Distinguished Alumni

Media
Roone Arledge
CC’52
Former President, ABC Sports and ABC News

Arts
Paul Auster
CC’69, GSAS’70
Author

Arts
Emanuel Ax
CC’70
Grammy Award-Winning Classical Pianist

Science and Engineering
Richard Axel
CC’67
Nobel Prize-Winning Molecular Biologist

Academia
Jacques Barzun
CC’27, GSAS’32
Historian of Ideas and Culture; Philosopher of Education; Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient

Arts
Barry Bergdoll
CC’77, GSAS’86
Meyer Schapiro Professor of Art History and Archaeology and Director of Undergraduate Studies, Columbia University

Sports
Caitlin Bilodeau
CC’87
Fencer; Two-time Olympian, Four-Time NCAA All-American

Politics and Law
Harold Brown
CC’45,GSAS’49
14th Secretary of Defense of the United States

Academia
Nicholas Murray Butler
CC 1882, GSAS 1884
12th President of Columbia University; Nobel Peace Prize Recipient

Politics and Law
Jose A. Cabranes
CC’61
First Puerto Rican to sit on a United States District Court

Business
William Campbell
CC’62, TC’64
Former Chairman, Intuit Corp.; Former Board Director at Apple

Politics and Law
Dewitt Clinton
CC 1786
Former United States Senator; 6th Governor of New York

Arts
Bill Condon
CC’76
Academy Award-Winning Film Director

Academia
Virginia Cornish
CC’91
Professor of Chemistry; NSF Career Award Recipient

Media
Alexandra Wallace Creed
CC’88
General Manager of News, Entertainment and Studios at Verizon Media

Academia
Wm. Theodore de Bary
CC’41, GSAS’53
East Asian Studies Pioneer; Columbia University Provost Emeritus; National Humanities Medal Recipient

Arts
Moira Demos
CC'96, SOA'08
Emmy Award-Winning Director

Media
David Denby
CC’65, JRN’66
Film Critic, The New Yorker

Arts
Brian Dennehy
CC’60
Tony and Golden-Globe Award-Winning Actor; Emmy Nominee

Arts
Brandon Victor Dixon
CC'03
Tony Award-Nominated Actor

Business
Daniel J. Edelman
CC’40, JRN’41
Founder, Edelman, World’s Largest Public Relations Firm

Arts
Erik Feig
CC'92
Founder & CEO of PICTURESTART, former Co-president of Lionsgate Motion Picture Group
Academia
Eric Foner
CC’63, GSAS’69
Pulitzer Prize-Winning American Historian

Business
Ben Fried
CC’88
CIO, Google

Arts
Dan Futterman
CC’89
Academy Award-Nominated Screenwriter and Actor

Politics and Law
Eric Garcetti
CC’92, SIPA’93
42nd Mayor of Los Angeles

Arts
Dede Gardner
CC’90
Academy Award-Winning Producer

Arts
Art Garfunkel
CC’65
Grammy Award-Winning Musician

Sports
Lou Gehrig
CC’25
Member, National Baseball Hall of Fame

Politics and Law
Julius Genachowski
CC’85
Former Chair, FCC

Arts
Allen Ginsberg
CC’48
Poet

Media
Robert Giroux
CC’36
Founder, Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Politics and Law
Neil M. Gorsuch
CC’89
Associate Justice, Supreme Court of the United States

Politics and Law
Jack Greenberg
CC’45, LAW’48
Attorney, Brown v. Board of Education; 12th Dean of Columbia College

Politics and Law
Judd Gregg
CC’69
Former United States Senator and Congressman; Two-Term Governor of New Hampshire

Entrepreneurship
Ellen Gustafson
CC'02
Author; Co-Director of the Summit Institute; President of EG, Inc.; Chief Strategy Officer at Inkwell; Co-Founder of FEED; Founder of 30 Project

Science and Engineering
Carl Haber
CC’80, GSAS’85
Experimental Physicist; MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant Recipient

Arts
Katori Hall
CC'03
Award-winning Playwright and Actress

Politics and Law
Alexander Hamilton
CC 1778
Founding Father

Media
Poppy Harlow
CC'05
Emmy-nominated CNN Anchor & Correspondent

Entrepreneurship
Jared Hecht
CC’09
Co-Founder and CEO, Fundera; Co-Founder, GroupMe

Politics and Law
Toomas Hendrik Ilves
CC’76
Fourth President of Estonia

Politics and Law
Eric H. Holder Jr.
CC’73, LAW’76
82nd Attorney General of the United States

Arts
Jim Jarmusch
CC’75
Independent Film Director, Screenwriter, Actor, Producer, Editor and Composer

Politics and Law
John Jay
CC 1764
Founding Father
Media
Sara Just
CC’88
Senior Vice President and Executive Producer, PBS NewsHour
Academia
Donald Keene
CC’42, GSAS’50
Pulitzer Prize-Nominated Scholar of Japanese Studies

Arts
Jack Kerouac
CC’44
Novelist and Poet

Arts
Tom Kitt
CC’96
Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-Winning Composer

Politics and Law
Joel Klein
CC’67
Former Chancellor, New York City Department of Education
Media
John Kluge
CC’37
Television Industry Mogul

Media
Alfred Abraham Knopf
CC 1912
Publisher

Arts
Jenji Kohan
CC’91
Emmy Award-Winning Television Writer and Producer

Arts
Ed Koren
CC’57
Cartoonist, The New Yorker

Sports
Robert Kraft
CC’63
Owner, New England Patriots

Arts
Tony Kushner
CC’78
Pulitzer Prize-Winning Playwright

Business
Jonathan Lavine
CC’88
Co-Managing Partner of Bain Capital and Chi