# List of people associated with Birkbeck, University of London

This article is a list of people associated with Birkbeck, University of London, including alumni, members of faculty and fellows.

## Current and former faculty

* Georgios Alogoskoufis, Greek Minister of Economy and Finance from March 2004 till January 2009.
* Anthony Bale, medievalist
* Julia Bell, author
* J. D. Bernal, pioneer of X-ray crystallography
* Derek Barton, organic chemist and Nobel Laureate for Chemistry, 1969
* Antony Beevor, historian
* Patrick Blackett, Baron Blackett, professor and Nobel Laureate for Physics, 1948
* Sir Tom Blundell, crystallographer, FRS
* David Bohm, quantum physicist
* Andrew Donald Booth, head of Numerical Automation
* Kathleen Booth née Britten, computer scientist
* C. Delisle Burns (1879-1942), atheist and secularist writer and lecturer
* Ian Christie, professor of film and media history
* Steven Connor, professor
* Ian Crawford, Professor of Planetary Science and Astrobiology
* Diana Coole, social scientist
* Costas Douzinas, law professor
* T. S. Eliot, Nobel Laureate for Literature 1948, publisher, playwright, literary and social critic
* Hilda Ellis Davidson, academic and English antiquarian
* Martina Evans, poet
* Richard J. Evans, Regius Professor of Modern History at Cambridge
* Martin Paul Eve, professor
* Dame Millicent Fawcett, suffragist
* Orlando Figes, professor of history
* Ben Fine, professor
* Rosalind Franklin, crystallographer
* Hugh Gaitskell, lecturer
* Caroline Goodson, medievalist
* A. C. Grayling, philosopher
* Vittorio Grilli, Italy's economy and finances minister (Monti cabinet) from 2012 to 2013.
* Richard Hamblyn, lecturer in creative writing
* Vanessa Harding, professor of London history
* Basil Hiley, quantum physicist and emeritus professor
* Paul Hirst, professor
* Eric Hobsbawm, professor of History
* Thomas Hodgskin, lecturer in economic theory
* Kenneth Holmes, crystallographer
* Elizabeth Hounsell, carbohydrate scientist
* C. E. M. Joad, Reader in Philosophy, author and popular broadcaster
* Mark Johnson, professor
* Charlotte Jolles, Professor, historian
* Russell Celyn Jones, professor of creative writing
* Annette Karmiloff-Smith, professor
* Anthony Julius, visiting professor
* Aaron Klug, crystallographer and Nobel Laureate for Chemistry, 1982
* Jon Lansman, Labour Party activist
* Gail Lewis, academic and activist
* Toby Litt, author, lecturer
* Joni Lovenduski, political scientist
* Mark Mazower, professor
* Louis Mordell, researcher in mathematics
* Laura Mulvey, professor of film and media studies
* Jeremy K. Nicholson, professor of biological chemistry
* Roger Penrose, theoretical physicist and Nobel Laureate for Physics, 2020
* Nikolaus Pevsner, professor
* Ben Pimlott, professor
* Lucy Riall, historian
* Helen Saibil, molecular biologist
* Roger Scruton, professor
* Lynne Segal, professor
* Colin Teevan, professor of playwriting
* Dame Janet Thornton, structural bioinformatics, Director EBI
* Li Wei, academic, linguist
* Ralph Vaughan Williams, lecturer, composer
* Kalpana Wilson, author, researcher, lecturer
* Tony Wright, politician, distinguished professor at Birkbeck
* Slavoj Žižek, philosopher

## Presidents

The following have served as President of Birkbeck:
* 1823–1841: George Birkbeck (founder of Birkbeck)
* 1841–1888: William Lloyd Birkbeck
* 1888–1897: Thomas Baring, 1st Earl of Northbrook
* 1903–1915: Lord Alverstone
* 1919–1928: Viscount Haldane
* 1929–1933: Harry Levy-Lawson, 1st Viscount Burnham
* 1935–1936: The Duke of York (later King George VI)
* 1942–1944: William Temple (Archbishop of Canterbury)
* 1947–1950: Field-Marshal Archibald Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell
* 1952–1983: Lord Denning
* 1983–1989: Baroness Lockwood
* 1989–1993: Lord Young of Dartington
* 1993–1998: Lord Healey
* 1998-2002: Baroness Smith of Gilmorehill
* 2002-2012: Eric Hobsbawm
* 2012-present: Baroness Bakewell

## Masters and Vice Chancellors

* John Redcliffe Maud (1939–1943)
* E.H. Warmington (acting, 1950–1951)
* John Francis Lockwood (1951–1965; Vice-Chancellor of the University of London 1955–1958)
* E.H. Warmington (acting, 1965–1966)
* Kenneth Hare (1966–1968)
* Ronald Tress (1968–1977)
* Tessa Blackstone, Baroness Blackstone (1987–1997; Vice-Chancellor of University of Greenwich)
* Timothy O'Shea (1998–2002; Principal of the University of Edinburgh)
* David Latchman (2003–2023)
* Sally Wheeler (since 2024)

## Alumni

* Chris Abani, writer
* Kemi Badenoch, politician and Member of Parliament, candidate for Leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
* Marian Bell, economist; former member of the Monetary Policy Committee
* Luciana Berger, politician and Member of Parliament
* Annie Besant, theosophist
* Simon Bird, actor and comedian
* Mukhlesur Rahman Chowdhury, politician, editor, Minister and former Adviser to the President of Bangladesh
* Oliver Chris, actor
* Alex Corbisiero, England and British Lions rugby player
* Beth Cordingly, actress
* David Cox, statistician
* Bernard Crick, political theorist
* Juliet Davenport, businesswoman
* Alan Davey, civil servant; current Chief executive of British Arts Council
* Edward Davey, politician and Member of Parliament
* Dido, singer
* Jennifer Donnelly, writer
* Samir El-Youssef, writer
* Tracey Emin, artist
* Nissim Ezekiel, professor, poet
* Rachel Glennerster, economist, Chief Economist at the Department for International Development
* Tomás González Estrada, Colombian politician, former minister of energy
* Marcus Garvey, founder Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League
* Eliane Glaser, writer, broadcaster
* Julia Goldsworthy, politician; former Liberal Democrat MP for Falmouth and Camborne
* Bear Grylls, adventurer, author and television presenter
* John Joseph Haldane, philosopher
* Frank Hartley, vice-chancellor of the university
* Zhu Hua, applied linguist
* Vernon Ingram, Fellow of the Royal Society
* Paul Johnson, economist, Director of Institute of Fiscal Studies
* William Joyce, deputy Leader of the British Union of Fascists, Nazi wartime broadcaster and convicted traitor
* Oliver Kamm, journalist
* James Lovelock, developer of the Gaia Hypothesis
* Ramsay MacDonald, politician; first Labour Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
* John McDonnell, politician
* Denis MacShane, politician
* Leonard Mandel, nuclear physicist
* Ehsan Masood, science writer and editor of Research Fortnight
* Ram Charan Mehrotra, organometallic chemist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
* Ernest Millington, politician
* Seumas Milne, journalist and political aide
* Omeima Mudawi-Rowlings, deaf British-Sudanese textile artist based in Brighton
* Lisa Nandy, politician and Member of Parliament
* Jesse Norman, politician and Member of Parliament
* Nerina Pallot, singer
* Nick Palmer, politician and former Member of Parliament
* Arthur Wing Pinero, actor, stage director and dramatist
* Daisy Ridley, actress
* J. Philippe Rushton, psychologist
* John Rowan (psychologist), psychologist
* Jenny Rowe, Chief Executive, UK Supreme Court
* Richard Sambrook, broadcaster, formerly director of the BBC World
* Frank Sando, former International Cross-Country Champion
* Andy Saull, rugby player
* Helen Sharman, chemist and cosmonaut
* Joost Smiers, academic
* Nick Smith, politician
* Vaughan Smith, soldier, journalist, cameraman, and social entrepreneur
* Laura Solomon, writer
* Nicola Spence, Chief Plant Health Officer, Defra
* William Stanley, inventor, engineer and philanthropist
* Kim Thomson, stage, film and television actress
* Mark P. Taylor, economist, Dean of Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis
* Laurie Taylor, sociologist
* Tracey Thorn, pop star, singer with Everything but the Girl
* Ronald Tress, economist
* Kitty Ussher, British economist and former Labour Party politician
* Alfred Russel Wallace, naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist, and biologist. He is best known for independently conceiving the theory of evolution through natural selection
* Rob Williams, rower, silver medallist in the 2012 Olympics
* Sidney James Webb, 1st Baron Passfield, founder of the London School of Economics
* Jah Wobble, musician/writer
* Wai Hnin Pwint Thon, Burmese Muslim political activist
* Sidin Vadukut, columnist, writer and blogger
* Claudia Webbe, Labour MP

## Fellows

* Edward Davey, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Kingston and Surbiton
* Frank Dobson, Labour politician
* Dame Vivien Duffield, philanthropist
* Sir Richard J. Evans, historian
* Dame Julia Goodfellow, former Chief Executive of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
* Sir Peter Lampl, educationalist and philanthropist, founder of the Sutton Trust
* Leonard Wolfson, Baron Wolfson