This is a partial list of notable persons who have or had ties to Columbia University .
Religion and ministry
See also: Notable alumni of Columbia College of Columbia University (Religious figures) for separate listing of more than 10 religious figures
Anthony Joseph Bevilacqua (M.A. 1962) – American Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church (1991–12); Archbishop of Philadelphia (1988–03); Bishop of Pittsburgh (1983–88)
George BonDurant – founder of Point University (1937) and Mid-Atlantic Christian University (1948)
Sharon Brous (B.A., M.A.) – rabbi and essayist, founder of IKAR
Reuben Clark (J.D.) – prominent leader in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Carl Henry Clerk (PGDip. 1926), fourth Synod Clerk of the Presbyterian Church of the Gold Coast
Jack Cohen (Ph.D.) – Reconstructionist rabbi , educator, philosopher and author
David Ellenson (Ph.D.) – rabbi and eighth president of Hebrew Union College -Jewish Institute of Religion
Elliot N. Dorff (Ph.D. 1971) – conservative rabbi
Ira Eisenstein (B.A., Ph.D.) rabbi; co-founder of Reconstructionist Judaism, along with Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan
John Patrick Foley (M.A.) – American Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church (2007–2011); President of Pontifical Council for Social Communications (1984–2007)
Samuel H. Goldenson (M.A., Ph.D.) – Polish-born rabbi
Herbert S. Goldstein (B.A., M.A.) – prominent rabbi and Jewish leader
Benedict Groeschel (Ph.D. 1971) – Catholic priest, author, psychologist; co-founder of Franciscan Friars of the Renewal
Joseph Herman Hertz (Ph.D.) – Jewish Hungarian-born rabbi and Bible scholar; Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom (1913–1946) during World War I and World War II
Arthur Hertzberg (Ph.D. 1966) Conservative rabbi ; prominent Jewish-American scholar and activist
Mordecai Kaplan (M.A., Ph.D.) – rabbi; co-founder of Reconstructionist Judaism , along with Rabbi Ira Eisenstein
Irwin Kula (born 1957) - rabbi and author
Yehuda Kurtzer (born 1977) - American Public Jewish Intellectual
Archbishop Leontios of Cyprus – Archbishop of Cyprus (1947)
Joseph Lookstein – Rabbi and President of Bar-Ilan University
James Francis Aloysius McIntyre – American Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church (1953–1979); Archbishop of Los Angeles (1948–1970)
Thomas Merton (B.A. 1938, studied for M.A.) – 20th-century Catholic writer; student of comparative religions; Trappist monk ; poet; author of The Seven Storey Mountain
In Jin Moon (B.A.) – president of Unification Church of the United States (2009–)
Frederick Buckley Newell (M.A. 1916) – Bishop , Methodist Church
Samuel Provoost (B.A. 1758) – first Chaplain of the United States Senate ; first bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New York
Emanuel Rackman (B.A. 1931, LL.B. 1933, Ph.D. 1953) – Modern Orthodox rabbi; President of Bar-Ilan University
Paula Reimers (M.A. 1971) – rabbi
Henry Y. Satterlee (B.A. 1863) – first Episcopal Bishop of Washington (1896–1908); established Washington National Cathedral
Michael Schudrich (M.A. 1982) – Chief Rabbi of Poland
Mendel Shapiro (J.D.) – Jerusalem lawyer and Modern Orthodox rabbi; author of a notable halakhic analysis
Jaime Soto (M.S.W. 1986)- American Roman Catholic Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento
Milton Steinberg (Ph.D. 1928) – rabbi and novelist
Diosdado Talamayan (M.A. 1970) – Archbishop, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Tuguegarao (1986–) in the province of Cagayan on the island of Luzon, Philippines
George W. Webber – President of New York Theological Seminary [25]
Hazen Graff Werner – Bishop, the Methodist Church
Jan Willis (Ph.D.) – African-American Buddhist and Buddhist scholar at Wesleyan University ; called influential by Time magazine, Newsweek (cover story), and Ebony Magazine
Architecture, arts and literature
See also: Notable alumni of Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation , Columbia College of Columbia University (Artists and architects; and Writers) and Columbia Law School (Arts and Letters) for separate listing of more than 90 architects, artists, and writers
Max Abramovitz (1931) – 1961 Rome Prize ; designed Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center , the United Nations complex, and the Assembly Hall
Aravind Adiga (B.A. 1997) – author of The White Tiger and winner of the 2008 Man Booker Prize
Mitch Albom (M.A., M.B.A.) – author, journalist, screenwriter, dramatist, Tuesdays with Morrie , The Five People You Meet in Heaven , For One More Day
Chester Holmes Aldrich (Ph.B. 1893) – architect and director of the American Academy in Rome from 1935 until his death in 1940
Jacob M. Appel (M.A., M.Phil.) – author (Creve Coeur ) and playwright (Arborophilia , The Mistress of Wholesome )
Sara Kathryn Arledge – artist
Irene Aronson (B.A. 1960, M.A. 1962) – painter and printmaker
Sean Go , (M.S.R.E.D 2021) - Filipino Pop Artist
John Ashbery (M.A. 1951) – poet; MacArthur Fellowship , National Book Award , National Book Critics Circle Award , Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
Isaac Asimov (B.S. 1939, Ph.D. 1948) – science fiction author, The Foundation series , "I, Robot " ; Nebula Awards , Hugo Awards ; 1984 Humanist of the Year
Paul Auster (B.A. 1969) – postmodern author, The New York Trilogy , Moon Palace (named after now-defunct Chinese restaurant near campus)
Carole B. Balin (M.Phil. 1994; Ph.D. 1998) – professor of Jewish history , author, Reform rabbi
Béla Bartók – musician, composer, pianist, and early scholar in ethnomusicology
Josh Bazell (M.D.) – novelist
James Blish – science fiction author; Nebula Award , Hugo Award ; Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame (2002)
Helaine Blumenfeld (Ph.D. 1963) – sculptor working in Britain and Italy
Carlos Brillembourg (M.A. 1975) – architect
Mary Griggs Burke – largest private collector of Japanese art outside Japan.[26]
Elizabeth Cadbury-Brown – architect
Jim Carroll – writer (The Basketball Diaries ), poet, punk rocker[27]
Duncan Candler (1895) – architect
Jerome Charyn (B.A. 1959) – novelist
Caitlin Cherry (M.F.A. 2012) – painter
Jonas Coersmeier – award-winning architect and designer; finalist and first runner-up in the World Trade Center Memorial Competition
Teju Cole (M.Phil.) – novelist, author of Open City
Robin Cook (M.D.) – physician and novelist; novels combine medical writing with thriller genre ; his books have sold nearly 100 million copies
John Corigliano (B.A. 1959) – musician, composer
Rita Cox – librarian, storyteller
E. Wayne Craven (Ph.D. 1963) – art historian and educator
Agnes Denes – conceptual and environmental artist; Rome Prize , works held in over 40 public museums, including the MoMA, Met and Whitney
Kiran Desai (M.F.A. 1999) – novelist, winner of 2006 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction and the Man Booker Prize , 1998 Betty Trask Award
E. L. Doctorow (graduate study) – author, National Humanities Medal ; thrice winner, National Book Critics Circle Award ; Ragtime , Billy Bathgate
Adee Dodge (M.A. 1935) – painter, Navajo code-talker , linguist
Timothy Donnelly (M.F.A.) – poet, 2012 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award ; professor at Columbia University
Alden B. Dow (B.A. 1931) – architect; known for his prolific architectural design
Pamela Druckerman (M.A.) – author and freelance journalist living in Paris, France
Louis Dudek (Ph.D.) – Canadian poet, academic and publisher
Albert Elsen (B.A. 1949, M.A. 1951, Ph.D. 1955) – art historian and educator
Clifford Percy Evans (B.A.) – architect based in Salt Lake City
Walter Farley (B.A. 1941) – author, The Black Stallion
Lawrence Ferlinghetti (M.A. 1947) – Beat Generation poet, founder of City Lights Bookstore
Amanda Filipacchi (M.F.A) – author, Nude Men , Vapor , Love Creeps
Rolf G. Fjelde (M.F.A.) – playwright, educator and poet, founding President of the Ibsen Society of America
Amanda Foreman – 1998 Whitbread Prize for Best Biography ; author, one of The New York Times "Ten Best Books of 2011"
Allen Forte (B.A.) – music theorist; Battell Professor of Music, Emeritus at Yale University
Hal Foster (M.A. 1979) – art critic and historian; faculty at Princeton since 1997; Berlin Prize
Katherine Jackson French (1875–1958) – ballad collector[28]
Nicholas Gage (M.A. 1964) – author, Eleni , A Place For Us , Greek Fire
Paul Gallico (1919) – author, The Snow Goose , The Poseidon Adventure , The Silent Miaow
Federico García Lorca (1929–1930) – poet and playwright
Allen Ginsberg (B.A. 1948) – Beat Generation poet; National Book Award for Poetry for The Fall of America: Poems of These States
Louise Glück – United States Poet Laureate (2003–2004), Pulitzer Prize , National Book Critics Circle Award , Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry , Bollingen Prize , William Carlos Williams Award , Nobel Laureate
Philip Gourevitch (M.F.A. 1992) – recipient of the National Book Critics Circle Award , editor of The Paris Review
Edwin Granberry (1920) – writer of the Buz Sawyer comic strip
Bette Greene (B.A.) – 1975 Newbery Honor , 1973 Golden Kite Award , New York Times Outstanding Book Award, ALA Notable Book Award
Ismail Gulgee (engineering) – Pakistani artist noted for his paintings and Islamic calligraphy ; qualified engineer
Elizabeth Hardwick (attended) – writer; co-founder of The New York Review of Books
Anthony Hecht (M.A.) – Pulitzer Prize–winning poet, United States Poet Laureate (1982–1984), 1983 Bollingen Prize , 1988 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize , 1997 Wallace Stevens Award , 1999/2000 Frost Medal
Joseph Heller (M.A. 1949) – author, Catch-22
Henry Beaumont Herts (attended) – architect, known for theater designs
Daniel Hoffman (B.A. 1947, M.A. 1949, Ph.D. 1956) – poet, essayist, United States Poet Laureate (1973–1974)
John Hollander (B.A.) – poet, MacArthur Fellowship "genius grant", Bollingen Prize (1983)
Henry Hornbostel (B.A. 1891) – architect; designed more than 225 buildings, bridges, and monuments in the United States
Langston Hughes – writer and poet
Zora Neale Hurston (B.A. Barnard; graduate study, two years, CU) – author, folklorist , anthropologist
Ray William Johnson (B.A.) – YouTuber, producer, and actor
Ely Jacques Kahn – commercial architect; designed numerous skyscrapers in New York City in the twentieth century
Rockwell Kent (B.A.) – painter , printmaker , illustrator , and writer
Maude Kerns (M.A. 1906) – pioneering abstract artist from Portland, Oregon , prolific on the East coast
Jack Kerouac (College 1940–1942; dropped out) – founder of the Beat Generation movement; author, On the Road
Keorapetse Kgositsile (M.F.A. 1971) – South African poet and political activist; South African National Poet Laureate in 2006
Diana Kleiner (M.A. 1970, M.Phil. 1974, Ph.D. 1977), art historian
Benjamin Kunkel (M.F.A.) – novelist, founder of n+1
Mpule Kwelagobe (B.A. 2006) – Miss Universe 1999
Leroy Lamis (M.A.) – sculptor and digital artist known for his Plexiglas sculptures
Ursula K. Le Guin (M.A. 1951) – author of science fiction , fantasy novels; 1973 National Book Award for Young People's Literature ; five Hugo Awards , six Nebula awards
Alan Lomax (graduate study) – ethnomusicologist , 1986 National Medal of Arts ; 2000 Library of Congress Living Legend Award ; National Book Critics Circle Award
Richard Lowitt (M.A., Ph.D.) – historian, Guggenheim Fellow.[29]
Diego Luzuriaga (Ph.D. 1996) – Ecuadorian composer; 1993 Guggenheim Fellowship [30] Guggenheim Fellowship for Music Composition recipient, composer of first Ecuadorian opera, 2006 recipient of the Eugenio Espejo National Prize .
Kuntowijoyo (Ph.D. 1980) – author; 1999 S.E.A. Write Award
Edward MacDowell – composer, professor of music
Sky Macklay (DMA 2018) – composer, oboist, professor at Valparaiso University
Patricia McCormick (M.S. 1985) – author for young adults; 2012 National Book Award (Young People's Literature), finalist
Carson McCullers – author, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
Terrence McNally – playwright; winner of four Tony Awards , an Emmy Award , a Rockefeller Grant , the Lucille Lortel Award , the Hull-Warriner Award
William March – author; highly decorated U.S. Marine; Company K , The Bad Seed
John Matteson (Ph.D. 1999) – Pulitzer Prize –winning biographer (2008)
Kate Millett (Ph.D. 1970) – author of Sexual Politics , feminist and artist
Dorothy Miner (attended) – art historian and curator
Fereydoun Motamed (M.A. 1952) – linguist, Louis de Broglie award winner from the French Academy (1963)
Isamu Noguchi – sculptor
Georgia O'Keeffe (attended TC 1914–15, studied with Arthur Wesley Dow , TC 1916) – artist; Presidential Medal of Freedom , National Medal of Arts
Sharon Olds (Ph.D.) – National Book Critics Circle Award ; T. S. Eliot Prize ; Lamont Poetry Prize ; Poet Laureate, State of New York (1998–2000)
Ron Padgett (B.A.) – poet; 2009 Shelley Memorial Award ; member New York School
John Russell Pope (B.S. Arch 1894) – Rome Prize ; designed the National Archives , the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C., the West Building of the National Gallery of Art
Joya Powell (B.A.Latin American Studies and Creative Writing 2001) Bessie Award winning choreographer and professor
Antoine Predock (B. Arch.) – architect, Rome Prize (1985); AIA Gold Medal (2006), National Design Award (2007)
Richard Price (M.F.A.) – novelist and screenwriter
Gregory Rabassa (Ph.D.) – literary translator from Spanish and Portuguese to English; 2006 National Medal of Arts ; inaugural U.S. National Book Award (Category Translation )
David Rakoff (B.A. 1986) – Canadian-born writer based in New York City; 2011 Thurber Prize for American Humor
Claudia Rankine (M.F.A. 1993) – poet; winner of the Jackson Poetry Prize ; professor at Pomona College
James Renwick Jr. (B.A. 1836, M.A. 1839) – Gothic Revival architect; designed St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York and the Smithsonian Institution Building in Washington, D.C.
Christopher Ross – sculptor, designer and collector
Mark Rudman (M.F.A.) – poet; National Book Critics Circle Award in poetry
Karen Russell (M.F.A. 2006) – author, a National Book Foundation "5 Under 35" young writer honoree
Friedrich St. Florian (M. Arch. 1961) – Austrian-American architect; Rome Prize ; National World War II Memorial , Washington, D.C.
J. D. Salinger – author, The Catcher in the Rye
Anna Pendleton Schenck , architect
Karenna Gore Schiff (J.D. 2000) – author, journalist, and attorney
David Serero (M.S.) – French architect; Rome Prize
Vijay Seshadri (M.F.A. 1988) – winner of the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
Robert Silverberg (B.A. 1956) – science fiction author; five Nebula Awards , four Hugo Awards , the prestigious Prix Apollo ; 1999 inductee into Science Fiction Hall of Fame
Mona Simpson (M.F.A.) – novelist, essayist
Upton Sinclair – populist and Pulitzer Prize–winning author, The Jungle ; presidential candidate
Laurinda Hope Spear (M.S. 1975) – architect and landscape architect; Rome Prize; one of the founders of Arquitectonica
Tracy K. Smith (M.F.A. 1997) — United States Poet Laureate (2017–2019)
William Jay Smith – United States Poet Laureate (1968–1970); Rhodes Scholar
Robert A. M. Stern (B.A. 1960) – postmodern architect; Dean of the Yale University School of Architecture
William Lee Stoddart – architect of U.S. East Coast hotels
Mary Stolz (1936–38) – writer of fiction for children and young adults; Newbery Honors (1962, 1966); 1953 Child Study Children's Book Award
Hunter S. Thompson – author, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas ; creator of gonzo journalism
Melvin B. Tolson (M.A.) – Liberian Poet Laureate; central character (played by Denzel Washington ) in the movie The Great Debaters (2007)
Wells Tower (M.F.A.) – writer of fiction and non-fiction, two Pushcart Prizes
Erica Simone Turnipseed (M.A.) – writer
Charles Van Doren (M.A., Ph.D. 1955) – author, English professor whose national disgrace was the subject of the Oscar-nominated film Quiz Show
Mark Van Doren (Ph.D. 1920) – Pulitzer Prize –winning poet
Eric Van Lustbader (B.A.) – author of thriller and fantasy novels; The Ninja ; continuation of the Bourne series by Robert Ludlum
Eudora Welty (Business, 1930–31, hon. LHD 1982) – Pulitzer Prize–winning author, The Optimist's Daughter
Frank B. Wilderson III (M.F.A.) – writer, dramatist, filmmaker, and critic
Blanche Colton Williams (M.A., Ph.D.) - author, editor, department head and professor of literature, and pioneer in women’s higher education; first editor of the O. Henry Prize Stories, serving in that position from 1919 to 1932
Fred F. Willson (B.A. 1902) – architect, Bozeman, Montana ; designed many buildings that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places
James Perry Wilson (B.A. 1914) – architect and painter; designed diorama backgrounds for the American Museum of Natural History , Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History , and Boston Museum of Science , among others.
Dick Wimmer (M.A. 1974) – novelist
Hana Wirth-Nesher (M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D. 1977) – literary scholar and Professor of American and English Studies at Tel Aviv University
Herman Wouk (B.A. 1934) – Pulitzer Prize–winning author, War and Remembrance
George Wyatt (B.A. 1971) – sculptor
Mako Yoshikawa (B.A. 1988) – author, One Hundred and One Ways (1999), a national bestseller translated into six languages
Charles Yu (J.D. 2001) – author, Interior Chinatown
Roger Zelazny (M.A. 1962) – science fiction author; The Chronicles of Amber series ; three Nebula Awards , six Hugo Awards
Journalism
See also: Notable alumni of Columbia Graduate School of Journalism , Columbia College of Columbia University (Journalism and media figures; and Publishers), and Columbia Law School (Journalists) for separate listing of more than 175 journalists, media figures, and publishers
R.W. Apple (B.S. 1961) – Senior Correspondent, Associate Editor, former Washington Bureau chief, New York Times
Douglas Black – president of Doubleday and Company , 1946–1963
Marcus Brauchli – managing editor, The Wall Street Journal
A'Lelia Bundles (M.A. journalism) – journalist
Greg Burke (M.A. journalism) – senior communications adviser with the Vatican 's Secretariat of State (2012–)
Diann Burns (M.A. journalism) – television news anchor; nine-time Emmy Award winner
Whittaker Chambers – senior editor at Time , prominent contributor to National Review and other journals
Hagar Chemali , Political Satirist, Writer, Producer, Television Personality, and Political Commentator
Gina Chua (M.S. Journalism 1988), executive editor, Reuters [38] [39]
May Cutler (M.A. journalism) – Canadian publisher and journalist, founder of Tundra Books and the first Canadian woman to publish children's books [40]
Jamal Dajani (B.A. Political Science) – Director of Middle Eastern Programming, Link TV , Producer of Mosaic: World News from the Middle East winner of a Peabody Award
Helen Dalley – Australian journalist; anchor with Sky News Australia
Yuval Elizur (M.S. Journalism) – journalist; covers the Israeli economy , globalization, and economic warfare; author of 8 books
Stéphanie Fillion (M.A., Journalism), French-Canadian journalist and United Nations correspondent
Max Frankel (B.A.) – executive editor, New York Times
Melissa Fung (M.A., journalism) – Canadian CBC News journalist
Nicholas Gage – investigative reporter, foreign correspondent, The New York Times (1970–80); journalist, The Boston Herald Traveler , The Wall Street Journal
Robert Giles – curator of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard
Helen Gilmore – editor at Photoplay (also actress, composer)[41]
Caroline Glick (B.A. 1991) – American-Israeli journalist; deputy managing editor of The Jerusalem Post
Ashbel Green (B.A. 1950, M.A.) – vice president and senior editor at Knopf
Ken Hechtman – maverick journalist jailed by Afghanistan 's Taliban government as a suspected spy in 2001
Jay Irving – reporter, cartoonist; father of Clifford Irving who is best known for perpetrating hoax biography of Howard Hughes
DeWitt John (M.A. Journalism) – American journalist and editor
Casey Johnston (M.S. Engineering) – fitness writer and influencer
Jay Caspian Kang (M.F.A. 2005) – American writer and television journalist
Neeraj Khemlani (M.S. Journalism 1993) – CBS News President
Edward Klein (B.A., M.A. Journalism) – former foreign editor of Newsweek ; former editor in chief of The New York Times Magazine ; bestselling author
Leonard Koppett – sports writer, columnist, author
Steve Kroft – 60 Minutes ; winner of three Peabody Awards and nine Emmy Awards
Robert Krulwich (J.D. 1974) – media journalist, Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award , Emmy Award, George Polk Award
Howard Kurtz (M.A. Journalism) – journalist and author with a special focus on the media; the nation's "most influential media reporter"
Bernard Le Grelle (M.S. Journalism 1974) – journalist, author, political adviser, former United Nations expert and public affairs executive
John Leland (B.A., 1981) – New York Times reporter, author
Joseph Lelyveld (M.A., Journalism) – executive editor, New York Times
Andy Levy – ombudsman, Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld , Fox News Channel
A. J. Liebling (M.A. Journalism) – journalist closely associated with The New Yorker from 1935 until his death
Thomas Lippman – journalist, author
Robert Lipsyte (B.A. 1957) – winner of an Emmy Award in 1990, host of The Eleventh Hour on PBS, correspondent for The New York Times and ABC Nightly News
Henry Demarest Lloyd (J.D.) – "the father of investigative journalism"
John R. MacArthur (B.A. 1978) – President of Harper's Magazine , political author
Cynthia McFadden (J.D.) – ABC news anchor, George Foster Peabody Award
John McWethy – five Emmy Awards, Overseas Press Club Award
Suzanne M. Malveaux (M.S.) – television news reporter; former White House correspondent for CNN
Gabriele Marcotti (M.A., Journalism) – football writer for The Times , The Sunday Herald , La Stampa , Il Corriere dello Sport , host of Five Live Sport on Fridays
Andrés Martinez (J.D.) – editorial page editor of the Los Angeles Times
Judith Miller (B.A. 1969) – former New York Times journalist; shared 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting [42]
Matthew Miller (J.D. 1986) – columnist and author, The Two Percent Solution
Bill Minutaglio (B.A., M.S.) – PEN Center-award-winning author, journalist, professor. Nine books, including First Son: George W. Bush & The Bush Family Dynasty ; City on Fire ; The Most Dangerous Man in America.
Timothy L. O'Brien (M.A., Journalism) – author and journalist; edits and oversees the Sunday Business section of The New York Times
John L. O'Sullivan – editor of the Democratic Review during the 1840s; coined the phrase "Manifest Destiny "
Basharat Peer (Journalist) – Kashmiri American journalist, script writer, author, and political commentator. Author, Curfewed Night
Martin Perlich – radio broadcaster and writer
Michael Reidel New York Post Theater Critic, Author
Ted Rall (B.A. 1991) – editorial cartoonist, Pulitzer finalist, columnist, pundit, author of Revenge of the Latchkey Kids
Wayne Allyn Root – creator of Spike TV, Discovery Channel, CNBC; Executive Producer and host of Wayne Allyn Root's Winning Edge and King of Vegas ; anchorman and host of Financial News Network
Claire Shipman (B.A. 1986) – Senior National Correspondent for ABC; winner of an Emmy Award for her CNN coverage of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 ; her work contributed to CNN winning a Peabody Award for its coverage of the Soviet coup attempt of 1991
Howard Simons – former curator of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard
Allan Sloan – seven-time winner of Gerald Loeb Award
Richard Smith (M.I.A., M.S. 1970) – CEO of Newsweek
Neil Strauss (B.A. 1991) – journalist; author of The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists
Sreenath Sreenivasan (M.S. 1993) – academic administrator, professor and technology journalist
Arthur Hays Sulzberger (M.S. 1993) – publisher of The New York Times (1935–1961)
Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Sr. (B.A. 1951) – publisher and businessman; former publisher of The New York Times ; and chairman of the board of The New York Times Company
Ron Suskind (M.A. 1983) – journalist, author
Tiziano Terzani – reporter and correspondent
Dina Temple-Raston – NPR 's counterterrorism correspondent
Liz Trotta – journalist, three Emmy Awards and two Overseas Press Club awards
Mariana van Zeller (M.A. journalism 02) – Portuguese journalist; 2011 Livingston Award ; 2010 Peabody Award ; 2009 Webby Award
Steven Waldman (B.A.) – political journalist; senior advisor to the Chairman of the United States Federal Communications Commission (October 2009–)
Richard Watts, Jr. – longtime theatre critic for the New York Post
Bari Weiss (2007) – opinion writer and editor
Gideon Yago (B.A. 2000) – MTV News correspondent
MacArthur Fellows
The following alumni are fellows of the MacArthur Fellows Program (known as the "genius grant") from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation . As this is an interdisciplinary award, fellows are listed here as well as in their fields of accomplishment.
John Ashbery (M.A. 1951) – poet; MacArthur Fellowship
Jacqueline K. Barton (Ph.D. 1979) – chemist; 1991 MacArthur Fellowship
Terry Belanger (M.A., 1964; Ph.D. 1970) – historian; history of books, manuscripts, and related objects; 2005 MacArthur Fellowship; founding director of Rare Book School
Edet Belzberg (M.A., 1957) – documentary filmmaker; 2005 MacArthur Fellowship; won Special Jury Prize , Sundance Film Festival (2001)
Paul Berman (M.A.) – leading writer on politics and literature; MacArthur Fellowship
Seweryn Bialer (Ph.D.) – political scientist ; 1983 MacArthur Fellowship
Katherine Boo (B.A.) – journalist and author; 2002 MacArthur Fellowship
Rogers Brubaker (Ph.D. 1990) – sociologist; 1994 MacArthur Fellowship
Robert Coles (M.D. 1954) – author, child psychiatrist, and professor at Harvard University ; 1981 MacArthur Fellowship
Wafaa El-Sadr (MPH) – infectious disease physician; 2008 MacArthur Fellowship; 2009 Rolling Stone ' s "100 People Who Are Changing America," Scientific American ' s "10: Guiding Science for Humanity" and Utne Reader ' s "50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World"
Irving Feldman (M.A. 1953) – poet and professor of English; 1992 MacArthur Fellowship
Randall Forsberg (B.A.) – expert in defense and disarmament as used for promoting democratic institutions; 1983 MacArthur Fellowship
Stephen Jay Gould (Ph.D. 1967) – paleontologist, author; 1981 MacArthur Fellowship; Linnean Society of London 's Darwin–Wallace Medal (2008); Paleontological Society Medal (2002); Charles Schuchert Award (1975); Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science (twice – 1983, 1990)
Rosanne Haggerty (M.A. Arch.) – housing and community development leader; 2001 MacArthur Fellowship
Shirley Heath (Ph.D. 1970) – linguistic anthropologist ; 1984 MacArthur Fellowship
John Hollander (B.A.) – poet, 1990 MacArthur Fellowship, Bollingen Prize (1983); Poet Laureate, State of Connecticut (2006–2011)
Richard Howard (B.A. 1951) – poet, literary critic, essayist, translator; MacArthur Fellowship; PEN Translation Prize ; Poet Laureate, State of New York (1994–97)
David Keightley (Ph.D.) – sinologist , historian ; 1986 MacArthur Fellowship
Harlan Lane (B.S., M.S. 1958) – psychologist; 1991 MacArthur Fellowship
Lawrence W. Levine (M.A., Ph.D.) – historian; 1983 MacArthur Fellowship
David Levering Lewis (M.A. 1959) – Professor of History; MacArthur Fellowship
Ralph Manheim – English translator of major German, French works; 1983 MacArthur Fellowship; PEN Translation Prize (1964); PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation
Campbell McGrath (M.F.A. 1988) – poet; MacArthur Fellowship; Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award , Pushcart Prize , three Academy of American Poets Prizes
Dinaw Mengestu (M.F.A.) – novelist and writer; 2012 MacArthur Fellowship
Richard A. Muller (B.A.) – physicist; 1982 MacArthur Fellowship; known for astrophysics, radioisotope dating, optics and climate change
Pepon Osorio (M.A. 1985) – Latino artist; 1999 MacArthur Fellowship
George Oster (Ph.D.) – mathematical biologist; 1984 MacArthur Fellowship
Rosalind P. Petchesky (Ph.D.) – political scientist; 1995 MacArthur Fellowship
Terry Plank (Ph.D. 1993) – geologist, volcanologist and professor, Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory ; 2012 MacArthur Fellowship
Anna Curtenius Roosevelt (Ph.D.) – archaeologist; 1988 MacArthur Fellowship; Curator of Archaeology, Field Museum (1991–02)
Meyer Schapiro (B.A., Ph.D.) – Lithuanian-born American art historian; MacArthur Fellowship; known for forging new art historical methodologies
Stephen Schneider (B.S. 1967, Ph.D., mechanical engineering , plasma physics , 1971) – environmental biologist, climatologist; 1992 MacArthur Fellowship; Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) , to which Schneider made significant contributions, shared in the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize
Carl Emil Schorske (B.A. 1936) – cultural historian; 1981 MacArthur Fellowship
Ricardo Scofidio (M.Arch. 1960) – founder, principal, Diller Scofidio + Renfro ; in 1991, one of the first architects to win MacArthur Prize "genius grant"
Sally Temple (postdoctoral fellowship) – developmental neuroscientist ; innovator in field of stem cells , specifically neural stem cells; 2008 MacArthur Fellowship
Camilo José Vergara (M.A. 1977, Ph.D. not yet awarded) – writer, photographer, documentarian; 2002 MacArthur Fellowship; 2010 Berlin Prize
Alisa Weilerstein (B.A. 2004) – cellist; 2011 MacArthur Fellowship
Anders Winroth (M.A., Ph.D.) – professor of medieval history, Yale ; 2003 MacArthur Fellowship
Irene J. Winter (Ph.D.) – art historian; 1983 MacArthur Fellowship
Lawrence S. Wittner (B.A. 1962; Ph.D., in history, 1967) historian; MacArthur Fellowship
Eric Wolf (Ph.D.) – anthropologist; MacArthur Fellowship
Charles Wuorinen (B.A. 1961, M.A. 1963) – composer ; 1985 MacArthur Fellowship
Science, technology, engineering, mathematics
See also: Notable alumni of Columbia College of Columbia University (Scientists and inventors) for additional listing of more than 28 scientists and inventors , Columbia School of Engineering and Applied Science for additional listing of more than 55 scientists, engineers, computer scientists and inventors , and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons for additional listing of more than 100 physicians
Saul Amarel (M.S. 1953, Ph.D. 1955) – computer scientist and pioneer in artificial intelligence
Roy Chapman Andrews (M.A.) – dinosaur bone hunter; Cover of Time Magazine , October 29, 1923
Virginia Apgar (M.D. 1933) – effectively founded the field of neonatology ; created the Apgar score used to evaluate the health of newborn babies
Edwin Howard Armstrong (B.S. 1913) – inventor of radio circuitry such as the regenerative circuit and FM radio ; pioneer in feedback amplifiers; first Institute of Radio Engineers (now IEEE Medal of Honor); 1941 Franklin Medal , 1942 Edison Medal ; National Inventors Hall of Fame
Mehdi Ashraphijuo (Ph.D. 2016) – mathematician
Oswald Avery (M.D. 1904) – discoverer of DNA's role in transmitting genetic information
John Backus (B.S. mathematics, 1949) – inventor of Fortran programming language; won Turing Award ; Draper Prize
T. Romeyn Beck (M.D.) – forensic medicine pioneer
Baruj Benacerraf (B.S.) – Venezuelan immunologist, National Medal of Science
H. I. Biegeleisen (B.S.) – physician and vein expert, pioneer of phlebology
Ira Black (B.A. 1961) – neuroscientist and stem cell researcher who served as the first director of the Stem Cell Institute of New Jersey[57]
Thomas Berry Brazelton (M.D.) – pediatrician ; Brazelton Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale
Thomas H. Chilton (B.A. 1922) – chemical engineer ; a founder of modern chemical engineering practice; Chilton and Colburn J-factor analogy
Mildred Cohn (M.S. and Ph.D.) – biochemist, National Medal of Science
Marie Maynard Daly (Ph.D. 1947) – first African-American woman to earn a doctorate in chemistry
Charles Drew (M.D. 1940) – inventor of blood plasma preservation system
Helen Flanders Dunbar (Ph.D. 1929) – important early figure in U.S. psychosomatic medicine
Noam Elkies (B.S.) – three-time Putnam Fellow ; mathematician, co-creator of Schoof–Elkies–Atkin algorithm ; chess master
Joseph Engelberger ( B.S. 1946, M.S. 1949) – engineer and entrepreneur, often credited with being the father of robotics ; 1997 Japan Prize
David Eppstein (M.S. 1985, Ph.D. 1989) – computer scientist, mathematician
James C. Fletcher (B.S.) – physicist, 4th and 7th Administrator of NASA
Ferdinand Freudenstein (Ph.D.) – mechanical engineer, "father of modern kinematics"; National Academy of Engineering, National Academy of Science
Tom Frieden (M.D., MPH) – Director of U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2009–); N. Y. City Health Commissioner (2002–09)
Mercy Amua-Quarshie (obstetrician-gynecologist)
Elmer L. Gaden (B.S., M.S., Ph.D.) – father of biochemical engineering ; fifth recipient of 2009 Fritz J. and Dolores H. Russ Prize ; National Academy of Engineering
Richard D. Gitlin (M.S., Eng. Sc. D.)-co-inventor of DSL at Bell Labs, National Academy of Engineering
James Glimm (Ph.D.) – mathematical physicist, Priestley Medal , National Medal of Science
Alfred Norton Goldsmith – (Ph.D.) – electrical engineer; IEEE Medal of Honor
Gordon Gould (work toward Ph.D., did not complete) – inventor of the laser
Benjamin Graham (B.A. 1914) – father of modern security analysis and value investing, taught Warren Buffett
Ione Grogan (M.S. 1928) – mathematician, academic, and educator
Robert Grubbs (Ph.D. 1968) - chemist, 2005 Nobel Laureate
William Stewart Halsted (M.D.) – thought by many to be the most innovative, influential and important US surgeon
Tsuruko Haraguchi (Ph.D. 1912) – psychologist
Louis Plack Hammett (Ph.D.) – physical chemist; creator of Hammett equation ; namesake of Curtin-Hammett principle ; Priestley Medal, National Medal of Science
Benjamin Harrow (B.S. 1911, A.M. 1912 and Ph.D.1913) – biochemist, nutritionist, science writer and academic
Walter Lincoln Hawkins (postgraduate research) – chemical engineer, chemist; first African-American member, National Academy of Engineering; 1992 National Medal of Technology ; National Inventors Hall of Fame
Gustav A. Hedlund (M.A.) – mathematician, one of the founders of symbolic and topological dynamics
Michael Heidelberger – immunologist, Lasker Award , National Medal of Science
Jean Emily Henley (M.D. 1940) – wrote the first German anesthesia textbook after World War II
Herman Hollerith (B.S. 1879, Ph.D.) – statistician who developed a mechanical tabulator ; founder of one of the companies that later merged and became IBM
Robert Jastrow (B.A, M.A. Ph.D.) – astronomer
Arthur Jensen (Ph.D. 1956) – known for work in psychometrics and differential psychology ; educational psychologist who argued for heritability of intelligence
Edward Kasner (Ph.D. 1899) – mathematician, coined the term googol ; Kasner metric , Kasner polygon
Michael Katehakis (Ph.D. 1980) – applied mathematics and operations research, Rutgers University
Marshall Kay (Ph.D. 1929) – geologist; known for stratigraphy ; 1971 Penrose Medal
Leon M. Lederman (Ph.D.) – experimental physicist, Wolf Prize in Physics , National Medal of Science, Presidential Medal of Freedom
Robert Ledley (B.S., M.S. 1950) – professor of physiology and biophysics; pioneered use of electronic digital computers in biology and medicine; research lead to invention of whole-body CT scanner ; National Medal of Technology; National Inventors Hall of Fame
Kai-Fu Lee (B.S. 1983) – prominent figures in Chinese internet sector; established China division, Microsoft Research ; establishing China research division for Google
John W. Marchetti (B.A., B.S. 1925; E.E. 1931) – radar pioneer combining government and industrial activities
Warren P. Mason (M.A. 1927; Ph.D. 1928) – electrical engineer and physicist, known for founding distributed-element circuits
Winifred Edgerton Merrill (Ph.D. 1886) – first American woman to receive a Ph.D. in mathematics
Robert Mills (B.A.) – Putnam Fellow ; physicist , specializing in quantum field theory , the theory of alloys , and many-body theory ; Yang-Mills fields
Jocelyn Monroe (B.S., Ph.D.) – winner of the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for her work on neutrino oscillations
Robert Moog (B.S.E.E.) – pioneer of electronic music , best known as the inventor of the Moog synthesizer
Joel Moses (B.A., M.A.) – MIT Provost and Institute Professor , author of Macsyma
Roby Muhamad (Ph.D.) – sociologist and research in social networking and small world networks [58]
Eva Neer (M.D. 1963) – biochemist, G protein research discoverer
William Nierenberg (Ph.D.) – Putnam Fellow ; physicist, worked on Manhattan Project ; director, Scripps Institution of Oceanography (1965–86)
Jacob Noel-Storr (Ph.D. 2004 Astronomy ) – astrophysicist; influential in astronomy education, outreach, accessibility, equity, inclusion and diversity.
Edward Lawry Norton (M.S. 1925) – electrical engineer, discovered the Norton equivalent circuit
Rebecca Oppenheimer (B.A. 1994) – astrophysicist, discovered the first substellar object outside the solar system
Delia Oppo (Ph.D. 1989) – paleoceanography scientist
John Ostrom (Ph.D. 1961) – paleontologist , father of the dinosaur renaissance
Bedabrata Pain (M.S., Ph.D., Applied physics ) – Indian inventor; CMOS image sensor , active pixel sensor , 87 invention patents; film director
William Barclay Parsons (B.S. 1879) – civil engineer
Frank Press (M.A., Ph.D.) – geophysicist, National Medal of Science
Michael I. Pupin (B.S. 1883) – physicist and physical chemist ; IEEE Medal of Honor, Edison Medal for his work in mathematical physics ; Pulitzer Prize for his autobiography
Hyman G. Rickover – father of U.S. nuclear submarine fleet; Enrico Fermi Award ; U.S. Navy four-star admiral
Ora Mendelsohn Rosen (M.D. 1960) – cell biology researcher
Ruth Schmidt (M.S. 1939, Ph.D. 1948) – geologist
Daniel Schechter (B.A. 1983) – psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and developmental neuroscience researcher
Rosa Schupbach (MS) – economist at the National Bureau of Economic Research
Julian Schwinger (B.A., M.D.) – theoretical physicist , National Medal of Science
George Clark Southworth (graduate study) – radio engineer; pioneering contributions: microwave radio physics, radio astronomy , waveguides ; IEEE Medal of Honor
Benjamin Spock (M.D. 1929) – pediatrician , author of The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care ; Olympic rower
Lao Genevra Simons (B.S. 1908, M.A. 1912, Ph.D. 1924) – mathematician and math historian, author of Fabre and Mathematics and Other Essays
John Stevens (B.A. 1768) – built first steam railroad, responsible for first patent law in the U.S.
John Stone Stone (1886–1888) – mathematician, physicist, inventor; influential in developing wireless communication technology, IEEE Medal of Honor
Alfred Sturtevant (Ph.D.) – geneticist, National Medal of Science
Shen-su Sun (Ph.D.) – geochemist
David Tannor (born 1958) – theoretical chemist , Hermann Mayer Professorial Chair in the Department of Chemical Physics at the Weizmann Institute of Science
Evelyn Butler Tilden (M.S., 1926, Ph.D. 1929) – microbiologist at National Institutes of Health
Hing Tong (Ph.D.) – mathematician, algebraic topology ; theoretical physics ; known for providing original proof of Katetov–Tong insertion theorem
Joseph F. Traub (Ph.D.) – computer scientist ; National Academy of Engineering
Neil deGrasse Tyson (M.Phil. 1989, Ph.D. 1991) – astrophysicist , science communicator ; first and current Director of the Hayden Planetarium
Roy Vagelos (M.D.) – mastered three professions: medicine, science, and business
Anastasia van Burkalow (Ph.D. 1944) – Professor Emerita geology, Hunter College
Harold Varmus (M.D. 1941) – Director of the National Institutes of Health , Nobel Laureate , National Medal of Science, president and CEO of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Allen Whipple (M.D.) – surgeon known for pancreatic surgery bearing his name (the Whipple procedure ), as well as Whipple's triad
Terry Jean Wilson (Ph.D. 1983) – geologist, Antarctic researcher
Nellie Choy Wong (Ph.G. 1920) first Chinese woman to become a pharmacist in America
Victor Wouk (B.A. 1939) – scientist and engineer; pioneer in the development of electric and hybrid vehicles
Rae Wynn-Grant (Ph.D.) – large carnivore ecologist and advocate for diversity in STEM
Lotfi A. Zadeh (Ph.D. 1949) – mathematician, electrical engineer, computer scientist, artificial intelligence researcher; founder of fuzzy mathematics , fuzzy set theory, fuzzy logic ; IEEE Medal of Honor ; National Academy of Engineering
Bruno H. Zimm (B.S. 1941, M.S. 1943, Ph.D. 1944) – polymer chemist and DNA researcher; in statistical mechanics, the Zimm–Bragg model
Academia: Theorists
See also: above at Nobel Laureates (Alumni) for separate listing of more than 43 academics and theorists, Notable alumni at Columbia College of Columbia University (Academicians), Columbia Law School (Academia: University presidents and Legal Academia), and Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (Economists-Natural Scientists, Social Scientists) for separate listing of more than 163 academics and theorists
Mortimer Adler (Ph.D.) – founder of the Great Books movement
Claude Ake (Ph.D. 1966) – Nigerian political scientist
Encarnacion Alzona (Ph.D. 1923) – historian, National Scientist of the Philippines , first Filipino woman to receive a Ph.D.
Michael Apple (M.A. 1968, Ed.D. 1970) – curriculum theorist
Kenneth Arrow (M.S., Ph.D.) – economist; John Bates Clark Medal , National Medal of Science
E. Digby Baltzell (Ph.D.) – sociologist, credited with the popularization of the acronym WASP
Jacques Barzun (B.A. 1927, Ph.D. 1932; faculty 1932–75) – historian; 2003 Presidential Medal of Freedom; 2010 National Humanities Medal
Steven M. Bellovin (B.A.) – computer scientist; one of originators of USENET ; co-inventor, Encrypted key exchange password-authenticated key agreement methods
Ruth Benedict (Ph.D.) – cultural anthropologist, author of The Chrysanthemum and the Sword , a World War II-era study of Japanese culture
Theos Casimir Bernard (Ph.D.) – accomplished practitioner of yoga and Tibetan Buddhism; scholar of religion; explorer
Bernard Berofsky (Ph.D.) - philosopher
J. David Bleich (born 1936) – rabbi and authority on Jewish law and ethics
Walter Block (Ph.D.) – Austrian School free market economist
Karen Boroff (Ph.D.) – Dean, Stillman School of Business , Seton Hall University
Joseph Campbell (B.A., M.A.) – mythologist , writer and lecturer, best known for his work in comparative mythology and comparative religion
John Maurice Clark (Ph.D. 1910) – economist
Robert C. Clark (Ph.D. 1971) – Dean and Professor of Law, Harvard Law School (1989–2003)
Rose Laub Coser (Ph.D. 1957) – sociologist, known with medical sociology , role theory , and sociology of the family
Margaret Cuninggim – served as Dean of Women at the University of Tennessee and at Vanderbilt University
Robert Dallek (M.A. 1957, Ph.D. 1964) – historian specializing in American presidents; winner of Bancroft Prize
Wm. Theodore de Bary (B.A.) – East Asian studies expert
Carl Neumann Degler (M.A., Ph.D.) – historian, Pulitzer Prize-winning author
Donna Robinson Divine (Ph.D. 1971) – political scientist
Norman Dorsen (B.A. 1950) – Professor of Law at NYU Law School (Constitutional Law, Civil Liberties, and Comparative Constitutional Law)
Irwin Edman (B.A., Ph.D. 1964) – philosopher and writer
Richard Epstein (B.A. 1964) – considered one of the most influential legal thinkers of modern times
Yael S. Feldman (Ph.D. 1981) – Abraham I. Katsh Professor of Hebrew Culture and Education and Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University
Charles Ferster (M.A., Ph.D.) – behavioral psychologist
Moses Finley (M.A., Ph.D.) – historian noted for his work on the ancient economy
Joshua Fishman (Ph.D.) – distinguished linguist specializing in social linguistics, language and culture, and Yiddish
Richard Florida (Ph.D. 1986) – urban studies theorist; created concept, creative class and its implications for urban regeneration
George T. Flom (Ph.D. 1900) – distinguished linguist specializing in Scandinavian paleography and philology
Kenneth A. Frank (M.A. 1964, Ph.D. 1967) – American clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst
Gilberto Freyre (M.A. 1922) – Brazilian sociologist, cultural anthropologist and historian
Milton Friedman (Ph.D.) – free market economist; John Bates Clark Medal , National Medal of Science , Presidential Medal of Freedom
Raymond Geuss (B.A. 1966, Ph.D 1971) - philosopher, political theorist. Fellow of the British Academy
Allan Gotthelf (Ph.D. 1975) – philosopher, and a recognized authority on the philosophies of both Aristotle and Ayn Rand
Lynne Hanley (M.A.) – literary critic
Edward Harris (B.A. 1971) – inventor of the Harris matrix
Sidney Hook (Ph.D. 1927) – philosopher of the Pragmatist school; Presidential Medal of Freedom
J. C. Hurewitz (M.A. 1937, Ph.D. 1950) – Middle East scholar, Columbia faculty 1950–84
Jane Jacobs (two years of graduate studies) – urban theorist
Raghbendra Jha (M.Phil 1976, Ph.D. 1978) - economist and an academic
Ira Katznelson (B.A. 1966) – political scientist and historian ; When Affirmative Action Was White (2005)
Donald Keene (B.A. 1942) – Japanese studies expert
Samara Klar (M.A. 2006) – political scientist and founder of Women Also Know Stuff
William Labov (Ph.D. 1964) – linguist, considered the founder of sociolinguistics
Ruth Landes (Ph.D. 1935) – author, City of Women (1947)
Paul Lazarsfeld – major figure in 20th-century American sociology ; founder of Columbia University 's Bureau of Applied Social Research
Howard Lesnick (M.A. 1953, LL.B. 1958), Jefferson B. Fordham Professor of Law Emeritus, University of Pennsylvania Law School
Liu Yu (Ph.D.) – Chinese political scientist and writer, faculty at Tsinghua University
Harvey J. Levin (M.A. 1948, Ph.D. 1953) – communications economics pioneer
Seymour Martin Lipset (Ph.D. 1949) – sociologist
Paul Massing – sociologist in the Redhead group of Soviet spies at the University's Institute of Social Research
Margaret Mead (M.S. 1924, Ph.D. 1929) – anthropologist; Presidential Medal of Freedom ; Kalinga Prize
Dwight C. Miner (B.A. 1926, M.A. 1927, Ph.D. 1940) - historian and Moore Collegiate Professor of History at Columbia
Rache Mesch – scholar of French literature, history, and culture at Yeshiva University
Marysa Navarro (M.S. 1960, Ph.D. 1964) - historian
Robert Nozick (B.A. 1959, summa cum laude ) – philosopher
Marvin Opler (Ph.D. 1938) – anthropologist and social psychiatrist
Michael Oren (B.A., M.A.) – historian and author; Israeli ambassador to the United States
Charles Patterson (M.A., Ph.D.) – author and historian[81]
Richard Popkin (B.A. 1950, Ph.D.) – academic philosopher, specialized in the history of enlightenment philosophy and early modern anti-dogmatism
Alvin Poussaint (B.A. 1956) – professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School ; author of numerous books on child psychiatry
Frank Press (M.A., Ph.D.) – geophysicist, work in seismic activity and wave theory, counsel to four U.S. Presidents.
Murray Rothbard (B.A. 1945, Ph.D. 1956) – Austrian school free market economist, father of modern libertarianism.
Steven Rubenstein (B.A. 1984, M.A. 1986, Ph.D. 1995) – anthropologist
James R. Russell (B.A.) – Ancient Near Eastern scholar; professor at Harvard University
Marshall Sahlins (Ph.D. 1954) - Cultural anthropologist; author of Stone Age Economics; professor at University of Chicago
Naomi Sager (B.S.E.E., 1953) – computational linguist; professor at New York University ; pioneer in the field of natural language computer processing
Edward Sapir (B.A. 1904, M.A. 1905, Ph.D. 1909) – linguist and anthropologist, co-creator of Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
Andrew Sarris (B.A.) – film critic; a leading proponent of the auteur theory of criticism; controversialist
Nathan A. Scott, Jr. (Ph.D.) – literary scholar and founder of the theology and literature doctoral program at the University of Chicago
Anwar Shaikh (M.A., Ph.D. 1973) – Professor of Economics; professor at The New School for Social Research of New York
Mark Steiner (1942–2020) – professor of philosophy of mathematics and physics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Patrick Suppes (Ph.D.) – philosopher, National Medal of Science
Lionel Trilling (B.A. 1925, M.A. 1926, Ph.D. 1938) – literary critic
Immanuel Wallerstein (B.A., M.A., Ph.D.) – sociologist
Eugene P. Watson (advanced study 1960) – namesake of the library at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches , Louisiana
Helma Wennemers (Ph.D. 1996) – organic chemist
Philip L. White (M.A. 1952, Ph.D. 1954) – nationality historian and political activist in Austin , Texas
Sean Wilentz (B.A. 1972) – Chair of American Studies at Princeton University ; winner of the Bancroft Prize in history
Jay Winter (B.A. 1966) – World War I scholar at Yale University
Thomas Woods (M.Phil., Ph.D.) – historian
Aaron D. Wyner (Ph.D. 1963) – information theorist noted for his contributions in coding theory [82]
Howard Zinn (M.A., Ph.D.) – historian
Activists
See also : notable alumni of Columbia Law School (Activism) and Columbia College (Miscellaneous) for a separate listing of more than 50 activists
Bella Abzug (LL.M. 1947) – social rights activist and a leader of the women's rights movement
Anna Baltzer – public speaker and Jewish-American pro-Palestinian activist
Edythe Scott Bagley (M.F.A.) – civil rights activist, educator
Ady Barkan (B.A., 2006)- healthcare activist
Mark Barnes (LL.M. 1991) – advocate for public healthcare law at the state and national levels; co-founded the first AIDS law clinic
Edward Bassett (LL.B. 1886) – one of the founding fathers of modern-day urban planning
Lee Bollinger – advocate for affirmative action , defendant in Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger
Robert L. Carter (LL.M. 1941) – civil rights activist, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund general counsel, in which capacity he argued Brown v. Board of Education II
Julius L. Chambers (LL.M. 1964) – civil rights leader, attorney, and educator; third President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund [92]
Felix Cohen (1928) – advocate for Native American rights, fundamentally shaped federal Native American law and policy
Roy Cohn (LL.M. 1947) – conservative lawyer who became famous during the investigations of Senator Joseph McCarthy into alleged Communists in the U.S. government
Robert Cover (J.D. 1968) – civil rights and international anti-violence activist, professor at Yale Law School
Annie Elizabeth Delany (D.D.S. 1923) – dentist and civil rights pioneer; subject, New York Times bestselling oral history, Having Our Say
Sarah Louise Delany (B.A. 1920, M.A. 1925) – educator and civil rights pioneer; subject, New York Times bestselling oral history, Having Our Say
Daniel DeLeon (LL.M. 1878) – socialist newspaper editor, politician, trade union organizer; regarded as forefather of idea of revolutionary industrial unionism
Albert DeSilver (LL.B. 1913) – a founding member of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
William Dudley Foulke (LL.B. 1871) – reformer ; principal reformers, New York State and federal civil service systems; early president of American Suffrage Association
Ruth Bader Ginsburg (LL.B.) – women's rights advocate, co-founded the Women's Rights Law Reporter ; co-authored the first law school casebook on sex discrimination ; as chief litigator of the ACLU 's women's rights project, she argued six cases before the U.S. Supreme Court
Jack Greenberg (B.A. 1945, LL.B. 1948) – second President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund ; argued 40 civil rights cases before the U.S. Supreme Court , including Brown v. Board of Education (1954)[93]
Foster Gunnison Jr. (B.A. 1949) – LGBT rights activist and independent archivist
Arthur Garfield Hays (LL.B. 1905) – civil liberties activist, general counsel for the ACLU , notable trials included Scopes Trial , trial of Sacco and Vanzetti , and Scottsboro case
Dorothy Height (graduate study) – administrator, educator, and social activist; president of National Council of Negro Women for forty years; Presidential Medal of Freedom ; Congressional Gold Medal
Huang Wenshan (M.A. 1920s) – Chinese scholar of cultural studies and activist during the May Fourth Movement [94]
Charles Evans Hughes , one of the co-founders of the National Conference of Christians and Jews to oppose the Ku Klux Klan , anti-Catholicism , and anti-Semitism
Ben Jealous (B.A.) – Rhodes Scholar ; president and chief executive officer, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) (2008–)
Wang Juntao (Ph.D. Pol. Sci., 2006) – one of alleged heads of 1989 Tiananmen Square protests [95] [96]
Steve Kelly , legal advocate for litigants who could not afford an attorney and for public housing tenants; consumer advocate
Rushworth Kidder (Ph.D.) – founded the Institute for Global Ethics
William Kunstler (LL.B. 1948) – civil rights and human rights activist; director, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) (1964–1972); co-founded, Center for Constitutional Rights
Corliss Lamont (Ph.D. 1932), American socialist philosopher, long-time director of ACLU (1932-1962); 1977 Humanist of the Year ; 1981 Gandhi Peace Award
Eugene Lang (M.S. 1940) – philanthropist, Presidential Medal of Freedom
Mabel Ping-Hua Lee (Ph.D.) – as a teenager, led one of the biggest suffrage parades in U.S. history; first Chinese woman to earn a doctorate at Columbia University
Charles K. Lexow , first attorney for the Legal Aid Society of New York City; brother of Clarence Lexow (class of 1872)
Li Lu (1996) – one of the student leaders of the 1989 Tiananmen Square Protests , first student at Columbia to simultaneously receive B.A. , M.B.A. , and J.D. degrees
Vilma Socorro Martínez – served for almost ten years as president and general counsel of Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund [97]
Meghan McCain (B.A. 2007) – blogger and daughter of Arizona senator John McCain
James Meredith (L.B. 1968) – American civil rights movement figure, first African-American student at the University of Mississippi
Constance Baker Motley (LL.B. 1946) – attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (1945–64); Manhattan Borough president (1964–66)
Annie Land O'Berry – activist, relief worker, and philanthropist
Kelly Overton , animal rights activist
Antonia Pantoja (M.S. 1954) – Presidential Medal of Freedom ; educator, social worker, feminist, civil rights leader and founder of ASPIRA
Marshall Perlin (LL.B. 1942) – civil liberties lawyer, defended Soviet spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
Anika Rahman (J.D. 1990) – president and CEO, Ms. Foundation for Women (2/2011)[98] [99] [100]
Paul Rapoport (J.D. 1965) – co-founder of the New York City Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Services Center and the Gay Men's Health Crisis
Michael Ratner (J.D. 1969) – human rights activist on national and international level, current president of the Center for Constitutional Rights (co-founded by William Kunstler in 1969) – National Law Journal named him as one of the 100 most influential lawyers in the United States (2006)
Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf (B.A. nuclear engineering , 1969) – American Sufi imam , author, and activist
Paul Robeson (LL.B. 1923) – civil and human rights activist, international social justice activist, writer, Spingarn Medal
Theodore Roosevelt – progressive reformer, conservationist , a leader of the Republican Party and the Progressive Party
Menachem Z. Rosensaft (1979) – a leader of the Second Generation Movement of children of Jewish survivors
Brad R. Roth (LL.M. 1992) – social and human rights activist, critic of torture policies in the administration of George W. Bush
Charles Ruthenberg (1909) – founder of the Communist Party of America (1919)
Nawal El Saadawi (M.A. 1966) – Egyptian feminist writer, activist, physician, and psychiatrist
Mikheil Saakashvili (LL.M. 1994) – founder and leader of the United National Movement in Georgia (country) , leader of the bloodless "Rose Revolution "
Theodore Shaw, civil rights leader, attorney, and educator; former 5th President and Director-Counsel, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund [101] [102] [103] [104]
Arthur B. Spingarn (B.A. 1897) – leader in fight for civil rights for African Americans, third president of NAACP
Joel Elias Spingarn (B.A. 1895) – educator, literary critic, and civil rights activist; second president of NAACP; established Spingarn Medal
Abby Stein (B.A. expected 2019) – trans activist, educator, model, and speaker. First Openly trans person, and rabbi, from an Ultra Orthodox Jewish community.
Leon Sullivan (M.A. 1947) – Presidential Medal of Freedom; civil rights activist; anti-apartheid activist; long-time GM board member; Baptist minister
Franklin A. Thomas – president of the Ford Foundation (1976–91)
Judith Vladeck (1947) – civil rights advocate, particularly on behalf of women; helped set new legal precedents against sex discrimination and age discrimination
Faye Wattleton (M.S. 1967) – president of the Center for the Advancement of Women , National Women's Hall of Fame
Charles Weltner (1950) – advocate for racial equality , second individual to receive the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award