Notable Alumni and Scholars From North America

Ambassadors

• Reuben Brigety (Sidney Sussex 1995)
• Yuri Kim (Magdalene 1993)
• Julissa Reynoso Pantaleón (Emmanuel 1997)

Astronauts

• Kayla Barron (Peterhouse 2010)
• Michael Foale (Queens’ 1975)
• Nicholas Patrick (Trinity 1983)

Actors, directors and producers

• Rachel Weisz (Trinity Hall 1988)
• Chris Weitz (Trinity 1987)

Authors

• Kwame Anthony Appiah (Clare 1972)
• Ron Chernow (Pembroke 1970)
• Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (Clare 1973)
• Paul Kalanithi (Darwin 2002)
• Patrick Radden Keefe (Hughes Hall 1999)
• Lewis H. Lapham (Magdalene College 1956)
• Vladimir Nabokov (Trinity 1919)
• Salman Rushdie (King's 1965)
• Anna Malaika Tubbs (Kings 2017)
• Tara Westover (Trinity 2008)

Chemists

• Herchel Smith (Emmanuel 1942)

Early American Settlers

• William Brewster (Peterhouse 1580)
• John Cotton (Trinity 1603)
• Thomas Hooker (Emmanuel 1604)
• John Robinson (Corpus Christi 1592)
• Thomas Shepard (Emmanuel 1620)

Economists

• Milton Friedman (Gonville and Caius 1954)
• Oliver Hart (King's 1966)
• Eric Maskin (Darwin 1975)
• Joseph Stiglitz (Fitzwilliam 1965)

Educationalists

• Henry Dunster (Magdalene 1627)
• Nathaniel Eaton (Trinity 1629)
• John Harvard (Emmanuel 1626)

Entrepreneurs, business leaders and philanthropists

• Ray Dolby (Pembroke 1951)

Journalists and media personalities

• Alistair Cooke (Jesus 1926)
• Arianna Huffington (Girton 1968)
• David Ignatius (King's 1974)
• Emily Kassie (St John's 2016)
• John McPhee (Magdalene 1953)
• John Oliver (Christ's 1995)
• George Plimpton (King's 1952)

Poets

• Joseph Brodsky (Clare Hall 1977)
• Sylvia Plath (Newnham 1955)

Politicians

• Paul Clement (Darwin 1988)
• Damian Williams (Emmanuel 2002)

Scientists, technologists and mathematicians

• Danielle Allen (King's 1993)
• Philip Warren Anderson (Churchill 1964)
• Elizabeth Blackburn (Darwin 1971)
• Arthur Compton
• Joachim Frank
• Paul Greengard
• Geoffrey Hinton (King's 1967)
• Steve Hyman (Clare 1974)
• J. Michael Kosterlitz (Gonville and Caius 1962)
• J. Robert Oppenheimer (Christ’s 1924)
• Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin (Newnham 1919)
• Norman Ramsey Jr. (Clare 1935)
• Richard R. Schrock
• Thomas A. Steitz
• Roger Y. Tsien (Churchill 1972)
• James Watson (Clare 1951)
• Steven Weinberg

Signatories of the Declaration of Independence

• Thomas Lynch, Jr. (Gonville and Caius)
• Arthur Middleton (St. John’s)
• Thomas Nelson, Jr. (Christ's 1758)