List of Columbia University people

This is a partially sorted list of notable persons who have had ties to Columbia University. For further listing of notable Columbians see: Notable alumni at Columbia College of Columbia University; Columbia University School of General Studies; Columbia Law School; Columbia Business School; Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism; Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation; Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons; Columbia University Graduate School of Education (Teachers College); Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science; Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences; Columbia University School of Professional Studies; Columbia University School of the Arts; the School of International and Public Affairs; and Barnard College. The following lists are incomplete.

Nobel laureates

It includes alumni and faculty of Barnard College after 1900 and those of Bard College by 1944, as well as physicians and long-term medical staff of the Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital.

Fields Medalists

Wolf Prize

Crafoord Prize

• Wallace Smith Broecker—(alumnus and faculty) Crafoord Prize in Geoscience (2006), Balzan Prize, National Medal of Science, Vetlesen Prize, among other awards
• Peter K. Gregersen—(MD 1976) Crafoord Prize in Polyarthritis (2013)
• Richard Lewontin—(MA, Ph.D. 1954) Crafoord Prize in Bioscience (2015)
• Peter Molnar (Ph.D. 1970 Geology) Crafoord Prize in Geosciences (2014)
• Walter Munk—(undergrad attendee) Crafoord Prize in Geoscience (2010); National Medal of Science, Vetlesen Prize, Kyoto Prize, among other awards
• Robert J. Winchester—(faculty) Crafoord Prize in Polyarthritis (2013)

Templeton Prize

• Francisco J. Ayala—(Ph.D. 1964) Templeton Prize for life's work in evolutionary biology and genetics (2010), National Medal of Science (2001), among other awards

ACM Turing Award

• John Backus—(B.S. 1949, M.A. 1950 Mathematics) Inventor of Fortran programming language, Draper Prize
• Alfred Aho—(faculty, 1995 to present) professor of computer science; John von Neumann Medal (2003); ACM Turing Award (2020)
• Jeffrey Ullman—(B.S. 1963) professor of computer science at Stanford University; IEEE John von Neumann Medal (2010); ACM Turing Award (2020)

Founding Fathers of the United States

Founding Fathers of the United States are the political leaders who signed the Declaration of Independence or the United States Constitution, or otherwise participated in the American Revolution as leaders of the Patriots.

• Alexander Hamilton—Founding Father, American Revolutionary War officer and aide-de-camp to George Washington, initiator and co-author of The Federalist Papers, the first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, economist, one of the first U.S. constitutional lawyers (picture appears on U.S. ten-dollar bill)
• John Jay—Founding Father, president of the Continental Congress, co-author of The Federalist Papers, second U.S. Secretary of Foreign Affairs, first chief justice of the United States Supreme Court, diplomat, architect of Jay's Treaty with Great Britain
• Robert Livingston—Founding Father, drafter of the Declaration of Independence, first U.S. Secretary of Foreign Affairs, U.S. Minister to France, negotiator of the Louisiana Purchase
• Gouverneur Morris—Founding Father, author of large sections of the Constitution of the United States, U.S. Minister Plenipotentiary to France, United States Senator from New York, creator of the Manhattan street grid system, a builder of the Erie canal
• Egbert Benson—Founding Father, member of the Continental Congresses; with Alexander Hamilton, delegate from New York to the Annapolis Convention; ratifier of the United States Constitution; served in the First and Second United States Congresses

Presidents of the United States

• Theodore Roosevelt—(law, attended 1880 to 1881) (posthumous J.D., class of 1882), 26th president of the United States (1901–1909); hero of the Spanish–American War (Medal of Honor, posthumously awarded 2001); Nobel Peace Prize recipient; Governor of New York; Assistant Secretary of the Navy; professional historian, explorer, author
• Franklin Delano Roosevelt—(law, attended fall of 1904 to spring 1907) (posthumous J.D., class of 1907), 32nd president of the United States (1933–1945); consistently ranked as one of the three greatest U.S. presidents in scholarly surveys; Governor of New York; Assistant Secretary of the navy
• Dwight Eisenhower—34th president of the United States (1953–1961); Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force; president of Columbia University
• Barack Obama—(B.A. 1983) 44th president of the United States (2009–2017); Nobel Peace Prize recipient; Democratic senator from Illinois (2005–2008); first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review

Vice presidents of the United States

• Daniel D. Tompkins—6th vice president of the United States, 4th governor of New York, declined appointment as United States Secretary of State by President James Madison
• Theodore Roosevelt—(Law) 25th vice president of the United States, organized and helped command the Rough Riders in the Spanish–American War, Medal of Honor

Presidents and prime ministers (international)

Notable alumni and attendees

Notable faculty

See also above at Nobel Laureates ("Alumni" and "Faculty") for separate listing of 41 notable faculty

University professors

• Richard Axel, molecular biology and neuroscience, 1999
• Jagdish Bhagwati, economics and law, 2001
• Martin Chalfie, biology, 2013
• Ruth DeFries, sustainable development, 2016
• Michael W. Doyle, international affairs, law, and political science, 2015
• Nabila El-Bassel, social work, and public health, 2019
• Wafaa El-Sadr, public health, 2013
• Saidiya Hartman, English and comparative literature, 2020
• Wayne Hendrickson, biochemistry and molecular biophysics
• Eric R. Kandel, neurobiology, behavior and learning, 1983
• Rosalind E. Krauss, art history, 2005
• Jeffrey Sachs, economics, 2016
• Simon Schama, history and art history
• Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, English and comparative literature, 2007
• Joseph Stiglitz, economics, 2001
• Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic, biomedical engineering, 2017

University professors emeriti

• Caroline Bynum, history, 1999
• Tsung-Dao Lee, theoretical physics

Former university professors

• Jacques Barzun, cultural history
• Ronald Breslow, organic chemistry, 1992
• Samuel Eilenberg, mathematics, 1974
• R. Kent Greenawalt, jurisprudence and constitutional law, 1991
• Louis Henkin, international law, 1981
• Donald Keene, Japanese Studies, 1988
• Grayson L. Kirk, University President, 1953–68
• Robert K. Merton, sociology, 1974
• Robert A. Mundell, economics
• Ernest Nagel, philosophy
• Isidor Isaac Rabi, physics, 1964
• Michael Riffaterre, semiotics, theory of literature and French literature, 1982
• Edward Said, comparative literature, literary theory, and cultural studies, 1992
• Meyer Schapiro, art history
• Sol Spiegelman, genetics and microbiology
• Fritz Stern, history, 1992
• Lionel Trilling, literature, 1970
• Jeremy Waldron, law, 2005, left Columbia in 2006

Others

• Seth Low Professor of the University Lee C. Bollinger, law
• John Mitchell Mason Professor of the University Jonathan R. Cole, sociology
• John Mitchell Mason Professor Emeritus of the University Wm. Theodore de Bary, East Asian studies, 1979

Notes

References

External links

• Nobel Prize Winners associated with Columbia University
• Nobel Prize Winners in Physics associated with Columbia University
• Columbians Ahead of Their Time—list of notable Columbians created by Columbia University for their 250th anniversary.
• After Columbia "Notable Alumni & Former Students" published by the Columbia University Office of Admission