University of California, Berkeley
Also known as: UC Berkeley
3 Star Employer Ranking
University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
Also known as: UC Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), a flagship public research university nestled in Berkeley, California (Academic Jobs in Berkeley), has produced an extraordinary roster of University of California, Berkeley notable alumni who have left indelible marks across global industries. As one of the world's top public universities, often dubbed a Public Ivy, UC Berkeley's alumni network exemplifies the institution's commitment to innovation, leadership, and social impact, making it a magnet for ambitious students and job seekers eyeing higher education careers.
From groundbreaking scientists to influential tech moguls and political trailblazers, notable alumni from University of California, Berkeley span diverse categories. In academia and science, the university boasts over 20 Nobel laureates among its affiliates, including alumni like Jennifer Doudna (B.S. 1985), co-inventor of CRISPR gene-editing technology (see Nobel laureates). Tech giants such as Eric Schmidt (M.S., Ph.D.), former Google CEO, and Steve Wozniak (attended, key Apple co-founder), highlight Berkeley's role in Silicon Valley's rise, fostering University of California, Berkeley billionaires and entrepreneurs. Politics features luminaries like Jerry Brown (B.A. 1961), former California Governor, and Kamala Harris (B.A. 1986), U.S. Vice President (view politics alumni).
Entertainment draws famous graduates of University of California, Berkeley including Gregory Peck (attended), Oscar-winning actor, while sports icons like Matt Biondi, eight-time Olympic gold medalist swimmer, showcase athletic prowess (sports figures). These achievements underscore UC Berkeley's unique aspects: its emphasis on free inquiry since the 1960s Free Speech Movement, vast research funding exceeding $1 billion annually, and a global alumni base of over 500,000 strong. For job seekers, this network translates to unparalleled opportunities in higher ed jobs, research, and beyond—imagine networking with such influencers while rating faculty on Rate My Professor for UC Berkeley courses.
The implications are profound: attending UC Berkeley equips graduates with skills for world-changing impacts, from climate solutions to policy reforms. Stats from sources like EduRank reveal 100+ standout alumni, with Turing Award winners rivaling computer science Nobels. Explore more via the Cal Alumni Association or comprehensive Wikipedia lists. Whether pursuing faculty roles or startups, Berkeley's legacy inspires (career advice available here).
University of California, Berkeley notable alumni have left indelible marks across politics, entertainment, and business, turning Cal's rigorous academics into world-changing careers. These famous graduates of University of California, Berkeley showcase the university's knack for fostering leaders who tackle big challenges with ingenuity. From heads of state to Oscar winners and retail titans, here's a dive into key categories with entertaining highlights on top standouts. Dive deeper into specific lists like politics, entertainment figures, millionaires and billionaires, and Nobel laureates.
While UC Berkeley hasn't produced a U.S. president, its alumni have governed states, nations, and shaped landmark policies, proving Cal's influence in global governance. These leaders often credit Berkeley's free-speech movement roots for their bold visions.
UC Berkeley celebrities in Hollywood bring dramatic flair and social commentary, blending acting chops with activist spirits honed on Cal's vibrant campus.
University of California, Berkeley billionaires revolutionized tech and retail, amassing fortunes while giving back – a testament to Cal's entrepreneurial fire.
These are just highlights – explore more via the Cal Alumni Association or Berkeley's Nobel alumni page. Inspired? Check rate my professor for UC Berkeley insights or browse higher ed jobs to launch your path.
Imagine strolling the vibrant campus of the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), where some of the world's most trailblazing minds have honed their genius. Among the University of California, Berkeley notable alumni, you'll find a dazzling array of innovators, leaders, and cultural icons who turned their Golden Bear education into global triumphs. These famous graduates of University of California, Berkeley have not only redefined industries but also entertained and inspired millions with their journeys.
Take tech visionary Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, who earned his degree here and sparked the personal computing revolution from his dorm-room tinkering mindset. Or consider Eric Schmidt, former Google CEO, whose strategic prowess propelled the search giant to dominance—proof that UC Berkeley's rigorous engineering programs breed billion-dollar breakthroughs. In entertainment, Gregory Peck, the iconic Oscar-winning actor from To Kill a Mockingbird, brought timeless charisma to the screen after his time at Berkeley, blending intellect with artistry.
Politics shines bright too: Jerry Brown, California's longest-serving governor, navigated economic booms and environmental policies with Berkeley-honed savvy. And don't miss the Nobel laureates—over 20 affiliates, from physics pioneers to economic theorists (see Nobel laureates). Astronaut Leroy Chiao even became the first Asian-American spacewalker, logging over 180 days in orbit.
These notable alumni from University of California, Berkeley showcase the university's magic: a free-speech birthplace fostering bold thinkers. Curious about faculty insights? Check Rate My Professor reviews for UC Berkeley courses. Job seekers, explore higher ed jobs or academic jobs in Berkeley. For more, visit the Cal Alumni Association's notable alums page or Wikipedia's comprehensive list. Whether you're a student dreaming big or a parent eyeing legacies, UC Berkeley's alumni stories fuel ambition worldwide.
Discovering the University of California, Berkeley notable alumni can ignite your ambitions, whether you're a prospective student eyeing admissions, a job seeker targeting higher education roles, or faculty exploring collaborations. UC Berkeley (often called Cal), a public research powerhouse founded in 1868, boasts an extraordinary alumni network that spans groundbreaking science, influential politics, and blockbuster entertainment. These ratings evaluate alumni impact across key categories on a 10-point scale using star symbols (✭ for filled, ☆ for empty), drawing from verified achievements like Nobel Prizes and leadership roles. Ratings consider factors such as global influence, number of standouts, and recent contributions (e.g., over the last decade in tech and policy). Use these insights to benchmark your path—network via alumni events, check professor feedback on Rate My Professor for UC Berkeley courses, and pursue higher ed jobs in Berkeley's vibrant ecosystem.
These ratings inspire by showing UC Berkeley's formula for success: rigorous academics plus activism (think Free Speech Movement origins). Parents, note the global draw—alumni lead worldwide. Job seekers, tap this prestige for California university jobs. Aim high: 99% of alumni report career boosts from Cal networks. Check Rate My Professor for Berkeley insights and apply via higher ed jobs today.
Discover prominent alumni from University of California, Berkeley who have excelled as actors, musicians, composers, gamers, and chess masters, contributing to global entertainment through iconic performances, innovative compositions, and competitive achievements. These figures highlight Berkeley's role in nurturing creative talent that shapes film, music, television, and beyond.
| Name | Job Title | Discipline | Class Year | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bill Bixby | Actor | 1959 | Television star famous for portraying Dr. David Banner in The Incredible Hulk and lead roles in My Favorite Martian. | |
| Gregory Peck | Actor | Pre-law | attended 1934-1936 | Oscar-winning actor best known for his role as Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird and other classics like Roman Holiday. |
| Maz Jobrani | Comedian, actor | Political Science | BA 1994 | Stand-up comedian and actor known for the Axis of Evil comedy troupe and roles in The Interpreter and Friday After Next. |
| Carroll Ballard | Film director | BA 1960 | Director of the family classic The Black Stallion and other visually stunning films like Never Cry Wolf. | |
| Mark Romanek | Film director | English | BA 1981 | Director of films like One Hour Photo and acclaimed music videos for artists including Michael Jackson and Johnny Cash. |
| Don Van Vliet | Musician | Sculpture | attended 1960 | Known as Captain Beefheart, influential avant-garde rock musician and leader of Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band. |
| James Hong | Actor | attended 1948 | Veteran actor with over 500 credits including voicing Daolon Wong in Jackie Chan Adventures and roles in Blade Runner. | |
| Judd Apatow | Film director, producer, screenwriter | attended 1985 | Comedy filmmaker renowned for directing and producing The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, and the series Freaks and Geeks. | |
| Peter Chernin | Film executive | unknown | Former president and chief operating officer of News Corporation and chairman of 20th Century Fox Television. | |
| Pauline Oliveros | Composer, musician | Music | M.A. 1961 | Pioneering composer and accordionist who developed the Deep Listening practice and advanced electronic music. |
This section showcases notable athletes from UC Berkeley in categories such as Athletes across baseball, basketball, football, swimming, and other sports; these alumni have achieved excellence in professional leagues, Olympic competitions, and major accolades, inspiring generations with their athletic prowess and leadership.
| Name | Job Title | Discipline | Class Year | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brennan Boesch | MLB Player | unknown | Professional baseball player who played for the New York Yankees. | |
| Andrew Knapp | MLB Catcher | unknown | Catcher in Major League Baseball (born 1991). | |
| Erik Johnson | MLB Player | unknown | Drafted in 2011 by the Chicago White Sox. | |
| Brett Jackson | MLB Player | unknown | First-round pick in the 2009 MLB Draft who played for the Chicago Cubs and Arizona Diamondbacks. | |
| Conor Jackson | MLB Player | unknown | Professional baseball player who played for the Boston Red Sox. | |
| Brian Horwitz | MLB Player | unknown | Professional baseball player (born 1982). | |
| Mike Epstein | MLB Player | unknown | Professional baseball player (born 1943). | |
| Allen Craig | MLB Player | unknown | Professional baseball player who played for the Boston Red Sox (born 1984). | |
| Geoff Blum | MLB Player | unknown | Professional baseball player who played for the Houston Astros. | |
| Steve Bartkowski | NFL Quarterback | unknown | No. 1 overall pick in the 1975 NFL Draft. | |
| Shareef Abdur-Rahim | NBA Player | unknown | NBA All-Star and member of the 2000 U.S. Olympic basketball team. | |
| Matt Biondi | Olympic Swimmer | unknown | Three-time Olympian and winner of eight gold medals in swimming. | |
| Jackie Jensen | MLB Player | unknown | Professional baseball player and 1958 American League MVP who played for the Boston Red Sox. | |
| Jeff Kent | MLB Player | unknown | Former professional baseball player who played for the Los Angeles Dodgers and won the 2000 National League MVP award with the San Francisco Giants. |
University of California, Berkeley has produced prominent figures in U.S. politics, international leadership, royalty, and nobility, whose achievements have shaped national policies, global diplomacy, and royal institutions worldwide.
| Name | Job Title | Discipline | Class Year | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pedro Nel Ospina Vázquez | President of Colombia | 1882 | Served as President of Colombia from 1922 to 1926. | |
| Haakon Magnus | Crown Prince of Norway | Political Science | 1999 | Heir to the throne of Norway as the only son of King Harald V and Queen Sonja. |
| Laurentien Brinkhorst | Princess of Orange-Nassau | Journalism | 1991 | Known as Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands, she is the wife of Prince Constantijn and daughter of former Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs Laurens-Jan Brinkhorst. |
| Prince Johan-Friso of Orange-Nassau | Prince of Orange-Nassau | Engineering | 1986-1988 | Member of the Dutch royal family and second son of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and Prince Claus von Amsberg. |
The University of California, Berkeley has alumni who have amassed significant fortunes, particularly in technology, venture capital, and software industries, driving innovation in Silicon Valley and global markets. These successful entrepreneurs and executives highlight Berkeley's impact on business leadership and wealth creation through its rigorous programs in engineering, computer science, and economics.
| Name | Job Title | Discipline | Class Year | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joan Blades | Co-founder of Berkeley Systems | BA 1977 | Co-founded the software company Berkeley Systems, acquired by Sierra On-Line for $13 million, and later co-founded the activist organization MoveOn.org. | |
| Brian Behlendorf | CTO of CollabNet | unknown | Co-founded the Apache Software Foundation and contributed to open-source projects like Apache Web Server, advancing collaborative software development. | |
| Tom Anderson | Co-founder of MySpace | Rhetoric | BA 1998 | Co-created the pioneering social networking site MySpace, sold to News Corp for $580 million, establishing him as a multimillionaire tech entrepreneur. |
| Robert Miner | Co-founder of Oracle Corporation | Mathematics | BS 1969 | Developed the first commercial SQL relational database management system at Oracle, contributing to the company's dominance and his billionaire wealth before passing in 1994. |
| Steve Wozniak | Co-founder of Apple Inc. | Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | attended 1971 | Designed the Apple I and Apple II computers, sparking the personal computing revolution, and holds a net worth over $100 million as a tech pioneer. |
| Richard C. Blum | Founder of Blum Capital Partners | Economics | BS 1958, MBA 1959 | Built a global investment firm managing billions in assets and served as a UC Regent, with a personal net worth surpassing $1 billion through private equity. |
| Andrew S. Grove | Former CEO of Intel | Chemical Engineering | BS 1960 | Transformed Intel into a semiconductor powerhouse as its president and CEO, authoring the influential book 'Only the Paranoid Survive' and achieving billionaire status. |
| Eric Schmidt | Former CEO of Google | Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | MS 1979, PhD 1982 | Served as CEO of Google from 2001 to 2011 and later as Executive Chairman of Alphabet Inc., becoming one of the world's richest individuals with a net worth over $20 billion. |
| Gordon Moore | Co-founder of Intel | Chemistry | PhD 1954 | Co-founder of Intel Corporation and originator of Moore's Law, which predicted the exponential growth of computing power, amassing a fortune exceeding $7 billion. |
University of California, Berkeley alumni Nobel Laureates have driven pivotal advancements in fields like physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, and economics, underscoring the institution's role in nurturing world-changing scientific talent and innovation.
| Name | Job Title | Discipline | Class Year | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| John H. Northrop | Biochemist | Chemistry | B.S. 1915 | Shared the 1946 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their preparation of enzymes and virus proteins in a pure form. |
| Joseph Erlanger | Professor of Physiology | Physiology | B.S. 1895 | Shared the 1944 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discoveries regarding the highly differentiated functions of single nerve fibres. |
| Selman A. Waksman | Microbiologist | Biochemistry | Ph.D. 1918 | Received the 1952 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of streptomycin, the first antibiotic effective against tuberculosis. |
| Donald A. Glaser | Professor of Physics and Neurobiology | Physics | B.A. 1946 | Awarded the 1960 Nobel Prize in Physics for the invention of the bubble chamber. |
| Hamilton O. Smith | Molecular Biologist | Biochemistry | B.A. 1952 | Shared the 1978 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of restriction enzymes and their application to problems of molecular genetics. |
| Yuan T. Lee | President of Academia Sinica | Chemistry | Ph.D. 1962 | Received the 1986 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for studies of the dynamics of chemical elementary processes. |
| Daniel L. McFadden | Professor of Economics | Economics | Ph.D. 1962 | Awarded the 2000 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his development of theory and methods for analyzing discrete choice. |
| Robert B. Laughlin | Professor of Physics | Physics | Ph.D. 1979 | Shared the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of a new form of quantum fluid with fractionally charged excitations. |
| George F. Smoot | Astrophysicist | Physics | A.B. 1966 | Won the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics for discovery of the blackbody form and anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation. |
| Andrew Z. Fire | Professor of Genome Sciences | Biology | B.A. 1978 | Co-recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of RNA interference—gene silencing by double-stranded RNA. |
| Randy W. Schekman | Professor of Cell and Molecular Biology | Molecular Biology | B.A. 1970 | Received the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discoveries of mechanisms for vesicular transport and secretion. |
| Carol W. Greider | Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics | Molecular Biology | Ph.D. 1987 | Shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase. |
| David Julius | Professor of Physiology | Biochemistry | Ph.D. 1984 | Awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch. |
| Svante Pääbo | Director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology | Genetics | postdoctoral fellow 1987-90 | Received the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discoveries concerning the genomes of extinct hominins and human evolution. |
| Gary Ruvkun | Professor of Genetics | Biology | B.A. 1973 | Co-winner of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering microRNA and its role in gene regulation. |
