List of University of Pittsburgh alumni

This is a list of encyclopedic people associated with the University of Pittsburgh in the United States of America.

Chancellors

See also: Category:University of Pittsburgh chancellors

• John Gabbert Bowman — Initiated and completed the Cathedral of Learning and established the University of Pittsburgh Press.
• Wesley Posvar 1967-1991

Notable alumni, professors, and staff

Arts and entertainment

• Michael Chabon — 2001 Pulitzer Prize-winning author who has written a number of books set in Pittsburgh.
• Wang Xiaobo - One of the most influential Chinese thinkers since 1980s
• Caitlin Clarke — American theater and film actress and theatre teacher.
• David Dalessandro — screenwriter of 2006 thriller Snakes on a Plane.
• John Dellaverson — producer of the 2005 comedy "In the Mix", executive producer of "Diary of a Mad Black Woman"
• Stephen Dau — writer
• Nathan Davis — jazz musician (Pitt professor).
• Keith Haring — Pop artist. (did not graduate)
• Frederick A. Hetzel — University Press publisher.
• John Irving — Author, The Cider House Rules, The World According to Garp. (did not graduate)
• Gene Kelly — Dancer and Actor.
• Charles Klauder — Architect known for work on university buildings and campus designs, especially his Cathedral of Learning, the first educational skyscraper.
• Lorin Maazel Conductor, violinist, and composer, New York Philharmonic. (did not graduate)
• Bebe Moore Campbell — Author and journalist.
• Ed Ochester — Professor, poet, and editor.
• Barbara Paul — Writer. (PhD)
• Rob Penny — Professor, poet, and playwright.
• Leo Robin — Composer and songwriter. (law degree)
• Rev. Frederick McFeely Rogers Host of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, ordained Presbyterian minister, and advocate for the education and welfare of children. (Graduate School of Child Development)
• Justin Sane - Singer/guitar player of punk band Anti-Flag.
• Brandon Som - Poet, teacher
• Gerald Stern — National Book Award-winning poet. (BA, English)
• Bill Strickland — Founder of the Manchester Craftsmen's Guild, agency that inspires teenagers through the arts. Boardmember of the National Endowment for the Arts. Awarded the MacArthur prize.
• August Wilson — 1987 Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright who wrote about the African-American experience in the 20th century.
• Michael Waldholz - 1997 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting on AIDS. Wall Street Journal, 1980-2004. (CAS,EDU).

Athletics

• Matthew Bloom — Professional wrestler and San Diego Charger.
• Antonio Bryant - Wide Receiver for the San Francisco 49ers, Fred Biletnikoff Award winner.
• Clifford Carlson - Pitt Basketball Head Coach. Two National Championships and one Final Four team. "Doc" Carlson also received the MD from Pitt.
• Jason Conti — Major League Baseball player.
• Mark Cuban — Owner of the Dallas Mavericks National Basketball Association franchise.
• Mike Ditka — Member of Pro Football Hall of Fame.
• Tony Dorsett — Member of Pro Football Hall of Fame; Heisman Trophy, Maxwell Award, and Walter Camp Award winner.
• Larry Fitzgerald — Wide Receiver for the Arizona Cardinals, Walter Camp Award and Fred Biletnikoff Award winner.
• Bill Fralic — Atlanta Falcons offensive lineman, member of College Football Hall of Fame.
• Marshall Goldberg — All-Pro Chicago Cardinals defensive back, member of College Football Hall of Fame.
• Aaron Gray — 2007 NBA Draft prospect, has not graduated.
• Hugh Green — Pro football player; Lombardi Award, Maxwell Award, and Walter Camp Award winner.
• Art Griggs — Major League Baseball player.
• Don Hennon — Two-time Basketball All-American and Pitt scoring leader in the 1950's. Passed up a career in pro ball to become a surgeon.
• Dick Hoblitzel — Major League Baseball player.
• Jimmy Johnson — Broadcaster and first American football coach to win both a NCAA Division 1A National Championship and a Super Bowl.
• Russ Kemmerer — Major League Baseball player.
• Roger Kingdom — Sprint hurdler, two-time Olympic gold medalist, and World Record holder.
• Billy Knight — ABA & NBA basketball player, current GM of the Atlanta Hawks.
• Bill Maas - Defensive tackle for the Kansas City Chiefs and Green Bay Packers.
• Ken Macha — Major League Baseball player and manager.
• Johnny Majors — Head Football Coach at the University of Pittsburgh 1973-6 and 1993-6. National Championship in 1976.
• Bob Malloy — Major League Baseball pitcher.
• Dan Marino — Member of Pro Football Hall of Fame.
• Curtis Martin — Pro football running back, 4th leading rusher of all time.
• Mark May — ESPN Sports Commentator, Outland Trophy winner.
• Mike McCarthy — Head coach of the Green Bay Packers. Assistant football coach at the University of Pittsburgh.
• George "Doc" Medich — Major League Baseball player.
• Johnny Miljus — Major League Baseball player.
• Joe Schmidt — Head coach of the Detroit Lions from 1967 to 1973..
• Marty Schottenheimer — Head coach of the San Diego Chargers.
• Jackie Sherrill — Head football coach at the University of Pittsburgh from 1977 to 1981.
• Lisa Shirk — NCAA Gymnastics National Champion on the uneven bars.
• Trecia-Kaye Smith — Long jump and triple jump. Seven-time NCAA National Champion, 15-time All-American, 4 national indoor titles, 2004 Olympics 4-th place, and 2007 IAFF Champion. Named to the USTF Silver Anniversary Team in 2007.
• Shawntae Spencer — Defensive Back for the San Francisco 49ers.
• Sal Sunseri — Pro football coach.
• Jock Sutherland — Hall of Fame football coach, All-American Football player. Pitt Professor of Dentistry.
• Steve Swetonic — Major League Baseball player.
• James B. Tafel - owner of Street Sense, the 2007 Kentucky Derby champion. Donated $1 million of the prize money to the University.
• Joe Walton — Head Coach of the New York Jets from 1983 to 1989.
• Dave Wannstedt — Coach for several NFL and college teams, including the University of Pittsburgh.
• Glenn Scobey Warner — "Pop" Warner was the Head Football Coach at the University of Pittsburghfrom 1915 to 1923, where he coached his teams to 33 straight major wins and three national championships (1915, 1916 and 1918).
• John Woodruff — Gold-medalist in 800-meters at 1936 Berlin Olympics.

Business

• Susan Arnold — Vice Chairman of P&G. Ranked 10th among 50 most powerful women in business by fortune. (MBA)
• Peter I. Bijur — Former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Texaco, Inc and Chairman of the American Petroleum Institute.

• Pat Croce — President of the Philadelphia 76ers [13].
• Dōng Hàoyún — Chinese shipping magnate, founder of the Orient Overseas Line (now OOCL ), and owner of the largest ship ever built. Cooperated with various University of Pittsburgh to run the academic program at sea.
• Ning Gaoning — Chairman of COFCO International Limited. (MBA)
• Andrew W. Mellon — Banker, philanthropist, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, and founder of the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research, which later merged with Carnegie Institute of Technology to form Carnegie Mellon University. (alumnus)
• Raymond W. Smith — Chairman of the private equity firm Arlington Capital Partners. Retired Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Bell Atlantic (now Verizon). (MBA)
• Sung Won Sohn — President of Hanmi Financial Corp. (Ph.D)
• Burton M. Tansky — President and Chief Executive Officer, The Neiman Marcus Group, Inc.
• David Tepper — Successful speculator, Hedge Fund manager. Gave naming donation to Tepper School of Business.
• Stephen Tritch — CEO of Westinghouse. (BS, mechanical engineering, 1971; MBA, 1977)[14]

• Thomas Usher — Chairman of U.S. Steel and Marathon Oil. Trustee of University of Pittsburgh, and director of Extra Mile Education Foundation and Boy Scouts of America. (undergraduate, master's and Ph.D degrees)
• Susan Wood — Director of the Department of Energy's Savannah River National Laboratory, retired. (MS., Ph.D Engineering)

Education

• Steven C. Beering — President Emeritus, Purdue University and former Dean of the Indiana University School of Medicine
• Carol A. Cartwright — President of Kent State University 1991-2006.
• Adam Herbert — President of Indiana University
• Alan Lesgold — Dean of Education
• Jacqueline Liebergott — President of Emerson College
• Lauren Resnick — President of the American Educational Research Association

History

• David Montgomery — Historian

Military

• Roscoe Robinson, Jr. — First African-American Four-star General.

Philosophy

• Patricia Churchland — 1991 MacArthur Prize-winning philosopher noted for her work in philosophy of mind and neurophilosophy. Associated with a school of thought called eliminativism or eliminative materialism.
• James F. Conant — American philosopher who has written extensively about the philosophy of language, ethics, and metaphilosophy. Known for his writings on Wittgenstein and his association with the New Wittgenstein interpretation.
• Robert Brandom — Philosopher ("the Iron City Kant") and author of Making it Explicit.
• David Gauthier — Canadian-American neo-Hobbesian philosopher, author of Morals By Agreement, and philosophy department chairman.
• John McDowell — Philosopher, author of Mind and World.
• John Haugeland — Professor and philosopher whose work has focused on the philosophy of mind, cognitive science, phenomenology, and Heidegger. Coined the term "Good Old Fashioned Artificial Intelligence".
• Wilfrid Sellars — Philosopher and critic of foundationalist epistemology whose work is the foundation and archetype of what is sometimes called the "Pittsburgh School".

Politics, law, and activism

• Ruggero J. Aldisert — Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Adjunct professor at University of Pittsburgh School of Law.
• Eugene Atkinson — Member of the House of Representatives from Pennsylvania.
• Gust Avrakotos — Case officer and division chief for the CIA. Best known for the massive arming of Afghan Mujahideen in the 1980s in the Soviet war in Afghanistan, chronicled in book Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History by George Crile.
• Derrick Bell — Law professor, first tenured black professor at Harvard Law School, dean of U. of Oregon Law School. (law degree)
• Michael Bilirakis — Republican member of the United States House of Representatives.
• Frank Buchanan— Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives and Mayor of McKeesport, Pennsylvania (1924–1928 and 1931–1942).
• Ben Cardin — Democratic U.S. senator from Maryland.
• Robert J. Corbett — Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania.
• Father James Cox — U.S. Presidential candidate in 1932 and labor activist.
• Adrian Cronauer — Disc jockey, attorney, activist, basis for the movie Good Morning, Vietnam. Founded WPGH AM radio station.
• Tom Feeney — U.S. representative. (law degree)
• C. Scott Harrison — CURE International founder.
• Melissa Hart — U.S. representative. (law degree)
• Orrin Hatch — U.S. senator. (law degree)
• Frances Hesselbein — Former CEO of the Girl Scouts of the USA.
• Hoang Duc Nga — South Vietnamese Information Minister (B.S.E.E., 1966).[15]
• Frank Houben — Dutch provincial governor. (alumnus)
• William Lerach — Securities class-action lawyer, lead attorney in suit against Enron. (undergraduate and law degree)
• Wangari Maathai — 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner.
• Jim Moran — Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives.
• John Murtha — U.S. representative.
• Ron Paul — Physician, Republican member of the United States House of Representatives, 1988 Libertarian Party presidential nominee. (Obstetrics and Gynecology training)
• Rick Santorum — U.S. Senator. (MBA)
• Richard Mellon Scaife — Conservative activist, newspaper publisher, philanthropist.
• Elmer Eric Schattschneider — Political scientist.
• Richard M. Simpson — Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania.
• Richard Thornburgh — U.S. Attorney General, Governor of Pennsylvania. (law degree)
• Harve Tibbott — Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania.
• James A. Traficant Jr. — Convicted U.S. representative from Ohio.
• Albert Wynn — Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives.
• Young woo kang — Member of National Council On Disability (master's and Ph.D degrees)
• William Wilkins - Student in the Pittsburgh Academy (forerunner to Pitt), United States Senator (1831-1834); minister to Russia (1834-35); Secretary of War (1844-45)[16]
• William Lerach - Leading attorney in corporate and securities litigation cases including Enron, WorldCom and AOL/Time Warner.

Science, medicine, and technology

• Herbert Boyer — Biochemist. 1990 National Medal of Science, co-founded Genentech.
• John Alfred Brashear — Astronomer. Succeeded James Keeler as Director of the Allegheny Observatory. Later became Pitt’s Chancellor. Maker of astronomical and scientific instruments, developer of silvering methods that would become the standard for telescope mirrors.
• Erik Buell — Engineer, founder and chairman of Buell Motorcycle Company - subsidiary of Harley-Davidson.
• Yuan Chang Virologist and Pathologist. Co-discoverer of the cause of Kaposi’s sarcoma, a deadly cancer commonly found in AIDS patients.
• Catherine D. DeAngelis Pediatrician. Medical educator and first woman editor-in-chief of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
• Reginald Aubrey Fessenden Canadian inventor, chemist, and sonar pioneer who developed insulation for electrical wires, built first wireless telephone, and transmitted the first audio radio broadcast. Head of electrical engineering at Western University of Pennsylvania.
• Freddie Fu — Sports medicine expert.
• Thomas Hales — Mathematics professor, provided proof of the Kepler Conjecture.
• Philip Hench - 1950 Nobel Prize winner in medicine for his work on adrenal cortex hormones.
• Klaus Hofman — Biochemist. Synthesized the pituitary hormone adrenocorticotropin (ACTH). [17]
• Otto Emery Jennings — Professor of biology.

[18] [19]

• Panayotis Katsoyannis — Biochemist. Discoverer of synthetic insulin.
• James E. Keeler — Astronomer. Director of Allegheny Observatory from 1891 to 1898. Interred in the observatory crypt. Discovered that Saturn's rings were not solid but made of particles.
• Charles Glen King — American biochemist noted for isolating vitamin C.
• Samuel Pierpont Langley — Astronomer, physicist, inventor, aviation pioneer, professor of astronomy at the Western University of Pennsylvania. His 1890 publication of infrared observations at the Allegheny Observatory was used to make the first calculations on the greenhouse effect.
• Paul Lauterbur — 2003 Nobel Prize winner in medicine for his invention of the MRI machine.
• Benjamin Lee Elementary Particle Physicist and head of the Theoretical Physics Department at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. (M.S)
• Patrick S. Moore Virologist and Epidemiologist. Co-discoverer of the cause of Kaposi’s sarcoma, a deadly cancer commonly found in AIDS patients.
• Thomas Parran, Jr. — Physician. First Dean of the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health after serving as U.S. Surgeon General from 1936 to 1948.
• Peter Safar — Physician, CPR pioneer. Three-time nominee for the Nobel Prize. Established Pitt's Anesthesiology Department,
• Jonas Salk — Physician, head of Pitt Virus Research Lab, developer of the polio vaccine.
• Jeffrey H. Schwartz — Anthropologist. Elected President of the World Academy of Art and Science.
• Benjamin Spock — Famous for his child development books.
• Thomas Starzl — Transplant pioneer, 2004 National Medal of Science.
• Jesse Leonard Steinfeld - Surgeon General of the United States from 1969 to 1973
• Lap-chee Tsui — Geneticist who identified the defective gene that causes cystic fibrosis and president of HUGO, the international organization of scientists involved in the Human Genome Project. (Ph.D.)
• Vladimir Zworykin — Inventor of television technology.

Other

• Gust Avrakotos — CIA agent responsible for arming the Afghan mujaheddin in the 1980s.
• Harry K. Thaw — Murderer and son of coal and railroad baron William Thaw. (never graduated)
• Charles D. Provan — Author of controversial books and articles on Christian topics and holocaust denial.