100 Notable alumni of University of Adelaide

Stephen John Rayden Patterson is an Australian politician, and a former Australian rules footballer who played with Collingwood in the Australian Football League (AFL), and Norwood in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL).

Andrew Lockhart McLachlan CSC is an Australian politician who has been a Senator for South Australia since 6 February 2020, representing the Liberal Party of Australia. He was previously a member of the South Australian Legislative Council, having been elected at the 2014 state election, and was subsequently elected President of the South Australian Legislative Council in May 2018. He...

Catherine Margaret Branson is an Australian former judge and solicitor who served as a judge of the Federal Court of Australia from 1994 to 2008, and later as president of the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) from 2008 to 2012.

Robert Ivan Lucas is an Australian former politician and a former member of the South Australian Legislative Council between the 1982 election and the 2022 election, representing the South Australian Division of the Liberal Party of Australia.

David Oliver Tonkin AO was an Australian politician who served as the 38th Premier of South Australia from 18 September 1979 to 10 November 1982. He was elected to the House of Assembly seat of Bragg at the 1970 election, serving until 1983. He became the leader of the South Australian Division of the Liberal Party of Australia in 1975,...

Fung Chuen Keung, known as Jim Fung, was a practitioner and teacher of Wing Chun kung fu and founder of the 'International Wing Chun Academy'. He had been training under his master, Tsui Seung Tin (徐尚田), since 1960.

John James Snelling is an Australian former politician. He was the Labor member for the South Australian House of Assembly seat of Playford from the 1997 election until his retirement in 2018. Snelling left the Labor Party in 2021 to found the Family First Party.

Edward J. "Ted" Steele is an Australian molecular immunologist with interests in virology and evolution. He is an honorary research associate at the C.Y.O'Connor ERADE Village Foundation in Piara Waters, WA, Australia.

Leon Melvyn Simon FAA, born in 1945, is a Leroy P. Steele Prize and Bôcher Prize-winning mathematician, known for deep contributions to the fields of geometric analysis, geometric measure theory, and partial differential equations. He is currently Professor Emeritus in the Mathematics Department at Stanford University.

Daniel Cregan is an Australian lawyer and Independent politician who has served as Speaker of the South Australian House of Assembly and as a Cabinet Minister.

John Robert Rau SC is an Australian barrister and politician. He was the 12th Deputy Premier of South Australia from 2011 to 2018 and 48th Attorney-General of South Australia from 2010 to 2018 for the South Australian Branch of the Australian Labor Party in the Weatherill cabinet. Rau was the Labor member of the House of Assembly seat of Enfield...

Stephan Karl Knoll is an Australian former politician who represented the South Australian House of Assembly electorate of Schubert for the Liberal Party from 2014 to 2022. Knoll served as Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government and Minister for Planning in the Marshall Ministry between 2018 and 2020, and as Leader of Government Business in the House of Assembly...

Basil Stuart Hetzel AC was an Australian medical researcher who made a major contribution to combating iodine deficiency, a major cause of goitre and cretinism worldwide.

John F. Canny is an Australian computer scientist, and Paul E Jacobs and Stacy Jacobs Distinguished Professor of Engineering in the Computer Science Department of the University of California, Berkeley. He has made significant contributions in various areas of computer science and mathematics, including artificial intelligence, robotics, computer graphics, human-computer interaction, computer security, computational algebra, and computational geometry.

James Stuart Tanton is an Australian-American mathematician and math educator. He is a winner of the Kidder Faculty Prize for his teaching at The St. Mark's Math Institute, scholar at the Mathematical Association of America, author of over ten books on mathematics, curriculum, and education, and creator of videos on mathematics on YouTube. As of August 2024 his approximately 360...

Stephen Campbell Mullighan is an Australian politician representing the South Australian House of Assembly seat of Lee for the South Australian Branch of the Australian Labor Party since the 2014 state election. He has served as the Treasurer of South Australia in the Malinauskas government since 2022.

Hugh Phillip Possingham, FAA, is the former Queensland Chief Scientist and is best known for his work in conservation biology, applied ecology, and basic ecological theory including population ecology. He is also a professor of mathematics, Professor of Zoology and an ARC Laureate Fellow in the Department of Mathematics and the School of the Environment at The University of Queensland.

Matthew John Cowdrey is an Australian politician and Paralympic swimmer. He presently holds numerous world records. He has a congenital amputation of his left arm; it stops just below the elbow. Cowdrey competed at the 2004 Paralympic Games, 2006 Commonwealth Games, 2008 Paralympic Games, 2010 Commonwealth Games, and the 2012 Paralympic Games. After the 2012 London Games, he is the...

Martin Lee Parkinson AC PSM is a senior Australian public servant. He was Secretary of the Department of the Treasury between March 2011 and December 2014. On 3 December 2015 it was announced that he would return to the public service as Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. He retired from the position on 30 August 2019...

Adele Ferguson AM is an Australian investigative journalist, best known for her series of exposés of malfeasance in the franchising, aged care, and financial services sectors in Australia which have resulted in major inquiries including the Hayne Royal Commission.

Sean Llewellyn Williams is an Australian author of science fiction who lives in Adelaide, South Australia. Several of his books have been New York Times best-sellers.

Sir John Burton Cleland CBE was a renowned Australian naturalist, microbiologist, mycologist and ornithologist. He was Professor of Pathology at the University of Adelaide and was consulted on high-level police inquiries, such as the famous Taman Shud Case in 1948 and later. He also studied the transmission of dengue virus by the mosquito Stegomyia fasciata (Aedes aegypti).

Roma Alma Flinders Mitchell was an Australian barrister and lawyer. She became Australia's first female judge, the first woman appointed Queen's Counsel (QC) in 1962, the first female chancellor of an Australian university from 1983 to 1990, and the first woman to serve as governor of an Australian state from 1991 to 1996.

Helen Mary Mayo OBE was an Australian medical doctor and medical educator, born and raised in Adelaide. In 1896, she enrolled at the University of Adelaide, where she studied medicine. After graduating, Mayo spent two years working in infant health in England, Ireland and British India. She returned to Adelaide in 1906, starting a private practice and taking up positions...

Anastasios "Tom" Koutsantonis is an Australian politician in the South Australian Branch of the Australian Labor Party, representing the seats of West Torrens (2002−current) and Peake (1997−2002) as a Labor member in the South Australian House of Assembly. As of September 2025 he is Treasurer of South Australia and Minister for Energy and Mining in the Malinauskas ministry.

Shaun Bonétt is an Australian entrepreneur and property developer who founded and is CEO of the Precision Group.

William Joseph Denny MC was an Australian journalist, lawyer, politician and decorated soldier who held the South Australian House of Assembly seats of West Adelaide from 1900 to 1902 and then Adelaide from 1902 to 1905 and again from 1906 to 1933. After an unsuccessful candidacy as a United Labor Party (ULP) member in 1899, he was elected as an...

Adrian David Cheok AM is an Australian electrical engineer and academic. He is a professor at iUniversity in Tokyo, Japan. In the 2019 federal election, he ran to represent the Division of Boothby as a member of the far-right Fraser Anning's Conservative National Party. Cheok has been described as a sex robot expert.

John Bradley Hirst, FASSA was an Australian historian and social commentator. He taught at La Trobe University from 1968 until his retirement in 2006, edited Historical Studies—Australia's leading historical journal—from 1977 to 1980, and also served on the boards of Film Australia and the National Museum of Australia. He has been described as a "historian, public intellectual, and active citizen"....

Kyam Joseph Maher is an Australian politician and lawyer who has been Deputy Premier of South Australia since 19 September 2025. He has also been Attorney-General of South Australia, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector, and the Leader of the Government in the Legislative Council since March 2022, and continues to hold these roles after...

Barbara Ann Pocock AM is an Australian politician and economist. She is a member of the Australian Greens and has been a Senator for South Australia since 2022. She is an emeritus professor of the University of South Australia and was previously deputy chair of The Australia Institute from 2004 to 2022.

David O'Byrne is an Australian trade unionist and politician. A prominent union leader prior to entering politics and the brother of former politician Michelle O'Byrne, he has been an Independent member of the Tasmanian House of Assembly since 2024, after previously serving as a Labor member from 2010 to 2014 and from 2018 to 2024, representing the electorate of Franklin....

Arjun Bahadur Thapa is a Nepali diplomat and former General Secretary of SAARC.

Martin Leslie James Hamilton-Smith is a former Australian politician and army officer who represented the South Australian House of Assembly seat of Waite from the 1997 election until his retirement in 2018. First elected as a candidate for the Liberal Party, Hamilton-Smith was the state parliamentary leader of the Liberal Party and the Leader of the Opposition in South Australia...

Hargurdeep Saini is an Indian-Canadian scientist and university administrator. He is the president and vice-chancellor of McGill University in Montreal. He was previously the president and vice-Chancellor of Dalhousie University, a vice-chancellor and President of University of Canberra, and a vice-president of the University of Toronto and principal of its Mississauga campus.

Sir Hugh William Bell Cairns KBE FRCS was an Australian neurosurgeon. For most of his life he lived in England. His concern about despatch rider injuries sparked research which led to increased use of motorcycle helmets.

Vickie Ann Chapman is a former Australian politician, representing the South Australian House of Assembly seat of Bragg for the South Australian Division of the Liberal Party of Australia between the 2002 election and May 2022. Chapman served as the Deputy Premier of South Australia and Attorney-General between 19 March 2018 and 22 November 2021 in the Marshall government. She...

Norman Barnett Tindale AO was an Australian anthropologist, archaeologist, entomologist and ethnologist. He is best remembered for his work mapping the various tribal groupings of Aboriginal Australians at the time of European settlement, shown in his map published in 1940. This map provided the basis of a map published by David Horton in 1996 and widely used in its online...

John Keane is an Australian political theorist. He is a professor of politics at the University of Sydney. For 25 years he also held a position at the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (WZB), which he resigned from in November 2023.

Sir Alexander Lockwood Smith KNZM is a New Zealand politician and diplomat who was High Commissioner of New Zealand to the United Kingdom from 2013 to 2017 and Speaker of the House of Representatives from 2008 to 2013.

Alexander Charles Antic is an Australian politician who has been a senator for South Australia since 2019 representing the Liberal Party.

Amanda Eloise Vanstone is an Australian former politician and a former Ambassador to Italy. She was a Liberal Senator for South Australia from 1984 to 2007, and held several ministerial portfolios in the Howard government. After her resignation from the Senate in 2007, she then served as the Australian Ambassador to Italy until July 2010. Her time as Minister for...

Helen Mary Caldicott is an Australian physician, author, and anti-nuclear advocate. She founded several associations dedicated to opposing the use of nuclear power, depleted uranium munitions, nuclear weapons, nuclear weapons proliferation, and military action in general.

Katrin Albsteiger is a German politician from the Christian Social Union of Bavaria.

Frances Jennifer Adamson AC is an Australian public servant and diplomat who is the 36th Governor of South Australia, in office since 7 October 2021. She previously served as Australian Ambassador to China from 2011 to 2015 and as secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade from 2016 to 2021.

David James Speirs is a Scottish-Australian former politician and convicted drug dealer, who was the Leader of the Opposition in South Australia and Leader of the South Australian Liberal Party from April 2022 until August 2024. He was a member of the South Australian House of Assembly from the 2014 state election, representing the electorate of Bright from 2014 to...

Rawi Bhavilai was a Thai astronomer, writer and translator. He served as a professor at the Physics Department of the Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, and was known for his writings on astronomy as well as philosophy and religion. He was a fellow of the Royal Society of Thailand, and was named National Artist in literature in 2006.

Donald Edward Farrell is an Australian politician and former trade unionist. He is a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and has been Minister for Trade and Tourism and Special Minister of State in the Albanese government since 2022. He has served as a Senator for South Australia since 2016, after a previous term from 2008 to 2014.

Colin Milton Thiele AC was an Australian author and educator. He was renowned for his award-winning children's fiction, most notably the novels Storm Boy, Blue Fin, the Sun on the Stubble series, and February Dragon. As Vice Principal and Principal of Wattle Park Teachers College and Principal of Murray Park CAE for much of the 1960s and 1970s he had...

Miguel Augusto Gabriel Jalbuena Syjuco is a Filipino writer from Manila and the grand prize winner of the 2008 Man Asian Literary Prize for his first novel Ilustrado.

Andrew Sydney Withiel Thomas, AO is an Australian and American aerospace engineer and a former NASA astronaut. He has dual nationality; he became a U.S. citizen in December 1986, hoping to gain entry to NASA's astronaut program. He is married to fellow NASA astronaut Shannon Walker.

Natasha Jessica Stott Despoja AO is an Australian diplomat, gender equality advocate, former Australian of the Year nominee, and former politician. Starting her career in student politics, she became an advisor to the Australian Democrats and was appointed to the Australian Senate in 1995 at the age of 26. At the time, she was the youngest woman to serve in...

Hieu Van Le, AC is an Australian politician who served as the 35th governor of South Australia, in office from 1 September 2014 to 31 August 2021. He served as the state's lieutenant-governor from 2007 to 2014. He also served as chair of the South Australian Multicultural and Ethnic Affairs Commission (SAMEAC) from 2006 to 2009. Le is the first...

Prudence Jane Goward AO is an Australian former politician and Liberal member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 2007 to 2019, representing the seat of Goulburn.

Phyllis Dorothy Cilento, Lady Cilento was an Australian medical practitioner, prominent medical journalist, and pioneering advocate of family planning in Queensland.

Joseph Pairin Kitingan is a Malaysian politician who served as the 7th Chief Minister of Sabah from April 1985 to March 1994 and Member of Parliament (MP) for Keningau from August 1986 to May 2018. He is founding President of the United Sabah Party (PBS) and brother of Jeffrey Kitingan, the Deputy Chief Minister I and State Minister of Agriculture...

Sarah Coral Hanson-Young is an Australian politician who has been a Senator for South Australia since July 2008, representing the Australian Greens.

Annabel Crabb is an Australian political journalist, commentator and television host who is the ABC's chief online political writer. She has worked for Adelaide's The Advertiser, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the Sunday Age and The Sun-Herald, and won a Walkley Award in 2009 for her Quarterly Essay, "Stop at Nothing: The Life and Adventures of Malcolm Turnbull". She...

Chee Hong Tat is a Singaporean politician and former civil servant who has served as the Assistant Treasurer of the People's Action Party since 2025 and has been serving as Minister for National Development in 2025. A member of the governing People's Action Party (PAP), he has been the Member of Parliament (MP) representing the Toa Payoh West–Thomson division of...

Donald Allan Dunstan AC QC was an Australian politician who served as the 35th premier of South Australia from 1967 to 1968, and again from 1970 to 1979. He was a member of the House of Assembly (MHA) for the division of Norwood from 1953 to 1979, and leader of the South Australian Branch of the Australian Labor Party from...

John Robin Warren AC was an Australian pathologist, Nobel laureate, and researcher who is credited with the 1979 re-discovery of the bacterium Helicobacter pylori, together with Barry Marshall. The duo proved to the medical community that the bacterium Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is the cause of most peptic ulcers.

Adenan bin Satem, popularly known as Tok Nan, was a Malaysian politician and lawyer who served as the fifth chief minister of Sarawak from 2014 until his death in January 2017. A president of Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu during his tenure as chief minister, he represented Tanjong Datu in Sarawak State Legislative Assembly from 2006 to 2017.

Simon John Birmingham is an Australian former politician who was as a senator for South Australia from 2007 to 2025. He held various ministerial positions in the Abbott, Turnbull, and Morrison governments from 2014 to 2022.

Hamish Angus McLachlan is an Australian sports broadcaster with Seven Sport.

Jay Wilson Weatherill AO is an Australian diplomat and former politician who was the 45th premier of South Australia, serving from 21 October 2011 until 19 March 2018. Weatherill represented the House of Assembly seat of Cheltenham as a member of the South Australian Labor Party from the 2002 election to 17 December 2018, when he retired from politics. He...

Gangadharaiah Parameshwara is an Indian politician who is currently serving as the Home Minister of Karnataka since 27 May 2023. He has also served as the seventh Deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka, and longest-serving President of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee for two consecutive terms.

Gillon McLachlan is a former Australian sports administrator and now CEO of a major gambling company. He is the former chief executive officer of the Australian Football League (AFL). He was appointed to the role in 2014, succeeding Andrew Demetriou, having previously been his deputy, and finished his contract at the end of the 2023 season, passing the reins to...

John Mitchell Finnis AC CBE KC FBA (born 28 July 1940) is an Australian legal philosopher and jurist specializing in jurisprudence and the philosophy of law. He is an original interpreter of Aristotle and Aquinas, and counts Germain Grisez as a major influence and collaborator. He has made contributions to epistemology, metaphysics, and moral philosophy.

Peter Bryden Malinauskas is an Australian politician and trade unionist who has served as the 47th premier of South Australia since 2022. He has been the leader of the South Australian Labor Party and a member of the House of Assembly for Croydon since 2018, having previously served in the Legislative Council from 2015 until his transfer in 2018.

Clementine Ford is an Australian feminist writer, columnist, broadcaster and public speaker on women's rights and other social and political issues.

Sir Marcus Laurence Elwin Oliphant was an Australian physicist and humanitarian who played an important role in the first experimental demonstration of nuclear fusion and in the development of nuclear weapons.

Abdul Taib bin Mahmud was a Malaysian politician who served as the seventh Yang di-Pertua Negeri of Sarawak from 2014 to 2024. A member of Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu, he was the fourth Chief Minister of Sarawak from 1981 to 2014 and represented Balingian in Sarawak State Legislative Assembly from 2001 to 2014. He is commonly known as the Father...

Claire Lehmann is an Australian journalist, publisher, and the founding editor of Quillette.

Howard Walter Florey, Baron Florey of Adelaide and Marston, OM FRS FRCP was an Australian pharmacologist and pathologist who shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945 with Ernst Chain and Sir Alexander Fleming "for the discovery of penicillin and its curative effect in various infectious diseases".

Sir William Lawrence Bragg was an Australian X-ray crystallographer who uniquely shared a Nobel Prize with his father William Henry Bragg – the 1915 Nobel Prize in Physics "for their services in the analysis of crystal structure by means of X-rays", an important step in the development of X-ray crystallography.

Ong Teng Cheong GCMG was a Singaporean architect and politician who served as the fifth president of Singapore between 1993 and 1999 after winning the 1993 presidential election.

Adam Liaw is an Australian cook, television presenter and author. He was the winner of the second season of MasterChef Australia, defeating student Callum Hann in the final. Liaw has produced, written and hosted his own cooking programs, including the Destination Flavour series and the talk and cooking show The Cook Up with Adam Liaw on SBS Food.

Sevim Dağdelen is a German politician and was from 2005 to 2025 a member of the German parliament, the Bundestag. She was elected for Left Party (die Linke) and switched in October 2023 to Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht.

Subramaniam Iswaran is a former Singaporean politician who last served as the Minister for Transport between 2021 and 2024. A former member of the governing People's Action Party (PAP), he was the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Pasir Panjang division of West Coast Group Representation Constituency (GRC) between 1997 and 2001, and the West Coast division of the same...

Kate Box is an Australian stage, film, and television actress. She is known for her roles as Nicole Vargas in Rake, Lou Kelly in Wentworth, and as Dulcie Collins in Deadloch.

Sara Ahmed is a British-Australian writer and scholar whose area of study includes the intersection of feminist theory, queer theory, affect theory, critical race theory and postcolonialism. Her foundational work, The Cultural Politics of Emotion, in which she explores the social dimension and circulation of emotions, is recognized as a foundational text in the nascent field of affect theory.

Nick Xenophon is an Australian lawyer and former politician who was a Senator for South Australia from 2008 until 2017. As a centrist, populist, independent politician, he twice shared the balance of power in the Australian Senate (from 2008 to 2010, 2014 to 2017). Xenophon was widely regarded as being among the most powerful politicians in Australia and among the...

George Elton Mayo was an Australian-born psychologist, industrial researcher, and organizational theorist. Mayo was formally trained at the University of Adelaide, acquiring a Bachelor of Arts Degree graduating with First Class Honours, majoring in philosophy and psychology, and was later awarded an honorary Master of Arts Degree from the University of Queensland (UQ).

Dichen Lachman is an Australian and Tibetan actress and model. She is best known for her roles as Katya Kinski in the soap opera Neighbours (2005–2007), Sierra in Joss Whedon's science fiction drama series Dollhouse (2009–2010), and Ms. Casey in Severance (2022–present).

Jonathan LaPaglia is an Australian actor and television personality. He hosted Network 10's revival of Australian Survivor from 2016 to 2025. As an actor, LaPaglia is known for his roles as Frank B. Parker in the television series Seven Days, Kevin Debreno in The District and Detective Tommy McNamara in New York Undercover.

Raditya Dika Angkasaputra Moerwani Nasution, known as Raditya Dika, is an Indonesian author, actor, movie director, YouTuber, and social media personality. He is best known for his stand-up comedy.

Tony Tan Keng Yam is a Singaporean banker and politician who served as the seventh president of Singapore between 2011 and 2017 after winning the 2011 presidential election.

Julie Isabel Bishop is an Australian former politician who served as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2013 to 2018 and deputy leader of the Liberal Party from 2007 to 2018. She was the member of parliament (MP) for Curtin from 1998 to 2019. She has been the chancellor of the Australian National University since January 2020.

David John Chalmers is an Australian philosopher and cognitive scientist, specializing in philosophy of mind and philosophy of language. He is a professor of philosophy and neural science at New York University (NYU), as well as co-director of NYU's Center for Mind, Brain and Consciousness (along with Ned Block). In 2006, he was elected a fellow of the Australian Academy...

Lionel George Logue CVO was an Australian speech and language therapist and amateur stage actor who helped King George VI manage his stammer.

John Maxwell Coetzee AC FRSL OMG is a South African and Australian novelist, essayist, linguist, and translator. The recipient of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature, Coetzee is one of the most critically acclaimed and decorated authors in the English language. He has won the Booker Prize (twice), the CNA Literary Award (thrice), the Jerusalem Prize, the Prix Femina étranger,...

Julia Eileen Gillard is an Australian former politician who served as the 27th prime minister of Australia from 2010 to 2013. She held office as the leader of the Labor Party (ALP), having previously served as the 13th deputy prime minister from 2007 to 2010. She is the first and only woman to hold either office.

Mark Christopher Butler is an Australian politician. He is a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and has served in the House of Representatives since 2007. He was a minister in the Gillard and Rudd governments and also served as national president of the ALP from 2015 to 2018.

Christopher Maurice Pyne is an Australian retired politician. He held various ministerial positions in the Howard, Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison governments, and served as a member of parliament (MP) for the South Australian division of Sturt from 1993 to 2019.

Janine Winton Haines, AM was an Australian politician who was a senator for South Australia from 1977 to 1978 and again from 1981 to 1990. She represented the Australian Democrats, and served as the party's leader from 1986 to 1990, becoming the first female federal parliamentary leader of an Australian political party. She was pivotal in "shaping the Australian Democrats...

Kerrynne Liddle is an Australian politician and the first Indigenous federal member of parliament from South Australia. She is an Arrernte woman and member of the Liberal Party. She was elected to the Senate on the party's ticket in South Australia at the 2022 federal election, to a term beginning on 1 July 2022. She was a journalist and corporate...

Penelope Ying-Yen Wong is an Australian politician who is serving as the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Leader of the Government in the Senate in the Albanese government since 2022. A member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), she has been a senator for South Australia since 2002. Wong previously served as Minister for Climate Change and Minister for Finance...

John Charles Bannon AO was an Australian politician and academic. He was the 39th Premier of South Australia, leading the South Australian Branch of the Australian Labor Party from a single term in opposition back to government at the 1982 election.

Amanda Louise Rishworth is an Australian politician. She is a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and has been Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations in the Albanese government since 2025. She was previously the Minister for Social Services from 2022 to 2025, as well as the Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme in 2025. She has been...