List of University of London people

The following people spent time at the University of London as either teaching staff or students.

Nobel Laureates

There are a total of 56 Nobel Laureates who were either students or staff members at the University of London. Their respective college is shown in the parenthesis. The following table shows the number of Nobel Laureates from each college:

Physics

*Sir Edward Appleton (KCL)
*Charles Barkla (KCL)
*Patrick Blackett, Baron Blackett (ICL)
*Sir William Henry Bragg (UCL)
*Dennis Gabor (ICL)
*Sir Owen Richardson (KCL)
*Abdus Salam (ICL)
*Sir George Paget Thomson (ICL)

Chemistry

*Sir Derek Harold Richard Barton (ICL & BBK)
*Otto Hahn (UCL)
*Sir Walter Haworth (ICL)
*Jaroslav Heyrovský (UCL)
*Sir Cyril Hinshelwood (ICL)
*Sir Aaron Klug (BBK)
*Sir George Porter (ICL)
*Sir William Ramsay (UCL)
*Sir Robert Robinson (UCL)
*Sir Frederick Soddy (UCL)
*Vincent du Vigneaud (UCL)
*Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson (ICL)

Physiology or Medicine

*Sir James Black (UCL & KCL)
*Sir Ernest Chain (ICL)
*Francis Crick (UCL)
*Sir Henry Hallett Dale (UCL)
*Ulf Svante von Euler (UCL)
*Sir Alexander Fleming (ICL)
*Archibald Hill (UCL)
*Sir Frederick Hopkins (KCL)
*Sir Andrew Huxley (ICL & UCL)
*Sir Bernard Katz (UCL)
*Sir Peter Mansfield (QMUL)
*Sir Peter Medawar (UCL)
*Sir Rodney Robert Porter (ICL)
*Bert Sakmann (UCL)
*Sir Charles Sherrington (KCL)
*Max Theiler (KCL)
*Maurice Wilkins (KCL)

Economics

*George Akerlof (LSE)
*Ronald Coase (ULEP & LSE)
*Friedrich von Hayek (LSE)
*Sir John Hicks (LSE)
*Sir Arthur Lewis (LSE)
*James Meade (LSE)
*Merton Miller (LSE)
*Robert Mundell (LSE)
*Amartya Sen (LSE)

Nobel Peace Prize

*Óscar Arias (LSE)
*Ralph Bunche (LSE)
*Nelson Mandela (ULEP)
*Philip Noel-Baker (LSE)
*Aung San Suu Kyi (SOAS)
*Archbishop Desmond Tutu (KCL)

Literature

*Bertrand Russell (LSE)
*George Bernard Shaw (LSE)
*Rabindranath Tagore (UCL)

Politicians and Heads of State

Monarchs

*Tuanku Jaafar - King of Malaysia, 1994-1999 (LSE)
*Margrethe II of Denmark - Queen of Denmark, 1972-present (LSE)
*Sultan Salahuddin – King of Malaysia 1999-2001 (SOAS)

Presidents and Prime Ministers

*Harmodio Arias – President of Panama, 1932-1936 (LSE)
*Óscar Arias – President of Costa Rica, 1986 – 1990, 2006 – Present (LSE)
*Errol Walton Barrow - Prime Minister of Barbados, 1962-1966, 1966-1976, 1986-1987 (LSE)
*Marek Belka - Prime Minister of Poland, 2004-2005 (LSE)
*Heinrich Brüning - Chancellor of Germany, 1930-1932 (LSE)
*Kim Campbell - Prime Minister of Canada, June-November 1993 (LSE)
*Eugenia Charles - Prime Minister of Dominica, 1980-1995 (LSE)
*John Compton - Premier of Saint Lucia, 1964-1979, and Prime Minister of Saint Lucia, February-July 1979 & 1982-1996 (LSE)
*Sher Bahadur Deuba - Prime Minister of Nepal, 1995-1997, 2001-2002, 2004-2005 (LSE)
*Luisa Diogo, Prime Minister of Mozambique, 1991-1992 (ULEP)
*Pedro Gerardo Beltran Espanto - Prime Minister of Peru, 1959-1961 (LSE)
*Rajiv Gandhi - Prime Minister of India 1984-1989 (ICL)
*Chaim Herzog – President of Israel 1983-1993 (UCL)
*Hirobumi Ito – Prime Minister of Japan, 1885-1888, 1892-1896, 1898, 1900-1901 (UCL)
*John F. Kennedy - President of the United States of America 1961-1963 (LSE)
*Jomo Kenyatta - First President of Kenya, 1964-1978 (LSE)
*Mwai Kibaki - President of Kenya, 2002-present (LSE)
*Glafkos Klerides, President of the Republic of Cyprus, 1993– 2003 (KCL)
*Junichiro Koizumi - Prime Minister of Japan, 2001-2006 ( UCL)
*Thanin Kraivichien - Prime Minister of Thailand, 1976-1977 (LSE)
*Yu Kuo-Hwa - Premier of Taiwan, 1984-1989 (LSE)
*Hilla Limann - President of Ghana, 1979-1981 (LSE)
*Alfonso López Pumarejo - President of Colombia, 1934-1938, 1942-1945 (LSE)
*Ramsay MacDonald - Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, 1924, 1929-1935 (BBK)
*Michael Manley - Prime Minister of Jamaica, 1972-1980, 1989-1992 (LSE)
*Kamisese Mara - Prime Minister of Fiji 1970-1992, President of Fiji 1994-2000 (LSE)
*Robert Mugabe - President of Zimbabwe (ULEP)
*Kocheril Raman Narayanan - President of India, 1997-2002 (LSE)
*Kwame Nkrumah - President of Ghana, 1960-1966 (LSE)
*Tassos Papadopoulos, President of Cyprus, 2003-2008 (KCL)
*Percival Patterson - Prime Minister of Jamaica, 1992-2006 (LSE)
*Sir Lynden Pindling, Prime Minister of the Bahamas, 1969-1992 (KCL)
*Romano Prodi - Prime Minister of Italy, 1996-1998, 2006-present, President of the European Commission, 1999-2004 (LSE)
*Navinchandra Ramgoolam - Prime Minister of Mauritius, 1995-2000 (LSE)
*France-Albert René, Prime Minister of Seychelles 1976–1977, and President of Seychelles 1977-2004 (KCL)
*Sir Veerasamy Ringadoo - First President of Mauritius, March-June 1992 (LSE)
*Moshe Sharett - Prime Minister of Israel, 1953-1955 (LSE)
*Constantine Simitis - Prime Minister of Greece, 1996-2004 (LSE)
*Anote Tong - President of Kiribati, 2003-present (LSE)
*Pierre Trudeau - Prime Minister of Canada, 1968-1979, 1980-1984 (LSE)

Other prominent political figures

*Elliott Abrams – American politician (LSE)
*Christopher Addison, 1st Viscount Addison - British minister (QMUL)
*Francis Black - Canadian cabinet minister (KCL)
*Cherie Booth – wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair (LSE)
*Ed Broadbent – Canadian political leader (LSE)
*Michael Collins – Irish independence leader (KCL)
*Sir John Cockburn - Premier of South Australia
*Sir Stafford Cripps – Former Chancellor of the Exchequer (UCL)
*Edwina Currie – British minister (LSE)
*Kemal Derviş – Turkish politician and senior UN administrator
*Frank Dobson – British minister (LSE)
*Hugh Dalton – Chancellor of the Exchequer (LSE)
*Joseph B. Dauda - Sierra Leonean Finance Minister (KCL)
*Mahatma Gandhi - Indian Independence Leader (UCL)
*Mark Grossman – American Under Secretary of State
*Sir Sydney Gun-Munro - Governor, and Governor-General of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (KCL)
*Peter Hain - British minister and anti-apartheid campaigner (QMUL)
*Farrer Herschell, 1st Baron Herschell – Lord Chancellor (UCL)
*Ruth Kelly – British minister (LSE)
*Horace Maybray King, Baron Maybray-King Speaker of the House of Commons (KCL)
*Tessa Jowell - British minister (GCUL)
*William Joyce - wartime propagandist (BBK)
*Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. – son of US Senator Robert Kennedy and environmental activist (LSE)
*David Lammy - British minister (SOAS)
*Emily Lau – Hong Kong political leader (LSE)
*Ambrose Lau - Hong Kong political leader
*James Lowther, 1st Viscount Ullswater Speaker of the House of Commons (KCL)
*John MacGregor, Baron MacGregor of Pulham Market - Leader of the House of Commons 1990-1992 (KCL)
*Reginald McKenna - Home Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer (KCL)
*Ann Dore McLaughlin - U.S. Secretary of Labor
*Anne McLellan - Canadian cabinet minister and Deputy Prime Minister of Canada (KCL)
*Ken Michael – governor of Western Australia (ICL)
*Sarojini Naidu - President of the Indian National Congress (KCL)
*David Owen, Baron Owen of Plymouth – British political leader (KCL)
*Alice Paul – American suffragist (LSE)
*Jacques Parizeau – Premier of Quebec (LSE)
*Richard Perle – American political advisor (LSE)
*Enoch Powell - British minister and right-wing politician (SOAS)
*S. Rajaratnam - Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore and Cabinet minister (KCL)
*Sir Shridath Ramphal - Commonwealth Secretary-General and Guyanan Foreign Minister (KCL)
*Paul Robeson - American athlete, actor, singer and civil rights activist(SOAS)
*Walter Rodney – Guyanese activist (SOAS)
*Robert Rubin – U.S. Treasury Secretary
*Sir Ernest Satow - British diplomat (UCL)
*Stephen Smith - Australian politician
*Robert Sobukwe – South African political dissident
*Marie Stopes – family planning and eugenics campaigner (UCL)
*Gisela Stuart - Member of Parliament, England (Birmingham Edgbaston) (ULEP)
*Goh Keng Swee - deputy Prime Minister of Singapore (LSE)
*Teo Chee Hean – Singaporean minister (ICL)
*Harold Watkinson, 1st Viscount Watkinson - Minister of Defence (KCL)
*David Welch – American Assistant Secretary of State
*David Wilson - Governor of Hong Kong
*Lord Woolf - Chief Justice of England and Wales (UCL)
*Rafiq Zakaria - Indian politician

Other Prominent Royalty

*Haakon Magnus – Crown Prince of Norway (LSE)
*Mette-Marit – Crown Princess of Norway (SOAS)

Clergy and Religious Figures

*E. W. Bullinger - Anglican clergyman, Biblical scholar, and dispensationalist theologian (KCL)
*Alan Campbell - controversial Pentecostal pastor
*George Carey, Baron Carey of Clifton – Archbishop of Canterbury (KCL)
*Robert William Dale – Nonconformist church leader
*Mark Elvins - Capuchin friar

cientists and Mathematicians

Physicists

*J. D. Bernal (BBK)
*Louis Essen
*Sir John Ambrose Fleming (UCL)
*Peter Higgs (KCL)
*Kathleen Lonsdale (RHUL & UCL)
*Robert May, Baron May of Oxford (ICL)
*James Clerk Maxwell (KCL)
*William George Penney (ICL)
*Simon Singh (ICL)
*Thomas Young (SGUL)

Biologists and Botanists

*David Bellamy (KCL & RHUL)
*W.D. Hamilton (LSE)
*Thomas Henry Huxley (ICL)
*Robert Swinhoe

Chemists

*Sir William Crookes (ICL)
*John Frederic Daniell (KCL)
*Sir Edward Frankland (QMUL & ICL)
*Rosalind Franklin (KCL & BBK)
*August Wilhelm von Hofmann (ICL)
*Sir William Henry Perkin (ICL)
*William Henry Perkin, Jr. (ICL)
*Juda Hirsch Quastel (ICL)

Mathematicians

*Sir David Cox (BBK)
*Sir Arthur Lyon Bowley (LSE)
*Simon Donaldson (ICL)
*Patrick du Val (ULEP)
*Louis Mordell (BBK)
*Klaus Roth (UCL & ICL)

Geographers and Geologists

*William Fyfe (ICL)
*Arthur Holmes (ICL)
*David Linton (KCL)
*Sir Charles Lyell (KCL)
*Halford John Mackinder (LSE)
*Charles F. Newcombe
*Sir Dudley Stamp (KCL)
*Sir Gilbert Walker (ICL)
*Sidney Wooldridge (KCL)

Psychologists, Sociologists and Anthropologists

*Akbar S. Ahmed (SOAS)
*David Hirsh
*Anthony Giddens (LSE)
*Bronislaw Malinowski (LSE)
*Karl Mannheim (LSE)
*Z.K. Mathews (LSE)
*Talcott Parsons (LSE)
*J. Philippe Rushton (BBK)
*Arthur Waley (SOAS)
*Fei Xiaotong (LSE)

Physicians and Physiologists

*David Blow (ICL)
*Michael Foster (UCL)
*Henry Gray (SGUL)
*Thomas Hodgkin (KCL)
*John Hunter (SGUL)
*William Hunter (SGUL)
*Edward Jenner (SGUL)
*Joseph Lister, 1st Baron Lister (KCL)
*Florence Nightingale (KCL)
*Humphry Osmond (KCL)
*Patrick Steptoe (SGUL)
*Robert Winston, Baron Winston (ICL)
*Ara Darzi, Baron Darzi of Denham (ICL)

Engineers and Inventors

*Richard Beeching, Baron Beeching (ICL)
*Alexander Graham Bell (UCL)
*Donald Watts Davies (ICL)
*James H. Ellis (ICL)
*Sir Stanley Hooker (ICL)
*Sir Alec Issigonis (ULEP)
*Charles K. Kao
*Frederick William Lanchester (ICL)
*Alec Reeves (ICL)
*Sir Charles Wheatstone (KCL)

The Arts

Novelists, Poets and Playwrights

*Richard Aldington (UCL)
*Mulk Raj Anand (UCL)
*Alfred Austin
*Arnold Bennett
*Alain de Botton (KCL)
*Sir Malcolm Bradbury (QMUL)
*Raymond Briggs (UCL)
*Anita Brookner (KCL)
*Robert Browning (UCL)
*G. K. Chesterton (UCL)
*Arthur C. Clarke (KCL)
*Dame Ivy Compton-Burnett (RHUL)
*Bernard Cornwell
*Richmal Crompton (RHUL)
*George Eliot (RHUL)
*T. S. Eliot (BBK)
*C. S. Forester (KCL)
*Ann Granger
*Radclyffe Hall (KCL)
*Thomas Hardy (KCL)
*Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (QMUL)
*John Keats (KCL)
*Charles Kingsley (KCL)
*Lao She (SOAS)
*W. Somerset Maugham (KCL)
*Andrew Motion (RHUL)
*China Miéville (LSE)
*Gladys Mitchell (GCUL)
*Nissim Ezekiel (BBK)
*John Ruskin (KCL)
*Sir Leslie Stephen (KCL)
*H. G. Wells (ICL & ULEP)
*Virginia Woolf (KCL)
*Samir El-Youssef

Actors, Comedians and TV Stars

*Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (KCL)
*Sir David Attenborough (LSE)
*Rory Bremner (KCL)
*Graham Chapman (QMUL)
*Julian Clary (GCUL)
*Greer Garson
*Ricky Gervais (UCL)
*Lloyd Grossman (LSE)
*Harry Hill (SGUL)
*Emma Freud (RHUL)
*Dom Joly (SOAS)
*Boris Karloff
*Robert Kilroy-Silk (LSE)
*Bill O'Reilly (QMUL)
*Devika Rani (RAM)
*Mark Strong (RHUL)

Directors and Film-Makers

*Derek Jarman (KCL)
*Laura Mulvey (BBK)
*Christopher Nolan (UCL)

Musicians, Composers and Conductors

*Sir John Barbirolli – conductor (RAM)
*Arnold Bax - composer (RAM)
*Sir Richard Rodney Bennett - composer (RAM)
*Sir Harrison Birtwistle - composer (RAM & KCL)
*Dennis Brain – French hornist (RAM)
*Bernard Butler – Suede (QMUL)
*John Cale – The Velvet Underground (GCUL)
*Coldplay members Chris Martin, William Champion, and Jon Buckland (UCL)
*Sir Clifford Curzon – pianist (RAM)
*John Dankworth – jazz composer (RAM)
*John Deacon – Queen (KCL)
*Pete Doherty - The Libertines (QMUL)
*Bruce Dickinson – Iron Maiden (QMUL)
*Lesley Garrett – soprano (RAM)
*Sir John Eliot Gardiner - conductor (KCL)
*Sir W. S. Gilbert – one half of Gilbert and Sullivan (KCL)
*Evelyn Glennie - percussionist (RAM)
*Dame Myra Hess – pianist (RAM)
*Joe Jackson (RAM)
*Mick Jagger – The Rolling Stones (LSE)
*Alex James – Blur (GCUL)
*Sir Elton John (RAM)
*Linton Kwesi Johnson (GCUL)
*Judge Jules – trance DJ, BBC Radio 1 (LSE)
*Dame Felicity Lott – soprano (RHUL & RAM)
*Brian May - Queen (ICL)
*Brian Molko – Placebo (GCUL)
*Michael Nyman – composer (KCL & RAM)
*Kele Okereke - Bloc Party (KCL)
*Denise Orme – music hall singer (RAM)
*Mat Osman - Suede (LSE)
*Sir Simon Rattle – conductor (RAM)
*Sir Arthur Sullivan – one half of Gilbert and Sullivan (RAM)
*Jody Talbot – composer (RHUL)
*Adnan Sami (KCL)
*KT Tunstall - singer-songwriter (RHUL)
*Dame Eva Turner – opera singer (RAM)
*Maxim Vengerov – violinist (RAM)
*Sir Henry Wood - conductor (RAM)

Artists

*Bernd Behr (GCUL)
*Ian Davenport (GCUL)
*Grenville Davey (GCUL)
*Tracey Emin (BBK)
*Anya Gallaccio (GCUL)
*Damien Hirst (GCUL)
*Gary Hume (GCUL)
*Michael Landy (GCUL)
*Sarah Lucas (GCUL)
*Steve McQueen (GCUL)
*Cathy de Monchaux (GCUL)
*Simon Patterson (GCUL)
*Mary Quant – fashion designer (GCUL)
*Bridget Riley (GCUL)
*Mark Wallinger (GCUL)
*Gillian Wearing (GCUL)
*Catherine Yass (GCUL)

Philosophers

*William Warren Bartley (LSE)
*Nick Bostrom (LSE)
*Nancy Cartwright (LSE)
*Andrea Christofidou (BBK)
*Daniel Dennett (LSE)
*Paul Feyerabend (LSE)
*Raimond Gaita (KCL)
*Ernest Gellner (LSE)
*Jonathan Glover (KCL)
*John Gray (LSE)
*A. C. Grayling (BBK)
*C. E. M. Joad (BBK)
*Peter J. King (BBK)
*Imre Lakatos (LSE)
*David Miller (LSE)
*Alan Musgrave (LSE)
*Michael Oakeshott (LSE)
*Sir Karl Popper (LSE)
*John Ralston Saul (KCL)
*Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas (SOAS)
*Bertrand Russell (LSE)
*Mark Sainsbury (KCL)
*Roger Scruton (BBK)
*Jeremy Shearmur (LSE)
*Elliott Sober (LSE)

Economists

*Sir Roy Allen (LSE)
*William Stanley Jevons (UCL)
*Charles Kennedy (ICL)
*Israel Kirzner (ULEP)
*Mervyn King (LSE)
*Lionel Robbins (LSE)
*Nicholas Stern (LSE)
*Friedrich von Hayek (LSE)
*Janet Yellen (LSE)

Journalists

*Martin Bashir (KCL)
*Edward Greenspon (LSE)
*Bernard Levin (LSE)
*Michael Lewis (LSE)
*Trevor Phillips (ICL)
*Richard Sambrook (BBK)
*Laurie Taylor (sociologist) (BBK)
*Xiao Qian (SOAS)

portspersons

*Louis Attrill – Olympic gold medallist, rowing (ICL)
*Roger Bannister – first to run the four minute mile (ICL)
*Simon Dennis – Olympic gold medallist, rowing (ICL)
*Gary Lineker England international footballer and sports broadcaster (KCL)
*Kieran West - Olympic gold medallist, rowing (KCL)

Historians

*Ram Sharan Sharma eminent Historian of Ancient India
*Antony Beevor (BBK)
*Asa Briggs, Baron Briggs (ULEP)
*Richard J. Evans (BBK)
*Orlando Figes (BBK)
*Eric Hobsbawm (BBK)
*David Irving (ICL)
*Bernard Lewis (SOAS)
*Desmond Morton (LSE)
*Sir Nikolaus Pevsner (BBK)
*Ben Pimlott (BBK)
*David Rohl (UCL)
*George Albert Wells (BBK)
*Conrad Russell (UCL)
*David Cannadine (UL)
*Arnaldo Momigliano (UCL)

Businesspeople

*Kumar Mangalam Birla - Chairman of Aditya Birla Group (LBS)
*Michael Cowpland – founder of Corel (ICL)
*Calouste Gulbenkian - Armenian oil magnate and philanthropist (KCL)
*Stelios Haji-Ioannou – founder of EasyGroup (LSE)
*Huw Jenkins - CEO of UBS Investment Bank (LBS)
*Eric Nicoli - CEO of EMI (KCL)
*Jorma Ollila – CEO of Nokia (LSE)
*Maurice Saatchi – founder of Saatchi and Saatchi (LSE)
*George Soros – financial speculator and philanthropist (LSE)
*Stephen Bernard Streater - founder of Eidos (KCL)
*David Sullivan – media magnate, football club owner and pornographer (QMUL)
*Sir Richard Sykes - chairman of GlaxoSmithKline (KCL)
*Tony Wheeler - founder of Lonely Planet (LBS)

Others

*Hedley Bull – International Relations academic (LSE)
*Satyabrata Rai Chowdhuri - International Relations academic (LSE), (ICwS)
*Thomas John Barnardo – philanthropist (QMUL)
*Alex Comfort – writer of "The Joy of Sex" (UCL)
*Quentin Crisp – gay icon (KCL)
*Albert Venn Dicey – English jurist (ICL)
*Michael Halliday - linguist
*Sir George Jessel – English jurist (UCL)
*Reginald Johnston – teacher of Puyi (SOAS)
*Anthony Kennedy – American Supreme Court justice (LSE)
*David Livingstone - explorer (ICL)
*Thomas Mesereau – American defence attorney (LSE)
*Ilich Ramírez Sánchez aka Carlos the Jackal – criminal and terrorist (LSE)