The list of Tufts University people includes alumni, professors, and administrators associated with Tufts University. For a list of Tufts' presidents, see List of presidents of Tufts University. It includes alumni and affiliates of the acquired Jackson College for Women and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts.
Fictional alumni
- Scott Adler, recurring character in Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan book series
- Elaine Benes, played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, from the television show Seinfeld, who described it as her "safety school"
- Dr. Jordan Cavanaugh, played by Jill Hennessy, from the television show Crossing Jordan
- Jennifer Melfi, played by Lorraine Bracco, from the television show The Sopranos
- Dr. Susan Silverman, central character in Robert B. Parker's Spenser book series, as revealed in Sudden Mischief
- Brad Sloan, played by Ben Stiller, the titular character of the film Brad's Status
- Zachary Vaughn, character in one episode of The Simpsons
- Berg, Pete, and Sharon, the three principal characters of the sitcom Two Guys and a Girl
- Mamie-Claire, played by Heather Lind, from the film Mistress America
Honorary degree recipients
Tufts awards honorary degrees to outstanding people since 1858; among them:[13]
- 1918: Ralph D. Mershon (Science), Joseph Fort Newton (Divinity)
- 1919: Calvin Coolidge (Laws), William Sims (Laws)
- 1920: Herbert Hoover (Science), Charles L. Hutchinson (Laws)
- 1921: Evangeline Cory Booth (Arts), Samuel Capen (Humane Letters), Joseph Rodefer DeCamp (Arts), Samuel Orace Dunn (Arts), Frank Pierrepont Graves (Humane Letters), William Henry Nichols (Science), John Wingate Weeks (Laws)
- 1922: Henry K. Braley (Laws), Heloise Hersey (Arts), Louise Homer (Arts), Leo Rich Lewis (Letters), Edward Sylvester Morse (Humane Letters)
- 1923: Edward Bok (Humane Letters), Channing H. Cox (Humane Letters), Cyrus Edwin Dallin (Arts), Anna Coleman Ladd (Arts), Angelo Patri (Humane Letters), Hugh Walpole (Letters)
- 1924: Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (Fine Arts)
- 1925: Henry Kimball Hadley (Music), Edna St. Vincent Millay (Humane Letters)
- 1926: Frederick Law Olmsted (Fine Arts)
- 1927: Richard E. Byrd (Science), A. Atwater Kent (Science), Frank Lahey (Science), Edith Nourse Rogers (Arts), John van Schaick Jr. (Letters)
- 1928: William Beebe (Science), Charles Ernest Fay (Laws), Charles Lawrance (Science), Eva Le Gallienne (Arts), John Livingston Lowes (Humane Letters), Frank Burr Mallory (Science)
- 1929: Asa White Kenney Billings (Electrical Engineering), Benjamin Newhall Johnson (Arts), Herbert Lord (Laws), Daniel Gregory Mason (Letters)
- 1930: Frank Weston Benson (Arts), Arthur Dehon Little (Science)
- 1931: Margaret Ayer Barnes (Arts), Marion Edwards Park (Humane Letters), Stanley Calef Wilson (Laws), Alfred Worcester (Science)
- 1932: George Grey Barnard (Arts), Vannevar Bush (Science), Lou Henry Hoover (Arts), Archibald MacLeish (Arts), James Grover McDonald (Laws)
- 1933: Mabel Wheeler Daniels (Arts), Abbott Lawrence Lowell (Letters), Marie Danforth Page (Arts)
- 1934: James Bryant Conant (Science), Harold L. Ickes (Laws)
- 1935: Carter Glass (Laws), Francis Russell Hart (Arts), Harry M. Lydenberg (Letters), Cornelia Otis Skinner (Arts), Sarah Wambaugh (Humane Letter)
- 1936: Dorothy Thompson (Letters)
- 1937: Van Wyck Brooks (Laws), Leonard Carmichael (Science), Thomas Edmund Dewey (Laws), Helen Jerome Eddy (Arts), Sylvanus Morley (Letters)
- 1938: Miller McClintock (Science), Henry Merritt Wriston (Laws)
- 1939: Leo Otis Colbert (Science), John Foster Dulles (Letters), George Horace Gallup (Science)
- 1940: Francis Henry Taylor (Humane Letters)
- 1941: Leason Heberling Adams (Science), Lillian Hellman (Arts), George Stewart Miller (Letters), Jay Pierrepont Moffat (Laws)
- 1942: Walter Nash (Laws), Katharine Elizabeth McBride (Humane Letters), Leverett Saltonstall (Laws)
- 1943: Karl Taylor Compton (Laws), Joseph Clark Grew (Laws), Sara Murray Jordan (Science)
- 1944: Beardsley Ruml (Laws)
- 1945: Arthur William Coolidge (Arts), John Sloan Dickey (Laws), Theresa Helburn (Arts), Eric Johnston (Laws), Charles Donagh Maginnis (Humane Letters)
- 1946: Norbert Wiener (Science), Laurence Olivier (Fine Arts)
- 1947: Joseph W. Martin Jr. (Laws)
- 1948: Carl Stephens Ell (Laws)
- 1949: Ralph Lowell (Laws)
- 1950: Thomas Whittemore (Letters)
- 1951: Thomas Dudley Cabot (Humane Letters)
- 1952: Henry Chauncey (Science)
- 1953: Robert Cutler (Laws)
- 1954: John F. Kennedy (Letters)
- 1955: Nathan M. Pusey (Letters)
- 1956: John T. Blake (Science)
- 1957: Earl Warren (Laws)
- 1958: Robert F. Kennedy (Laws)
- 1959: Robert Frost (Letters)
- 1960: Hiram Fong (Laws)
- 1961: F. Ray Keyser Jr. (Laws)
- 1962: Walter Hallstein (Laws)
- 1963: James William Fulbright (Letters), Lyndon B. Johnson (Letters)
- 1964: Charles A. Dana (Humane Letters)
- 1965: Jeremy Ingalls (Letters)
- 1966: William Scranton (Laws), Nils Wessell (Laws)
- 1967: John F. Collins (Laws), Abigail Adams Eliot (Humane Letters)
- 1968: Daniel Moynihan (Laws)
- 1969: Kenneth Bancroft Clark (Humane Letters), Lee Alvin DuBridge (Science), Paul A. Freund (Laws), Howard Nemerov (Letters), Joseph Silverstein (Music)
- 1970: Patricia Roberts Harris (Laws), Harris Wofford (Laws)
- 1971: Arthur Fiedler (Music)
- 1972: Jester Hairston (Music)
- 1976: John Brademas (Laws), Matina Horner (Humane Letters), Virginia Knauer (Laws)
- 1977: Irving Selikoff (Science), B.F. Skinner (Letters), Malcolm Toon (Laws)
- 1978: Victor McKusick (Science), David Nachmansohn (Science)
- 1979: Salvador E. Luria (Science)
- 1980: Allan M. Cormack (Science)
- 1981: Leo Gross (Laws)
- 1982: Alexander R. Todd (Science)
- 1983: Sandra Day O'Connor (Letters), Edward Kennedy (Letters)
- 1984: Arthur M. Sackler (Humane Letters), John Williams (Music)
- 1985: Lester R. Brown (Humane Letters), Finn Brudevold (Science)
- 1986: Jane Goodall (Science), Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan (Laws)
- 1987: Claude Shannon (Science), Gloria Steinem (Humane Letters)
- 1988: Paul Samuelson (Science)
- 1989: Stephen Hawking (Science)
- 1990: Robert Ballard (Science), Juan Carlos I of Spain (Laws)
- 1991: Yo-Yo Ma (Music), Moonis Raza (Humane Letters)
- 1992: Bernard Marshall Gordon (Science)
- 1993: Carlos Fuentes (Letters)
- 1994: Ted Koppel (Humane Letters)
- 1995: Murray Gell-Mann (Science)
- 1996: Anson Chan (Humane Letters)
- 1997: Richard Holbrooke (Laws)
- 1998: Garry Trudeau (Humane Letters)
- 1999: Thomas Schmidheiny (Business Administration)
- 2000: Issam Fares (International Public Affairs)
- 2001: David McCullough (Humane Letters)
- 2002: John DiBiaggio (Letters), Eugene F. Fama (Science), Roderick MacKinnon (Science)
- 2003: Mario Molina (Science)
- 2004: Neil Armstrong (English), Tracy Chapman (Fine Arts)
- 2005: Kostas Karamanlis (Letters)
- 2006: Lynn Margulis (Science)
- 2007: Michael Bloomberg (Public Service)
- 2008: Meredith Vieira (Humane Letters)
- 2009: Leslie Gelb (Laws), Deval Patrick (Laws), Patricia Q. Stonesifer (Public Service)
- 2010: Kristina M. Johnson (Science), Ann Hobson Pilot (Music), Gordon Wood (Humane Letters)
- 2011: Charles M. Vest (Science), Geoffrey Canada (Humane Letters), Jamaica Kincaid (Humane Letters), Pierre Omidyar (Public Service), Robert Solow (Science)[14]
- 2012: Eric Greitens (Humane Letters), Lawrence S. Bacow (Humane Letters), Bonnie Bassler (Science), Farooq Kathwari (Public Service)[15]
- 2013: Claude Steele (Humane Letters), Lois Gibbs (Public Service), Raymond Sackler (Humane Letters)[16]
- 2014: Anne-Marie Slaughter (Laws), James Lawson (Public Service), Jill Lepore (Humane Letters), Haruki Murakami (Letters),[17] James D. Stern (Business Administration)
- 2015: Madeleine Albright (Laws), Joichi Ito (Humane Letters)
- 2016: Hank Azaria (Humane Letters), Janet Echelman (Fine Arts), H. Jack Geiger (Public Service), Sonia Manzano (Fine Arts)
- 2017: Kenya Barris (Humane Letters), Sean B. Carroll (Science), Maria Contreras-Sweet (Public Service), Joseph W. Polisi (Fine Arts)
- 2018: José Andrés (Public Service), Ash Carter (Laws), Ellen Kullman (Science), Risa Lavizzo-Mourey (Humane Letters), Arturo O'Farrill (Music), Farah Pandith (Laws)
- 2019: Marie Cassidy (Public Service), Edward Markey (Laws), Eva Moskowitz (Humane Letters), Ellen Ochoa (Engineering), Alfre Woodard (Fine Arts)