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UC Berkeley Notable Alums

These famous Berkeley alums earned their laurels by embodying the excellence of this preeminent university. Looking for famous Cal alums? You’ll find fuel for bragging rights here.

UC Berkeley’s legacy is lived every day, in Berkeley and beyond, by exceptional Cal graduates of all stripes. The world should have known, when Rube Goldberg received an engineering degree from Cal in 1904, that the creativity and curiosity of our graduates would become an iconic tradition. True to form, Berkeley alums have followed our founders’ legacy by making breakthroughs in industry and leading social change—not to mention winning 223 Olympic medals and receiving 36 Nobel Prizes.


  1. James H. Budd ’73, 19th Governor of California and member of the U.S. House of Representatives

  2. Frank Otis ’73, Mayor of Alameda

  3. Josiah Royce ’75, philosopher, Harvard professor


  1. Franklin Knight Lane ’87, U.S. Secretary of the Interior, Chair of the Interstate Commerce Commission, Democratic nominee for Governor of California

  2. Stephen Mather ’87, Founding Director, National Parks Service


  1. William Denman ’94, U.S. Federal Judge

  2. Julia Morgan ’94, architect

  3. Joseph Erlanger ’95, Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine for contributions to the field of neuroscience

  4. Frederick Gardner Cottrell ’96, founder of Research Corporation, National Inventors Hall of Fame, inventor of the electrostatic precipitator

  5. Milicent Shinn ’98, child psychologist, first woman to earn a doctorate from the University of California


  1. Lillian Moller Gilbreth ’00, M.A. ’02, first industrial/organizational psychologist, one of first working female engineers with Ph.D.

  2. Rube Goldberg ’04, Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist

  3. Irving Morrow ’06, architect of the Golden Gate Bridge


  1. Horace M. Albright ’12, conservationist, helped establish National Park Service

  2. Earl Warren ’12, L.L.B. ’14, 14th Chief Justice of the United States (1953–1969)

  3. Walter A. Gordon ’18, J.D. ’22, Federal District Judge, Governor of U.S. Virgin Islands, first African American graduate of Boalt Hall

  4. Selman Waksman ’18, Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine, discovered antibiotic treatment for tuberculosis

  5. Edith Head ’19, costume designer, recipient of eight Academy Awards for Best Costume Design


  1. Ida Louise Jackson ’22, M.A. ’24, established first Black sorority chapter at UC Berkeley (Alpha Kappa Alpha), first African American teacher in Oakland public schools

  2. Dalip Singh Saund M.A. ’22, Ph.D. ’24, first Sikh American, Asian American, and Indian American Congressman, member of the United States House of Representatives

  3. Loren L. Ryder ’24, recipient of five Academy Awards in Best Sound Recording and Best Effects

  4. Robert Penn Warren M.A. ’27, author of All the King’s Men, three-time Pulitzer Prize winner

  5. Henry Eyring ’27, namesake of Eyring equation, National Medal of Science


  1. Richard Bolt ’33, M.A. ’37, Ph.D. ’39, co-founder of ARPANET

  2. Robert McNamara ’37, eighth U.S. Secretary of Defense, president of World Bank and Ford Motor Company

  3. Beverly Cleary ’38, author of the Ramona Quimby series

  4. Mine Okubo ’38, artist, author of Citizen 13660

  5. Gregory Peck ’39, Oscar-winning actor


  1. Yoshiko Uchida, author of children’s books and autobiographical works including The Dancing Kettle and Other Japanese Folktales and Journey to Topaz

  2. Glen Edwards ’41, WWII U.S. Air Force test pilot, the namesake of Edwards Air Force Base

  3. Marguerite Higgins ’41, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and war correspondent

  4. Hugh Bradner ’43, inventor of the neoprene wetsuit

  5. Glenn Seaborg Ph.D. ’47, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, discoverer of 10 elements, including berkelium and californium

  6. Chien-Shiung Wu Ph.D. ’40, earned inaugural Wolf Prize in Physics, conducted Wu Experiment, contributor on the Manhattan Project

  7. George Pimentel Ph.D. ’49, received Wolf Prize in Chemistry, inventor of the chemical laser


  1. Gordon E. Moore ’50, co-founder of Intel, author of Moore’s law

  2. Raymond Watson ’51, architect, counselor on design of EPCOT, former chairman of Walt Disney Productions

  3. Douglas Engelbart M.S. ’53, Ph.D. ’55, inventor of the computer mouse

  4. Joan Didion ’56, author of Slouching Toward Bethlehem

  5. Floyd Kvamme ’59, co-founder of National Semiconductor

  6. George Takei ’59, actor in Star Trek, author


  1. Jerry Brown ’61, Governor of California

  2. Maxine Hong Kingston ’62, author of The Woman Warrior

  3. Rick Cronk ’65, co-owner of Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream, former president of Boy Scouts of America

  4. William Ballhaus Jr. ’67, M.S. ’68, P.h.D. ’71, former director of NASA’s Ames Research, Center, president and CEO of The Aerospace Corporation

  5. Alice Waters ’67, chef and owner of Chez Panisse

  6. Richard Aoki ’68, M.S.W. ’70, early member of the Black Panther Party


  1. Robert Gaskins ’74, one of the inventors of PowerPoint

  2. Paul Otellini MBA ’74, president and CEO of Intel

  3. Leigh Steinberg ’73, J.D. ’73, sports agent and inspiration for Jerry Maguire

  4. Steven Chu Ph.D. ’76, Nobel Laureate in Physics, former U.S. Secretary of Energy (and one of 29 alumni Nobel Laureates)

  5. Louis Sachar ’76, author of Holes and the Sideways Stories from Wayside School series

  6. Joan Blades ’77, co-founder of Berkeley Systems and MoveOn.org

  7. Carol Shaw ’77, M.S. ’79, one of the first female video-game designers

  8. Sanjay Mehrotra ’78, M.S. ’80, co-founder and president of SanDisk, CEO of Micron Technology

  9. William Joy M.S. ’79, co-founder of Sun Microsystems and co-creator of Berkeley Unix, Java

  10. Eric Schmidt M.S. ’79, Ph.D. ’82, CEO of Google and Alphabet Inc.


  1. Cynthia Marshall ’81, CEO of the Dallas Mavericks

  2. Leroy Chiao ’83, astronaut, commander of Expedition 10, lived on board the International Space Station from 2004–2005

  3. Robert Hotchkiss ’83, one of the founding musicians of the band Train

  4. Ron Rivera ’83, General Manager of California Golden Bears football program

  5. Kim Polese ’84, CEO of SpikeSource, co-founder of Marimba, made Time Magazine’s list of “The 25 Most Influential Americans” in 1997

  6. Sehat Sutardja M.S. ’85, Ph.D. ’88, co-founder, chairman, president, and CEO of Marvell Technology Group

  7. Marc Tarpenning ’85, co-founder of Tesla Motors

  8. Scott Adams ’86, cartoonist of “Dilbert”

  9. Steve Wozniak ’86, co-founder of Apple

  10. John Battelle ’87, co-founder of Wired magazine

  11. Michele Tafoya ’88, NFL sideline reporter


  1. Tiffany Shlain ’92, filmmaker, founder of the Webby Awards, co-founder of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences

  2. Mark Bingham ’93, founded the Bingham Group, stopped attempted hijacking of United Flight 93 on September 11, 2001

  3. Maz Jobrani ’93, comedian

  4. Shantanu Narayen MBA ’93, CEO of Adobe

  5. Ravinder Bhalla ’95, mayor of Hoboken, New Jersey, first Sikh mayor in U.S. history

  6. John Cho ’96, actor in Star Trek

  7. John Hanke MBA ’96, founder and CEO of Niantic, Inc.

  8. Viet Thanh Nguyen ’97, M.S. ’98, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sympathizer

  9. Senh Duong ’98, co-founder of Rotten Tomatoes

  10. Tom Anderson ’98, co-founder of MySpace

  11. Patrick Awuah MBA ’99, founder of Ashesi University, Africa’s first private liberal arts college

  12. Haakon Magnus ’99, Crown Prince of Norway


  1. Kate and Laura Mulleavy ’01, founders of fashion label Rodarte

  2. Chris Pine ’02, actor in Star Trek

  3. Stephen Wang ’02, co-founder of Rotten Tomatoes

  4. Marshawn Lynch, NFL running back

  5. Aaron Rodgers, NFL quarterback

  6. Patrick Lee ’04, co-founder of Rotten Tomatoes

  7. Natalie Coughlin ’05, Olympic gold-medalist swimmer

  8. Ki Hong Li ’08, actor in The Maze Runner

  9. Hannah Hart ’09, YouTuber, producer, author, and actress


  1. Dana Vollmer ’10, Olympic gold-medalist swimmer

  2. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II ’11, Emmy Award-winning actor

  3. Laci Green ’11, sexual-education YouTuber

  4. Nathan Adrian ’12, Olympic gold-medalist swimmer

  5. Keenan Allen, NFL wide receiver

  6. Marcus Semien ’12, MLB shortstop

  7. Layshia Clarendon ’13, WNBA guard

  8. Alex Morgan ’14, Olympic gold-medalist soccer player

  9. Jaylen Brown ’15, NBA shooting guard

  10. Brittany Boyd ’15, WNBA point guard

  11. Jared Goff, NFL quarterback

  12. Ryan Murphy ’17, Olympic gold-medalist swimmer

  13. Patrick Laird, NFL quarterback

Nobel Prizes have been awarded to 37 UC Berkeley alums.

Physiology or Medicine

Chemistry

  1. 1934: Harold Urey Ph.D. 1923
  2. 1949: William F. Giauque B.S. 1920, Ph.D. 1922
  3. 1951: Glenn T. Seaborg Ph.D. 1937
  4. 1960: Willard Libby B.S. ’31, Ph.D. ’33
  5. 1983: Henry Taube Ph.D. ’40
  6. 1986: Yuan T. Lee Ph.D. ’62
  7. 1989: Thomas Cech Ph.D. ’75
  8. 1993: Kary Mullis Ph.D. ’73
  9. 1995: Mario Molina Ph.D. ’72
  10. 1996: Robert Curl Ph.D. ’57
  11. 2000: Alan Heeger Ph.D. ’61
  12. 2018: Frances H. Arnold Ph.D. ’85
  13. 2022: Carolyn Bertozzi Ph.D. ’93
  14. 2024: David Baker Ph.D. ’89

Physics

  1. 1955: Willis Lamb B.S. ’34, Ph.D. ’38
  2. 1997: Steven Chu Ph.D. ’76
  3. 1998: Robert Laughlin ’72
  4. 2004: David Gross Ph.D. ’66
  5. 2006: John C. Mather Ph.D. ’74
  6. 2011: Saul Perlmutter Ph.D. ’86
  7. 2011: Adam Guy Riess Miller Fellow ’96-’99
  8. 2012: David J. Wineland B.A. ’65
  9. 2017: Barry Barish B.A. ’57, Ph.D. ’62
  10. 2022: John Clauser, postdoctoral fellow ’69–’75

Economics

  1. 1980: Lawrence Klein ’42
  2. 1993: Douglass North B.A. ’42, Ph.D. ’52
  3. 2002: Daniel Kahneman Ph.D. ’61
  4. 2005: Thomas C. Schelling B.A. ’44
  5. 2011: Thomas Sargent B.A. ’64

See a full list of UC Berkeley’s alumni Nobel Prize winners and faculty Nobel Laureates.

Who's Next?

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Toby Ricco ’13, M.S. ’14, founder and CEO of Bimotal, walked into UC Berkeley with the goal of becoming an engineer and a passion for tinkering. At Cal, Ricco developed the skills and experience that have built his engineering and entrepreneurial career.

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