# List of University of Alberta people

This is a list of distinguished people affiliated with the University of Alberta.

## Current faculty

* Ali A. Abdi – anthropologist and author; education and international development
* Jordan Abel – poet
* John Acorn – naturalist and science communicator
* William Anselmi – professor of Italian and Italian-Canadian literature and culture
* Florence Ashley – law professor, first openly transfeminine clerk of the Supreme Court of Canada
* Lorne Babiuk – immunologist and virologist
* Harold Barclay – anthropologist
* Howard Bashaw – composer
* Norman C. Beaulieu – electrical engineer
* Ted Bishop – English professor
* Stan Boutin – wildlife population ecologist
* Mark Boyce – wildlife population ecologist
* Ludwig N. Carbyn – wolf biologist
* D. Jean Clandinin – education researcher
* Kerry Courneya – kinesiologist
* Philip J. Currie – palaeontologist
* Patricia Demers – English professor
* Jaroslaw Drelich – chemical engineer
* Marilyn Dumont - poet
* Janet A. W. Elliott – distinguished professor, faculty of engineering
* Andrew Gow – historian of medieval and early modern Europe
* Jonathan Locke Hart – author, literary scholar and historian
* Peter Hide – sculptor
* John-Paul Himka – historian of Eastern Europe
* Greg Hollingshead – novelist and professor of English
* Michael Houghton – Nobel laureate, co-discoverer of hepatitis C
* Tasha Hubbard – filmmaker and scholar of Indigenous studies
* Peter L. Hurd – biologist
* Karim Jamal – business professor
* Stephen A. Kent – sociologist
* Jacobus Kloppers – organist
* Natalie Kononenko – folklorist
* Mark A. Lewis – mathematical ecologist and the Canada Research Chair in Mathematical Biology at the Centre for Mathematical Biology
* Michael Lounsbury – Associate Dean of Research, Thornton A. Graham Chair and professor of strategic management, organizations and sociology
* Austin Mardon – adjunct professor, recipient of Order of Canada
* Jacob Masliyah – pioneer researcher in oil-sands extraction, recipient of Order of Canada
* Takahiko Masuda – psychologist
* Iman Mersal – poet, professor of Arabic literature and Middle Eastern and African studies
* Robert Moody – mathematician, co-inventor of Kac–Moody algebra
* Adam Morton – philosopher and member of the Royal Society of Canada
* Don Page – theoretical cosmologist
* Raj Pannu – sociologist, former head of the Alberta New Democratic Party
* Graham Pearson – geologist
* Mike Percy – economist
* Leonard Ratzlaff – professor of choral music
* Jia Rongqing – mathematician
* Arturo Sanchez-Azofeifa – director of the university's Center for Earth Observation Sciences
* Jonathan Schaeffer – computer scientist and the Canada Research Chair in Artificial Intelligence
* James Shapiro – professor of surgery, medicine and surgical oncology; director of the Clinical Islet Transplant Program; leader of the team that developed the Edmonton protocol
* Arya Mitra Sharma – Alberta Health Services endowed Chair in Obesity Research and Management
* Toby Spribille – lichenologist
* Richard S. Sutton – computer scientist
* Frank Sysyn – historian of Eastern Europe
* Kim TallBear – professor of native studies
* Darren Tanke – palaeontologist
* Ban Tsui – professor of anesthesiology and pain medicine
* D. Lorne Tyrrell – infectious disease physician
* Allan Warrack – Department of Marketing, Business Economics and Law in the Faculty of Business and also serves as the Associate Dean of the Master of Public Management Program and Vice-President of Administration
* Lana Whiskeyjack – artist and scholar of gender, sexuality, and Indigenous identity
* Rudy Wiebe – novelist, two-time Governor General's Award-winner
* Douglas Wiens – statistician
* David S. Wishart – computational biologist
* Toshifumi Yokota – medical geneticist
* Osmar R. Zaiane – computer scientist
* Vaclav Zizler – mathematician

## Past faculty

* Ibrahim M. Abu-Rabi‘ – Islamic scholar
* Jane Alexander – Anglican bishop
* William Hardy Alexander – one of the university's first four professors; university historian
* Violet Archer – composer and performer
* Margaret-Ann Armour - chemist, supporter of women in science and engineering, member of the Order of Canada
* Margaret Atwood – author of The Handmaid's Tale and many other novels, poetry collections, and works of criticism; two-time Booker Prize winner
* George Ball - entomologist
* Henry Beissel – poet and playwright
* C. Fred Bentley – soil scientist
* Stanford Blade – agronomist
* Edward D. Blodgett – author and researcher in comparative literature, religion and film/media
* Russell Brown – professor of law, Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada
* Donald Cameron – academic administrator and member of the Senate of Canada
* Clive Carruthers – classicist
* Karl Clark – chemist and oil sands researcher
* Jagannath Prasad Das – educational psychologist; member of the Order of Canada
* John B. Dossetor – professor emeritus of medicine and bioethics
* Pierre Flor-Henry – psychologist
* Robert Folinsbee – geologist
* Malcolm Forsyth – composer; Juno Award winner and member of the Order of Canada
* John Gamon – plant physiologist and Earth observation scientist, developer of the Photochemical Reflectance Index
* Victor Golla – linguist and anthropologist
* Thomas B. Greenfield – scholar of educational administration
* Allan Gregg – pollster and political advisor
* Ronald Hamowy – libertarian intellectual
* W. G. Hardy – classicist, writer, ice hockey administrator, member of the Order of Canada
* H. A. Hargreaves – science fiction writer
* Walter Edgar Harris – analytical chemist
* Myer Horowitz – early childhood education scholar, president of the University of Alberta
* Werner Israel – professor of physics and leader in the theory of black holes; Fellow of the Royal Society and Royal Society of Canada
* George Ivany – president of the University of Saskatchewan
* Martin Joos – linguist
* William Alexander Robb Kerr – president of the University of Alberta
* Mors Kochanski – bushcraft and wilderness survival pioneer
* Karol Józef Krótki – demographer who helped establish the Population Research Laboratory, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada
* Gérard Vincent La Forest – dean of law (1968–1970), past Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada
* Francis John Lewis – botanist
* Andy Liu – mathematician
* Dorothy Livesay – poet, two-time winner of Governor General's Awards
* John M. MacEachran – psychologist, proponent of eugenics
* Walter Mackenzie – surgeon
* Barry J. Mailloux – computer scientist
* Eli Mandel – poet, winner of a Governor General's Award
* Anne McLellan – law professor, former Deputy Prime Minister of Canada and holder of multiple other Cabinet positions
* Carlo Montemagno – bionanotechnologist, winner of the Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology
* Angus Munn – soldier and anesthesiologist
* Joseph S. Nelson – ichthyologist
* Hope A. Olson – library scientist
* John Orrell – theatre historian who advised the reconstruction of Shakespeare's Globe
* Jim Parr – metallurgist, broadcaster, and composer
* Solomiia Pavlychko – literary critic
* Graham Peacock – abstract painter
* Anatol Roshko – physicist, one of only three people alive to have a dimensionless number (Roshko number) named after them
* George A. Rothrock – European historian
* David Schindler – limnologist, winner of the Volvo Environment Prize and the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement
* Stephen Scobie – poet
* Gail Sidonie Sobat – writer and educator
* Ian Stirling – Arctic ecologist
* Mathukumalli V. Subbarao – number theorist
* Morris Swadesh – pioneer of lexicostatistics and creator of the Swadesh list
* Yasushi Takahashi – physicist, co-discoverer of the Ward–Takahashi identity
* Henry Marshall Tory – first president of the University of Alberta, founder of three universities, the Alberta Research Council and National Research Council of Canada
* Thomas Thundat – Canada Excellence Research Chair in Oilsands Molecular Engineering
* Nicole Tomczak-Jaegermann – mathematician
* Hiroomi Umezawa – physicist
* Maury Van Vliet – physical education scholar
* Ludwig von Bertalanffy – theoretical biologist who helped establish the Advanced Center for Theoretical Psychology, originator of General Systems Theory and creator of the Von Bertalanffy function
* Ella May Walker – visual artist and writer
* Sheila Watson – novelist, author of The Double Hook
* Wilfred Watson – poet and dramatist
* Thaddeus E. Weckowicz – psychologist
* John Alexander Weir – first Dean of Law
* Daniel Woolf – historian
* Norman Yates – painter

## Alumni
### Academics

* Dominique Abrioux – President of Athabasca University (1995–2005)
* Charlene Bearhead – first educational lead at the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation at the University of Manitoba
* Sir John Bell – Regius Chair of Medicine, University of Oxford
* Andrew Brook – Chancellor's Professor of Philosophy and Cognitive Science at Carleton University
* Tania Bubela – professor and dean in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University
* Franco Romano Calaresu (1931–1996) – professor of neurophysiology, University of Western Ontario
* James Collip – biochemistry professor, played key role in discovery of insulin
* Jim Cummins – professor and author, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
* Bernadette Louise Dean – Principal of Kinnaird College, Pakistan
* Su Guaning – President of Nanyang Technological University
* Aja Huang – Google Deep Mind; with David Silver, a main researcher of Alpha Go
* Joy Johnson – Vice-President, Research, Simon Fraser University
* Charles Lee – cytogeneticist
* Raymond U. Lemieux – chemistry pioneer, winner of the Wolf Prize in Chemistry (1999) and the Albert Einstein World Award of Science (1992)
* Jacqueline P. Leighton - educational psychologist, academic and author
* Tak Wah Mak – molecular biologist
* Joseph B. Martin – Dean of Harvard Medical School
* Ravi S. Menon – Canadian-American biophysicist and professor The University of Western Ontario
* Martin P. Mintchev – bioengineering academic and inventor
* Piers Nash – cancer research professor at the University of Chicago and founder of Sympatic
* Jordan B. Peterson – media commentator, clinical psychologist, and former professor at the University of Toronto
* Joseph Pivato – writer and researcher in ethnic minority writing in Canada; professor, Athabasca University, Edmonton
* Noris Salazar Allen – Panamanian bryologist
* David Silver – Google Deep Mind; with Aja Huang, a main researcher of Alpha Go
* Janice Stein – international relations researcher
* Wallace Sterling – past president of Stanford University
* Richard E. Taylor – high-energy physicist, winner of the 1990 Nobel Prize in Physics
* Zoe Todd – anthropologist and Indigenous scholar
* Satish K. Tripathi – President of University at Buffalo
* Bas van Fraassen – philosopher of science, developer of constructive empiricism
* Kristopher Wells – scholar of gender and sexuality at MacEwan University and Senator

### Authors

* Jordan Abel
* Todd Babiak
* Billy-Ray Belcourt
* Gary Botting
* Chris Craddock
* Norma Dunning
* Caterina Edwards
* Edmundo Farolan
* Katherine Govier
* Karen Graham – dietitian
* Myrna Kostash
* Arthur Kroeger
* Robert Kroetsch
* Steve Lillebuen
* Suzette Mayr
* Wendy McGrath
* W. O. Mitchell
* Premee Mohamed
* Mieko Ouchi
* Kit Pearson
* Emily Riddle
* Candace Savage
* Lesley-Anne Scorgie
* Vivek Shraya
* Timothy Taylor
* Vern Thiessen
* Adam Thrasher – author of Space Moose
* Brian Tracy
* Aritha Van Herk
* Matthew James Weigel
* Rudy Wiebe
* M.Enamul Hossain- scientist

### Judges

* Adam Germain – Justice of the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta (retired), member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta (retired)
* Lionel Locksley Jones – Justice of the Court of King's Bench of Alberta (retired) (deceased 2016)
* Joe Kryczka – past Justice of the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta, president of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association
* Ronald Martland – past Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada
* Beverley McLachlin – Chief Justice of Canada
* Henry Grattan Nolan – past Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada
* William Stevenson – past Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada
* Allan Wachowich – past Chief Justice of the Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta (retired)
* Edward R. Wachowich – past Chief Judge of the Provincial Court of Alberta (deceased 2012)

### Politicians

* Rona Ambrose – Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs
* Pat Binns – former Premier of Prince Edward Island
* Joe Clark – former Prime Minister of Canada
* Charles Dent – former Cabinet Minister of the Northwest Territories
* David Emerson – Minister of International Trade
* David Hancock – former Premier of Alberta and Minister of Education of Alberta
* Lou Hyndman – former Alberta cabinet minister
* Don Iveson – former Mayor of Edmonton
* Matt Jeneroux – Member of Parliament for Edmonton Riverbend, former MLA
* J. Wilton Littlechild – former Member of Parliament
* Peter Lougheed – former Premier of Alberta
* Preston Manning – former leader of the Reform Party of Canada, and founder of two Canadian political parties
* Greg McLean – Member of Parliament for Calgary Centre
* Roland Michener – former Governor General
* Rachel Notley – former Premier of Alberta
* Jim Prentice – former Premier of Alberta and Minister of Environment
* Jan Reimer – first female mayor of Edmonton
* Ed Stelmach – former Premier of Alberta (attended, did not graduate)
* Jane Sterk – Leader of the Green Party of British Columbia
* Claudette Tardif – Canadian Senator for Alberta, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate of Canada

### Other notable alumni

* Greg Abel (born 1961/62) – businessman, Berkshire Hathaway
* Harry Ainlay – educational administrator, three-term mayor of Edmonton, namesake of Harry Ainlay High School
* Doris Anderson – editor and rights activist
* Anil Arora – former Chief Statistician of Canada
* Allan Gordon Bell – composer
* Dr Mark Bochinski - Former president of The Alberta Dental Association
* Nereo Bolzon – football player
* Ron Butlin – ice hockey executive
* Clarence Campbell – former National Hockey League president
* Neil Campbell – discovered gold in Yellowknife
* Juan Chioran – voice and stage actor at the Stratford Festival
* Joel H. Cohen – Canadian-Jewish comedy writer for The Simpsons
* Ted Corday – soap opera creator (Days of Our Lives)
* Ernest Côté – soldier, diplomat and civil servant
* Jim Coutts – political advisor
* Clare Drake – ice hockey coach in CIS history, inducted to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2017
* Nicole Dunsdon – the last person to win the Miss Canada competition before it was cancelled
* Bernard Ebbers – Worldcom co-founder and CEO; briefly attended the university
* William Epstein –- international expert on disarmament who worked at the United Nations
* Tim Feehan – songwriter
* Nathan Fillion – actor
* Andrew French – abstract sculptor
* Jay Gilday – singer-songwriter
* Allan Gilliland – composer
* Patrick Gilmore – actor
* Randy Gregg – former National Hockey League player and medical researcher
* Paul Gross – actor
* Ted Harrison – painter and illustrator
* Ivan Head – former policy adviser of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau
* Violet King Henry – first black woman lawyer in Canada
* Daryl Katz – billionaire entrepreneur, owner of the Rexall Pharmacy chain and the Edmonton Oilers
* Lewis Kay – scientist
* Lylian Klimek – sculptor
* Eric Allan Kramer – character actor, most notable in the role of Bob Duncan in Good Luck Charlie
* Joseph Kubanek – American psychiatrist
* Melina Laboucan-Massimo – climate justice and Indigenous rights advocate
* Thomas Rockwell Mackie – medical physicist, inventor of tomotherapy
* Ken Macklin – sculptor
* Glenna Matoush – visual artist
* Shelley Moore – special education expert
* Ray Muzyka – BioWare co-founder
* Sidney Richard Carlyle Nelson – Canadian Air Marshal for the RAF
* Tom Radford – documentary filmmaker
* Jan Randall – composer and musician
* Daniel K. Riskin – evolutionary biologist and co-host of Daily Planet
* Joseph H. Shoctor – real estate developer, co-founder of the Citadel Theatre
* George Stanley – designer of the Canadian flag
* Robert Steadward – former International Paralympic Committee President
* Olawale Sulaiman – neurosurgeon, philanthropist and academic
* Esther Tailfeathers – physician and Indigenous health expert
* William Thorsell – editor, The Globe and Mail; Director, the Royal Ontario Museum
* Jason Tuffs – CEO of MNP LLP
* Malorie Urbanovitch – fashion designer
* Jean Wallbridge – architect
* Lorne Warneke – psychiatrist and LGBTQ+ advocate
* Anne Wheeler – film director
* Dayo Wong Tze-Hwa (黃子華) – Hong Kong comedian, actor, singer-songwriter and screenwriter; pioneered Cantonese stand up comedy
* Suzie Wong (蘇施黃) – Hong Kong disk jockey and television cooking program host
* Greg Zeschuk – BioWare co-founder
* Jason Zuback – golfer; five-time world long drive champion

### Rhodes Scholars

The University of Alberta has produced 76 Rhodes Scholars, including the following:
* Roland Michener (1919) – 20th governor general of Canada
* George Stanley (1929) – designer of the Canadian flag
* Arthur Kroeger (1956) – academic, federal deputy minister and chancellor of Carleton University
* Billy-Ray Belcourt (2016) – first First Nations Rhodes Scholar, poet and winner of the Griffin Poetry Prize

## Honorary degree recipients

* His Highness the Aga Khan – spiritual leader of the Ismaili Muslims
* Douglas Cardinal – architect
* Victor Cavendish – former Governor General of Canada
* Charles III
* Jean Chrétien – former Prime Minister of Canada
* John Diefenbaker – former Prime Minister of Canada
* King Edward VIII
* Randy Gregg - former National Hockey League and Olympic hockey player, physician and philanthropist
* Wayne Gretzky – former National Hockey League player
* Horace Harvey – second Chief Justice of Alberta; chairman of the University of Alberta Board of Governors
* Frederick Haultain – the first and only premier of Canada's North-West Territories
* Lois Hole – former Lieutenant Governor of Alberta
* Ernest Manning – former Premier of Alberta
* Don Mazankowski – former Deputy Prime Minister of Canada
* Walter Murray – first President of the University of Saskatchewan
* Alexander Rutherford – first Premier of Alberta
* Arthur Sifton – former Premier of Alberta
* Manmohan Singh – former Prime Minister of India
* Donald Smith – 1st Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal
* Donna Strickland, Canadian Nobel Prize in Physics winner
* Harry Strom – former Premier of Alberta
* Mother Teresa – missionary
* Pierre Trudeau – former Prime Minister of Canada
* Desmond Tutu – former Archbishop of Cape Town and current chair of the Global Elders
* Max Ward – pioneering aviator