# List of alumni of the University of St Andrews

This list of alumni of the University of St Andrews includes graduates, non-graduate former students, and current students of the University of St Andrews, Fife, Scotland.

## Academics
### Educators

| Abdullahi Umar | 1992/PhD | Professor of Pure Mathematics and CCMS Associate of Graduate Studies (2021-2025), Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi, UAE. |
| Andrew Bell | 1774 | Anglican priest, educationalist, founder of Madras College |
| Normand MacLaurin | 1854 M.A. | Physician; chancellor of the University of Sydney; Member of the New South Wales Legislative Council |
| G. Gabrielle Starr | | 10th president of Pomona College; attended graduate school at St Andrews as a Robert T. Jones Scholar |
| Walter Perry | 1943 MB ChB, 1948 MD, 1958 DSc | Pharmacologist, physician, first Vice-Chancellor of the Open University, and life peer |
| Eric Anderson | M.A. | Educationalist and Provost of Eton College |
| P. C. Anderson | 1892 M.A. | Educator, headmaster of Scotch College and golfer; winning the 1893 Amateur Championship |
| John Adamson | M.A. | Minister, academic, Principal of the University of Edinburgh |
| Edward Farrer | | Oxford University academic and administrator, master of University College |
| John Fulton | | University administrator and public servant; vice-chancellor of the University of Wales and of the University of Sussex; chairman of the British Council |
| Leonard Huxley | | Schoolteacher, writer and editor; son of Thomas Henry Huxley |
| Annie Lloyd Evans | M.A. | Superintendent of Fulham Training College for Women Teachers |

### Professors and researchers
#### Sciences

| Name | Year/degree | Notability |
| Helen ApSimon | PhD | Air pollution expert at Imperial College London |
| John Hutton Balfour | | Botanist and academic |
| Michael J. Belton | | Astronomer; president of the Belton Space Exploration Initiatives; chair of the 2002 NASA Planetary Science Decadal Survey; emeritus astronomer at the Kitt Peak National Observatory |
| Michael Berry | 1965 PhD | Mathematical physicist, known for discovering the Berry phase |
| Gavin Brown | 1963 M.A. | Mathematician, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sydney and the University of Adelaide |
| Leslie Hilton Brown | | Agriculturalist and ornithologist |
| Ishbel Campbell | PhD/1931 | British chemist researcher and lecturer who held one of the first Commonwealth Fellowships awarded to a woman. |
| Hugh Cleghorn | 1834 M.A. | Physician, botanist, forester, "the father of scientific forestry in India" |
| Frank Close | 1967 BSc | Particle physicist and Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford |
| Dougal Dixon | 1970 BSc, 1972 MSc | Geologist and author |
| Angus Fulton | 1922 BSc | Civil engineer, president of the Institution of Civil Engineers |
| James Alexander Green | | Mathematician and professor at the University of Warwick; active in the field of representation theory |
| Suzanne Haber | PhD | Academic and neuroscientist, university professor |
| Ernest William Lyons Holt | 1888 | Marine biologist and ichthyologist; his work helped lay a scientific foundation for the fishery management in Ireland |
| Peggie Muriel Hobson | 1952 Ph.D. | Geographer |
| Rosemary Hutton | 1948 M.A. | Geophysicist and pioneer of magnetotellurics |
| James Irvine | BSc | Organic chemist and principal and vice-chancellor of the University of St Andrews, as a research chemist, Irvine worked on the application of methylation techniques to carbohydrates, and isolated the first methylated sugars, trimethyl and tetramethyl glucose |
| Francis Robert Japp | 1868 M.A. | Chemist, known for discovering the Japp-Klingemann reaction |
| Benedict Jones | 2005 PhD | Academic; research psychologist and lecturer at the University of Glasgow; studies the biological and social factors underlying face perception and preferences |
| John Scott Keltie | | Geographer, known for his work with the Royal Geographical Society |
| William Elford Leach | | Zoologist and marine biologist, described several species including Libinia emarginata |
| John Leslie | 1779 | Physicist and mathematician, gave the first modern description of capillary action and the artificial production of ice, developed the Leslie cube |
| James Bowman Lindsay | 1825 | Inventor, author, credited with early developments in several fields, such as incandescent lighting and telegraphy |
| Donald MacCrimmon MacKay | 1943 BSc | Physicist |
| Maxwell T. Masters | | Botanist and taxonomist, known for his work in vegetable teratology |
| George Matthew McNaughton | 1916 BSc | Civil engineer, chief engineer to the Department of Health |
| William M'Intosh | 1857 | Physician, psychiatrist, marine biologist, awarded the 1924 Linnean Medal |
| Maureen Muggeridge | | Geologist, worked mainly in diamond mining |
| James D. Murray | 1953 BA, 1956 PhD | Academic and mathematician, worked mainly in mathematical biology, held professorships at Oxford University and the University of Washington |
| John Napier | 1563 (did not graduate) | Mathematician, physicist, astronomer, astrologer, known for discovering logarithms, inventing Napier's bones and popularising the use of the decimal point |
| Mark M. Newell | 1996 PhD | Academic and underwater archeologist |
| William Richmond | | Biochemist, discovered the Richmond Test, a test for blood cholesterol levels |
| Catherine Steele | 1925 BSc, 1928 PhD | Plant biochemist |

#### Humanities

| Name | Year/degree | Notability |
| Robert Balfour | | Philosopher |
| G.W.S. Barrow | | Historian and academic |
| Stephen Haliczer | | Historian |
| Kieron O'Hara | | Philosopher, computer scientist and political writer |
| Russell Kirk | 1953 D.Litt. | Political theorist, moralist, historian, social critic, literary critic, fiction author, known for his influence on 20th-century American conservatism |
| Dominic Sandbrook | | Historian and author |
| Lawrence Stenhouse | | Educationalist |
| Robert Archibald Armstrong | | Lexicographer |
| James Crichton | 1574 BA M.A. | Polymath and origin of the term 'the admirable Crichton' |
| Michael Wesley | PhD | Academic, professor of national security at the Australian National University |
| Bethwell Allan Ogot | 1959 M.A. | Historian and chancellor of Moi University |
| Adam Ferguson | 1742 M.A. | Philosopher and historian of the Scottish Enlightenment; "the father of modern sociology" |
| Steve Boardman | 1989 PhD | Medieval historian |
| John Craig | M.A. | Classicist, Firth Professor of Latin at the University of Sheffield |
| William Craigie | 1888 | Philologist, lexicographer |
| James Main Dixon | 1879 | Professor of English literature, author, scholar of the Scots language |
| John Elder | | Cartographer, writer, tutor of Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley |
| Duncan Forbes | | Academic, linguist, translator, worked at King's College London and the British Museum, remembered for the erroneous Cox-Forbes theory |
| Peter Goodwin | MPhil | Maritime historian, author, former keeper and curator of HMS Victory |
| George Hadow | 1731 M.A., 1740 MD | Professor of Hebrew and oriental languages at St Mary's College |
| Bonaventure Hepburn | | Roman Catholic linguist, lexicographer, philologist, biblical commentator, held the post of Keeper of Oriental Books and Manuscripts at the Vatican |
| Alexander Haslam | M.A. | Academic and professor of psychology at the University of Queensland |
| David N. Hempton | 1977 PhD | Academic and historian of evangelical Protestant Christianity; dean of Harvard Divinity School; fellow of the Royal Historical Society |
| Robert Kirk | 1664 | Minister; Gaelic scholar; folklorist; known for The Secret Commonwealth, a treatise on fairy folklore, witchcraft, ghosts, and the second sight, a type of extrasensory perception described as a phenomenon by the people of the Scottish Highlands |
| Norman Kemp Smith | 1902 PhD | Academic, philosopher; held professorships at Princeton University and Edinburgh University; known for his English translation of Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason |
| Roger Lewis | 1982 | Academic, biographer, journalist, wrote biographies of Anthony Burgess, Peter Sellers and Laurence Olivier |
| William Manderstown | C. 16th century | Philosopher, Rector of the University of Paris |
| James Mylne | | Philosopher and academic |
| Kieron O'Hara | M.A. | Philosopher, computer scientist, political writer and academic |
| Richard Oram | 1983 M.A., 1988 PhD | Historian and academic |
| Stephen Daniels | M.A. | Professor of Cultural Geography at University of Nottingham, awarded Victoria Medal from the Royal Geographical Society, Fellow of the British Academy |
| Alan Stewart Duthie | 1960 M.A. | Professor of Linguistics at University of Ghana. Instrumental in establishment of the study of Linguistics in Ghana. He also was a long-serving member of the translation committee of the Bible Society of Ghana. |

#### Nobel laureates

The Nobel Prizes are awarded each year for outstanding research, the invention of ground-breaking techniques or equipment, or outstanding contributions to society.
| Name | Year/degree | Notability | Reference |
| James Black | 1946 MB ChB | Physician, pharmacologist; winner of 1988 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine; developed beta blockers and H2 receptor antagonists | |

## Medicine

| Name | Year/degree | Notability |
| Edward Jenner | 1792 MD | Physician and pioneer of the smallpox vaccine |
| Joseph Bancroft | 1859 MD | Surgeon and parasitologist |
| Douglas Black | 1933 MB ChB | Physician and the author of the Black Report |
| John Garrow | MD, PhD | Honorary consultant physician, nutrition scientist, and editor of the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition |
| Robert Whytt | 1730 M.A. | Physician and president of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh |
| John Arbuthnot | 1696 MD | Physician, satirist, polymath, creator of the character John Bull |
| Patrick Abercromby | 1685 MD | Physician, antiquarian, personal physician to King James VII (II of England) |
| George Ballingall | | Physician, surgeon, regius professor of military surgery at Edinburgh University |
| John Barclay | B.D | Comparative anatomist, extramural teacher in anatomy, and director of the Highland Society of Scotland |
| Robert Batty | 1797 MD | Obstetric physician and amateur artist |
| Golding Bird | 1838 MD 1840 M.A. | Physician; authority on kidney disease; known for his work in related sciences, especially the medical uses of electricity and electrochemistry |
| Charles Bisset | 1766 MD | Physician and military engineer |
| David Bruce | | Physician, an original member of the Royal Society |
| Elizabeth Bryson | 1905 MBChB, 1907 MD | Physician and broadcaster who pioneered research on the psychosomatic approach in gynecology |
| Sheila Callender | 1935 BSc, 1938 MBChB, 1944 MD | Physician, haematologist |
| John Clephane | 1729 MD | Physician, military physician and correspondent of David Hume |
| Andrew Duncan | 1762 M.A. | Physician and professor at Edinburgh University |
| John Eliot | 1759 MD | Physician, and personal physician to George IV |
| Margaret Fairlie | 1915 MB ChB | Physician, academic, first woman to hold a professorial chair in Scotland |
| John Goodsir | | Anatomist and pioneer of cell biology |
| George Britton Halford | 1854 MD | Anatomist, physiologist, founder of the first medical school in Australia, the University of Melbourne School of Medicine |
| John Lorimer | 1764 M.D | Royal Army Surgeon, Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh |
| James Simson | MD | Medical academic and the second Chandos Professor of Medicine and Anatomy at the University of St Andrews |
| John Jebb | 1777 MD | Physician, divine, religious and political reformer, Fellow of Peterhouse College, Cambridge |
| Richard Poole | 1805 MD | Physician, psychiatrist, phrenologist, editor of the New Edinburgh Review, the Phrenological Journal and Encyclopædia Edinensis |
| Hubert Lacey | MB ChB | Physician, psychiatrist, academic, professor of psychiatry at St George's Medical School, specialises in the management of eating disorders |
| John Pringle | | Physician, 'father of military medicine' |
| Charles Rizza | 1962 MD | Physician, haematologist, haemophilia expert |
| Stewart Duke-Elder | 1919 BSc M.A. 1923 MB ChB 1925 MD | Physician, ophthalmologist; Surgeon-Oculist to King Edward VIII, George VI and Queen Elizabeth II; awarded the 1957 Lister Medal |
| Samuel Cockburn | 1848 MD | Physician, homeopath, critic of the medical establishment of the time |
| Daniel Noble | 1832 M.A. 1833 MD | Physician, known for contributions to the study of mental illness and epidemiology |
| John William Tripe | 1846 MD | President of the Royal Meteorological Society (1871–72) |

## Business and finance

| Name | Year/degree | Notability |
| Alexander Balfour | | Merchant and founder of the shipping company Balfour Williamson |
| Peter Burt | | Businessman, former chief executive and later Governor of the Bank of Scotland |
| Archibald Constable | | Publisher, bookseller and stationer; his company continues to this day as Constable & Robinson |
| John Cuckney | | Industrialist, civil servant and peer |
| Henry Duncan | | Minister; founder of the world's first commercial saving bank, Trustee Savings Bank |
| Iain Ferguson | | Chief executive of Tate & Lyle; chairman |
| Robert Horton | | Chief Executive of BP; Chancellor of the University of Kent |
| Andrew Mackenzie | 1977 BSc | Chief Executive of BHP, the world's largest mining company |
| George Mathewson | 1966 PhD | CEO of the Royal Bank of Scotland and convener of the Council of Economic Advisers |
| Robert Paul Reid | | Chief executive of Shell and Sears; chairman of the British Railways Board and the International Petroleum Exchange |
| John Rose | 1975 M.A. | Businessman and CEO of Rolls-Royce |
| Olivier Sarkozy | M.A. | Investment banker and half brother of the French President, Nicolas Sarkozy |

## Government, law, and public policy

    Note: Individuals who belong in multiple sections appear in the first relevant section.

### Members of the Scottish Parliament

| Name | Year/degree | Notability |
| Alex Salmond | M.A. | Former First minister of Scotland; former leader of the Scottish National Party |
| Marco Biagi | | Politician and MSP for Edinburgh central |
| Marlyn Glen | | Scottish Labour politician; Member of the Scottish Parliament for North East Scotland |
| George Reid | 1962 M.A. | Politician; SNP Member of Parliament for Clackmannan and East Stirlingshire; regional MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife; Scottish Parliament's second Presiding Officer |
| Jamie Stone | 1977 M.A. | Scottish Liberal Democrat politician, member of the Scottish Parliament for Caithness, Sutherland, and Easter Ross |
| Chic Brodie | 1966 BSc | Politician, MSP for South Scotland |
| Marlyn Glen | M.A. | Labour Party politician, MSP for North East Scotland |
| Gordon Jackson | | Scottish Labour Party politician, lawyer, MSP for Glasgow Govan |

### Members of the House of Commons

| Name | Year/degree | Notability |
| Angie Bray | | Politician and MP for Ealing Central and Acton |
| Sir Malcolm Bruce | | Politician; Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats; Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats; Member of Parliament for Gordon; chairman of the International Development Select Committee |
| Michael Forsyth | 1976 | Politician; financier; Member of Parliament for Stirling; served in the cabinet of John Major as Secretary of State for Scotland |
| Barry Gardiner | M.A. | Labour Party politician, Member of Parliament for Brent North |
| Mark Lazarowicz | 1976 M.A. | Labour Co-operative politician, Member of Parliament for Edinburgh North and Leith |
| John MacGregor | 1959 M.A. | Member of Parliament for South Norfolk; government minister under Margaret Thatcher; Leader of the House of Commons; Lord President of the Council |
| Desmond Swayne | | Conservative Party politician; Member of Parliament for New Forest West; Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury |
| Sir Hugo Swire | | Conservative Party politician; Member of Parliament for East Devon; Minister of State for the Foreign Office |
| James Brodie of Brodie | | Politician; botanist; MP for Elginshire; Lord Lieutenant of Nairn |
| Thomas Shaw | 1902 L.L.D. | Liberal politician; judge; MP for Hawick Burghs; Lord Advocate |
| Stephen Doughty | | Labour Party politician and MP for Cardiff South and Penarth |
| Thomas Dundas | | Politician; aristocrat; MP for Richmond and Stirlingshire; remembered for commissioning the Charlotte Dundas, the world's first practical steamboat |
| Sir Michael Fallon | 1974 M.A. | Conservative Party politician; Secretary of State for Defence; MP for Sevenoaks; deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party; Minister of State for Business and Enterprise in the Cameron ministry |
| Lewis Moonie | 1970 MB ChB | Labour Co-operative politician, Member of Parliament for Kirkcaldy |
| David Carnegie | | Politician, nobleman, MP for Aberdeen Burghs |
| John Alfred Lush | MD | Liberal Party politician, MP for Salisbury |
| Robert MacGregor Mitchell | | Liberal Party politician; lawyer; judge; MP for Perth; Rector of the University of St Andrews |

### Other

| Name | Year/degree | Notability |
| John Sawers | | British Ambassador to the UN and director of MI6 |
| Hikmat Abu Zayd | 1950 M.A. | First female member of the Cabinet of Egypt |
| Henry Balnaves | | Politician and religious reformer |
| John Hamilton-Gordon | | Politician, Lord lieutenant of Ireland and Governor General of Canada |
| Colleen Bell | | United States Ambassador to Hungary |
| Edgar Paul Boyko | | Attorney, served as Attorney General for the State of Alaska |
| Thomas Bruce | | Nobleman and diplomat, known for the removal of marble sculptures (also known as the Elgin Marbles) from the Parthenon in Athens |
| Eamonn Butler | | Director and co-founder of the Adam Smith Institute think tank; author and broadcaster on economic and social issues |
| Archibald Campbell | | De facto head of government in Scotland during most of the conflict known as the Wars of the Three Kingdoms; major figure in the Covenanter movement |
| Duncan Ndegwa | M.A. | Civil servant, banker; first African governor of the Central Bank of Kenya; head of the Kenyan Civil Service |
| John Campbell | | Liberal politician, lawyer, man of letters, Lord High Chancellor of Ireland, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain |
| James Graham | | Nobleman, soldier, initially joined the Covenanters in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, but subsequently supported King Charles I as the English Civil War developed |
| John Graham | | Soldier, nobleman, Tory, Episcopalian |
| John Campbell | | Nobleman and the fourth Governor General of Canada from 1878 to 1883 |
| Arthur Hobhouse | | Local government Liberal politician; architect of the system of National parks of England and Wales |
| David Kurten | 1993 BSc | UKIP Member of the London Assembly |
| James Younger | | Politician and elected hereditary peer who sits on the Conservative benches in the House of Lords; Lord-in-waiting |
| Jean-Paul Marat | 1775 MD | Physician, political theorist, scientist, radical journalist and politician in France during the French Revolution |
| Madsen Pirie | 1974 PhD | Researcher, author, educator, founder and current president of the Adam Smith Institute |
| Lyon Playfair | | Scientist and Liberal politician, held the offices of Postmaster General and Chairman of Ways and Means |
| Catherine Stihler | M.A. | Labour Party politician; Member of the European Parliament for Scotland; returned as the Rector of the University of St Andrews in 2014 |
| James Wilson | 1763 M.A. | Founding Father of the United States; a signatory of the United States Declaration of Independence; one of the six original justices appointed by George Washington to the Supreme Court of the United States |
| Robert F. Thompson | | Democratic member of the Arkansas Senate, represented the 11th District |
| Richard Arthur | 1885 M.A. | Politician, social reformer, physician, Member of the Parliament of New South Wales |
| Alastair Balls | M.A. | Senior economic adviser to HM Treasury and chairman of the International Centre for Life |
| Henry Balnaves | M.A. | Politician, Lord Justice Clerk and Protestant religious reformer |
| David Erskine | | Nobleman, eccentric, founded the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland |
| Stuart Butler | 1968 BSc 1971 M.A. 1978 PhD | Director of the Center for Policy Innovation at The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington, D.C.; associate professor at the Georgetown Public Policy Institute |
| Pamela Chesters | | Conservative politician; advisor for health and youth opportunities to the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson |
| James Hamilton | 1584 BA 1585 MA | Scot who became owner of large tracts of land in County Down, Ireland, and founded a successful Protestant settlement there several years before the Plantation of Ulster |
| James Clinkskill | | Politician and engineer, merchant, author, justice of the peace and mayor of Saskatoon |
| Robert Cox | | Gelatine and glue manufacturer and Liberal Unionist politician |
| George Mackenzie | | Statesman; Secretary of State; Lord Justice General |
| Alastair Crooke | 1972 M.A. | Diplomat; founder and director of the Conflicts Forum; a figure in MI6 |
| Kevin Dunion | 1978 M.A. | Politician; first Scottish Information Commissioner; Rector of the University of St Andrews |
| James Glenie | | Businessman and political figure in New Brunswick, represented Sunbury County in the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick |
| Gordon Ritchie | MB ChB | Progressive Conservative Party member of the House of Commons of Canada for Dauphin |
| George Turner Orton | 1860 MD | Liberal-Conservative member of the House of Commons of Canada for Wellington Centre |
| John Young Bown | MD | Liberal-Conservative member of the House of Commons of Canada for Brant North |
| Frances Josephy | | Liberal Party politician, chairman of the Federal Union |
| Donald Luddington | 1940 M.A. | Colonial government official, civil servant, Governor of the Solomon Islands and High Commissioner for the Western Pacific |
| David Lyndsay | 1509 | Lord Lyon and poet |
| William Maitland | | Politician, reformer, Secretary of State |
| Douglas Mason | 1963 | Policymaker, author, known for his work with the Adam Smith Institute in developing the poll tax |
| Hugh Lyon Playfair | M.A. L.L.D. | Provost of St Andrews; officer in the Bengal Horse Artillery; prominent figure in The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews |
| Dr. Fiona Hill (presidential advisor) | M.A. | Academic, foreign policy specialist, and former Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for European and Russian Affairs on the United States National Security Council (2017–2019) Testified in Trump impeachment hearings. |
| David Holmes | | American diplomat, testified in Trump impeachment hearings. |

### Law

| Name | Year/degree | Notability |
| James Dundas, Lord Arniston | | Lord of Session and Shire Commissioner to the Scottish Parliament |
| Duncan McNeill | 1809 MD | Advocate; judge; Tory politician; Lord Justice General; Lord President of the Court of Session |
| Ronald Mackay | M.A. | Lawyer and judge of the College of Justice, sitting in the Inner House of the Court of Session |
| George Dempster | 1750 (did not graduate) | Advocate, landowner, agricultural improver, politician; served as MP for the Perth Burghs; founded the bank George Dempster & Co.; director of the East India Company; provost of the town of St Andrews; director of the Highland Society; key figure of the Scottish Enlightenment |
| William Kirk Dickson | 1912 L.L.D. | Advocate; librarian; writer; Keeper of the Advocates' Library; Librarian of the National Library of Scotland |
| David Erskine | | Judge and MP for Forfarshire |
| William Lamb | 1520 M.A. | Cleric, lawyer, author, senator at the College of Justice |
| George Mackenzie | 1653 | Lawyer, Lord Advocate, and legal writer |
| Robert Moray | C. 16th century (did not graduate) | Statesman, diplomat, judge, spy, freemason, natural philosopher, known for his role in the founding of the Royal Society |

## Military and national intelligence

| Name | Year/degree | Notability |
| Anthony Dickson Home | | Surgeon General of the British Army who was awarded the Victoria Cross for valour during the Indian Mutiny |
| Alistair Irwin | | British Army officer; Adjutant-General to the Forces in the United Kingdom; Commandant of Sandhurst |
| Ewaryst Jakubowski | 1940 | Polish paratrooper; member of the Polish Army in Exile; stationed in St Andrews during World War II; attended art classes at the university; completed the Polish memorial mosaic on the town hall; parachuted into Poland as one of the Cichociemni and died in August 1944 during the Warsaw Uprising |
| J. M. Bruce Lockhart | 1936 | Deputy Director of MI6 and military attaché |
| Tony Mason | M.A. | Air vice-marshal in the RAF, Air Secretary |
| James Graham | | Nobleman, poet, soldier, Captain General of Scotland. |
| William Gordon Rutherfurd | | Commander of HMS Swiftsure at the Battle of Trafalgar |
| Barney White-Spunner | 1981 | Commander of the British Field Army |
| George Kennedy Young | | Deputy Director of MI6 and Merchant Banker |
| Alex Younger | | Director of MI6 |
| Edward Smyth-Osbourne | | Commanding Officer of the Household Division, Colonel of the Life Guards and Gold Stick in Waiting to the Queen. Honorary Colonel of the Tayforth UOTC. |

## Journalism and media

| Name | Year/degree | Notability |
| B. C. Forbes | 1897 | Financial journalist, author, founded Forbes magazine |
| Louise Minchin | | Journalist and television presenter who works mainly for the BBC |
| Tim Samuels | | Documentary filmmaker and broadcaster |
| Brian Taylor | 1977 M.A. | Journalist and the political editor for BBC Scotland |
| Craig Oliver | M.A. | News editor, producer, media executive; director of communications for the former British prime minister David Cameron; former controller of English news output for BBC Global News |
| Judith Bumpus | 1961 M.A. | Radio producer for the BBC specialising in coverage of the arts, particularly the work of visual artists |
| Robbie Collin | M.A. | Writer and film critic for the Daily Telegraph |
| Jolyon Connell | M.A. | Sunday Telegraph and Sunday Times journalist, founded The Week |
| Margaret MacPherson | 1914 | Journalist, editor and writer |
| Chris Morgan | 1976 M.Theol. | Journalist, BBC television and radio |
| Lara Johnson-Wheeler | M.A. | Arts and fashion journalist |

## Literature, writing, and translation

| Name | Year/degree | Notability |
| Alistair Moffat | 1972 M.A. | Writer; journalist; director of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe; Rector of the University of St Andrews |
| Robert Aytoun | 1588 M.A. | Poet, lawyer, court poet to the queen of King James I and VI, one of the first Scots to write in standard English |
| Andrew Crumey | | Novelist and literary editor of the Edinburgh newspaper Scotland on Sunday |
| Gavin Douglas | 1494 | Bishop, makar and translator |
| William Dunbar | 1479 M.A. | Poet and makar |
| Alexander Hume | M.A. | Poet |
| Robert Fergusson | 1763 (did not graduate) | Poet, known for his influence on Robert Burns |
| Sarah Hall | M.Litt. | Novelist; poet; author of the Man Booker Prize-shortlisted The Electric Michaelangelo |
| Gilbert Hay | | Poet and translator |
| James A. Michener | Research Student, Lippincott Fellowship | American author. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. |
| David Lyndsay | | Lord Lyon and poet |
| Bruce Marshall | | Fiction and nonfiction writer whose works were the subject of numerous television and film adaptations |
| Hilary McKay | | Writer of children's books, winner of the 1992 Guardian Children's Fiction Prize |
| Alastair Reynolds | PhD | Science fiction author |
| William Tennant | | Scholar and poet |
| Fay Weldon | | Author, essayist and playwright whose work has been associated with feminism |
| Timothy Williams | 1970 M.A. | Author and winner of a Crime Writers' Association award |
| Andrew Lang | | Poet, novelist, literary critic, contributor to the field of anthropology; known as a collector of folk and fairy tales |
| Robert Henryson | | Poet and makar |
| Thomas Finlayson Henderson | | Historian and biographer |
| Helen Bannerman | 1887 L.L.A. | Author of children's books; known for her first book, The Story of Little Black Sambo (1899) |
| John Bellenden | M.A. | Writer and translator to James V |
| Thomas Bowdler | | Physician and philanthropist, known for publishing The Family Shakspeare, an expurgated edition of William Shakespeare's work |
| Pete Brown | | Writer on beer and drinking culture around the world |
| James Browne | M.A. | Writer and man of letters |
| Patrick Brydone | | Traveller and author who served as Comptroller of the Stamp Office |
| Thomas Craig | 1555 BA | Jurist and poet |
| William Fowler | 1578 | Poet, makar, writer, courtier, and translator |
| James Graeme | 1769 (did not graduate) | Poet |
| Michael Hulse | 1977 M.A. | Translator, critic and poet, notable especially for his translations of German novels by W. G. Sebald |
| Alexander Hume | 1574 BA | Poet |
| William Lauder | 1537 | Cleric, playwright, and poet |
| Nicholas Moore | | Poet, associated with the New Apocalyptics |
| Julia Ember | | Author, associated with The Seafarer's Kiss |
| Dave Duncan | | Author |

## Entertainment

| Name | Year/degree | Notability |
| Crispin Bonham-Carter | 1992 | Actor and theatre director |
| Dilys Breese | 1954 M.A. | Natural history television producer for the BBC and an ornithologist |
| Michelle Duncan | | Actress |
| Tenniel Evans | | Actor |
| Hazel Irvine | 1980 | Television presenter |
| Siobhan Redmond | | Actress |
| Jonathan Taylor Thomas | | Actor, voice actor, former child star, teen idol, known for his role as the middle child Randy Taylor on the sitcom Home Improvement |
| Andrew Lawrence | | Comedian and winner of the 2004 BBC New Act of the Year |
| Denny Delk | 2004 BSc | Actor, voice actor, known for providing the voice of Murray in the Monkey Island game series and a range of voices in LucasArts games |
| David Caves | | Actor |
| Saba Douglas-Hamilton | 1993 M.A. | Wildlife conservationist, television presenter, known for the television series The Secret Life of Elephants |
| Jules Knight | | Actor |
| Ian McDiarmid | | Actor, known for portraying the villain Emperor Palpatine in the Star Wars film series |
| Abigail Thorn | 2015 M.A. | Actress and YouTuber, known for the ongoing series Philosophy Tube and play The Prince |

## Music

| Name | Year/degree | Notability | Reference |
| Kid Canaveral | | Indie pop band | |
| David Jackson | | Progressive rock saxophonist, flutist, composer, known for his work with the band Van der Graaf Generator | |

## Visual arts

| Name | Year/degree | Notability |
| Thomas Rodger | | Early photography pioneer |
| John Adamson | 1843 MD | Physician and pioneer photographer |
| Philip Colbert | | Fashion designer, artist and journalist |
| George Denholm Armour | | Painter |
| Kate Holt | | Photojournalist |
| Andrew Nairne | 1983 M.A. | Curator, museum director, director of Kettle's Yard |
| Franki Raffles | 1977 M.A. | Social documentary photographer |

## Religion

| Name | Year/degree | Notability |
| David Beaton | | Archbishop of St Andrews, Chancellor of the University of St Andrews and the last Scottish Cardinal prior to the Reformation |
| James Beaton | 1493 M.A. | Archbishop of St Andrews, Lord Chancellor of Scotland the Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland, Chancellor of the University of St Andrews |
| Alexander Duff | | Christian missionary in India, founded the Scottish Church College and played a part in establishing the University of Calcutta |
| Thomas Chalmers | | Minister, professor of theology, political economist, and a leader of the Free Church of Scotland |
| Colin Falcone | | Minister and bishop |
| Gordon Gray | | Cardinal of the Catholic Church. First Catholic priest to have graduated from the university since the reformation. |
| George Gillespie | | Theologian |
| Patrick Hamilton | | Churchman; early Protestant Reformer in Scotland; known for being burnt at the stake outside St Salvator's Chapel |
| Alexander Henderson | 1603 | Theologian and major figure in the development of the reformed church in Scotland |
| John Knox | | Clergyman and a leader of the Protestant Reformation in Scotland |
| George Buchanan | 1525 BA | Historian and humanist scholar, part of the Monarchomach movement |
| Andrew Melville | | Scholar, theologian and religious reformer |
| John Munro | | Presbyterian minister of Tain, in the Scottish Highlands |
| Sheila Watson | | Cleric in the Church of England |
| John Witherspoon | 1764 M.A. BD | Presbyterian minister; a signatory of the United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of New Jersey; president of College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) |
| John Adamson | 1757 M.A. | Minister and Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland |
| Patrick Adamson | M.A. | Minister, divine, and Archbishop of St Andrews |
| Matthew Armour | | Radical Free Church of Scotland minister on the island of Sanday, Orkney |
| Robert Arnot | | Presbyterian minister; professor of divinity at St Andrews University; moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland |
| John Munro | | Presbyterian minister of Tain, in the Scottish Highlands |
| Klyne Snodgrass | 1973 PhD | Theologian, author and professor of New Testament Studies at the North Park Theological Seminary |
| Victor Premasagar | PhD | Churchman, Old Testament scholar, Moderator of the Church of South India |
| John Barclay | 1759 M.A. | Minister and founder of the Bereans |
| Robert Baron | 1613 M.A. | Theologian and one of the Aberdeen doctors |
| Edward Barry | MD | Minister, popular preacher, grand chaplain to the Freemasons |
| Robert Blackadder | 1461 M.A. | Cleric, diplomat, politician, first Archbishop of Glasgow |
| Hugh Blair | 1577 DD | Minister of religion, author, rhetorician, considered one of the first great theorists of written discourse |
| Donald Campbell | | Nobleman and abbot |
| Neil Campbell | 1575 M.A. | Bishop of Argyll |
| Séon Carsuel | 1544 M.A. | Prelate, humanist and Protestant reformer |
| William Chisholm | | Bishop of Dunblane and bishop of Vaison |
| Sidney Clarke | 1896 M.A. | Anglican RAF Chaplain and Honorary Chaplain to the King |
| William Couper | 1583 M.A. | Bishop of Galloway and Dean of the Chapel Royal |
| Henry Craik | | Hebraist, theologian and preacher |
| William Dalrymple | 1779 DD | Religious writer, minister and moderator of the Church of Scotland |
| Robert Davidson | 1945 M.A. 1952 BD | Professor of Old Testament at the University of Glasgow and was Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland |
| Gavin Dunbar | 1475 M.A. | Bishop of Aberdeen and Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland |
| Andrew Durie | | Bishop of Galloway and abbot of Melrose |
| Andrew de Durisdeer | M.A. | Bishop of Glasgow |
| Andrew Dutney | 1985 PhD | President of the Assembly of the Uniting Church in Australia; professor at Flinders University |
| Andrew Fairfoul | | First post-restoration Archbishop of Glasgow; Chancellor of Glasgow University |
| Colin Falconer | | Minister and Bishop of Argyll; Bishop of Moray |
| Patrick Forbes | | Churchman; theologian; Bishop of Aberdeen; chancellor of the University of Aberdeen |
| Robert Fleming the elder | | Presbyterian Minister; following the Restoration of Charles II, he declined to accept bishops in the Kirk, and was consequently therefore ejected as Minister at Cambuslang |
| Alexander Forbes | 1585 M.A. | Minister and Bishop of Aberdeen |
| Andrew Forman | 1483 M.A. | Diplomat and prelate who became Bishop of Moray, Archbishop of Bourges in France and Archbishop of St Andrews |
| Henry Forrest | 1526 BA | Benedictine Friar who became a martyr in 1533 at St Andrews for his support of Patrick Hamilton |
| Peter Francis | | Warden; chief librarian of St Deiniol's Library, Hawarden;chaplain of Queen Mary College, London; rector and provost of the St Mary's Cathedral, Glasgow |
| George Gledstanes | 1580 M.A. | Archbishop of St Andrews |
| John Gordon | | Prelate, Bishop of Galloway, Abbot of Tongland |
| Thomas Goss | M.A. | Anglican priest; Honorary Chaplain to the Queen; Dean of Jersey |
| Andrew Gray | 1651 | Divine and author |
| Henry Guthrie | 1621 | Historian, cleric, Bishop of Dunkeld |
| James Guthrie | M.A. | Presbyterian minister who was exempted from the general pardon at the restoration of the monarchy and hanged in Edinburgh |
| John Guthrie | 1597 M.A. | Prelate, Bishop of Moray |
| George Haliburton | 1652 M.A. 1673 DD | Cleric, Jacobite, Bishop of Aberdeen |
| James Halyburton | 1538 M.A. | Protestant reformer |
| Thomas Halyburton | 1696 M.A. | Minister and divine |
| Gavin Hamilton | 1584 M.A. | Minister and Bishop of Galloway |
| William Hamilton | 1952 Th.D. | Theologian and proponent of the Death of God Movement |
| George Hargreaves | | Minister, politician and leader of the Christian Party |
| George Hill | 1764 M.A. | Minister of St Andrews; Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland; principal of St Mary's College; Dean of the Chapel Royal; Dean of the Order of the Thistle |
| John Lauder | 1508 licentiate | Minister; Archdeacon of Tweeddale; Scotland's public accuser of heretics |
| James Law | 1581 M.A. | Minister and Archbishop of Glasgow |
| Alexander Leighton | M.A. | Physician, Puritan preacher, pamphleteer, known for his 1630 pamphlet which attacked the Anglican church and led to his torture by Charles I |
| David Lindsay | 1593 M.A. | Minister, Bishop of Edinburgh, early adopter of the Book of Common Prayer |
| Patrick Lindsay | 1587 M.A. | Minister, Archbishop of Glasgow, excommunicated for his use of the Book of Common Prayer |
| Henry de Lichton | 1415 licentiate | Minister, diplomat, Bishop of Glasgow, played a significant role in the rebuilding of St Machar's Cathedral |
| David Lindsay | C. 16th century | Minister, Bishop of Ross, and a leader of the Church in Scotland |
| Clair Linzey | 2004 M.A. PhD | Theologian and animal ethicist |
| Thomas Livingston | 1415 M.A. | Cleric; diplomat; delegate at the Council of Basel; advisor to James I of Scotland and James II of Scotland |
| Gregor MacGregor | 1960 | Minister, Bishop of Moray, Ross and Caithness in the Scottish Episcopal Church |
| John Mantle | 1973 | Minister, Bishop of Brechin in the Scottish Episcopal Church |
| John Maxwell | 1611 M.A. | Minister, Bishop of Ross and Archbishop of Tuam |
| James Melville | 1573 | Divine and Protestant reformer |
| Iain McHardy | 1938 | Minister, Dean of Moray, Ross and Caithness in the Scottish Episcopal Church |
| Andrew McLellan | | Minister, Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons for Scotland and Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland |
| William Moodie | 1775 (did not graduate) | Minister; academic; Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland; professor of Hebrew at Edinburgh University |
| Andrew McLellan | | Minister; Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons for Scotland; Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland |
| Jeanne Audrey Powers | | Deacon, elder and leader within The United Methodist Church; vice president of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA; representative to the World Council of Churches; advocate for women and LGBTQ+ people in the church |
| Robert Reid | | Minister; Abbot of Kinloss; Bishop of Orkney; founder of the University of Edinburgh |
| William Turnbull | 1419 | Bishop of Dunkeld; Bishop of Glasgow; founder of and first chancellor the University of Glasgow |
| James Aitken Wylie | | minister; Protestant historian; professor of theology at the Protestant Institute |

## Royalty and Nobility

| Name | Year/degree | Notability | Reference |
| William, Prince of Wales | 2005 | Heir apparent to the British throne. | |
| Catherine, Princess of Wales | 2005 | Wife of William, Prince of Wales (née Middleton). | |

## Sports

| Name | Year/degree | Notability |
| Chris Hoy | 1996 (transferred to the University of Edinburgh) | Cyclist; has won world, cycling and Commonwealth competitions; most successful British Olympian in terms of gold medals |
| Charles B. Macdonald | 1875 | Major figure in the development of golf in the United States |
| Danny Blanchflower | 1945 | Northern Ireland international footballer |
| J.S. Thomson | | Rugby union player who represented Scotland in the first international rugby match |
| Alfred Clunies-Ross | | Rugby union player who represented Scotland in the first international rugby match |
| Robert Munro | | Rugby union player who represented Scotland in the first international rugby match |
| Findlay S. Douglas | 1896 | Amateur golfer who won the 1898 U.S. Amateur and was president of the United States Golf Association |
| Damian Hopley | | Rugby union player for London Wasps and England |
| Kim Elgie | 1956 | Cricketer; represented South Africa; represented Scotland in Rugby union while a student at St Andrews |
| Duncan Macrae | 1939 MBChB | Rugby union player; represented Scotland and the British and Irish Lions |
| R. C. Stevenson | 1911 MBChB | Rugby union player; represented Scotland and the British and Irish Lions; also played for Barbarians F.C. |
| Cameron Glasgow | | Rugby union player, who represented Scotland, Barbarians F.C. and Heriot's Rugby Club |
| Tyrone Howe | 1993 M.A. | Rugby union player, who represented Ulster, Ireland and the British and Irish Lions |

## Other

| Name | Year/degree | Notability |
| Alexander Berry | | Surgeon, merchant and explorer who established the town of Berry, New South Wales, Australia |
| Margaret C. Davidson | M.A. 1902 | Modern languages teacher, suffragist, volunteer nurse at the Scottish Women's Hospital, France and Girl Guide leader from Dornoch. |
| John Honey | | Minister; while a student at St Andrews, rescued five drowning men; commemorated in the traditional weekly 'pier walk' at the university |
| Elsie Howey | 1902 (did not graduate) | Suffragette |
| Philippe Cousteau, Jr. | M.A. | Environmental conservationist; grandson of Jacques Cousteau |
| Fiona Hukula | Ph.D. | The first Papua New Guinean woman to obtain a PhD in social anthropology |