Famous Yale University Graduates

Yale University, located in New Haven, Connecticut, is the third-oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and a founding member of the Ivy League. Established in 1701, the university spans a 1,100-acre campus and comprises 14 residential colleges. Yale's community is diverse, with roughly 6,800 undergraduates and 8,300 graduate-professional students from 129 nations, supported by over 5,700 faculty members across 14 schools. True to its motto, Lux et Veritas, Yale combines rigorous liberal education with groundbreaking inquiry, producing 65 Nobel laureates, five US presidents, and leaders in various fields. Yale University offers more than 70 possible majors, covering a vast range of subjects. With its over 300 year history, Yale is notorious for producing world leaders and game changers in their fields. Political sciences is Yale’s second most popular major and is ranked 10th in the world for political studies. This article highlights some of the notable individuals who have attended this prestigious institution.

Nobel Laureates

Yale University's faculty and alumni have been awarded 28 Nobel Prizes across various disciplines. Nine individuals affiliated with Yale University won Nobel Prizes in Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, and Economics.

• George Akerlof (B.A.)
• Raymond Davis Jr. (Ph.D.)
• Douglas Diamond (M.A. 1976, M.Phil. 1976)
• Peter A. Diamond (B.A. 1961)
• Philip H. Dybvig (M.A. 1978, M.Phil. 1979)
• John F. Enders (B.A. 1920)
• John Fenn (Ph.D. 1940)
• Murray Gell-Mann (B.S. 1948)
• Alfred G. Gilman (B.S. 1962)
• John B. Goodenough (B.S. 1943)
• Brian Kobilka (M.D. 1981)
• Paul Krugman (B.A. 1974)
• Ernest Lawrence (Ph.D. 1925)
• Joshua Lederberg (Ph.D. 1947)
• David Lee (Ph.D.)
• Sinclair Lewis (B.A. 1907)
• Joel Mokyr (Ph.D. 1974)
• William Nordhaus (B.A. 1963)
• Lars Onsager (Ph.D. 1928)
• Edmund Phelps (Ph.D. 1966)
• Dickinson W. Richards (B.A. 1917)
• James A. Robinson (Ph.D. 1961)
• James Rothman (B.A. 1971)
• William Vickrey (B.S. 1935)
• George Whipple (A.B. 1900)
• Eric Wieschaus (Ph.D. 1974)

Journalists and Writers

Yale University has produced numerous notable journalists and writers who have made significant contributions to literature, journalism, and media. These alumni have shaped public opinion, documented history, and enriched arts and culture worldwide.

• Anne Applebaum (B.A. 1986)
• Ellen Barry (B.A. 1993)
• Charles Bartlett (B.A. 1943)
• Stephen Vincent Benét (B.A. 1919, M.A. 1920)
• Ron Chernow (B.A. 1970)
• Anthony R. Dolan (B.A. 1970)
• Charles Forelle (B.A. 1994)
• Paul Goldberger (B.A. 1972)
• Stephen Greenblatt (B.A. 1964, M.Phil 1968, Ph.D. 1969)
• Linda Greenhouse (M.A. 1978)
• John Hersey (B.A. 1936)
• Quiara Alegría Hudes (B.A. 1999)
• Michiko Kakutani (B.A. 1976)
• David M. Kennedy (M.A. 1964, Ph.D. 1967)
• Elizabeth Kolbert (B.A. 1983)
• David McCullough (B.A. 1955)
• J.R. Moehringer (B.A. 1986)
• Wesley Morris (B.A. 1997)
• Samantha Power (B.A. 1992)
• Thomas E. Ricks (B.A. 1977)
• Mark Schoofs (B.A. 1985)
• Garry Trudeau (B.A. 1970, M.F.A. 1973)
• Bob Woodward (B.A. 1965)
• Daniel Yergin (B.A.)
• Anderson Cooper graduated from Yale University in 1989 with a major in political science. Throughout his career, Cooper is known for his political commentary, news coverage of breaking world events and as being a correspondent for CBS News’ 60 Minutes.
• Ronan Farrow is an American journalist best known for his investigative reporting on the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse allegations. Farrow earned a JD degree from Yale Law School in 2009 and later obtained a PhD at the University of Oxford.

Artists and Musicians

Yale University's alumni have made significant contributions to the art world, including visual arts, music, and architecture.

• Richard Anuszkiewicz (M.F.A. 1955)
• Graham Arader (B.A. 1973)
• Matthew Barney (B.A. 1989)
• Eve Blau (M.A. 1974, Ph.D. 1981)
• Jonathan Borofsky (M.F.A. 1969)
• Robert Branner (B.A. 1948, Ph.D. 1953)
• Theophilus Brown (B.F.A. 1947)
• Norman Carlberg (B.F.A. 1958, M.F.A. 1960)
• Kermit S. Champa (B.A. 1961)
• Chuck Close (M.F.A. 1964)
• William Cordova (M.F.A. 2004)
• Gregory Crewdson (M.F.A. 1988)
• Sumner McKnight Crosby (B.A. 1932, Ph.D. 1937)
• John Currin (M.F.A. 1988)
• Brian D'Amato (B.A. 1987)
• Edward D. Dart (B.A. 1949)
• Philip-Lorca diCorcia (M.F.A. 1979)
• Rackstraw Downes (B.F.A. 1961)
• Janet Fish (M.F.A. 1963)
• Paul Fontaine (B.F.A. 1960)
• Norman Foster (M.Arch.)
• Ann Gale (M.F.A. 1980)
• Aaron Gilbert (M.F.A. 2001)
• Brendan Gill (B.A. 1936)
• Steve Giovinco (M.F.A. 1983)
• John Graham Jr.
• Nancy Graves (B.F.A. 1962, M.F.A. 1964)
• George Heard Hamilton (B.A. 1932, M.A. 1934, Ph.D. 1942)
• Jodi Hauptman (M.A., Ph.D.)
• Linda Dalrymple Henderson (M.A. 1972, Ph.D. 1975)
• Barkley L. Hendricks (B.F.A. 1970, M.F.A. 1972)
• Eva Hesse (M.F.A. 1959)
• Muzharul Islam (M.Arch.)
• Norman Ives (M.F.A.)
• Sujata Keshavan (M.F.A.)
• Johannes Knoops (M.Arch.)
• Neil Levine (Ph.D.)
• Maya Lin (B.A. 1981, M.Arch. 1986, honorary Ph.D. 1987)
• Holly Lynton (B.A.)
• Tala Madani (M.F.A.)
• Robert Mangold (B.F.A. 1961, M.F.A. 1963)
• Brice Marden (M.F.A.)
• Malerie Marder (M.F.A.)
• Herbert P. McLaughlin (B.A. 1956, M.Arch. 1958)
• Patrick McNaughton (M.A. 1972, Ph.D. 1976)
• Joshua Meyer (B.A.)
• Amy Meyers (Ph.D.)
• Alexander Nemerov (M.A. 1987, Ph.D. 1992)
• Hally Pancer (M.F.A.)
• Scott Pask (M.F.A.)
• Hayal Pozanti (M.F.A.)
• Joshua Prince-Ramus (B.A.)
• Martin Puryear (M.F.A.)
• Romita Ray (M.A. 1994, M.Phil. 1995, Ph.D. 1999)
• Richard Rogers (M.Arch.)
• Mark Rothko (B.A.)
• Leo Rubinfien (M.F.A.)
• Eero Saarinen (B.Arch.)
• Vincent Scully (B.A.)
• Richard Serra (B.F.A., M.F.A.)
• Sewell Sillman (B.F.A., M.F.A.)
• Rodney Smith (Th.M.)
• Henry Steiner (M.A. 1958)
• Robert A. M. Stern (M.Arch.)
• Peter C. Sutton (M.A. 1975, Ph.D. 1978)
• Sarah Sze (B.A.)
• Ann Temkin (Ph.D.)
• Garry Trudeau (B.A. 1970, M.F.A. 1973)
• Marc Trujillo (M.F.A.)
• Katie Vida (M.F.A.)
• Kehinde Wiley (M.F.A.)
• William T. Williams (M.F.A.)
• Evans Woollen III (B.A., M.Arch.)
• Charles Ives (B.A.)
• Douglas Moore (B.A.)
• Mel Powell (B.A.)
• Kevin Puts (M.M.)
• Lewis Spratlan (B.A. 1962, M.M. 1965)
• Yehudi Wyner (B.A. 1950, B. Mus. 1951, M. Mus. 1953)
• Ravi Rajan (M.Mus.)
• Thomas Newman (B.A. 1977, M.M. 1978)

Philosophers and Academics

Yale University has been a center for philosophical and academic thought, producing numerous influential figures in these fields.

Read also: Decoding Yale Admissions

• James S. Diogenes Allen (B.D., Ph.D.)
• Edward J. Balleisen (Ph.D.)
• David Boren (B.A.)
• Robert Brandom (B.A.)
• Leo Braudy (Ph.D.)
• Michael Burns (Ph.D.)
• Judith Butler (Ph.D.)
• Susan Casteras (M.A. 1973, M.Phil. 1975, Ph.D. 1977)
• Steve Charnovitz (B.A. 1975, J.D. 1942, Ph.D.)
• Catherine Cusset (Ph.D.)
• Leo Damrosch (B.A.)
• Alan Dershowitz (LL.B.)
• John C. Ewers (M.A.)
• Robert Fagles (M.A., 1956, Ph.D. 1959)
• Henry Louis Gates Jr. (B.A., M.A.)
• Roberto S. Lena Hill (Ph.D.)
• Benjamin Hoffmann (Ph.D.)
• Annette Insdorf (Ph.D.)
• Fredric Jameson (Ph.D.)
• Mimi Jennewein (B.A.)
• Mitchell James Kaplan (B.A.)
• David Kolb (M.Phil. 1970, Ph.D. 1973)
• Hart Day Leavitt (B.A.)
• Lawrence Lessig (J.D.)
• Robert Oscar Lopez (B.A.)
• F. O. Matthiessen (B.A.)
• Scotty McLennan (B.A.)
• Thomas V. Nicholas Muellner (B.A.)
• Don Nakanishi (B.S.)
• Robert C. Neville (B.A., M.A., Ph.D.)
• Reinhold Niebuhr (B.D.)
• Bilal Orfali (Ph.D.)
• Camille Paglia (Ph.D.)
• Alvin Plantinga (Ph.D.)
• Stone Roberts (B.A.)
• Richard Rorty (Ph.D.)
• T. K. Robert B.
• Richard Sugarman (born 1944) (B.A.)
• Frank Bigelow Tarbell (B.A. 1873, Ph.D. 1879)
• Dominic Thomas (Ph.D.)
• Yung Wing (B.A.)
• Sarah E. Winter (Ph.D.)
• Jada Yuan (B.A.)
• Hossein Ziai (B.A. 1967), intensive mathematics and physics; (Ph.D. Harvard 1976), medieval philosophy.
• Rose Zimbardo (M.A. 1957, Ph.D.)
• Deborah Zlotsky (B.A.)
• Professor Philip Zimbardo received his masters and PhD in psychology from Yale University between 1955 to 1959.

Athletes

Yale University has a strong tradition of athletic excellence, and many of its graduates have achieved prominence in various sports.

• Susannah Beck (B.A.)
• Joel Benjamin (B.A.)
• Steve Benjamin (B.A.)
• Walter Camp (B.A.)
• Nathan Chen (B.A.)
• Irvin Dorfman, tennis player ranked No. 15 in singles in the US in 1947, and No. 6 in doubles in 1948.
• Brian Dowling (B.A.)
• Chris Dudley (B.A.)
• Eddie Eagan (B.A.)
• Theo Epstein (B.A.)
• Gary Fencik (Class of 1975, B.A.)
• Robert A.
• Earl G. Graves Jr. (B.A.)
• Stephen Greenberg (B.A.)
• Bob Griffin (M.A. '80, M.Phil. '82, Ph.D.)
• Chris Hetherington (B.A.)
• Calvin Hill (B.A.)
• Kenny Hill (B.A.)
• Philip L. B.
• Julian Illingworth (B.A. 2006), professional squash player, highest world ranking of no. 24.
• Sada Jacobson (B.A.)
• EJ Jarvis (B.A.)
• Dick Jauron (B.A.)
• Eric Johnson (B.A.)
• Nate Lawrie (B.A.)
• Glenn Layendecker (B.A.)
• Mike McDaniel (B.A.)
• Bob McKeown (B.A.)
• Chuck Mercein (B.A.)
• Wendell Mottley (B.A.)
• Kate O'Neill (B.A.)
• John Poulakidas (B.A.)
• Mike Pyle (B.A.)
• Mike Richter (B.A.)
• Jeff Rohrer (B.A.)
• Don Schollander (B.A.)
• Justin Sears (B.A.)
• George C.
• Frank Shorter (B.A.)
• John Spagnola (B.A.)
• Anne Warner (B.A.)
• Herbert M.

Business Leaders and Entrepreneurs

Yale University has produced numerous influential business leaders and entrepreneurs who have left their mark on the corporate world.

• John Fellows Akers (B.A.)
• Wallace M.
• Herbert M. Allison (B.A.)
• Hugh D.
• Edward P. Bass (B.A.)
• Robert M. Bass (B.A.)
• Sid Bass (B.A.)
• Joshua Bekenstein (B.A.)
• Morris Burke Belknap (B.A.)
• Roland W. Betts (B.A. 1968), investor, film producer (Gandhi), owner of Chelsea Piers, lead owner in George W. Bush Texas Rangers.
• Jeffrey Bewkes (B.A.)
• Jules Blankfein (B.A.)
• Hibbard Casselberry (B.S.)
• James Chanos (B.A.)
• Tim Collins (M.B.A.)
• S. Charles B. Finch (B.A. 1941, L.L.B.)
• Ted Forstmann (B.A.)
• Robert Greenhill (B.A.)
• Briton Hadden (B.A.)
• Peter Halloran (B.A.)
• Henry Holt (B.A.)
• George H.
• Robert S.
• Charles B. Johnson (B.A.)
• John R. Kimberly (B.A.)
• Herbert Kohler (B.S.)
• Julius Kruttschnitt II (B. Phil.)
• Edward Lampert (B.A.)
• William K. Lanman (B.S.)
• Henry Luce (B.A.)
• John C. Malone (B.A.)
• Aaron Marcus (B.F.A., M.F.A.)
• John Franklyn Mars (B.S.)
• Robert L. McNeil Jr. (B.S.)
• W. James McNerney (B.A.)
• Eric Ober (B.A.)
• Joseph M.
• John Pepper (B.A.)
• Elihu Rose (B.A.)
• Joseph Rosenberg (B.A.)
• Vivek Ramaswamy (J.D.)
• Wilbur Ross (B.A.)
• Stacy H. Schusterman (B.A.)
• Stephen A. Schwarzman (B.A.)
• Daniel C. Searle (1950), heir, CEO of G. D. Searle & Company.
• Neil Shen (M.B.A.)
• Timothy Shriver (B.A.)
• Frederick W. Smith (B.A.)
• Charles F. Spalding (a.k.a. Chuck Spalding) (1919-2000), vice president of Lazard, political campaigner for John F. Kennedy.
• Richard Thalheimer (B.A.)
• John L.
• Juan Trippe (B.A.)
• John (Jock) Hay Whitney (B.A. 1926), philanthropist and founder of J.H. Whitney & Company.
• Payne Whitney (B.A.)
• Elisha Wiesel (B.S.)
• Lei Zhang (M.B.A., M.A.)
• Indra Nooyi completed her undergraduate physics, chemistry, and mathematics degrees before earning an MBA at the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta. In 1978, she joined Yale’s inaugural Master of Public and Private Management class, gaining a multidisciplinary strategic toolkit, and after stints at Boston Consulting Group, Motorola, and Asea Brown Boveri, she began her ascent at PepsiCo in 1994. As CFO, then CEO and Chair (2006-2018), she reshaped the portfolio toward “Performance with Purpose,” acquiring Tropicana and Quaker, doubling revenue to $63 billion, and cutting the company’s environmental footprint.
• Stephen Schwarzman earned his Yale BA in history in 1969, captaining the track team and joining Skull and Bones. In 1985, he and Peter Peterson co-founded Blackstone, helping to shape the blueprint for today’s private equity industry. Under his leadership, Blackstone grew from a two-man shop into the world’s largest alternative asset manager, with $1 trillion under management.
• Frederick Smith sketched the hub-and-spoke concept for overnight parcel delivery, earning a “C” but laying the groundwork for FedEx. In 1971, he launched Federal Express with a fleet of 14 Dassault Falcons and a bold Memphis hub. Despite early cash crunches, Smith’s relentless logistics innovation made FedEx the world’s first company to guarantee overnight delivery and to track packages in real-time.
• John Malone combined electrical engineering and economics at Yale (Class of 1963), then added an NYU MBA and a Stanford PhD. He joined TCI in 1973, transforming a struggling regional cable operator into the nation’s largest system and earning the moniker “Cable Cowboy.” After selling TCI to AT&T for $48 billion, Malone built Liberty Media into a global empire spanning Formula 1, SiriusXM, QVC, and the Atlanta Braves.
• Joe Tsai earned a Yale BA in East Asian Studies and Economics (1986) and a Yale JD (1990). After corporate law and private equity roles, he met Jack Ma in Hangzhou and became Alibaba’s founding CFO, crafting its partnership structure and landmark NYSE listing. Now executive chairman, Tsai oversees global strategy and spearheaded acquisitions such as Lazada and Ant Group’s early financing.
• Steven Mnuchin earned a Yale economics degree in 1985 and joining Goldman’s mortgage-products group. Promoted to partner at 34, he later built Dune Capital Management and financed Hollywood hits like Avatar through RatPac-Dune. Mnuchin led an investor group that purchased IndyMac, rebranding it OneWest Bank and guiding its profitable turnaround.
• Tom Steyer founded Farallon Capital in 1986, pioneering event-driven hedge-fund strategies and growing assets to $30 billion. He stepped down in 2012 to devote his fortune to climate action, creating NextGen America, funding renewable-energy ballot measures, and championing environmental-social-governance investing.
• Eddie Lampert studied economics at Yale under Nobel laureate James Tobin. After honing his craft at Goldman’s risk-arb desk, he founded ESL Investments at 25, becoming Wall Street’s youngest self-made billionaire through concentrated, value-driven positions. In 2003, he orchestrated the $12 billion Kmart bankruptcy exit and its merger with Sears, attempting to reinvent legacy retail.
• Ben Silbermann majored in political science (2003) and interned at Google before co-founding Pinterest in 2010. His design-first, discovery-driven vision turned a simple, pin-board concept into a platform with 450 million monthly users and a successful 2019 IPO.
• Jeff Bewkes earned a Yale philosophy degree in 1974, then an MBA at Stanford. He joined HBO in 1979, rising to CEO and launching HBO Go, The Sopranos, and Sex and the City.
• Neil Shen co-founded Ctrip and Home Inn, taking both travel giants public. In 2005, he established Sequoia Capital China, supporting companies such as Meituan, ByteDance, JD.com, and Pinduoduo.
• Zhang Lei completed a dual Yale SOM MBA and MA in international relations (2002), deeply influenced by Professor David Swensen’s endowment model. He founded Hillhouse Capital with Yale’s seed money, delivering stellar, long-term returns through stakes in Tencent, JD.com, and Zoom.
• Vivek Ramaswamy graduated summa cum laude in biology from Harvard, then earned a Yale JD in 2013. While at Yale, he founded Campus Venture Network, but his breakthrough came with Roivant Sciences, which acquires shelved drug candidates and advances them through nimble subsidiaries. Roivant’s spin-offs yielded two FDA-approved therapies and a $7 billion IPO.
• Anne Wojcicki applied bench-science rigor to finance as a healthcare analyst before co-founding 23andMe in 2006. Her Yale years (Class of 1996) sharpened her investigative mindset, and at 23andMe, she democratized personal genomics, empowering 14 million customers to explore ancestry and health risks.
• Jim Chanos earned a 1980 Yale economics and political science degree. After uncovering Baldwin-United’s accounting fraud at Gilford Securities, he founded Kynikos Associates in 1985, specializing exclusively in short selling. His prescient bets against Enron, Wirecard, and Chinese property developers made him a Wall Street legend and a watchdog for corporate malfeasance.
• John Zimmer studied hotel management under legendary professor Barry Nalebuff and drove campus shuttles-experiences that sparked his passion for reinventing urban transport. Graduating in 2006, he joined Lehman Brothers’ real-estate group but soon teamed with Logan Green to create Zimride, then Lyft.
• Eli Whitney, Yale’s Class of 1792 valedictorian, financed his studies by manufacturing nails during the post-Revolution slump. In 1793, while tutoring on a Georgia plantation, he devised the cotton gin, multiplying cotton-separation speed fiftyfold and transforming the global textile economy. Later, Whitney pioneered interchangeable firearm parts under a US government contract, laying the foundation for American mass production.
• Charles B. Johnson Graduated with a B.A. in Economics in 1954

Leaders in Education

Yale University has a long history of producing leaders in education, including college and university presidents.

• Frederick Barnard (B.A.)
• Isaac K. Beckes (Ph.D.)
• J. Seelye Bixler (Ph.D.)
• Richard H. Brodhead (B.A.)
• Aaron Burr Sr. (B.A.)
• Michael T. Cahill (B.A.)
• Gerhard Casper (LL.B.)
• William Chauvenet (B.A. 1840), Chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis.
• Carol T. Christ (Ph.D.)
• Jonathan Dickinson (B.A.)
• James Johnson Duderstadt (B.E.)
• Henry Durant (B.A.)
• Peter Tyrrell Flawn (Ph.D.)
• Thomas H. Gallaudet (B.A. 1805, M.A. 1808)
• Thomas F. George (M.A. 1968, Ph.D. 1970), chemist and current chancellor of the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
• Daniel Coit Gilman (B.A.)
• William Rainey Harper (Ph.D.)
• Catharine Bond Hill (Ph.D.)
• Jonathan Scott Holloway (Ph.D.)
• Joseph Gibson Hoyt (B.A. 1840), first chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis.
• Robert M. Hutchins (B.A.)
• Samuel Johnson (B.A. 1714, M.A. 1717)
• William Samuel Johnson (B.A. 1744, M.A. 1747)
• Joseph D. Yamakawa Kenjirō (ca. 1880).
• John Kneller (M.A., 1948 and Ph.D.)
• Ted Landsmark (B.A. 1973, J.D.)
• Anthony W. Marx (B.A.)
• Douglas M. North (B.A.)
• G. Dennis O'Brien (B.A.)
• Helen Parkhurst (M.A.)
• Harris Pastides (MPH 1977, MPhil 1978, Ph.D.)
• Ravi Rajan (M.Mus.)
• Aurelia Henry Reinhardt (Ph.D.)
• L. Andrew Sledd (Ph.D.)
• Frank Strong (Ph.D.)
• Charles Burt Sumner (B.A.)
• Ambrose Tighe (B.A. 1879, M.A. 1882)
• Ella King Torrey (B.A.)
• Eleazar Wheelock (B.A.)
• Andrew Dickson White (B.A.)
• Menahem Yaari (born 1935), Israeli economist, S.A. Max Professor of International Economics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and president of the Open University of Israel.

Read also: Graduates of Yale University

Read also: Yale's Tuition Explained

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