List of University of Glasgow people

The following List of Alumni and Faculty of the University of Glasgow provides a selection of the well known people who have studied or taught at the University of Glasgow since its inception in 1451.

The list should be alphabetical within the main categories.

Past Principals of the University

* John Caird
* Donald MacAlister, 1907-29
* William Kerr Fraser
* Robert Herbert Story

Politics

Hong Kong

* Regina Ip, the first woman to be appointed as Secretary for Security of Hong Kong, and founder of Savantas Policy Institute.

Conservative Party

* Eric Forth, MP
* Liam Fox, MP
* James Gray, MP
* Sir Teddy Taylor, MP

Labour Party

* Wendy Alexander, MSP
* Sarah Boyack, MSP
* Des Browne QC, Secretary of State for Defence
* Margaret Curran, MSP
* Donald Dewar, former First Minister of Scotland
* Andrew Faulds, MP
* Sam Galbraith, former Minister (UK Government)
* Jim Gallagher, Head of Justice Department for the Scottish Executive
* Derry Irvine, Baron Irvine of Lairg QC, former Lord Chancellor
* Thomas Johnston, former Secretary of State for Scotland
* Johann Lamont, MSP
* Anne McGuire, MP
* Bridget Prentice, MP
* Gordon Prentice, MP
* William Ross, Baron Ross of Marnock former Secretary of State for Scotland
* John Smith, former Labour party leader and UK Cabinet Minister
* John Wheatley, Lord Wheatley; politician, lawyer and Judge of the Court of Session
* Tony Worthington, MP

Liberal Party/Liberal Democrats

* Elspeth Attwooll, MEP for the Liberal Democrats
* James Bryce, 1st Viscount Bryce, Regius Professor of Civil Law at Oxford, Liberal politician, British ambassador to the USA in 1907-13
* Sir Menzies Campbell, former leader of the Liberal Democrats
* Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, Liberal Party Prime Minister
* Charles Kennedy, former leader of the Liberal Democrats
* Vincent Cable, acting leader of the Liberal Democrats
* John Bannerman, Baron Bannerman of Kildonan

cottish National Party

* Aileen Campbell, MSP, youngest MSP in the 2007 - 2011 Session
* Jamie Hepburn, MSP
* Angela Constance, MSP
* Linda Fabiani, MSP Minister for Europe, External Affairs and Culture.
* Jim Mather, MSP Minister for Enterprise, Energy & Tourism
* Alasdair Morgan, MSP Deputy Presiding Officer
* Annabelle Ewing, former MP
* Fergus Ewing, MSP
* Margaret Ewing, MSP, former MP
* Winnie Ewing, former SNP President, former MP, MSP and MEP
* Ian Hamilton, repatriator of the Stone of Destiny and Queen's Counsel
* John MacCormick, founder of the National Party of Scotland
* Neil MacCormick, MEP
* Alasdair Morgan, MSP, former MP
* Shona Robison, MSP
* Nicola Sturgeon, SNP Deputy Leader, MSP
* Andrew Welsh, MSP, former MP

cottish Unionist Party

* Walter Elliot, former Scottish Secretary

Miscellaneous

* Andrew Watson, early Scotland international footballer and first black international player in the history of the game
* Andrew Faulds, actor and politician
* Sir Campbell Fraser, former head of Dunlop Rubber, CBI, and Scottish Television
* Sir James Frazer, social anthropologist
* John Grierson, film-maker, father of the "documentary film"
* Tom McKillop, Chairman of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group
* Fred Goodwin, CEO of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group
* John Jamieson, lexicographer
* Richard Claverhouse Jebb, classical scholar and politician
* Francis Jeffrey, judge and literary critic
* Gerry McCann, cardiologist
* James McGill, Scottish-Canadian philanthropist, endowed McGill University
* John Maclean, Scottish Marxist
* Thomas Muir, revolutionary
* Anton Muscatelli, economist and University Vice-Chancellor
* Alec Nove, Soviet economic historian
* James Hamilton, 4th Duke of Hamilton, Scottish general and nobleman
* Derick Thomson, Gaelic writer and academic
* Andrew Neil, journalist and broadcaster
* Ljubo Sirc, economist, author and Slovenian dissident during the Titoist regime
* Alan Smart, head of broadcasting in Scottish Parliament
* Gerard Butler, actor ("", "The Phantom of the Opera", "300" )
* Alan Rodger QC, Lord Rodger of Earlsferry, Lord President of the Court of Session
* Ian McKay, FRSA, Director, English National Opera
* Anne MacKenzie, television presenter and news anchorwoman
* Alexander Nove, professor of Economics
* William McIntyre, minister and educator
* George Brodie, CGA, missionary to Russia and Canada, historian and accountant.
* James Chadwin QC, barrister who represented Peter Sutcliffe (the "Yorkshire Ripper")
* Suman Chakraborty, Literary Scholar and Academic writer

Arts

Artists

* Hannah Frank, artist and sculptor
* Shantha Roberts, artist and TV Presenter

History

* Lewis Campbell, classical scholar
* Sidney Checkland, economic historian
* Sir Richard Lodge, historian
* Sir William Wilson Hunter, K.C.S.I. (1840-1900), historian- Indologist
* Florence Marian McNeill, social historian and author of "The Silver Bough"
* William Young Sellar, classical scholar
* Bernard Wasserstein, historian
* Hew Strachan, historian

Musicians

* Paul Buchanan, Robert Bell and Paul Joseph Moore of The Blue Nile
* Sydney MacEwan, tenor, singer of Scottish and Irish traditional songs.
* Stuart Murdoch, musician and songwriter; principal member of Belle & Sebastian
* Ramesh Srivastava, musician and songwriter; principal member of Voxtrot

Philosophy and Theology

* John Abernethy, Irish Presbyterian leader
* Alexander Bain, philosopher
* William Barclay, theologian
* James Beaton, Archbishop of Glasgow and St. Andrews, Primate of Scotland
* David Beaton, cardinal and Archbishop of St. Andrews
* Zachary Boyd, theologian
* Semyon Desnitsky, legal scholar
* William Elphinstone, statesman and bishop, founder of the University of Aberdeen
* William Hugh Clifford Frend, early church historian
* Francis Hutcheson, philosopher
* David Jasper, leader in study of literature and theology
* Cosmo Lang, Archbishop of Canterbury
* David Livingstone, missionary
* John Macquarrie, leading 20th century theologian and Professor of Divinity at Union Theological Seminary (NY) and Oxford
* Andrew Melville, theologian and religious reformer
* George Newlands, theologian
* Richard Price, philosopher (honorary degree - did not study at Glasgow)
* Thomas Reid, philosopher
* Adam Smith, economist and philosopher
* Dugald Stewart, philosopher
* Archibald Campbell Tait, Archbishop of Canterbury
* Alexander Campbell, co-founder of the Restoration Movement

Writers and poets

* Lin Anderson, writer
* James Boswell, writer
* William Boyd, writer
* James Bridie (Osborne Henry Mavor), dramatist and founder of the Glasgow Citizens' Theatre
* Christopher Brookmyre, writer
* John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir, writer and Governor General of Canada
* Robert Williams Buchanan, poet
* Thomas Campbell, poet
* Archibald Joseph Cronin, writer
* Jane Duncan (Elizabeth Jane Cameron), writer
* Janice Galloway, writer
* Alasdair Gray, writer and artist
* David Gray, poet
* Robert Henryson, poet (probably taught)
* James Herriot, writer
* Philip Hobsbaum, poet and critic
* James Kelman, writer
* Walter Kennedy, poet
* Tom Leonard, poet and essayist
* Liz Lochhead, poet and dramatist
* Helen MacInnes, "queen of spy writers"
* Alistair MacLean, writer
* Ken MacLeod, writer
* Laura Marney, writer
* William McIllvanney, writer
* Edwin Morgan, poet
* Tobias Smollett, writer
* John Wilson, writer
* Alasdair MacMhaighstir Alasdair, one of the greatest Gaelic bards and Jacobite captain
* Alexander Trocchi, writer
* Aonghas MacNeacail, Gaelic poet

Other

* Hazel Aronson, Lady Cosgrove, first woman judge in Court of Session
* James Dalrymple, 1st Viscount of Stair, 17th century Scottish jurist
* Anne MacKenzie, journalists
* John Maclean, leading figure of the Red Clydeside era
* James Maxton, Independent Labour Party
* Shereen Nanjiani, Scottish journalists
* Gavin Vernon, repatriator of the Stone of Destiny
* John Thomas Wheatley, MP, Lord Advocate and Lord Justice Clerk
* Ian McCaskill, weatherman
* Albert Russell, Scottish Unionist Party member and MP
* Bill Jeffrey, civil servant

Nobel Laureates

* Sir Derek Barton, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
* Sir James Black, winner of the Nobel Prize in Medicine
* John Boyd Orr, 1st Baron Boyd-Orr, biologist and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize
* Sir William Ramsay, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
* Frederick Soddy, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
* Alexander R. Todd, Baron Todd, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry

ciences

Medical

* Robert Broom, physician
* Professor Ian Donald, pioneer of diagnostic and obstetric medical ultrasound
* John Hunter, surgeon
* William Hunter, anatomist and physician
* R. D. Laing, psychiatrist
* Joseph Lister, surgeon
* Donald MacAlister, also Principal of Glasgow University, 1907-29
*Sir William McEwan, pioneer of Neurosurgery
* James McCune Smith, first professionally trained African-American doctor
* Sir Graham Teasdale and Bryan J. Jennett, inventors of the Glasgow Coma Scale
* Hugh Larkin cardiologist physician

Organic Sciences

* David Douglas, botanist
* Thomas Graham, chemist
* George William Gray, chemist, pioneer of stable liquid crystals, awarded Kyoto Prize and Leverhulme Medal
* Alexander Todd, Baron Todd, chemist
* Jokichi Takamine, chemist

Mathematics, Physical Sciences and Engineering

* John H. D. Anderson, natural philosopher and founder of the University of Strathclyde in 1796
* John Logie Baird, inventor of television
* Joseph Black, physicist and chemist
* Professor John Brown, Astronomer Royal for Scotland
* Professor Jocelyn Bell Burnell, astrophysicist
* Henry Dyer, engineer
* John Kerr, physicist
* Colin Maclaurin, mathematician
* William John Macquorn Rankine, engineer and physicist
* Bill Napier, astronomer and novelist
* Percy Sinclair Pilcher, pioneer of powered flight
* John Scott Russell, naval engineer
* Robert Simson, mathematician
* William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, mathematical physicist
* James Watt, mathematician and engineer