Outstanding Harvard University Alumni: 10 Most Famous Personalities

Harvard University, ranked 4th among the top 10 universities in the world by the QS World Rankings 2024, is renowned for its academic excellence and extensive research. As an Ivy League school, the university has a rich tradition of producing world leaders, scientists and entrepreneurs such as J.F. Kennedy, Neil deGrasse Tyson and Natalie Portman. According to the Harvard Alumni Association, there are more than 400,000 alumni worldwide. Keep reading to learn more about famous Harvard University alumni and where they are now!

Notable Harvard University Alumni 

Harvard graduates have made significant and creative contributions to society, the arts and sciences, business, and national and international politics for more than three and a half centuries. Harvard’s alumni include eight U.S. presidents, 188 surviving billionaires, 79 Nobel laureates, seven Fields Medal winners, nine Turing Award winners, 369 Rhodes Scholars, 252 Marshall Scholars, and thirteen Mitchell Fellows. Harvard students and alumni have won ten Academy Awards, 48 ​​Pulitzer Prizes, 108 Olympic medals (including 46 gold), and founded many distinguished businesses around the world.

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Read also:  Notable alumni of the National University of Singapore

Top 10 Notable Notable Harvard University Alumni

Let’s take a look at the 10 most famous Harvard University alumni:

John F. Kennedy

Source: Biography.com

JFK, or John Fitzgerald Kennedy, was an American politician who served as the 35th President of the United States from 1961 until his assassination at the end of his third year in office. He went to study at Harvard University and majored in government and international relations.

Barack Obama

Source: Encyclopedia Britannica.

Barack Hussein Obama II is an American politician, the 44th President of the United States of America from 2009 to 2017. He is a member of the Democratic Party  of the United States  and the first African American president of the United States of America. He graduated from Harvard Law School, where he became the first black president of the Harvard Law Review.

Natalie Portman

Source: Popsugar

Natalie Portman was born in Israel and is an American actress. She has had a long and successful film career, starring in both blockbusters and indie films and winning numerous awards, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award and two Golden Globe Awards. After graduating from high school, the actress attended Harvard University in 1999 to pursue a bachelor’s degree in psychology  ,  which she received four years later. She received her first Oscar nomination for the film Close a year after graduating.

Matt Damon

Source: Refinery29

Matt Damon is an American actor, producer and screenwriter. He is one of the highest-paid actors of all time, with the films he has starred in grossing over $3.88 billion in North America, making him one of Forbes’ top-earning celebrities. At the age of 18, he received a small role in Mystic Pizza (1988), and also entered Harvard University to study English.

Neil deGrasse Tyson

Source: Biography

Neil deGrasse Tyson is a famous American astronomer, planetary scientist, writer and scientific popularizer. Among other schools, Tyson attended Harvard University, the University of Texas at Austin and Columbia University. From 1991 to 1994, he worked as a research fellow at Princeton University. Tyson graduated from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts with a bachelor’s degree in physics in 1980.

Conan O’Brien

Source: Wikipedia

Conan Christopher O’Brien is an American comedian, writer, podcaster and producer. After receiving a degree in history and literature from Harvard University, he went on to work on the set of The Simpsons and host his own American talk show, Late Night with Conan O’Brien. O’Brien received a bachelor’s degree in American history from Harvard University. He was twice elected president of the Harvard Lampoon, a venerable parody publication (the only person to receive this honor was humorist Robert Benchley in 1912).

Tommy Lee Jones

Source: Biography.com

Tommy Lee Jones is a famous American actor and film director. In 1993, he won the Best Supporting Actor award for his role as U.S. Marshal Samuel Gerard in the thriller The Fugitive, for which he was nominated for four Academy Awards. Jones received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English with honors in 1969, and his final dissertation was on the “mechanics of Catholicism” in the works of Flannery O’Connor. He studied playwright Robert Chapman at Harvard.

Michael Bloomberg

Source: Business Insider

Michael “Mike” Reubens Bloomberg is an American writer, politician, and philanthropist. Bloomberg LP, of which he is the majority owner and co-founder, is his company. He served as mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013, and in 2020 he ran for president of the United States as a Democrat. In 1966, he received a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Harvard Business School.

WEB Dubois

Source: openDemocracy

William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, born in the United States, was a sociologist, socialist, historian, civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, novelist, author, and editor. Du Bois attended Harvard College as a junior and received a second bachelor’s degree in 1890. In 1895, he graduated from Harvard University with a PhD, making him the first African American to do so.

Margaret Atwood

Source: Wikipedia

Margaret Eleanor Atwood was born in Canada and is a poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, educator, environmental activist and inventor. She is the author of the popular book The Handmaid’s Tale, which was adapted into a television series. After receiving a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, she graduated from Radcliffe College at Harvard University. In 1961, she received a  Bachelor of Arts degree in English  (magna cum laude), with a concentration in philosophy and French. In 1961, Atwood began her graduate studies at Radcliffe College, Harvard University, on a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship.

Read also:  Notable alumni of the University of Toronto

Notable Harvard University Alumni

Here are famous Harvard University alumni in various fields such as business, science, technology, mathematics, medicine, psychology, etc.

Science, technology, medicine and mathematics

Name Fame
Roger Adams  Pioneering organic chemist
Howard H. Aiken  Harvard Mark I designer and computer scientist
James Gilbert Baker  Astronomer, optician
John Bartlett  Minister, founder of Massachusetts General Hospital
Manjul Bhargava  Mathematician, Fields Medal winner
Craig Call Black  Paleontologist
Francine D. Blau  Economist at the National Bureau of Economic Research, the first woman to receive the IZA Prize in Labor Economics.
Hilary Bloomberg Professor of Psychiatric Neurology
Dan Bricklin  Creator of VisiCalc
Fred Brooks  Turing Award winner

Business

Name Fame
Bill Ackman  CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management
Darius Adamczyk  CEO of Honeywell
William McPherson Allen  Boeing CEO
Adam Aron  CEO of AMC Theaters
J. Paul Austin  CEO of Coca-Cola Company
Charles Francis Adams Jr.  President of the Union Pacific Railroad
Marcus Agius  Chairman of Barclays PLC
A. Charles Bailey CEO of Toronto-Dominion Bank
Steve Ballmer  President and CEO of Microsoft
Jim Balsillie  CEO of Research in Motion

Law

Name Fame
Sofia Akuffo  Chief Justice of Ghana
Solomon Areda Waktolla  Member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration and Deputy President of the Federal Supreme Court of Ethiopia.
Mary Arden, Lady Arden of Heswall  Judge of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom
Richard Reeve Baxter  Judge of the International Court of Justice
Kwamena Bentsi-Enchil  Judge of the Supreme Court of Ghana
Harry Blackmun  US Supreme Court Justice
Peter Blanchard  New Zealand Supreme Court Judge
Louis Brandeis  US Supreme Court Justice
William J. Brennan  US Supreme Court Justice
Stephen Breuer  US Supreme Court Justice

Military

Name Fame
John Abizaid  US Army General and Commander of US Central Command (CENTCOM)
Douglas Campbell  Soldier, World War I ace
Earl Cock Jr. US Army officer during World War II, recipient of the Silver Star Medal and National Commander of the American Legion (1950–51).
George Downing  English soldier, diplomat
Peter Fanta US Navy Admiral
Manning Force  Union Army general, Medal of Honor recipient, judge, and author.
David Gurfein Lieutenant Colonel of the United States Marine Corps and CEO of the non-profit organization United American Patriots.
Pierpont M. Hamilton  US Air Force General in World War II, Medal of Honor recipient.
Walter Newell Hill Medal of Honor recipient and General of the United States Marine Corps.
Henry S. Heidekoper  Union Army officer, Medal of Honor recipient

Journalism

Name Fame
Jill Abramson  Former executive editor of the New York Times
Jacqueline Alemany  CBS News White House Reporter
Christian Alfonsi Author of the book “Circle in the Sand”, dedicated to the Gulf War and the Iraq War.
Jonathan Alter  Former editor-in-chief of Newsweek
Melissa Block  Host of NPR’s All Things Considered
Ben Bradley  Executive editor of the Washington Post during the Watergate scandal
Warren T. Brooks  A Detroit News columnist specializing in economic reporting.
James Brown  sports commentator
Leslie T. Chang Journalist (former Wall Street Journal correspondent in Beijing, China; author of Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China)
Susan Chira  Foreign editor of The New York Times since 2004.

Literature

Name Fame
Horatio Alger Jr.  Writer
Tahmima Anam  Writer
Michael J. Arlen  Writer, journalist, critic
Margaret Atwood  Writer
Peter Benchley  Writer
Robert Benchley comedian
John Behrendt  Writer
Robert Bly  Poet
Marita Bonner  Harlem Renaissance writer, essayist, poet
Bill Branon Writer

Cinema, theater and television

Name Fame
Tatyana Ali  Actress, singer
Darren Aronofsky  Film director and screenwriter
Ronald Bass  Screenwriter
S.N. Berman  Playwright, screenwriter
Roberts Blossom  Actor, poet
Andy Borowitz  Comedian, film actor
Josh Brener  Actor
Amy Brenneman  Actress
Bill Brown Experimental director
Nestor Carbonell  Actor

Art, architecture and engineering

Name Fame
Barbara Bestor Architect
Anna Campbell Bliss  Artist and architect
Charles Bulfinch  Architect
Rika Burnham Museum educator, dancer, PROSE Award winner
Geoffrey Chadsey  Artist
Keith Cordsen Photographer, Artist
Allan Crite  Artist
Hardy Cross  Civil Engineer
Joseph Goldine  Artist, engraver, curator
Galgee  The Pakistani artist and trained engineer is known for his paintings and Islamic calligraphy.

athletics

Name Fame
Craig Adams  NHL player, Pittsburgh Penguins
Eugene Belisle  Two-time gold medalist at the 1896 Summer Olympics.
Matt Birk  NFL center
Brian Burke  NHL general manager
Dick Button  Figure skater, two-time Olympic champion, five-time world champion and seven-time national champion from 1948 to 1954.
Ellery Harding Clark  Silver medalist at the 2008 Summer Olympics in fencing.
Emily Cross  Silver medalist at the 2008 Summer Olympics in fencing.
Clifton Dawson  NFL player, Indianapolis Colts
Gillian Dempsey  Hockey player
Eli Dershwitz  World junior saber champion 2015, member of the US fencing team at the 2016 Summer Olympics.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Who are the most famous Harvard alumni?

Here are famous Harvard graduates:
Natalie Portman,
Jane N. Fraser,
Amy E. Hood,
Mary K. Herods.

Who are the famous Indian Harvard alumni?

Here are the famous Indian graduates of Harvard:
Ashish Nanda
Suhel Seth
Jayant Sinha.

Who are the famous Harvard alumni?

Here are famous Harvard graduates:
Mark Zuckerberg,
Bill Gates,
Robert Frost.

Interested in joining the prestigious Harvard University Distinguished Alumni Association? If so, then we can help you with this. Consider joining a free consultation with Leverage Edu if you are planning  to study abroad  .

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