (B.A., 1957), late judge of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, federal courthouse in Little Rock named in his honor
Christopher L. Avery (B.A., 1893; LL.B. 1897), associate justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court^[346]
Joaquin Avila (B.A, 1970), voting rights advocate and MacArthur Fellow
Samuel H. Blackmer (B.A., 1924), Associate Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court^[347]
Richard Blumenthal (J.D.), Connecticut attorney general (1991–2011)
David Sherman Boardman (B.A. 1793), Connecticut judge and congressman
David Boies (LL.B.. 1966), famous lawyer (Microsoft antitrust, Bush v. Gore, Napster v. RIAA)
Steven Brill (B.A. 1972, J.D. 1975), founder of Court TV and The American Lawyer
José A. Cabranes (J.D. 1965), judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
George B. Daniels (born 1953), federal judge
Benjamin Darrow (J.D., ca. 1890), New York district attorney
Daryl Dawson (L.L.M.), justice of the High Court of Australia
John T. Downey, judge, former CIA flyer imprisoned in China 1952–73
Marc Stuart Dreier (B.A. 1972), lawyer and felon
Eric Tung (B.A. 2006), judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Tali Farhadian (born 1974 or 1975), former US federal prosecutor
Dwight Foster (B.A. 1848), Massachusetts attorney general and associate justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court^[348]
Michael Furst (B.A. 1876), Brooklyn lawyer
Richard L. Gabriel (B.A. 1984), Associate Justice of the Colorado Supreme Court^[349]
James Knoll Gardner (B.A. 1962), former federal judge for the U.S. District of Eastern Pennsylvania
Ernest W. Gibson III (B.A. 1951), associate justice of the Vermont Supreme Court^[350]
John P. Hampton (1804), chief justice of the Supreme Court of Mississippi
Nathan L. Hecht (B.A. 1971), chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court^[351]
James Kent (B.A. 1781), "father of American equity jurisprudence", Chancellor of New York
Anthony Quinton Keasbey (B.A. 1843), 25-year United States attorney for the district of New Jersey
Denison Kitchel (B.A. 1930), attorney in Phoenix, Arizona, and national campaign manager for Barry M. Goldwater in 1964^[352]
William Kunstler (B.A. 1941), civil liberties lawyer
Arthur Mag, lawyer, legal counsel to Harry S. Truman
Burke Marshall (B.A. 1943, LL.B. 1951), assistant attorney general
Edwin Meese (B.A. 1953), former United States attorney general
John W. Nields Jr. (B.A. 1964), former chief counsel to House Select Committee investigating Iran–Contra affair
Ann Olivarius (B.A., 1977, J.D. and M.B.A., 1986), feminist attorney and managing partner, McAllister Olivarius
Barrington Daniels Parker Jr. (B.A. 1965, J.D. 1969), United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
Myrna Perez (B.A. 1996), United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
Henry L. Sherman (B.A. 1890), justice of the New York Supreme Court
Jerry Edwin Smith (B.A. 1969, J.D. 1972), United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
Stephen Susman (B.A. 1962), plaintiffs attorney and a founding partner of Susman Godfrey
Robert W. Sweet (LL.B. 1948), judge of New York Southern District
Thomas Thacher (B.A. 1871), founder of prominent law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and first president of the Yale Club
Thomas Day Thacher (B.A. 1904), United States Solicitor General and federal judge
Cyrus Vance Jr. (B.A. 1978), New York County District Attorney
Arthur A. Wilder, justice of the Hawaii Supreme Court^[353]

Activists

Leonard Bacon (B.A. 1820), abolitionist
Aditi Banerjee, attorney, writer and minority (Hindu) rights activist in the US
Cassius Marcellus Clay (B.A. 1832), abolitionist; namesake of Cassius Marcellus Clay Sr., whose son, boxer Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr., took the name Muhammad Ali^[354]^[355]
Rev. William Sloane Coffin Jr. (B.D. 1956), chaplain of Yale (1958–75), senior minister of Riverside Church in New York, civil and political rights activist, author
Severn Cullis-Suzuki (B.S. 2002), environmental activist, speaker, television host, and author; member of Kofi Annan's Special Advisory Council (United Nations)
David Dellinger (B.A. 1936), conscientious objector, member of the Chicago Seven
Jeremiah Evarts (B.A. 1802), author, editor, activist, opponent of the Indian Removal Act of 1830
Jodi Grant (B.A. 1990), executive director of the Afterschool Alliance
Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi, Taliban spokesman
Bruce W. Klunder (B.D. 1961), Presbyterian minister, civil rights activist with C.O.R.E., killed during protest against segregated schools in Cleveland, Ohio
Graciela Sanchez, social justice activist
Barry Scheck (B.S., 1971), co-founded the Innocence Project
Sargent Shriver (B.A. 1938, LL.B. 1941), main organizer and first director of the Peace Corps; California politician and businessman; husband of Eunice Kennedy; father of Maria Shriver (news journalist and former wife of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Bobby Shriver (Yale B.A. 1976)
Ron Sider (B.D., 1967, Ph.D. 1969), theologian and activist; President of Evangelicals For Social Action and professor at Palmer Theological Seminary
Jared Taylor (B.A., 1973), author, editor, activist, founder of the New Century Foundation
Phyllis Ann Wallace (1948), economist, civil rights activist
Brian Wallach (B.A., 2003), founder of I AM ALS
Y.C. James Yen (B.A. 1918; M.A. (honorary) 1928), founder of Chinese Mass Education Movement and Rural Reconstruction Movement

Political commentators

John P. Avlon (B.A. 1996), author, political commentator, CNN Senior Political Analyst and former editor-in-chief of The Daily Beast^[356]^[357]
Christopher Buckley (B.A. 1975), political pundit, columnist, author of Thank You for Smoking
William F. Buckley (B.A. 1950), political pundit, founder of the National Review, host of public affairs television show Firing Line
David Gergen (B.A. 1963), political pundit, worked as an advisor for the Republican and Democratic presidential administrations of Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton
Michael J. Knowles (B.A. 2012), political pundit, author ofSpeechless, host of political podcast on The Daily Wire
Andrés Martinez (B.A. 1988), editorial page editor of the Los Angeles Times
Marvin Olasky (B.A. 1971), editor-in-chief of WORLD magazine
Kenneth M. Pollack (B.A. 1988), Middle East expert, author, fellow of the Brookings Institution
Gideon Rose (B.A. 1985), author, editor-in-chief of Foreign Affairs
Sean Trende (B.A. 1995), Senior Elections Analyst for RealClearPolitics, co-author of The Almanac of American Politics
Fareed Zakaria (B.A. 1986), political pundit, author, host of public affairs show Foreign Exchange

Other

Matthew Adler (B.A. 1984 and J.D. 1991), law professor
Algernon Sydney Biddle (1847–1891), lawyer and law professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School
Moses Cleaveland (B.A. 1777), founder of Cleveland, Ohio
Manasseh Cutler (B.A. 1765), co-author of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, member of the Ohio Company of Associates (the first non-Native American settlement in Ohio), Federalist congressman from Massachusetts (1801–1805)
John Hart Ely (J.D. 1963), legal scholar
James Gadsden (B.A. 1806), namesake of the Gadsden Purchase, in which the United States purchased from Mexico the land that became parts of Arizona and New Mexico
Quintin Johnstone (J.S.D. 1951), legal scholar
Clarence King (Ph.D. 1862), founder of the U.S. Geological Survey
James Wadsworth (1787), founder of Geneseo, New York, and leading pioneer and community leader of the Genesee Valley
Amy Wax (B.S. 1975), Robert Mundheim Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School

Military

John Brown (B.A. 1771), accuser of Benedict Arnold
Henry B. Carrington (1845), Union army general in the American Civil War
A. Peter Dewey, first American killed in the Vietnam War, in 1945
William B. Goggins, rear admiral of the United States Navy
Nathan Hale (B.A. 1773), America's first spy, executed by the British for espionage in 1776;^[358] his last words are often quoted: "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country."^[359]
Rene Edward De Russy Hoyle, army general
David Humphreys (B.A. 1771), aide-de-camp to George Washington
Lewis Nixon, army officer featured in Band of Brothers
William Odom, director of the National Security Agency
Jarvis Offutt (1917), World War I aviator, namesake of Offutt Air Force Base
John Paterson (B.A. 1762), major general in the American Revolution and congressman from New York
John Francisco Richards II (B.A. 1917), World War I aviator, namesake of Richards-Gebaur Air Force Base
George W. Roberts (B.A. 1857), Union Army colonel killed at the Battle of Stones River during the American Civil War
George Fairlamb Smith (B.A. 1858), Union Army colonel and Pennsylvania National Guard judge advocate general
Richard K. Sutherland (B.A. 1916), Army general during World War II
Benjamin Tallmadge (B.A. 1773), head of General George Washington's Culper spy ring on Long Island and New York
James Camp Tappan (B.A. 1845), Confederate army general in the American Civil War^[321] (See also: #Governors, other state officials and mayors)
Decius Wadsworth (1785), colonel, U.S. Army War of 1812 and Chief of Ordnance 1815–21
Nathan Whiting (B.A. 1743), colonel of Connecticut troops during the French and Indian War; nephew of university president Thomas Clap
David Wooster (B.A. 1738), brigadier general in the American Revolutionary War; namesake of Wooster, Ohio, The College of Wooster, and the Wooster School

Religion

Hiram Bingham II (1853), missionary to Hawaii and the Gilbert Islands
Ralph Arthur Bohlmann (Ph.D. 1968), ninth president of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod^[360]
Angela Warnick Buchdahl (born 1972), rabbi
William Ragsdale Cannon (B.D. 1940 Ph.D. 1942), professor and dean of the Candler School of Theology at Emory University; United Methodist Church bishop
Oliver Crane (B.A. 1845), Presbyterian clergy, missionary to Turkey, Oriental scholar, writer
Thomas Frederick Davies Sr. (1853 & 1893), third bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan, 1889–1905
Jonathan Edwards, New England pastor and theologian^[361]^[362]^[363]
Leroy Gilbert, Chaplain of the United States Coast Guard
John Guernsey (B.A., 1975), Anglican bishop
Matthew Heyd, Episcopal priest
Jeffrey R. Holland (Ph.D. 1973), former president of Brigham Young University, Apostle of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Ashley Day Leavitt (B.A. 1900), minister of Harvard Congregational Church, Brookline, Massachusetts
John H. Leith (Ph.D. 1949), Presbyterian author, theologian and professor
Aaron L. Mackler (B.A. 1980), notable rabbi in the Conservative movement
James Massa (M.Th. 1985), Roman Catholic auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Brooklyn
Asahel Nettleton (1809), theologian and pastor from Connecticut who was highly influential during the Second Great Awakening
James W.C. Pennington (1809–1870), African American orator, minister, and abolitionist; the first black man to attend classes at Yale when he audited classes at Yale Divinity School from 1834 to 1839
Harry Boone Porter, liturgist, journalist, clergyman of the Episcopal Church, editor of The Living Church magazine
Yasir Qadhi (Ph.D. candidate), Muslim theologian
Gordon P. Robertson (B.A. 1980), CEO of the Christian Broadcasting Network
Anson Phelps Stokes, III (B.A. 1927), eleventh bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts
Andrew Leete Stone (1836), minister, author
Roy M. Terry, Chief of Chaplains of the United States Air Force
Asa Thurston (1816), one of the first missionaries to introduce Christianity to the Kingdom of Hawai'i
Baby Varghese (Ph.D. 2004), visiting professor of Liturgical Studies^[364]
Stephen N. Williams (1981), Ph.D. student, Presbyterian theologian
Thomas Smith Williamson (1824), missionary to the Dakota who helped translate the first Dakota-language Bible^[365]

History, literature, and journalism

Michael Barbaro (B.A. 2002), host of the podcast The Daily
Leigh Bardugo (B.A. 1997), novelist
Emily Bazelon (B.A. 1993, J.D. 2000), journalist, New York Times
Ellen Berry (B.A. 1993), journalist, New York Times
Carl Bialik (Class of 2001), journalist, The Wall Street Journal
Harold Bloom (Ph.D. 1956), literary critic
Steven Brill (B.A. 1972, J.D. 1975), founder of Court TV and The American Lawyer
Robert Brustein (DRA 1951), founder of the Yale Repertory Theatre, critic, author
Thad Carhart, writer of The Piano Shop on the Left Bank and other books
Lan Samantha Chang (B.A. 1987), writer and director of the Iowa Writers' Workshop
Susan Choi (B.A. 1990), author of Trust Exercise
David Churbuck (B.A. 1980), journalist, Forbes, founder of Forbes.com
Marie Colvin (B.A. 1978), journalist
James Fenimore Cooper (Class of 1805), author of The Last of the Mohicans
Wilbur Cross, author
Chris Cuomo (B.A.), television journalist and anchor for NewsNation
Catherine Cusset, novelist
Brian D'Amato (B.A. 1984), novelist and sculptor
Ilana Dayan (Ph.D. 1992), Israeli journalist and anchorwoman
Charles DeKay, linguist, poet, critic and fencer
Randy Charles Epping (M.A. 1983), author
Charles Finch (B.A. 2002), novelist and critic
Justus Miles Forman (1898), author and playwright
Brendan Gill (B.A. 1936), architectural critic
David Gonzalez (B.A. 1979), journalist, The New York Times
Dana Goodyear (B.A. 1998), journalist and poet
Linda Greenhouse (M.S.L. Yale Law School, 1978), journalist, covers the United States Supreme Court for The New York Times
Edwin S. Grosvenor (B.A. 1974), president and editor-in-chief, American Heritage magazine
Gilbert M. Grosvenor (B.A. 1954), formerly editor, then president, now chairman emeritus at National Geographic
Lloyd Grove, editor at large for The Daily Beast
Roland Hagenbüchle, scholar for American Studies and philosopher
Nia-Malika Henderson (M.A.), senior political reporter for CNN formally for The Washington Post
William Harlan Hale (B.A. 1931), writer, journalist, editor
Peter Hayes (M.A. 1974, M.Phil. 1976, Ph.D. 1982), Holocaust historian
Quiara Alegría Hudes (B.A.), playwright, In the Heights, 2008 Tony for Best Musical
Sumiko Iwao (Ph.D.), psychologist, editor-in-chief of Japan Echo^[366]
Joan Kahn (attended Yale School of Art one year, early 1930s), mystery editor and anthologist; novelist and children's writer
Michiko Kakutani (B.A. 1976), book critic for The New York Times
Matthew Kaminski (B.A. 1994), editor-in-chief of POLITICO
Mina Kimes (Summa cum laude, B.A. 2007), journalist for ESPN
Michael Kimmelman (B.A. 1980), critic for The New York Times
Karl Kirchwey (B.A. 1979), poet^[367]^[368]
John Knowles (B.A. 1949), author of A Separate Peace
Larry Kramer (B.A. 1957), playwright and gay activist
John Lahr (B.A. 1963), drama critic for the New Yorker
David Leavitt (B.A. 1983), author
Min Jin Lee (B.A. 1990), author of Pachinko
David Leonhardt (B.A. 1994), Washington bureau chief for The New York Times
Elizabeth Letts (B.A. 1983), author of The Eighty Dollar Champion: Snowman, the Horse that Inspired a Nation
Jeremy Leven, author, screenwriter, director and producer whose works include Don Juan DeMarco
Jonathan Levi (B.A. 1977), author, producer, musician, co-founder of Granta
Adam Liptak (B.A. 1984, J.D. 1988), Supreme Court correspondent for The New York Times
Jonathan Littell (B.A. 1989), writer; won the Prix Goncourt
William Logan (B.A. 1972), poet, critic
Wednesday Martin (Ph.D. 1996), journalist, memoirist, anthropologist
Peter Matthiessen (B.A. 1950), naturalist, author of historical fiction and nonfiction
Jane Mayer (B.A. 1977), journalist and author
J.D. McClatchy (Ph.D. 1974), poet, critic, member of American Academy of Arts and Letters
Gordon McLendon (B.A. 1942), radio pioneer, Top 40 radio format, co-founder of the Association for Intelligence Officers
Standish Meacham (1954), historian
Walter Russell Mead (B.A. 1976), academic, writer on foreign affairs, and public intellectual
Claire Messud (B.A. 1987), author of The Emperor's Children
Ehrman Syme Nadal (B.A. 1864), writer and journalist^[369]
Shannon K. O'Neil (B.A. 1993 and M.A. 1999), Douglas Dillon fellow in the Latin America studies department at the Council on Foreign Relations
Julie Otsuka (B.A. 1984), author
Ann Packer (B.A. 1981), author
George Packer (B.A. 1982), author
ZZ Packer (B.A. 1994), author
Jon Pareles (B.A), popular music critic at The New York Times
Tom Perrotta (B.A. 1983), author
David Pogue (B.A. 1985), technology columnist for The New York Times
Ogden Mills Reid (B.A. 1904, Law 1907), newspaper publisher, president of the New York Herald Tribune
Whitelaw Reid (B.A. 1934), journalist; editor, president and chairman of the family-owned New York Herald Tribune
Alexandra Robbins (B.A. 1998), author
Jonathan Sarna (Ph.D. 1979), historian and author^[370]
Sam Savage (B.A. 1968, Ph.D. 1979), author
Ari Shapiro (B.A. 2000), White House correspondent for National Public Radio
Anna Shechtman (Ph.D. 2020), journalist and crossword compiler
Alex Sheshunoff (B.A. 1996), author
Amity Shlaes (B.A. 1982), journalist, New York Times bestselling author^[371]
Ben Smith (B.A. 1999), New York Times media columnist
Elihu Hubbard Smith (B.A. 1786), poet, playwright, physician, and man of letters
Andrew Solomon (B.A. 1985), writer
Stephen J. Stein (Ph.D. 1970), historian
Mark Strand (B.F.A 1959), former Poet Laureate of the United States
Diane Straus (B.A. 1973) (1951–2017), publisher of The American Prospect and Washington Monthly^[372]
R. Peter Straus (B.A. 1944) (1923–2012), owner of radio stations and newspapers^[373]
Anjan Sundaram (B.S., M.S. 2005), writer, journalist and TV presenter
Calvin Trillin, writer, poet, and journalist
Ishaan Tharoor (B.A. 2006), journalist
Erica Simone Turnipseed (B.A. 1993), writer
Noah Webster (B.A. 1778, LL.D. 1823), lexicographer, author of the first definitive dictionary of the American English language, helped found Amherst College
Jacob Weisberg (B.A. 1986), political journalist and former editor-in-chief of The Slate Group
Juliette Wells (M.A. 2000, MPhil 2000, Ph.D. 2003), author, editor, and Jane Austen scholar
Dick Wimmer (M.A. 1959), novelist
Lauren Willig (B.A. 1999), novelist
Naomi Wolf (B.A. 1984), feminist writer
Tom Wolfe (Ph.D. 1957), journalist, author of The Right Stuff and The Bonfire of the Vanities
Janet Wu (B.A. 1988), broadcast journalist and writer
Ben Yagoda (B.A. 1975), journalist, author of a history of the New Yorker
Jonas Zdanys (B.A. 1972), poet and translator
Anna Ziegler (B.A. 2001), playwright

Musicians and composers

Marin Alsop (1973–75, transferred to Juilliard), conductor and music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
June Anderson (B.A. 1974), soprano
Timo Andres (B.A.), pianist and composer
Eric Banks (B.A. 1990), composer
Jane Ira Bloom (B.A. 1976, Yale Music School 1977), soprano saxophonist
Robert Bloom, professor of Oboe, Yale School of Music (1957–76)
Carter Brey, principal cellist for the New York Philharmonic
Robert Carl, composer and chair of the Composition Department at the Hartt School
Rachel Cheung (M.Mus. 2013), Hong Kong pianist
Jonathan Coulton (B.A. 1992), musician, internet celebrity
Bryce Dessner (B.A. 1998, M.M. 1999), member of The National (band) and collaborator with Taylor Swift, among other artists
Dominick DiOrio (M.M. 2008, D.M.A. 2012), conductor, composer, professor of choral conducting at the Jacobs School of Music, director of NOTUS
Eliot Fisk (1972–76), classical guitar virtuoso
Jack Glatzer (B.A. 1960), concert violinist
Michael Gore (B.A. 1973), Academy Award-winning composer
Adam Guettel (B.A. 1987), Tony Award-winning composer/lyricist
Walter Hekster (M.Mus. 1963), composer, clarinetist and conductor
Mark Helias (M.Mus. 1976), bassist and composer
Lisa Hopkins (B.A. 2001), opera singer and Tony Award winner
Charles Ives (B.A. 1898), composer, classical music
Vijay Iyer (B.S. 1991), 2013 MacArthur Fellow, jazz pianist and composer
Ranidu Lankage (B.A. 2005), Sinhalese R&B and hip-hop artist
Fan Lei (M.Mus. 1992), clarinetist, pedagogue, adjudicator, founder and artistic director of numerous international music festivals and competitions
Mitch Leigh (B.A 1951, M.Mus. 1952), composer, producer Man of La Mancha, "To Dream the Impossible Dream"
Gilbert Levine (M.A. 1972), conductor
George E. Lewis (B.A. 1974), trombonist and composer
David Longstreth, songwriter, singer, guitarist for the Dirty Projectors^[374]
Robert Lopez (B.A. 1997), co-creator of the Broadway musicals Avenue Q and The Book of Mormon and winner of three Tony Awards
Alvin Lucier (B.A. 1954), experimental composer
John Mauceri (B.A. 1967), conductor and scholar
Susan Merdinger (B.A. 1983), concert pianist, music educator
Douglas Moore (B.A. 1915, B.M 1917), composer
Nerissa Nields (B.A. 1989), of the band The Nields
Kevin Olusola (B.A. 2011), beatboxer, cellist, singer, songwriter, Grammy-winning member of Pentatonix
Johann Sebastian Paetsch (M.M. 1987), musician and cellist
Cole Porter (B.A. 1913), composer
Pras (Michél), Grammy Award-winning rapper, member of hip-hop trio The Fugees
Ravi Rajan (M.Mus. 2000), musician, artist, college president
André Raphel, conductor of the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra
Root Boy Slim, real name Foster MacKenzie III (B.A. 1967), lyricist and blues musician
Kurt Hugo Schneider (B.A. 2010), YouTube sensation, music producer, and filmmaker
Caroline Shaw (M.Mus. 2007), composer, violinist, and singer
Chad Shelton (M.A. 1997), operatic tenor
Sam Tsui (B.A. 2011), YouTube sensation, singer^[375]
Rudy Vallée (B.A. 1927), singer, actor, bandleader, and entertainer^[376]
Maury Yeston (B.A. 1967, Ph.D. 1974), composer, lyricist, musicologist, Tony Awards for Nine and Titanic
Terence Yung (Course Certificate 2022),^[377]^[378] concert pianist

Faculty

Professors who are also Yale alumni are listed in italics.

Nobel laureates

Sidney Altman: Chemistry, 1989
Gérard Debreu: Economics, 1983
John Fenn: Chemistry, 2002; received his PhD from Yale in 1940; member of the Yale faculty 1962–94
Tjalling Koopmans: Economics, 1975
Wangari Maathai: Peace, 2004; visiting professor at the Forestry School in 2002^[379]
Erwin Neher: Physiology or Medicine, 1991; biophysicist at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry who was previously a postdoctoral fellow at Yale
George Palade, professor at Yale Medical School 1973–90: Physiology or Medicine, 1974
James Rothman: Physiology or Medicine, 2013
Robert Shiller: Economics, 2013
Thomas A. Steitz: Chemistry, 2009
Edward Tatum: Physiology or Medicine, 1958; at Yale 1945–48
James Tobin: Economics, 1981

Social sciences

Rabab Abdulhadi (Ph.D. 2000), Palestinian-born American scholar, activist, educator, editor, and an academic director.
Saleem Ali (M.E.S. 1996), Blue and Gold Distinguished Professor of Energy and Environment at the University of Delaware, National Geographic Emerging Explorer, World Economic Forum Young Global Leader
Schuyler V. Cammann (B.A. 1935), anthropologist professor at University of Pennsylvania
W. Edwards Deming (Ph.D. 1928), "total quality management" (TQM) guru
Joel S. Fetzer (Ph.D. 1996), political scientist, distinguished professor at Pepperdine University
Irving Fisher (B.A. 1888, Ph.D. 1891), economist, "father of monetarism"
Edgar S. Furniss (Ph.D. 1918), economist and Provost of Yale University
Edgar S. Furniss Jr. (B.A. 1940, M.A. 1945, Ph.D. 1947), political scientist
Mahbub ul Haq (PhD, Economics), Pakistani Minister of Finance, Professor at University of Karachi, creator of Human Development Index
Douglas Hodgkin (B.A.), political scientist at Bates College, author
Robert C. Lieberman (B.A. 1986), political scientist and provost of the Johns Hopkins University
Andrew Lo (B.A. 1980), Charles E. and Susan T. Harris Professor of Finance at the MIT Sloan School of Management, director of MIT's Laboratory for Financial Engineering
George Marcus (B.A. 1968), anthropologist, professor at University of California, Irvine
Saul K. Padover (M.A., 1930), historian and political scientist at The New School of Social Research in New York City
Kenneth Rogoff, economist, professor at Harvard University, former director of research at the International Monetary Fund
Chris William Sanchirico (J.D., Ph.D. 1994), professor of law, business and public policy at University of Pennsylvania Law School
David Swensen (Ph.D.), Yale Endowment Manager and professor at the Yale School of Management
Karl Taube (M.A. 1983, Ph.D. 1988 Anthropology), pre-Columbian Mesoamerica researcher and Mayanist, professor of Anthropology at UC Riverside^[380]
David A. Thomas (B.A. 1978, Ph.D. 1986), Dean of the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University, former professor at Harvard Business School
Helen B. Thompson (Ph.D. 1917 Physiological Chemistry), home economist, professor emeritus at University of California, Los Angeles

Technologists

John J. Donovan (M.S. 1964, M.Ph. 1965, M.Eng. 1965, Ph.D. 1967), IT entrepreneur, founder of Cambridge Technology Partners
Donna Dubinsky (B.A. 1977), former CEO of PDA company Palm Inc., co-founder of PDA company Handspring^[381]
Rob Glaser (B.A., M.A.), founder and CEO, RealNetworks^[382]
Bing Gordon (B.A. 1972), co-founder, executive vice-president, and chief creative officer of Electronic Arts^[383]
Justin Kan (B.A. 2005), founder of Justin.tv and Twitch
Mitch Kapor (B.A. 1971), founder, Open Source Applications Foundation, investor (Kapor Enterprises), founder and former CEO, Lotus Software^[384]
Tom Lehman, co-founder of Genius website
Jordan Mechner (B.A. 1985), video game developer, created Prince of Persia
Wendi Deng Murdoch (1997), director, MySpace China; former VP, News Corporation; wife of Rupert Murdoch
Tiffany Pham (B.A. 2008), founder and CEO of Mogul
Eric Ries (B.S. 2001), Silicon Valley entrepreneur, author of The Lean Startup, pioneer of the Lean Startup methodology
Kevin P. Ryan, internet entrepreneur, founder of Gilt Groupe, MongoDB, and Business Insider
Emmett Shear (B.S. 2005), CEO of Twitch and interim CEO of OpenAI^[385]
Ben Silbermann (B.A. 2003), co-founder and CEO of Pinterest
Joel Spolsky (B.S. 1991), co-founder of Fog Creek Software, Stack Overflow and Stack Exchange Network^[386]
C. C. Wei (PhD 1985), CEO of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited
Joseph Tsai (B.A. 1986, J.D., 1990), businessman, co-founder, Vice President and CFO of Alibaba
Anne Wojcicki (B.S., 1996), co-founder and CEO of personal genomics company 23andMe
Tim and Nina Zagat, founders of Zagat

Television

Lewis Black (M.F.A. 1977), stand-up comedian who often appears on The Daily Show
James Bohanek (B.A. 1991), Broadway and television actor
James Burrows (M.A.), producer, Cheers, Will & Grace
Dick Cavett, TV personality, nominated eleven times for the Emmy Award, and won three times^[387]
Enrico Colantoni (M.F.A.), actor, Just Shoot Me, Galaxy Quest, and Veronica Mars
Anderson Cooper (B.A. 1989), CNN anchor of Anderson Cooper 360°
Bill Corbett (DRA 1989), actor, writer, played Crow T. Robot in Mystery Science Theater 3000
Suzanne Cryer (B.A., M.F.A.), actress, Silicon Valley, Two Guys and a Girl
Brett Dalton (M.F.A. 2011), actor in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Claire Danes (did not graduate), actress in Homeland
David Duchovny (M.A. English literature 1989), actor in The X-Files, Californication
Dick Ebersol, president of NBC sports division, helped launch Saturday Night Live
Kathryn Finney (MPH 2000), television correspondent, Today Show
Malcolm Gets (M.F.A.), actor, best known for as "Richard Karinsky" on Caroline in the City
Sara Gilbert (B.A. 1997), actress, best known for her portrayal as the daughter "Darlene Conner" on the sitcom Roseanne^[388]
Felipe Gozon, Philippine television executive, GMA Network
Michael Gross (DRA 1973), actor, best known as "Steven Keaton" (the father of Michael J. Fox's character) on Family Ties^[389]
Harry Hamlin (B.A. 1974), actor best known as attorney "Michael Kuzak" in NBC TV drama L.A. Law
John Hodgman (B.A. 1992), author and comedian who often appears on The Daily Show and in the Get a Mac ad campaigns, representing a humanized PC.
Elise Jordan (B.A. 2004), Co-Host of MSNBC's The Weekend Primetime
Alex Jacob (B.A. 2006), winner of Jeopardy! 2015 Tournament of Champions
Conor Knighton (B.A. 2003^[390] Film Studies^[391]), host of InfoMania on Current TV
Leo Laporte, host of The Screen Savers on TechTV
Demetri Martin (B.A. 1995), stand-up comedian who often appears on The Daily Show
Kellie Martin (B.A 2001)
Anne Meacham (B.A. 1947), Broadway and television actress (Another World)
Ari Meyers (B.A. 1991), actress, played Emma McArdle on Kate & Allie
Robert Myhrum (M.F.A.), Emmy-nominated television director
Chris Noth (CDR 1985), actor Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Sex and the City
Maulik Pancholy (M.F.A. 1998), actor, 30 Rock, Phineas and Ferb, Whitney
Walter F. Parkes (B.A. 1973), producer/writer, former head of DreamWorks
Stone Phillips (B.A. 1977), television anchor for NBC
Robert Picardo (B.A. 1975), the holographic doctor on the television show Star Trek: Voyager^[392]
David Hyde Pierce (B.A. 1981), actor, best known as "Dr. Niles Crane" on Frasier; winner of four Emmy Awards^[393]
Alan Poul (B.A. 1976), television director and producer
Josh Saviano (B.A. 1998), played Paul Pfeiffer on The Wonder Years
Matt Shakman (B.A. circa 1997), director, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia^[394]
Tony Shalhoub (M.F.A. 1980), actor, Monk, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Gene Siskel (M.F.A. 1974), film critic, At the Movies
Steve Skrovan (B.A. 1979), executive producer of Everybody Loves Raymond and An Unreasonable Man
Ben Stein (LL.D. 1970), economist, speechwriter to Nixon, host of Win Ben Stein's Money
Jeremy Strong (B.A. 2000), actor on Succession
Ming Tsai (B.A. 1986), chef on East Meets West with Ming Tsai on PBS
Courtney B. Vance (M.F.A. 1986), actor, Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Margaret Warner, co-anchor on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, PBS' weekday news program
Sam Waterston (B.A. 1962), actor, played A.D.A. Jack McCoy on Law & Order
Suzanne Whang (B.A. 1983), hostess of HGTV's House Hunters and House Hunters International
Allison Williams (B.A. 2010), actress, Girls
Henry Winkler (M.F.A. 1970), actor, best known as "Fonzie" on Happy Days
Bellamy Young (B.A. 1991), Broadway and television actress

Theatre

Clare Barron (B.A. 2008), Pulitzer Prize finalist for Dance Nation
Victoria Clark (B.A. 1982), Tony Award for Best Lead Actress for The Light in The Piazza
Ali Ewoldt (B.A. in Psychology), first Asian-American Christine in The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway
Mimi Lien (B.A. 1997), Tony Award for Best Scenic Design of a Musical for Natasha, Pierre, & The Great Comet of 1812^[395]^[396]
Michael P. Price (M.F.A. 1963), theatre producer and longest-serving artistic director in American theatre, executive director of Tony Award-winning Goodspeed Musicals
Andy Sandberg (B.A. 2005/06), Tony Award-winning producer of Hair, 2009
Ted Sperling (B.A. 1982), Tony Award for orchestration

Others

Arts and humanities

Robert P. Abelson, late Eugene Higgins Professor of Psychology and professor of Political Science
Sydney E. Ahlstrom, historian of religion in America
Josef Albers, artist
Akhil Amar (B.A. 1980, J.D. 1984), law professor
Kanichi Asakawa (Ph.D. 1902), historian, first Japanese professor at U.S. university
Harold Bloom (Ph.D. 1955), writer and critic, author of The Anxiety of Influence, Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human and many other scholarly books
John Morton Blum, professor of political history
Cleanth Brooks, professor of English, world-renowned expert on writer William Faulkner
Paul de Man, Sterling Professor of the Humanities, departments of French and Comparative Literature; literary critic posthumously controversial for articles he wrote for collaboration paper in occupied Belgium, one of which is widely held to be antisemitic
Jacques Derrida, philosopher; held visiting professorship at invitation of Paul de Man
Wai Chee Dimock, William Lampson Professor of English and American Studies
Inge Druckrey, teacher of graphic design
Steve Dunwell, photographer
Isidore Dyen, professor of comparative linguistics and Austronesian languages
Anne Fadiman, author of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Francis Writer in Residence at Yale
Bassam Frangieh, scholar of Arabic language and literature
Dan Friedman, graphic designer
John Lewis Gaddis, Cold War historian
Peter Gay, Enlightenment historian
Louise Gluck, Pulitzer Prize winner, poet
Erwin Hauer, sculptor
Paul Hindemith, composer, musician, conductor, music theorist
Donald Kagan, historian of ancient Greece
Louis I. Kahn, architect
Paul Kennedy, historian
Harold Hongju Koh, dean of Yale Law School, assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor in the Clinton Administration
Alvin Lustig, graphic designer^[397]
Bronisław Malinowski (1884–1942), pioneer in ethnographic anthropology; professor at Cornell University, Yale University, and Harvard University
Julián Marías, philosopher, author of History of Philosophy
Samuel Elmo Martin (1924–2009), linguist, developed the Yale Romanization system for transliterating Korean
James Mitchell, actor, played Palmer Cortlandt on All My Children
David Montgomery, professor of History
Edmund S. Morgan, professor of History
Elting E. Morison, historian, essayist, military biographer, was Professor of History and American Studies as well as the master of Timothy Dwight College between 1966 and 1972
Aldo Parisot, musician and cellist
Jaroslav Pelikan, historian, author of The Christian Tradition
Peter C. Perdue, historian of Modern China
Douglas W. Rae, political theorist
Emir Rodríguez Monegal, professor of Latin American contemporary literature, founder of Mundo Nuevo
Vincent Scully, Sterling Professor Professor of the History of Art in Architecture
Jonathan Spence, historian, author of The Search For Modern China
David Underdown, historian of 17th-century England
Lee Watson, Broadway and opera lighting designer, author and Purdue University professor
Dixon Wecter (Ph.D. 1936), Margaret Byrne Professor of United States History at the University of California, Berkeley^[398]
Jay Winter, Charles J. Stille Professor of History; World War I specialist
C. Vann Woodward, professor of history
Mary C. Wright (1917–1970), historian of China, and first woman to be appointed a full professor in the arts and sciences faculty, in 1964
Ernesto Zedillo (Ph.D. 1981), economics teacher and head of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization, president of Mexico (1994–2000)

Life sciences and medicine

John Carlson, molecular biologist
Dennis S. Charney, expert in the neurobiology and treatment of mood and anxiety disorders^[399]
Kenneth L. Davis, president and CEO of Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City
John Elefteriades, cardiac surgeon
Donald Engelman, biochemist and cancer researcher
Orvan Hess, M.D. (1906–2002), practitioner and researcher at the Yale School of Medicine, known for the fetal heart monitor
Valerie Horsley, biologist
Arthur Horwich, discovered the action of chaperonins, awarded the Shaw Prize in Life Science and Medicine
G. Evelyn Hutchinson, zoologist, considered to be the father of modern limnology
John S. Meyer, physician
Sherwin B. Nuland, surgeon and author of How We Die
Juan Rosai, professor of Pathology and Director of the Department of Anatomic Pathology at Yale University, 1985–91
Philip Rubin, cognitive scientist, CEO, Haskins Laboratories
J. Morris Slemons, formed the Department of Obstetrics at the School of Medicine in 1914
Joan Steitz, biochemist, discoverer of snRNPs
William Francis Gray Swann, physicist
Richard D. Weisel, cardiac surgeon and current editor-in-chief of The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery

Mathematics

Nathan Jacobson, leading algebraist, awarded the Leroy P. Steele Prize for lifetime achievement
Shizuo Kakutani, mathematician, Kakutani fixed-point theorem
Serge Lang, mathematician and activist
László Lovász, Wolf Prize and Knuth Prize recipient for work in combinatorics
Benoît Mandelbrot, mathematician known for fractal geometry
Grigory Margulis, mathematician, Fields medallist and Wolf Prize winner
George Mostow, Wolf Prize winner for work on lie groups and geometry
Øystein Ore, mathematician
Efim Zelmanov, mathematician, Fields medallist

Physical sciences and engineering

Nick Barua (1980), business executive, entrepreneur, physicist and founder & CEO of AN Inc.^[400]
Arthur Louis Day, geophysicist and volcanologist^[401]
Phyllis M. Faber (1928–2023), environmental activist and agriculture botanist^[402]
David Gelernter (1976), computer scientist, co-creator of the Linda programming language
Josiah Willard Gibbs (1839–1903), theoretical physicist, chemist, and mathematician, first American Ph.D. in engineering
Vernon W. Hughes, Sterling professor of Physics, recipient of the Rumford Prize and groundbreaking particle physicist
W. Mark Saltzman, founder of Yale's Department of Biomedical Engineering
Benjamin Silliman Jr., professor of chemistry, son of Benjamin Silliman, founder of Yale Chemistry Department
Oktay Sinanoğlu, theoretical chemist and molecular biologist, and the youngest Yale full professor

Social sciences

E. Wight Bakke, economist and industrial relations scholar; director of the Yale Labor and Management Center
Neil W. Chamberlain, economist and industrial relations scholar; assistant director of the Yale Labor and Management Center
Fred Rogers Fairchild (1877–1966), economist
Irving Fisher, economist
Jacques Armand Gauthier, comparative morphologist, paleontologist, and systematist
John Geanakoplos, economist, current James Tobin professor of economics
Joseph LaPalombara, Arnold Wolfers Professor of Political Science and Management Emeritus
Neal E. Miller, James Rowland Angell Professor of Psychology
William Nordhaus (1963), economist
Arthur Okun, economist
Lyman W. Porter (Ph.D. 1956), dean of University of California, Irvine's Paul Merage School of Business, 1972–83^[403]
Herbert Scarf, economist
James C. Scott, political scientist and anthropologist
Arnold Wolfers, Sterling Professor of international relations and co-founder of the Yale Institute of International Studies, 1933–57
Paul Wolfowitz, political science instructor 1970–72

Heads of Collegiate School, Yale College, and Yale University

More information Rectors of Yale College, Birth–death ...

	Rectors of Yale College	Birth–death	Years as rector
1	Rev. Abraham Pierson	1641–1707	1701–07 Collegiate School
2	Rev. Samuel Andrew	1656–1738	1707–19 (pro tempore)
3	Rev. Timothy Cutler	1684–1765	1719–26; 1718/9: renamed Yale College
4	Rev. Elisha Williams	1694–1755	1726–39
5	Rev. Thomas Clap	1703–1767	1740–45

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More information Presidents of Yale College, Birth–death ...

	Presidents of Yale College	Birth–death	Years as president
5	Rev. Thomas Clap	1703–1767	1745–66
6	Rev. Naphtali Daggett	1727–1780	1766–77 (pro tempore)
7	Rev. Ezra Stiles	1727–1795	1778–95
8	Timothy Dwight IV	1752–181	1795–1817
9	Jeremiah Day	1773–1867	1817–46
10	Theodore Dwight Woolsey	1801–1899	1846–71
11	Noah Porter III	1811–1892	1871–86
12	Timothy Dwight V	1828–1916	1886–99; 1887: renamed Yale University
13	Arthur Twining Hadley	1856–1930	1899–1921
14	James Rowland Angell	1869–1949	1921–37
15	Charles Seymour	1885–1963	1937–51
16	Alfred Whitney Griswold	1906–1963	1951–63
17	Kingman Brewster Jr.	1919–1988	1963–77
18	Hanna Holborn Gray	1930–	1977–78 (acting)
19	A. Bartlett Giamatti	1938–1989	1978–86
20	Benno C. Schmidt Jr.	1942–	1986–92
21	Howard R. Lamar	1923–2023	1992–93 (acting)
22	Richard C. Levin	1947–	1993–2013
23	Peter Salovey	1958–	2013–2024
24	Maurie McInnis	1966–	2024–present

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Nobel laureates

Pulitzer Prize winners

Abel laureates

Presidents and vice presidents, royalty, other heads of state, prime ministers and ministers

Supreme Court justices

U.S. senators

Other legislators

Governors, mayors, other city and state officials

Cabinet members, chairpersons/administrators and advisers

Diplomats

Judges and attorneys

Activists

Political commentators

Other

Arts and humanities

Life sciences and medicine

Mathematics

Physical sciences and engineering

Social sciences

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