List of Boston University people

This is a list of notable faculty members and alumni of Boston University.

Legend

The following abbreviations and notes are used to represent BU schools and colleges:

Academy Awards

Pulitzer Prize winners

Academia

Mercy B. Jackson (MED 1860) – physician, one of the first women to receive a Doctor of Medicine degree, in the United States

Rebecca Lee Crumpler (MED 1864) – first African American woman in the US to receive an MD, or Doctor of Medicine degree, one of first female physician authors in the 19th century

Anna Oliver (STH 1876) – first woman in the US to receive a degree in theology

Helen Magill White (GRS 1877) – first woman in the US to earn a Ph.D.

Takeo Kikuchi (LAW 1877) – one of first Japanese to study law in the U.S., founder and president of Tokyo's Chuo University

Charles Wesley Emerson (School of Oratory, 1877) – founder of Emerson College

Marion Talbot (CAS 1880) – influential leader in the early 20th-century higher education of women, fought against efforts to restrict equal access to educational opportunities as Dean of Women at the University of Chicago (1895–1925), co-founded the American Association of University Women with her mentor Ellen Swallow Richards, the first woman admitted to MIT

Nathan Abbott (LAW 1881) – founder of Stanford Law School and its first dean

Lelia J. Robinson (LAW 1881) – first woman admitted to the bar in Massachusetts* Solon Irving Bailey (CAS 1881, GRS 1884) – astronomer, elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1892

John Calvin Ferguson (CAS 1883) – art historian, influential in early 20th-century education in China, founder of Nanking University, National Chiao Tung University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and Xi'an Jiaotong University in China

Samuel G. Plantz (STH 1883) – president of Lawrence College

Charles Eastman (MED 1890) – physician, one of the first Native Americans to receive an MD in the U.S., prolific author and speaker on Sioux ethnohistory and Native American affairs

Mary Kingsbury Simkhovitch (CAS 1890) – pioneering urban planner and social worker, founder of Greenwich House

Cora Smith Eaton (MED 1892) – suffragist, physician and mountaineer, first woman licensed to practice medicine in North Dakota

Solomon Carter Fuller (MED 1897) – discovered Alzheimer's disease through observations of neurofibrillary tangles and miliary plaques, publishing the first comprehensive review of the disease, noted as the first Black psychiatrist in the US

Percy Jewett Burrell (School of Oratory, 1898) – creator of pageantry in the US

Gleason Archer, Sr. (CAS 1904, LAW 1906) – founder of Suffolk University and Suffolk University Law School

Leonard Porter Ayres (GRS '10) – statistician, best-known work dealt with comprehensive statistical studies of American casualties in the first and second world wars

Shields Warren (CAS '18) – pathologist, helped establish field of radiobiology, first to study the pathology of radioactive fallout, discovered that susceptibility to cancer varied from person to person, mentored Eleanor Josephine Macdonald

Priscilla Fairfield Bok (CAS '18) – astronomer, author, director of Steward Observatory in Arizona, published textbook The Milky Way, coining the popular term "Milky Way"

Helen B. Taussig (CAS '25) – founded the field of pediatric cardiology, known for her work in banning thalidomide, first woman and first pediatrician to be elected head of the American Heart Association, awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom (1964)

Myrtle Bachelder (WED '39) – chemist noted for her secret work on the Manhattan Project atomic bomb program, contributions to the purification of the rare elements and to astrochemistry, for her analysis of Moon rocks collected during the Apollo missions

Fe Del Mundo (MED '40) – National Scientist of the Philippines and recipient of the Ramon Magsaysay Award, the Nobel Prize of Asia, founded the first pediatric hospital in the Philippines and is known for shaping the modern child healthcare system in the Philippines

Samuel L. Myers Sr. (GRS '42) – economist, former university president, education adviser and civil rights advocate

Esther A. H. Hopkins (CAS '47) – chemist, biophysicist, first African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. from Yale University, attorney for the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection

H. C. Robbins Landon (CFA '47) – musicologist, journalist, historian, BBC broadcaster, best known for his work in rediscovering neglected music by Haydn, correcting misunderstandings about Mozart

Eldon Hall (GRS '47) – computer scientist, leader of hardware design efforts for the Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for the Apollo program

Rollin Williams (SSW '49) – first African-American professor at the University of Connecticut

Elma Lewis (WED '50) – one of the first women to receive a MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant, fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, founder of The Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts and National Center of Afro-American Artists, awarded National Medal of Arts by President Reagan

Ray Hyman (CAS '50) – one of the founders of the modern skeptical movement, noted critic of parapsychology, research on Hick's Law

Gertrude Hunter (MED '50) – doctor and professor of medicine, national director of health services

Nathan Azrin (CAS '51, GRS '52) – psychologist, founder of Token Economics and the CRAFT model

Raymond Coppinger (CAS '59) – biologist, expert in canine behavior and the origin of the domestic dog, professor at Hampshire College

Alan L. Gropman (CAS '59) – professor of history and grand strategy, author and lecturer, National Defense University

Jean Briggs (GRS '60) – anthropologist, American expert on Inuit languages, Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Anthropological Association, a Royal Society of Canada fellow

William E. Doll Jr. (GRS '60) – educator, curriculum theorist, Lifetime Achievement Award by the American Educational Research Association, among first group of scholars to introduce complexity thinking to education in the 1980s

Hugo Bedau (GRS '61) – philosopher, best known for work on capital punishment

Stanley Awramik (CAS '68) – biogeologist, paleontologist, Geological Society of America

Gabor Boritt (GRS '68) – historian, received the National Humanities Medal in 2008 from Bush

Diana Chapman Walsh (CAS '71, UNI '83) – president of Wellesley College (1993–2007)

Lawrence C. Levy (B.S. '72) – executive dean of the National Center for Suburban Studies at Hofstra University, and journalist

John Nassivera (CAS '72) – author, playwright, Fellow in Columbia University's Society of Fellows in the Humanities

Theodora J. Kalikow (CAS '74) – president of University of Maine at Farmington (1994–2012)

Dana Mohler-Faria (CAS '74, 75) – president of Bridgewater State College (2002–2015)

David P. Baker (MS '75) – sociologist

Celeste Freytes (SED '77) – interim president of University of Puerto Rico (2013, 2016–2017)

Owen Flanagan (GRS '78) – philosopher, James B. Duke University Professor of Philosophy, Professor of Neurobiology at Duke University

Ted Landsmark (GRS '78) – president, Boston Architectural College (1997–2014), Professor of Public Policy at Northeastern University

Cynthia Gómez (CAS '79) – psychologist, served on Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS for Bush and Clinton, known for work in field of HIV/AIDS prevention, health care access and health equity for minority groups, founded Health Equity Institute at SFSU

Philip Kasinitz (CAS '79) – sociologist, Presidential Professor of Sociology at CUNY Graduate Center, PhD Chair in Sociology (2001–)

I. Michael Leitman (CAS '81, MED '85) – Dean for Graduate Medical Education at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Richard G. Frank (GRS '82) – economist, known for contributions to health economics, Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services for Planning and Evaluation under Obama, Professor at Harvard University

Kevin J. Tracey (MED '83) – CEO, Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, one of the most cited researchers in the world

Donald Tomaskovic-Devey (GRS '84) – sociologist, known for his research on labor markets and workplace inequality

Ruth Agnes Daly (GRS '84, GRS '87) – astrophysicist, fellow of the American Physical Society, professor of Physics at Penn State University, best known for work on the expansion and acceleration histories of the universe

Andres Jaramillo-Botero (ENG '86) – physicist, known for contributions to first-principles based modeling, design and characterization of nanoscale materials and devices, professor at CalTech

Drew Weissman (MED '87, MED '87) – Nobel Prize-winning researcher, known for development of mRNA vaccines, the best known of which are those for COVID-19 produced by BioNTech/Pfizer and Moderna. Weissman received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2023 "for discoveries concerning nucleoside base modifications that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19"

Shoshana Chatfield (CAS '88) – first woman president of the Naval War College (2018–2023)

David Ciardi (CAS '91) – astrophysicist, NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal for his work on Kepler and his contributions to the fundamental nature of stellar variability, NASA Silver Achievement Medal as part of the TESS team, staff at CalTech

Morgan James Peters (CFA '91) – director of Black Studies and associate professor of English, UMass Dartmouth

Saskia Hamilton (GRS '96) – poet, editor, and university administrator at Barnard College

Marie Jean Philip (GRS '96) – pioneering researcher in American Sign Language and one of first researchers to focus on ASL and deaf culture, helped establish ASL as a recognized language in the colleges of Massachusetts (early 1980s)

Richard Bohannon (SAR '93) – highly cited physiotherapy researcher, editor-in-chief of two peer-reviewed medical journals, Journal of Human Muscle Performance, Journal of Geriatric Physical Therapy

Ha Jin (GRS '94) – writer, National Book Award for Fiction and PEN/Faulkner Award for Waiting (1999), Guggenheim Fellowship (1999), National Book Award (1999), elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters

Ben Bahan (GRS '96) – influential figure in American Sign Language literature

Jeffrey Docking (CAS '96) – president of Adrian College (2005–present)

Bogdan A. Dobrescu (GRS '97) – theoretical physicist, expert in high-energy physics, scientist at Fermilab

Christopher Nowinski (GRS '17) – neuroscientist, professional wrestler, known for research on concussions in American football and CTE

Activism, clergy

Daniel Steele, Methodist theologian

Martin Luther King Jr. (STH '55) – civil rights leader, 1964 Nobel Peace Prize, 1977 Presidential Medal of Freedom

W. T. Handy, Jr. (STH) – civil rights leader and bishop of the Missouri Conference of the United Methodist Church

Anna Howard Shaw (STH 1878, MED 1886) – president of National American Woman Suffrage Association (1904–1915), leading figure in the women's suffrage movement in the U.S., first woman awarded Distinguished Service Medal, one of the first ordained female Methodist ministers in the US

Alice Stone Blackwell (CAS 1881) – influential in merging two competing organizations in the women's suffrage movement into the National American Woman Suffrage Association, daughter of Henry Browne Blackwell and Lucy Stone, niece of Elizabeth Blackwell

Makarios III (STH '48) – 1st and 4th president of Cyprus, a key figure in the island's struggle for independence and a symbol of Cypriot national identity

James Lawson (STH '60) – leading theoretician and tactician of nonviolence within the Civil Rights Movement

James Forman (GRS '61) – prominent African-American leader in the Civil Rights Movement

Ruth Batson (WED '76) – civil rights activist known for critical role in desegregation of Boston public schools during the 1960s and 1970s

James L. Farmer Sr. (STH '13, STH 16', STH '18) – first Texan African-American to earn a PhD, minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, an academic in early religious history and theology, father of James Farmer

Eugene Callender (CAS '47) – first black pastor in the Christian Reformed Church, active in the civil rights movement alongside Martin Luther King, Jr., pioneers "street academies" for disadvantaged New York City youth

Travis Roy (COM '00) – leading activist for spinal cord injury survivors, founder of the Travis Roy Foundation

Jean Kilbourne (GRS '80) – activist filmmaker, Killing Us Softly, known for work on the image of women in advertising and her critical studies of alcohol and tobacco advertising, National Women's Hall of Fame inductee

Elizabeth Meyer Glaser (WED '70) – child advocate, AIDS activist and co-founder of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation

Zalman Schachter-Shalomi (STH '56) – founder of the Jewish Renewal movement, innovator in ecumenical dialogue

Carl F. H. Henry (STF '49) – theologian, one of the most influential figures in the development of Neo-Evangelicalism

Roger Blanchard (CAS '32) – bishop of the Episcopal Church, church's bishop of Southern Ohio (1959–1970)

Andrew Z. Lopatin (CAS '87) – Rhodes Scholar, Orthodox Jewish rabbi and president of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah (1930–1950)

Walter A. Maier (STH '13) – speaker for The Lutheran Hour radio broadcast (1930–1950)

Richard Joseph Malone (STH '81) – bishop of Portland (2004–2012), bishop of Buffalo (2012–2019)

Sybil Haydel Morial (WED '52, WED '55) – civil rights activist and educator

Woodie W. White (STH '61) – bishop of the United Methodist Church North Central region, bishop-in-residence at Emory University

Adam Shoemaker, Episcopal clergyman

Arts and culture

Art

Bernard Berenson (CAS 1887*) – prominent art historian of the early 20th century and major figure in the attribution of Old Masters

Franz Kline (CFA '35) – painter, important figure in Abstract Expressionism, part of the New York School with Pollock, de Kooning, Motherwell, a 1957 untitled painting sold at Christie's for $40.4 million

Cyrus Dallin (CFA '37) – sculptor of iconic sculptures including Paul Revere, Appeal to the Great Spirit and Angel Maroni (honorary degree)

Paul Caponigro (CFA '50) – two Guggenheim Fellowships, three grants from the NEA

Calvin Burnett (CFA '60) – artist, exhibited extensively at the Smithsonian and Brooklyn Museum

Pat Steir (CFA '60) – painter, Guggenheim Fellowship (1982), member of American Academy of Arts and Letters

Arnold Glimcher (CFA '61) – founder of Pace Gallery, which sells more than $400 million in art annually

Lorraine Shemesh (CFA '61) – artist, Abstract Expressionism, elected to the National Academy of Design

Brice Marden (CFA '61) – painter, known for his paintings that fuse Abstract Expressionism and Minimalism, member of American Academy of Arts and Letters, in 2020 an abstract painting, Complements (2004–2007) sold at Christie's for $30.9 million, eclipsing old masters like Rembrandt

Richard Yarde (CFA '62, '64) – artist and professor, specialized in watercolor painting

Rick Meyerowitz (CFA '65) – illustrator, best known for National Lampoon cover-art, creator of poster for the comedy film Animal House

Howardena Pindell (CFA '65) – artist, curator, activist, critic, and educator, MoMA curator 1977–1979, Guggenheim fellow 1987

Jane Aaron (CFA '69) – illustrator, Guggenheim Fellowship (1985), Sesame Street, Between the Lions

Mark Rosewater (COM '69) – head designer for Magic: The Gathering, the first trading card game (2003–present)

Jon Imber (CFA '77) – painter, important figure in Boston Expressionism

Andrew Raftery (CFA '84) – painter, Guggenheim Fellowship (2008)

Alexi Worth (CFA '93) – painter, Guggenheim Fellowship (2009)

Jennifer Guidi (CFA '94) – painter, in collections of the Hammer Museum, Guggenheim Museum, and Marciano Art Foundation

Sedrick Huckaby (CFA '97) – artist, Guggenheim Fellowship (2008)

Robert T. Freeman (CFA '97) – painter, member of the Boston Arts Commission

Lizet Benrey – painter

Ida Lorentzen – American-born Norwegian artist

Music

Miriam Gideon (CAS '26) – composer, first woman to write a complete synagogue service, among most recorded female composers of her era, second woman inducted into American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in 1975

Samuel Adler (CFA '48) – composer, American Classical Music Hall of Fame, founder and conductor of the Seventh Army Symphony Orchestra, member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters

George Wein (CAS '50) – Grammy Award-winning jazz musician, promoter, founder of the Newport Jazz Festival, the Newport Folk Festival, and the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival

Don Ellis (CFA '56) – trumpeter, jazz composer

Joan Baez (CFA 1958*) – folk singer, Grammy's Lifetime Achievement Award (2007), one of Rolling Stone' 200 Greatest Singers of All Time

James Billings (CFA '57) – operatic baritone, opera librettist, opera director, member of the New York City Opera

Alan Wilson (CFA '64*) – co-founder, leader, co-lead singer, and primary composer of the blues band Canned Heat, known for hits "On the Road Again" and "Going Up the Country"

Doug Yule (CFA 1966*) – musician, member of the Velvet Underground (1968–1973), ranked number 19 on Rolling Stone's list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time" (2004), Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee

Anthony & Joseph Paratore (CFA '66; CFA '70) – piano duo

Norman Greenbaum (CFA '67*) – musician, "Spirit in the Sky", amongst best-selling one hit-wonders of all time

Kate Pierson (COM '70) – singer, lyricist, and founding member of the B-52's

Jeff Baxter (CAS '71*) – guitarist, Steely Dan, Doobie Brothers, Spirit; Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

James Montgomery (CAS '71) – blues musician, the James Montgomery Blues Band

David de Berry (CFA '76) – theater composer, known for 1987 score of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol

Anthony Tommasini (CFA '82) – chief classical music critic for The New York Times (2000–2021)

Mwalim (CAS '91, COM '93) – composer, pianist, conductor, singer, playwright, director, actor

Mary Timony (CAS '92) – indie rock musician

Joan Wasser (CFA '92) – indie rock musician

Paula Kelley (CAS '93) – indie pop singer-songwriter

Justine Susanna Gamache (CFA '94, CFA '99) – indie synth-pop musician, lead singer of Freezepop

Valerie Coleman (CFA '95) – composer, named "one of the Top 35 Women Composers" by The Washington Post

PSY (QST 1996*) – Korean rapper best known for "Gangnam Style"

Noah Lennox (STH 1997*) – experimental musician, founding member of Animal Collective

Brian Fair (CAS '97) – Grammy Award-nominated lead vocalist of Shadows Fall

Aesop Rock (CFA '98) – hip hop musician

Matt Squire (CAS '99) – platinum music producer for Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato, Selena Gomez, Kesha, One Direction

Morris Robinson (CFA '01) – opera singer, first African-American artist to sign with a major classical record label

Alexandra Fol (CFA '02) – Canadian composer

Edwin Barker – principal double bass, Boston Symphony Orchestra

William Waterhouse – violinist, Boston Symphony Orchestra (1975–1987), principal 2nd violin, Boston Pops

Eugene Izotov – principal oboe, Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Lan Shui – music director, Singapore Symphony Orchestra

David Daniels – music director, Warren Symphony Orchestra (Michigan) 1974–2010

Popular culture

Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy (WED '88) – socialite, publicist, wife of John F. Kennedy Jr.

Jenna Marbles (WED '10) – the most popular female personality on YouTube, with 1.8 billion video views and 20 million subscribers

Judy Smith (COM '80) – crisis manager who inspired Scandal's Olivia Pope, played by Kerry Washington

Elizabeth (Sadie) Holloway Marston (LAW '88) – co-creator of the comic book character Wonder Woman

Olivia Culpo – Miss USA 2012 from Rhode Island, Miss Universe 2012

Olivia Jordan – Miss World United States 2013, Top 20 at Miss World 2013.