List of University of Minnesota people

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

Notable alumni

Arts and entertainment

Eddie Albert - actor
Daryl Royster Alexander - former editor of the New York Times Magazine and Essence magazine
Loni Anderson - actress
Dave Arneson - co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, writer, educator
John Astin - actor
Harold Bakken - syndicated cartoonist
Maria Bamford - comedian
Uri Barnea - music director
Heather Beal - author, national columnist
Carol Bly - author, short story writer
Joel Brooks - actor
Aaron Brown - CNN anchor, journalist (dropped out)
Arlene Ross Cardoza - author
Arlene Dahl - actress
Dahl Delu - art director
Sam Dillon - Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
Hedley Donovan - former editor-in-chief of Time magazine; advisor to President Jimmy Carter
Dick Durrell - creator of People magazine
Bob Dylan - singer/songwriter (did not graduate)
Kimberly Elise - actress
Robert Engels - scriptwriter
Henry Fonda - actor (did not graduate)
Linda Ann Gehringer - actress
Tom Gjelten - NPR correspondent
Peter Graves - actor
Kate Hardy Green - author
Endesha Ida Mae Holland - award-winning playwright
James Hong - actor (transferred out)
Greg Howard - cartoonist
Irene Hunt - children's author
Chris Ison - Pulitzer Prize winning journalist
Dave Kapell - inventor of Magnetic Poetry
Garrison Keillor - author
Linda Kelsey - actress
Jim Klobuchar - columnist
Jessica Lange - actress
Libby Larsen - contemporary composer
Nancy Smiler Levinson - author
James Lileks - columnist
Maud Hart Lovelace - author
Kate Mulgrew - actress
Michele Norris - host of NPR's All Things Considered
Judy Olausen - internationally-known photojournalist
Shannon Olson - author
Jon Pankake - musician
Stephen Paulus - contemporary composer
Ron Perlman - actor
Robert Pirsig - author
Harry Reasoner - ABC and CBS news anchor and correspondent
Carl Rowan - syndicated columnist, former head of United States Information Agency
David Royale - executive producer for "National Geographic Explorer" series
Harrison Salisbury - Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
April Saul - Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist
Eric Sevareid - journalist
Max Shulman - author
Gale Sondergaard - Oscar-winning actress
William Swanberg - author
Robert Thaves - cartoon developer
Robert Vaughn - actor
Will Weaver - author
Levon West - (Ivan Dmitri) artist/photographer
Yanni - Grammy-nominated pianist/composer
David Zinman - conductor

Athletics

Law, politics, and government

C. Elmer Anderson - Governor of Minnesota
Wendell Anderson - Governor of Minnesota, U.S. Senator
Joseph H. Ball - U.S. Senator
Dean Barkley - U.S. Senator
Robert Bergland - U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, U.S. Congressman
James Blanchard - Governor of Michigan, U.S. Ambassador to Canada
Kathleen Blatz - Minnesota Supreme Court chief justice
Warren Burger - chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court
Ray Chase - U.S. Congressman
Victor Christgau - U.S. Congressman
Theodore Christianson - Governor of Minnesota, U.S. Congressman
Jeffrey Davidow - U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, Zambia, and Venezuela
David Durenberger - U.S. Senator
Donald Fraser - Mayor of Minneapolis, U.S. Congressman
Orville Freeman - Governor of Minnesota, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture
Godfrey Goodwin - U.S. Congressman
Geir Haarde - Prime minister of Iceland
Mike Hatch - Minnesota Attorney General
James D. Hodgson - U.S. Secretary of Labor, U.S. Ambassador to Japan
Einar Hoidale - U.S. Congressman
Hubert H. Humphrey - U.S. Vice President and 1968 Democratic nominee for President
Max Kampelman - former chief U.S. nuclear arms-reduction negotiator, United Nations Association chairman, founded Council for a Community of Democracies
Ron Kind - U.S. Congressman
John Linder - U.S. Congressman
Bill Luther - U.S. Congressman
Kevin T. O'Malley - General Counsel, St. Jude Medical
Eugene McCarthy - U.S. Congressman, U.S. Senator, three-time presidential candidate
Mary O. McCarthy - former Central Intelligence Agency analyst who allegedly leaked classified information
Walter Mondale - U.S. Vice President and 1984 Democratic nominee for President
Wayne Morse - U.S. Senator
Gen Olson - Minnesota state senator
Alan Page (J.D.) - 1988 inductee to Pro Football Hall of Fame and an Associate Justice on the Minnesota Supreme Court
Tim Pawlenty - Governor of Minnesota
Jim Ramstad - U.S. Congressman
James Rosenbaum - Federal Circuit Chief Judge
Patricia Schroeder - U.S. Congresswoman
Sadiq Al Shehabi - Member of the Shura Council, Kingdom of Bahrain
Harold Stassen - Governor of Minnesota, presidential candidate
Carl Stokes - Mayor of Cleveland, U.S. Ambassador to Seychelles
Bruce Vento - U.S. Congressman
Luther Youngdahl - Governor of Minnesota
Vin Weber - U.S. Congressman
Roy Wilkins - civil rights activist
Ross Wilson - U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan

Science

Earl Bakken - invented the battery-powered cardiac pacemaker
Christiaan Barnard - performed the world's first heart transplant
Norman Borlaug - Nobel Laureate peace
Michele Brekke - NASA’s first female flight director
Walter Brattain - Nobel Laureate physicist, co-inventor of the transistor
Melvin Calvin - Nobel Laureate chemist
David P. Campbell - author of Campbell Interest and Skill Survey
Seymour Cray - supercomputer architect, founder of Cray Research
Satish Dhawan- Chairman, Indian Space Commission (1972-1995)
Seymour Geisser - founder of the University's School of Statistics
Robert A. Good - pediatrician and bone-marrow transplant pioneer; author of more than 40 books and 1,800 published scientific articles; earned 80 scientific awards and honorary degrees
Robert W. Gore - inventor of Gore-Tex
Harrison Gough - author of the California Psychological Inventory
Pat Gruber - created method to avoid use of petroleum for consumer products
Moshe Gur - professor and head of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Technion (Israel's top technical university) in Tel Aviv
Sally Hasselbrack - senior research fellow, Boeing
John L. Holland - psychologist who developed the RIASEC career model
Yeo Shin Hong - dean, Seoul National University School of Nursing; past president of the Korean Academic Society of Nursing Education
Cyril Hoyt - author of Hoyt's coefficient of internal consistency reliability
Louis J. Ignarro - Nobel Laureate pharmacist
Marjorie Jamieson - created the Living-at-Home Block Nurse Program, a national model of long-term care for the elderly
James Kakalios - professor of physics, noted for his work with comic-book fans.
Ancel Keys - nutritionist, inventor of K-rations
Izaak Kolthoff - "Father of analytical chemistry"
Steve Kraus - worked with World Health Organization in Rwanda; coordinator of Thailand Embassy's efforts to help fleeing Vietnamese refugees; working on HIV-AIDS crisis in Thailand
Mary Jo Kreitzer - established Center for Spirituality and Healing at University of Minnesota, one of the country's first centers for complementary and alternative medicine
Ernest O. Lawrence - Nobel Laureate physicist
Edward B. Lewis - Nobel Laureate geneticist
C. Walton Lillehei - pioneering heart surgeon, inventor of cardiac pacemaker, "Father of open-heart surgery"
Daniel McFadden - Nobel Laureate economist
Norman Shumway - performed first U.S. heart transplant
Deke Slayton - astronaut
Owen Wangensteen - heart-lung machine pioneer
Blong Xiong - first Hmong Ph.D. in U.S. in family science field

Leadership

Lahsen Ababouch - Chief of the Fisheries Industry Division, Food and Agriculture Organization
Dianne Deering Anton - Vice President of Contracts and Strategic Agreements at Alliant Techsystems
Mary Greeley Bartz - director of Betty Crocker Kitchens
Janet Benshoof - National Law Journal 100 Most Influential Lawyers in America, women's rights activist, founder and president emeritus of the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy
Norman Borlaug - Nobel Peace Prize winner
Kevin Brazner - founding partner of The Avalon Group
Marilyn Tickle Bryant - activist, lobbyist
Mary Crimi - past national president of the American Animal Hospital Association
John Donovan - CEO, inCode
Susan Edberg - vice president for marketing at Minnesota Public Radio
Jody H. Feragen - vice president of finance and treasurer, Hormel Foods Corporation
Michelle Gran - cofounder of Global Volunteers
Molly Greenman - president and CEO, Family and Children’s Service, Minneapolis
Harry Heltzer - CEO, 3M, (1970-1975)
Andrew Hilyer - first U of M African American graduate (1882)
Susan Hoff - vice president, corporate communications, BestBuy
Michael Illbruck - CEO, Illbruck International, GmbH
Mildred Jeffrey - civil rights activist, labor leader, received 2000 Presidential Medal of Freedom
Joyce Kelly - founder of Wildlife Habitat Council
Steve LaPorte - Vice President of NeuroVentures and Business Development, Medtronic, Inc., (2002-2005)
Karen Gilles Larson - CEO Synovis Life Technologies
Mary Leonard - owner of Chocolat Celeste
Ingrid Lehmann - Director of the United Nations Information Service in Vienna
Timothy R. McLevish - CFO, Ingersoll-Rand
Scott Litman - Co-Founder Imaginet, LLC, former North American President of J. Walter Thompson's connect@jwt, co-founder of the Minnesota Cup
Kathleen Lundberg - Chief Compliance Officer, Guidant Corporation
Harvey Mackay - businessman, Four time New York Times bestseller author
Dan Mallin - Co-Founder Imaginet, LLC, former North American Chief Operating Officer of J. Walter Thompson's connect@jwt, co-founder of the Minnesota Cup
Sandra McKay - author, four-time Fullbright award winner
Obioma Nnaemeka - Founder, Association of African Women Scholars,
Curtis C. Nelson - president and chief operating officer of Carlson Companies
Bud Philbrook - cofounder of Global Volunteers
Lee Raymond - former CEO of Exxon-Mobil
Susan Sokolowski - apparel designer for Nike, Fila, and NASA
Derek Sussner - owner of Sussner Design Company
Tom Staggs - senior executive vice president of Walt Disney Co.
Hicks Waldron - former CEO of Avon
Scott Ward - President- Vascular, Medtronic, Inc.
Bob Whitmore - executive vice president of Seagate Technology
Michael Wingert - President and COO, Maxtor Corporation
Whitney Young - former executive director of National Urban League

Academia

David Montgomery - Professor of History Emeritus at Yale University (Masters and Doctoral Degrees)
Elaine Tuttle Hansen - President of Bates College in Lewiston, Maine.

University of Minnesota Presidents

Regents

Faculty

Hyman "Hy" Berman – History professor (retired), local political commentator
John Berryman – Literature Professor, American poet
Norman Borlaug – creator of the Green Revolution
Michael Dennis Browne – Professor of Creative Writing, American poet
Lawrence R. Jacobs – Political science professor, local political commentator
Michael Osterholm – School of Public Health professor
Ephraim Sparrow – Mechanical Engineering - thermodynamics and heat transfer
Naomi Scheman – Philosophy professor
Allen Tate – Literature Professor, American poet
James Wright – Literature Professor, American poet
Sachin Sapatnekar – Electrical Engineering
Maria Gini – Computer Science - artificial intelligence, robotics

Regents Professors

Sara Evans – History
Allen Issacman – History
Rutherford Aris – Chemical Engineering
Daniel Joseph – Aerospace & Engineering Mechanics - fluid mechanics
Richard Goldstein – Mechanical Engineering - thermodynamics and heat transfer
E R G Eckert – Mechanical Engineering - thermodynamics and heat transfer
Leonid Hurwicz – Economics
James Serrin – Mathematics