54 Notable alumni of Heriot-Watt University

Sir Harry Work Melville, KCB, FRS, FRSE was a British chemist, academic, and academic administrator, who specialised in polymer research. He spent his early career in academia as a lecturer and researcher, before moving into administration as a civil servant and university college head.

William Byars Samson is a Scottish astronomer, academic, computer scientist and a researcher in the fields of Astronomy, Databases, Artificial Intelligence, and Artificial Life.

Robert Moyes Adam was a Scottish photographer and botanist known for his work with the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.

Henning Skumsvoll is a Norwegian politician representing the Progress Party. He is currently a representative of Vest-Agder in the Storting, he was first elected in 2005. He was elected vice leader of the Vest Agder Progress Party in February 2004.

Evelyn Tweed is a Scottish politician who has been the Member of the Scottish Parliament for Stirling since 2021. A member of the Scottish National Party (SNP), she was a councillor in Stirling for Trossachs and Teith ward from 2017 to 2022.

Liam Burns is a former president of the National Union of Students in the United Kingdom. He took office on 1 July 2011, succeeding outgoing president Aaron Porter. Burns stood for NUS President as an independent but is a member of the Labour Party.

Henry Ariganyira Musasizi is a Ugandan business administrator, certified public accountant and politician. He is the reelected Member of Parliament for Rubanda County East and a representative for NRM, the ruling political party in Uganda.

Bernard Dacorogna is a Swiss mathematician, born 15 October 1953, in Alexandria, Egypt. He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Geneva in Switzerland and his Ph.D. at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, UK, in 1980 under the supervision of John M. Ball. He is professor at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland. He is a specialist of the calculus...

Hilde Christiane Bjørnland is a Norwegian economist. She is a professor of economics and Provost for Research and Academic Resources at BI Norwegian Business School.

Paul Rooney is an English artist who works with music and words, primarily through installations and records.

Major General Michael Lawrence Riddell-Webster, CBE, DSO is a retired British Army officer. He served as Governor of Edinburgh Castle from 2015 to 2019.

Saada Mkuya Salum is a Tanzanian CCM politician and a nominated Member of Parliament. She is a former Minister of Finance.

Archibald Johnstone Kirkwood, Baron Kirkwood of Kirkhope, PC, is a British Liberal Democrat politician.

Lisa Kearney is a Northern Irish retired judoka, who competed in the −48 kg category. Kearney, who lives and trains in Belfast, competed in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London as a member of the Ireland Olympic team.

Dame Maria Matilda Gordon DBE LLD, sometimes known as May Ogilvie Gordon or May Gordon, was an eminent Scottish geologist, palaeontologist, and politician. She was the first woman to be awarded a Doctor of Science degree from the University of London and the first woman to be awarded a PhD degree from the University of Munich. She was also a...

Nathif Jama Adam, EGH, is a Kenyan banker, writer and politician. Adam has served as the governor of Garissa County since August 2022. He was initially not elected to the position in March 2013 to become the pioneer Governor of Garissa County and served until 2017. After failing to win the 2017 elections, he was elected once again in August...

Stefan Müller is a German mathematician and currently a professor at the University of Bonn. He has been one of the founding directors of the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences in 1996 and was acting there until 2008.

David A. B. Miller is the W. M. Keck Foundation Professor of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University, emeritus since October 2024. His research interests include the use of optics in switching, interconnection, communications, computing, and sensing systems, physics and applications of quantum well optics and optoelectronics, and fundamental features and limits for optics and nanophotonics in communications and information processing.

Luke William Crosbie is a Scottish professional rugby union player who plays as a flanker for United Rugby Championship club Edinburgh and the Scotland national team.

Sarah Herriot Boyack is a Scottish Labour politician who has served as a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Lothian region since 2019, and previously from 2011 to 2016. She formerly represented the Edinburgh Central constituency from 1999 to 2011.

Sarah Joanna Tabrizi is a British neurologist and neuroscientist in the field of neurodegeneration, particularly Huntington's disease. She is a Professor and Joint Head of the Department of Neurodegenerative Diseases at the UCL Institute of Neurology; the founder and Director of the UCL Huntington's Disease Centre; a Principal Investigator at the UK Dementia Research Institute at UCL; and an Honorary...

Lee Jones is a Scotland international rugby union player. He played for Glasgow Warriors in the Pro14. He plays primarily at Wing but can also cover at Scrum-half.

Stuart Bradie is a Scottish businessman and the current CEO of KBR.

Richard Gordon Thomson is a Scottish politician. He is a member of the Scottish National Party (SNP) and was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Gordon from 2019 until the seat's abolition in 2024. He was also previously the leader of the SNP group on Aberdeenshire Council. He was the SNP Spokesperson for Business and Trade from 2022, and SNP...

Manuel Cortes is a British trade unionist who served as the General Secretary of the Transport Salaried Staffs' Association (TSSA) between 2011 and 2022.

Gordon William Shedden is a British racing driver currently competing in the British Touring Car Championship for Toyota Gazoo Racing UK with IAA. He has previously won the series on three occasions; in 2012, 2015 and 2016, driving for Honda/Team Dynamics each time. He also spent two seasons in the FIA WTCR, from 2018 to 2019, driving for the Audi...

Sir Graham Robert Watson is a British Liberal Democrat politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for South West England from 1994 to 2014. Watson was the chairman of the Parliament's committee on citizens rights, justice and home affairs (1999–2002). He then served for seven and a half years as leader of the Liberal Group in...

Michelle Lorraine Ballantyne is a British property developer, former politician and former nurse who served as Leader of Reform UK Scotland from January 2021 to February 2022. She was a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the South Scotland region from 2017 to 2021, having been elected for the Scottish Conservatives.

Colin James Clark is a Scottish politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Gordon from 2017 to 2019. He is a member of the Scottish Conservatives.

Brian Monteith is a British politician, public relations consultant and commentator. As a member of the Scottish Conservatives, he was a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Mid Scotland and Fife region from 1999 to 2007. Later a member of the Brexit Party, he was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for North East England from 2019...

Fiona Jane Hyslop is a Scottish politician who has served as Cabinet Secretary for Transport since 2024. Hyslop has served in various offices under first ministers Salmond, Sturgeon, Yousaf and Swinney; as education secretary, culture secretary, and economy secretary as well as in junior ministerial roles. A member of the Scottish National Party (SNP), she has been a member of...

Kirsty Anele Smith is a Scottish footballer who plays as a defender for English Women's Super League 2 club Nottingham Forest and the Scotland national team.

John James Ross is a Scottish professional football coach and former player, who was most recently the manager of Dundee United in the Scottish Premiership.

Adam Alexander Crozier is a Scottish business executive and chairman of Whitbread and BT Group. He was formerly the chief executive of ITV plc. After a career at Saatchi & Saatchi culminating in the role of joint chief executive in 1995, he came to wide public prominence as the new chief executive of The Football Association in 2000, before in...

Henry Baird McLeish is a Scottish politician, author, academic and former professional footballer who served as First Minister of Scotland from 2000 to 2001. With a term of 1 year, 12 days, he is the shortest serving holder of that office. He served as the Leader of the Labour Party in Scotland from 2000 to 2001.

Jock Clear is an English senior performance engineer working for Scuderia Ferrari, where he is currently the driver coach for Charles Leclerc, alongside Calum MacDonald as Senior Driver Performance Engineer. Before moving to Ferrari, he worked at Mercedes, where he was the performance engineer for Lewis Hamilton (2013–14) and Michael Schumacher (2011–12). He was also the race engineer for Nico...

Ruaridh Silvio James MacGillivray-Mollica is a Scottish actor, writer, and director. For his performance in the film Sebastian (2024), he was nominated for a British Independent Film Award. On television, he appeared in the Channel 5 series Witness Number 3 and the BBC Three series Red Rose (both 2022).

James Hall Nasmyth was a Scottish engineer, philosopher, artist and inventor famous for his development of the steam hammer. He was the co-founder of Nasmyth, Gaskell and Company manufacturers of machine tools. He retired at the age of 48, and moved to Penshurst, Kent where he developed his hobbies of astronomy and photography.

Mohammed bin Ali bin Mohammed Al Barwani is an Omani billionaire businessman, the founder and chairman of MB Holding Group of companies, which operate in oil and gas exploration and production, oilfield services, engineering and mining.

Kyrre Gørvell-Dahll, known professionally as Kygo ( Norwegian: [ˈkỳːɡuː]), is a Norwegian record producer. He first received international attention with his December 2013 remix of the track "I See Fire" by Ed Sheeran and his December 2014 single "Firestone" (featuring Conrad Sewell). In late 2015, he reached one billion streams on Spotify faster than any other artist, and by June...

Irvine Welsh is a Scottish novelist, short story writer, screenwriter and filmmaker. His novels and short stories, which almost always take place in his native Scotland, are known for their gritty depictions of working class life and its intricacies; particularly drug addiction, social alienation, lack of opportunity and boredom, amongst others.

Nivetha Pethuraj is an Indian actress who appears in Tamil and Telugu films. She made her acting debut with the Tamil film Oru Naal Koothu (2016). She then made her Telugu debut with Mental Madhilo (2017). Her notable productions include Chitralahari (2019), Paagal (2020), Das Ka Dhamki (2023) and the crime thriller television series Paruvu.

Matthew Gregory Wise is an English actor and producer. He has appeared in several British television programmes and feature films. He played the role of John Willoughby in Sense and Sensibility, which also starred Emma Thompson, whom he later married.

Trygve Mikkjel Heyerdahl Reenskaug was a Norwegian computer scientist and professor emeritus of the University of Oslo. He formulated the model–view–controller (MVC) pattern for graphical user interface (GUI) software design in 1979 while visiting the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). His first major software project, "Autokon," produced a successful computer-aided design – computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) program which was first...

Gary Andrew Younge FAcSS, FRSL is a British journalist, author, broadcaster and academic. He was editor-at-large for The Guardian newspaper, which he joined in 1993. In November 2019, it was announced that Younge had been appointed as professor of sociology at the University of Manchester and would be leaving his post at The Guardian, where he was a columnist for...

John Patrick Thomson is an English comedian, narrator and actor best known for his roles in The Fast Show, Men Behaving Badly, Cold Feet, 24 Hour Party People, Grimsby and Coronation Street.

Sir Christopher John MacRae Whitty KCB FRS is a British epidemiologist, serving as Chief Medical Officer for England and Chief Medical Adviser to the UK Government since 2019.

Joanne Yeoh Pei Sze is a Malaysian violinist who has performed both locally and on the international stage. She has won numerous awards including The Outstanding Young Malaysian Award, the National Academic Award and the British Council's Professional Achievement Award. She currently lectures as an associate professor at Universiti Putra Malaysia and is on the panel of music examiners for...

Alison Mary Suttie, Baroness Suttie is a British Liberal Democrat politician. She was appointed a life peer in the House of Lords in September 2013. A party whip, she is a member of the Liberal Democrat foreign affairs team. She is also a trustee on the board of IPPR.

Mohamed Hassan Ali Khaire is a former prime minister of Somalia. He was appointed on 23 February 2017 by Somalia President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed "Farmaajo" and resigned on Saturday July 25, 2020 after MPs passed a disputed vote of no confidence.

Iain Douglas Baikie, MBE, FRSA, FInstP, CPhys is a Scottish physicist, inventor and company Director. He specialises in Material Science. Baikie supervises PhDs at Imperial College London and the University of St Andrews in thin-film electronics. In 2000 he founded a company- KP Technology in Wick. In 1997 Baikie was appointed Professor of Applied Physics with a Chair in Materials...

Irma Sluis is a Dutch sign language interpreter. She is an interpreter in Dutch sign language (NGT) and international sign language (Gestuno) and has published about working as a sign language interpreter in the Netherlands. Since 2005 she has been working with the Dutch broadcasting organisation NOS where she interprets the morning news.

Suraj Alao Abdurrahmanlisten CON, was a Nigerian Army general who served as the Command Officer in Charge of the Armed Forces of Liberia, with former Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf as the Commander-in-Chief. According to then President Johnson Sirleaf, General Abdurrahman "was an exceedingly exceptional gentleman officer whose contributions lifted the Armed Forces of Liberia to professional greatness and emplace...