# List of University of Madras people

This list of University of Madras people includes notable graduates, professors, and administrators affiliated with the University of Madras. Five heads of state and two Nobel laureates have been associated with the university.

## Arts

* K. A. Nilakanta Sastri, Historian and author, Padma Bhushan (1957)
* Sarvepalli Gopal, Indian historian, Padma Vibhushan (1999)
* Ranvir Shah, Founder of Prakriti Foundation
* Gemini Ganesan, Tamil film actor, Padma Shri (1971)
* Mani Ratnam, Film director, screenwriter and producer, Padma Shri (2002)
* Sashi Kumar, Journalist and film director, Founder, Asianet
* Chitra Ramanathan, Contemporary fine artist, Painting
* M.G. Ramachandran, Film actor and former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Bharat Ratna (1988)
* Mahesh Babu, Telugu film actor, Filmfare Awards South (3), Nandi Awards (7)
* K. C. S. Paniker, Abstract painter, Lalit Kala Akademi Ratna (1976)

## Business and Economics

* Jay Vijayan, Chief Information Officer (CIO) at Tesla Motors
* Kakkadan Nandanath Raj, one of the architects of the Five-Year Plans of India, Padma Vibhushan (2000)
* Raja Chelliah, Founding chairman of the Madras School of Economics, Padma Vibhushan (2007)
* C. K. Prahalad, Prominent business thinker, Padma Bhushan (2009)
* Prathap C. Reddy, Founder, Apollo Hospitals, Padma Vibhushan (2010)
* Ram Shriram, Founding board member of Google Inc.
* Verghese Kurien, Father of White Revolution in India, Padma Vibhushan (1999)
* Indra Nooyi, chairman, PepsiCo, Padma Bhushan (2007)
* Srikanth Balachandran, Global CFO, Bharti Airtel
* Suresh Krishna, TVS Group, Padma Shri (2006)
* Kalanithi Maran, Founder and chairman of Sun Group
* Kasinathuni Nageswara Rao, Founder of Amrutanjan Healthcare and Andhra Patrika
* Usha Ananthasubramanian, chairman and managing director of the Bhartiya Mahila Bank
* Mahesh Amalean, Engineer and industrialist, Deshamanya (2005)
* Pushkala Prasad, Zankel Chair Professor of Management and Liberal Arts at Skidmore College

## Civil Servants and Diplomats

| Name | Degree | College | Notability |
| Benegal Rama Rau | | | 4th Governor of Reserve Bank of India |
| C. Sylendra Babu | | | Director General of Police, Tamil Nadu (since 2021) |
| C. Rangarajan | | Loyola | 19th Governor of Reserve Bank of India |
| F. V. Arul | | Loyola; Madras Christian College | Director of CBI (1968–1971) |
| K. P. S. Menon | | | 1st Foreign Secretary of India |
| K. Vijay Kumar | | Madras Christian College | Director General of Police |
| Kalyan Sundaram | | | 2nd Chief Election Commissioner of India |
| M. K. Narayanan | | Loyola | Governor of West Bengal; 3rd National Security Adviser of India |
| N. Vittal | | | Chief Vigilance Commissioner (1998–2002) |
| R. V. S. Peri Sastri | | | 8th Chief Election Commissioner of India |
| S. Jagannathan | | | 10th Governor of Reserve Bank of India |
| T. N. Seshan | | | 10th Chief Election Commissioner of India |
| Y. Venugopal Reddy | M.A. in Economics | | 21st Governor of Reserve Bank of India |

## Humanities and Social Sciences

| Name | Class Year | Degree | College | Notability |
| David Davidar | | | | Author and publisher, Former CEO of Penguin Group |
| Muhammed Muhsin | | MPhil | | Politician, MLA - Kerala Legislative Assembly |
| Karuppannan Jaishankar | | | | criminologist |
| P. Gururaja Bhat | 1952 | | | historian |
| R. S. Subbalakshmi | | | | Social reformer and educationist |
| S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar | | | | historian and indologist |
| S. R. Ranganathan | | BA; MA | Madras Christian College | library scientist known for developing the colon classification |
| V. Venkayya | | | | Chief epigraphist, Government of India (1908–1912) |

## Literature

| Name | Class Year | Notability |
| M. Govinda Pai | | Kannada poet and writer, Rashtrakavi (1949) |
| Madhavan Ayyappath | | poet and writer |
| Sachchidananda Vatsyayan | 1927 | Hindi poet and writer, Jnanpith Award (1978), Sahitya Akademi Award (1964) |
| Srirangam Srinivasarao | | Telugu poet and lyricist, Sahitya Akademi Award (1972) |
| Kuzhanthai | | Tamil poet |
| Vanamali | | Telugu poet and lyricist, PhD in Telugu literature |

## Military

Every Gentlemen Cadet from Officers Training Academy (OTA) Chennai gets a masters degree from University of Madras
| Name | Class Year | Degree | College | Notability |
| Idris Hasan Latif | | | Nizam | former Chief of Air Staff of the Indian Air Force |
| Jagath Jayasuria | 1990 | MSc | | former Chief of Defence Staff of the Sri Lankan Armed Forces |
| K. M. Cariappa | | | Presidency | former Chief of the Army Staff of the Indian Army |
| Krishnaswamy Sundarji | | MSc | | former Chief of the Army Staff of the Indian Army |
| Purna Chandra Thapa | | | | former Chief of Army Staff of the Nepalese Army |
| Zameer Uddin Shah | | MSc | | former Deputy Chief of Army Staff (Personnel & Systems), Indian Army |
| Hamzah Sahat | 2010 | MPhil | | former Commander of the Royal Brunei Armed Forces |
| Alirupendi | | | | former Joint Force Commander of the Royal Brunei Armed Forces |

## Politics and Law
### Heads of State

| Name | Class Year | College | Notability |
| Chakravarthi Rajagopalachari | 1897 | Presidency | Governor-General of India (1948–1950) |
| Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan | 1906 | Madras Christian College | 2nd President of India (1962–1967) |
| Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy | | | 6th President of India (1977–1982) |
| R. Venkataraman | | Loyola | 8th President of India (1987–1992) |
| A. P. J. Abdul Kalam | | St. Joseph's | 11th President of India (2002–2007) |

### Supreme Court Judges

| Name | Notability |
| Patanjali Sastri | 2nd Chief Justice of India |
| K. Subba Rao | 9th Chief Justice of India |
| Muhammad Shahabuddin | 3rd Chief Justice of Pakistan |
| P. Sathasivam | 40th Chief Justice of India |
| V. Balakrishna Eradi | Judge of the Supreme Court of India; 9th Chief Justice of Kerala High Court |
| Doraiswamy Raju | Judge of the Supreme Court of India |

### Others

| Name | Class Year | Degree | College | Notability |
| A. J. John | 1919 | | Madras Law College | Former Chief Minister of Travancore-Cochin and Governor of Madras |
| Arcot Ramasamy Mudaliar | | | Madras Christian College | Last Diwan of Mysore, Padma Vibhushan (1970) |
| B. Munuswamy Naidu | | | Madras Christian College | Chief Minister of Madras Presidency |
| CN Annadurai | | | | Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu |
| C. P. Ramaswami Iyer | | | | Diwan of Travancore (1936–1947) |
| C. Vijayaraghavachariar | 1875 | | Presidency | President of the Indian National Congress (1920) |
| Chidambaram Subramaniam | | BSc in Physics | Presidency; Madras Law College | Indian independence activist, Bharat Ratna (1998) |
| K. K. Nayar | | | | Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha |
| K. V. Reddy Naidu | | | | Chief Minister of Madras Presidency (1937) |
| Kasu Brahmananda Reddy | | | Presidency | Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh |
| M. Thambidurai | | | | Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha |
| Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari | | | Madras Medical College | surgeon and President of the Indian National Congress |
| Nittoor Srinivasa Rau | 1927 | LLB | Madras Law College | Chief Justice of the High Court of Mysore State |
| P. Subbarayan | | | Presidency | Chief Minister of Madras Presidency (1924–1930) |
| P. V. Rajamannar | 1921 | | Presidency | Chief Justice of Madras High Court |
| Palaniappan Chidambaram | | | | Minister of Finance |
| Paravoor T. K. Narayana Pillai | | | | Prime Minister of Travancore and the first Chief Minister of Travancore-Cochin |
| Shankarrao Chavan | | | | Cabinet Minister |
| V. K. Krishna Menon | 1918 | | Presidency | Minister of Defence |

## Educationists

* M. Aram, Educator and peace advocate, Padma Shri (1990)
* G. Viswanathan, Founder and chancellor, VIT University
* V. M. Muralidharan, Chairman, Ethiraj College for Women

## Religion

| Name | Class Year | Degree | College | Notability | References |
| Ian Ernest | | | | Archbishop of the Indian Ocean | |
| Joshua Russell Chandran | | BA; MA | | | |

## Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics
### Nobel Laureates

| Name | Class Year | Degree | College | Notability | References |
| C. V. Raman | 1904; 1907 | BA; MA | Presidency | Nobel Prize in Physics (1930), Bharat Ratna (1954) | |
| Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar | 1930 | BSc in Physics | Presidency | Nobel Prize in Physics (1983), Padma Vibhushan (1968) | |

### Abel Prize Winners

| Name | Class Year | Degree | College | Notability | References |
| S. R. Srinivasa Varadhan | 1959 | BSc | Presidency | Abel Prize (2007), Padma Bhushan (2008), National Medal of Science (2010), Birkhoff Prize (1994) | |

### Turing Awardee

| Name | Class Year | Degree | College | Notability | References |
| Raj Reddy | 1958 | Bachelors in Civil Engineering | College of Engineering, Guindy (Then affiliated to Madras University) | Turing Award (1994), Legion of Honour (1985), Padma Bhushan (2001) | |

### Others

| Name | Class Year | Degree | College | Notability |
| A. Lakshmanaswami Mudaliar | | | Madras Christian College | Padma Vibhushan (1963) |
| Alladi Ramakrishnan | | | | Theoretical physicist, founder of the Institute of Mathematical Sciences |
| Arunachala Sreenivasan | | | | Nutritional scientist and Padma Bhushan awardee |
| C. V. Subramanian | | | | Mycologist and plant pathologist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize (1965) |
| E. C. George Sudarshan | | | | Theoretical physicist, Dirac Prize (2010), Padma Vibhushan (2007) |
| G.N. Ramachandran | | | | Biophysicist who described the structure of Collagen |
| Gunamudian David Boaz | | | | 1st Indian Psychologist (1943) |
| Janaki Ammal | | | | Botanist and Cytologist, Padma Shri (1977) |
| K. G. Ramanathan | | M.A. in Mathematics | | Padma Bhushan (1983), Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize (1965) |
| K. S. Krishnan | | | | Physicist, Co-discoverer of Raman scattering, Padma Bhushan (1954) |
| M. Visveshwarya | 1881 | B.A. | Central College of Bangalore | Civil engineer, Bharat Ratna (1955) |
| Mushi Santappa | | | | Polymer chemist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize (1967) |
| Om Dutt Gulati | | | | pharmacologist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar and B. C. Roy laureate |
| Srinivasan Chandrasekaran | | | | organic chemist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate |
| Raja Ramanna | | | | Nuclear scientist, Padma Vibhushan (1975) |
| Rajagopala Chidambaram | | | | Nuclear scientist, Padma Vibhushan (1999) |
| Srinivasa Ramanujan | | | | Mathematical prodigy |
| Srinivasan Varadarajan | | | | Chemist and Padma Bhushan awardee |
| Tanjore R. Anantharaman | | | | Materials scientist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize (1967) |
| Toppur Seethapathy Sadasivan | | | | Plant pathologist and Padma Bhushan (1974) awardee |
| Udupi Ramachandra Rao | 1952 | BSc | | space scientist, Padma Vibhushan (2017) |
| V. Sasisekharan | | | | Molecular biologist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize (1978) |
| Vasanthy Arasaratnam | | BSc | | Biochemist, Vice-chancellor of the University of Jaffna (2011 – present) |
| Vilayanur S. Ramachandran | | | | Cognitive neuroscientist, Ariëns Kappers Medal (1999) |
* Pakkiriswamy Chandra Sekharan, Forensic expert and Padma Bhushan winner
* John Barnabas, Evolutionary biologist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize (1974)
* Avadhesha Surolia, Glycobiologist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize (1987)
* Thavamani Jegajothivel Pandian, Geneticist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize (1984)
* Narayanaswamy Srinivasan, Molecular biophysicist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize (2007)
* T. R. Govindachari, Natural product chemist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize (1960)
* P. T. Narasimhan, theoretical chemist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar (1970)
* Paramasivam Natarajan, photochemist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar (1984)
* Siva Umapathy, organometallic chemist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate.
* Subramania Ranganathan, organic chemist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
* Govindasamy Mugesh, physical chemist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
* Kunchithapadam Gopalan, geochronologist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
* Rengaswamy Ramesh, geophysicist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
* Mangalore Anantha Pai, electrical engineer, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
* Nuggehalli Raghuveer Moudgal, endocrinologist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
* E. S. Raja Gopal, physicist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
* Muthusamy Lakshmanan, theoretical physicist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
* E. V. Sampathkumaran, condensed matter physicist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
* K. Sekar, bioinformatician, N-Bios laureate
* Kumaravel Somasundaram, cancer biologist, N-Bios laureate
* G. Dhinakar Raj, veterinary scientist, N-Bios laureate
* S. Ganesh, molecular geneticist, N-Bios laureate
* P. Karthe, structural biologist, N-Bios laureate
* C. S. Seshadri (FRS), Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize (1972)
* M. S. Narasimhan (FRS), Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize (1975)
* K. S. Chandrasekharan, Srinivasa Ramanujan Medal (1966), Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize (1963)
* M. S. Raghunathan (FRS), Srinivasa Ramanujan Medal (1991), Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize (1977)
* Sundararaman Ramanan, Srinivasa Ramanujan Medal (2010), Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize (1979)
* C. P. Ramanujam, Ramanujam–Samuel theorem and Ramanujam vanishing theorem
* Krishnaswami Alladi, Fellow of American Mathematical Society
* A.V. Balakrishnan, Control Heritage Award (2001)
* Rangaswamy Srinivasan, pioneer work on Excimer laser at IBM Research, National Medal of Technology (2011)
* M. S. Swaminathan, Father of Green Revolution in India, Padma Vibhushan (1989)

## Sports

| Name | Degree | College | Notability |
| Dipika Pallikal Karthik | | Ethiraj | Squash player |
| Eric Prabhakar | | | Olympian sprinter |
| Ramanathan Krishnan | | | Tennis player, Arjuna award (1961), Padma Bhushan (1967) |
| Syed Mohammad Hadi | | Nizam | First class cricketer and tennis player |
| Vijay Amritraj | | | Tennis player and sports commentator, UN Messengers of Peace (2001), Padma Shri (1983) |
| Viswanathan Anand | B.Com. | Loyola | Chess Grandmaster and former World Chess Champion, Padma Vibhushan (2007) |

## Others

* Siva Shankar Baba
* A. P. Balachandran
* A.V. Balakrishnan
* Bapu
* Chinmayananda Saraswati
* Chunkath Joseph Varkey
* Aswath Damodaran
* Ryder Devapriam
* Sudi Devanesen
* P. C. Devassia
* Methil Devika
* Michael Fernandes
* Anthony Leocadia Fletcher
* C.K. Gandhirajan
* Ramanathan Gnanadesikan
* Vijayalakshmy K. Gupta
* Randor Guy
* Lakshmi Holmström
* M. Yousuff Hussaini
* I. C. Chacko
* Cherakarottu Korula Jacob
* Alangar Jayagovind
* L. S. Kandasamy
* C. Kesavan
* Sundeep Kishan
* Kuppuswamy Kalyanasundaram
* A. D. Loganathan
* A. Sreedhara Menon
* Ram Mohan
* A. C. Muthiah
* Sameer Nair
* Joseph C. Panjikaran
* P. J. Thomas, Parakunnel
* Joseph Parecattil
* W. Lawrence S. Prabhakar
* PeeVee
* A. Sivathanu Pillai
* N. U. Prabhu
* Samantha Ruth Prabhu
* A. Sreekar Prasad
* Neelu
* R. Radhakrishnan
* Bellary Raghava
* R. K. Raghavan
* P. V. Rajaraman
* N. Ram
* K. R. Ramanathan
* K. P. Ratnam
* Palagummi Sainath
* B. A. Saletore
* Uma Sambanthan
* Ratnasothy Saravanamuttu
* C. S. Seshadri
* Shiva Rajkumar
* M. J. Rabi Singh
* Molly Easo Smith
* C. G. Somiah
* Raman Sukumar
* M. A. Sumanthiran
* Lily Thomas
* Typist Gopu
* Carlos G. Vallés
* Alarmel Valli
* T. G. Venkatraman
* Ravindra Wijegunaratne
* Virendranath Chattopadhyaya
* Pradeep John