Notable Alumni of University of California-San Diego [Sorted List]

1. Ian Agol

1970-. (aged 56)

university teacher mathematician topologist

Ian Agol is an American mathematician who deals primarily with the topology of three-dimensional manifolds.

2. Brian Druker

1955-. (aged 71)

hematologist oncologist university teacher

Brian J. Druker, M.D. is an American physician-scientist and JELD-WEN Chair of Leukemia Research at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) in Portland, Oregon. In 2025, he was named the inaugural president of the newly independent Knight Cancer Group, a self-governing entity formed by the Oregon Health & Science University's Knight Cancer Institute following a record $2 billion gift from...

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3. Xiaoliang Sunney Xie

1962-. (aged 64)

university teacher biochemist chemist

Xiaoliang Sunney Xie is a Chinese biophysicist well known for his contributions to the fields of single-molecule biophysical chemistry, coherent Raman Imaging and single-molecule genomics. In 2023, Xie renounced his U.S. citizenship in order to reclaim his Chinese citizenship.

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4. Dana Shell Smith

1970-. (aged 56)

diplomat

Dana Shell Smith is a former American diplomat and career Foreign Service Officer who served as the United States Ambassador to Qatar from July 2014 to June 2017. She was confirmed by the Senate as the U.S. Ambassador to Qatar on July 10, 2014. Previously, she served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Public Affairs from 2011 to 2014 and...

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5. Luis Alberto Urrea

1955-. (aged 71)

humanitarian university teacher novelist writer poet

Luis Alberto Urrea is a Mexican-American poet, novelist, and essayist.

6. Anna S. Þorvaldsdóttir

1977-. (aged 49)

composer cellist

Anna Sigríður Þorvaldsdóttir is an Icelandic composer. She has been called "one of Iceland's most celebrated composers", and was the 2012 winner of the Nordic Council Music Prize. Her music is frequently performed in Europe and in the United States, and is often influenced by landscapes and nature.

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7. Michael Greif

1959-. (aged 67)

theatrical director

Michael Greif is an American stage director. He has won three Obie Awards and received five Tony Award nominations, for Rent, Grey Gardens, Next to Normal (sic), Dear Evan Hansen, and Hell's Kitchen.

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8. Joshua Wright

1977-. (aged 49)

Joshua Daniel Wright is an American economist, attorney, and former government official. Wright was a commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) from 2013 to 2015. At the time of his nomination, Wright was the fourth economist to be an FTC commissioner. Wright was a professor of law at George Mason University's Antonin Scalia Law School between 2004 and 2023,...

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9. Andrew Feenberg

1943-. (aged 83)

university teacher philosopher

Andrew Feenberg is an American philosopher. He holds the Canada Research Chair in the Philosophy of Technology in the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. His main interests are philosophy of technology, continental philosophy, critique of technology and science and technology studies.

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10. Rex Pickett

1956-. (aged 70)

screenwriter novelist film director writer film editor

Rex Pickett is an American novelist and filmmaker best known for his novel Sideways, which was adapted into a 2004 movie of the same name directed by Alexander Payne.

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11. Christine Abizaid

1979-. (aged 47)

intelligence officer association football player

Christine Sandra Abizaid is an American intelligence officer who was the director of the National Counterterrorism Center in the Biden administration from 2021 to 2024, becoming the first woman and first openly gay person to hold the position.

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12. Hillary Ronen

politician

Hillary Ronen is an American politician and attorney who served as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors from 2017 to 2025. She represented District 9, which includes the neighborhoods of Mission District, Bernal Heights, and Portola.

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13. Peter Godfrey-Smith

1965-. (aged 61)

university teacher philosopher

Peter Godfrey-Smith is an Australian philosopher of science and writer, who is currently Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Sydney. He works primarily in philosophy of biology and philosophy of mind, and also has interests in general philosophy of science, pragmatism (especially the work of John Dewey), and some parts of metaphysics and epistemology. Godfrey-Smith...

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14. Aryeh Bourkoff

1972-. (aged 54)

business executive chief executive officer businessperson chairperson

Aryeh B. Bourkoff is an American businessman and documentary producer. He is the founder and chief executive officer of LionTree LLC, a global investment and merchant banking firm focused on media, technology and telecommunications.

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15. Eleanor Mariano

1955-. (aged 71)

physician military officer

Eleanor Concepcion "Connie" Mariano, is a Filipino American physician and retired flag officer in the United States Navy. She is the first Filipino American and graduate of the Uniformed Services University of Medicine to reach the rank of Rear Admiral in the U.S. Navy as well as the second woman to become Physician to the President, a position that placed...

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16. Wendy Suzuki

science communicator neuroscientist

Wendy Suzuki is an American neuroscientist. She is a professor at the New York University Center for Neural Science. She is the author of Healthy Brain, Happy Life: A Personal Program to Activate Your Brain and Do Everything Better. Since September 1, 2022, she has served as Dean of the New York University College of Arts & Science.

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17. Ye Si

1949-2013 (aged 64)

university teacher poet writer

Leung Ping-kwan, whose pen name was Yesi (Chinese: 也斯), was a Hong Kong poet, novelist, essayist, translator, teacher, and scholar who received the Hong Kong Medal of Honor (MH). He was an important long-time cultural figure in Hong Kong.

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18. Philip Rosedale

1968-. (aged 58)

entrepreneur businessperson

Philip Rosedale is an American entrepreneur who founded Linden Lab, which develops and hosts the virtual world Second Life.

19. Alondra Nelson

1968-. (aged 58)

sociologist

Alondra Nelson is an American academic, policy advisor, non-profit administrator, and writer. She is the Harold F. Linder chair and professor in the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study, an independent research center in Princeton, New Jersey. Since March 2023, she has been a distinguished senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. In October 2023,...

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20. Robert Todd Carroll

1945-2016 (aged 71)

philosopher professor writer

Robert Todd Carroll was an American author, philosopher and academic, best known for The Skeptic's Dictionary. He described himself as a naturalist, an atheist, a materialist, a metaphysical libertarian, and a positivist. In 2010 he was elected a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. He was a professor of philosophy at Sacramento City College from 1977 until his retirement...

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21. Fred Ramsdell

1960-. (aged 66)

immunologist

Frederick Jay Ramsdell is an American immunologist and Nobel Prize laureate. As of 2025, he is an advisor at Sonoma Biotherapeutics, a biotechnology company co-founded by him.

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22. Nidhal Guessoum

1960-. (aged 66)

astrophysicist researcher physicist

Nidhal Guessoum is an Algerian astrophysicist. He is a professor at the American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.

23. Rahul Jandial

1972-. (aged 54)

physician neuroscientist neurosurgeon

Rahul Jandial is an American, dual-trained brain surgeon and neuroscientist. He is also a London Times bestselling & international bestselling author with his books translated into over 30 languages.

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24. Phil Town

1948-. (aged 78)

motivational speaker soldier

Philip Bradley Town is an American investor, hedge fund manager, motivational speaker, and author of three books on financial investment which were the New York Times bestsellers.

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25. Sudhir Venkatesh

1966-. (aged 60)

professor ethnographer sociologist ethnologist

Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh is an American sociologist and urban ethnographer. He is William B. Ransford Professor of Sociology & African-American Studies at Columbia University, a position he has held since 1999. In his work, Venkatesh has studied gangs and underground economies, public housing, advertising and technology. As of 2018, he is the Director of Signal: The Tech & Society Lab...

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26. Antony Garrett Lisi

1968-. (aged 58)

surfer theoretical physicist physicist

Antony Garrett Lisi, known as Garrett Lisi, is an American theoretical physicist. Lisi works as an independent researcher without an academic position.

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27. Michael Scott Moore

1969-. (aged 57)

journalist

Michael Scott Moore is an American journalist and novelist. He is the author of Sweetness and Blood (2010), a nonfiction book about the global history of surfing, and The Desert and the Sea (2018), a memoir about his captivity in Somalia. His work has appeared in publications such as The Atlantic, The New Republic, and the Los Angeles Times, and...

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28. DJ Patil

1974-. (aged 52)

chief data officer statistician

Dhanurjay "DJ" Patil is an American mathematician and computer scientist who served as the Chief Data Scientist of the United States Office of Science and Technology Policy from 2015 to 2017. He is the Head of Technology for Devoted Health. He previously served as the Vice President of Product at RelateIQ, which was acquired by Salesforce.com, as Chief Product Officer...

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29. Sian Beilock

1976-. (aged 50)

writer psychologist

Sian Leah Beilock is an American cognitive scientist who is the president of Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. Before Dartmouth, she was the president of Barnard College in Manhattan, New York. She was previously the Stella M. Rowley Professor of Psychology and executive vice provost at the University of Chicago.

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30. Catherynne M. Valente

1979-. (aged 47)

young adult author novelist children's writer science fiction writer poet

Catherynne Morgan Valente is an American fiction writer, poet, and literary critic. For her speculative fiction novels she has won the annual James Tiptree, Jr. Award, Andre Norton Award, and Mythopoeic Award. Her short fiction has appeared in Clarkesworld Magazine, the anthologies Salon Fantastique and Paper Cities, and numerous "Year's Best" volumes. Her critical work has appeared in the International...

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31. Charlet Chung

1983-. (aged 43)

actor television actor voice actor

Chihye "Charlet" Takahashi Chung is an American actress who is best known for her works in voice acting, as well as for her various roles throughout film and television. She voices the fictional character D.Va in the multiplayer-shooter video game Overwatch and has reprised the role for the crossover game Heroes of the Storm. She also voiced Seraph in the...

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32. David Barrera

1968-. (aged 58)

film actor actor television actor

David Joel Barrera is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Gunnery Sgt. Ray 'Casey Kasem' Griego in Generation Kill. He has appeared in television series including Grimm, Heroes, CSI: Miami, Boston Legal, Medium, Nip/Tuck, NYPD Blue, Murder One, Without a Trace, The West Wing, The Big Bang Theory and 24 for which he got nominated...

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33. Lowell Bergman

1945-. (aged 81)

television producer television journalist journalist

Lowell Bergman is an American journalist, television producer, and professor of journalism. Bergman was a producer, reporter, and director of investigative reporting at ABC News. Later a producer for CBS’s 60 Minutes, he left that network in 1999 as the senior producer of investigations for CBS News. He founded the investigative reporting program at the Graduate School of Journalism at...

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34. Em Beihold

1999-. (aged 27)

singer-songwriter

Emily Mahin "Em" Beihold is an American singer-songwriter. She released her debut EP Infrared in 2017. After signing to Republic Records in 2021, she released her major-label debut single "Numb Little Bug" in 2022, which brought her widespread recognition. The same year, she released her second EP, Egg in the Backseat. Her debut album, Tales of a Failed Shapeshifter, is...

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35. Françoise Vergès

1952-. (aged 74)

women's rights activist political scientist university teacher

Françoise Vergès is a French political scientist, historian, film producer, independent curator, activist and public educator. Her work focuses on postcolonial studies and decolonial feminism.

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36. Lesley Wei-chung Ma

1980-. (aged 46)

art historian

Lesley Ma Wei-chung is a Taiwanese and American art historian. She is the Ming Chu Hsu and Daniel Xu Curator of Asian Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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37. Bill Atkinson

1951-2025 (aged 74)

computer scientist designer inventor programmer photographer

William Dana Atkinson was an American computer engineer, computer programmer and photographer. Atkinson worked at Apple Computer from 1978 to 1990. Some of Atkinson's noteworthy contributions to the field of computing include Macintosh QuickDraw and Lisa LisaGraf (Atkinson independently discovered the midpoint circle algorithm for fast drawing of circles by using the sum of consecutive odd numbers), marching ants, the...

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38. Danny Burstein

1964-. (aged 62)

singer stage actor television actor voice actor actor

Danny Burstein is an American actor and singer. Known for his work on Broadway stage, he's received numerous accolades including a Tony Award, a Drama League Award and two Drama Desk Awards, in addition to nominations for four Grammy Awards.

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39. Jefferson Mays

1965-. (aged 61)

television actor stage actor actor film actor

Lewis Jefferson Mays is an American actor. He is the recipient of numerous accolades, including a Tony Award, a Helen Hayes Award, a Lucille Lortel Award, two Drama Desk Awards, two Outer Critics Circle Awards and three Obie Awards.

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40. David J. Peterson

1981-. (aged 45)

linguist language inventor writer

David Joshua Peterson is an American language creator. He came to prominence after creating the Dothraki and Valyrian languages for the television series Game of Thrones. He has subsequently worked on a number of other projects, including the films Dune and Dune: Part Two, for which he created the Chakobsa language. He has written a book on language construction entitled...

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41. Maria Ho

1983-. (aged 43)

poker player television presenter

Maria Ho is a Taiwanese-American poker player and television host/commentator. One of the top-ranked female poker players in the world and a Women in Poker Hall of Fame inductee, she has won more than $5,000,000 in live tournaments.

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42. Jon Foreman

1976-. (aged 50)

singer guitarist singer-songwriter

Jonathan Mark Foreman is an American musician who is the lead singer, guitarist, primary songwriter, and co-founder of the alternative rock band Switchfoot. As a solo act, Foreman has released 14 extended plays and two studio albums.

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43. Anthony Neely

1986-. (aged 40)

singer television actor singer-songwriter

Anthony Neely is an American-Taiwanese singer and actor. His father is of Euro-American descent and his mother is Taiwanese. In 2009, Neely participated in Taiwanese singing competition One Million Star (Season 5) as a PK (Player Kill) challenger. His performances created sensations after receiving full marks of 25 points on three occasions, and also being the first in the reality...

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44. Roger Y. Tsien

1952-2016 (aged 64)

biochemist chemist university teacher biophysicist

Roger Yonchien Tsien was an American biochemist. He was a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of California, San Diego, and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2008 for his discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein, in collaboration with organic chemist Osamu Shimomura and neurobiologist Martin Chalfie. Tsien was also a pioneer of calcium...

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45. Milo Aukerman

1963-. (aged 63)

singer biochemist

Milo Jay Aukerman is an American singer, songwriter, and former research molecular biologist. Aukerman is most widely known for being the lead vocalist of the punk rock band the Descendents, a group widely considered to be pioneers of pop-punk. A caricature of Aukerman serves as the band's mascot.

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46. Lindsay Ellingson

1984-. (aged 42)

model fashion model

Lindsay Marie Ellingson is an American model. She was a Victoria's Secret Angel from 2011 to 2014.

47. Kathleen Rubins

1978-. (aged 48)

astronaut biologist

Kathleen Hallisey Rubins is an American microbiologist, the inaugural director of the Trivedi Institute for Space and Global Biomedicine at the University of Pittsburgh, and retired NASA astronaut. She became the 60th woman to fly in space when she launched on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) on July 7, 2016. She returned to Earth in...

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48. Peter Robbins

1956-2022 (aged 66)

voice actor

Peter Robbins was an American actor and real estate broker. Robbins gained national fame in the 1960s for being the first actor to voice Charlie Brown in the Peanuts animated specials.

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49. Nick Woodman

1975-. (aged 51)

businessperson

Nicholas D. Woodman is an American businessman, and the founder and CEO of GoPro.

50. Craig Venter

1946-. (aged 80)

researcher geneticist biochemist entrepreneur

John Craig Venter is an American scientist. He is known for leading one of the first draft sequences of the human genome and led the first team to transfect a cell with a synthetic chromosome. Venter founded Celera Genomics, the Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) and the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI). He was the co-founder of Human Longevity Inc....

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51. Nathan East

1955-. (aged 71)

bassist cellist guitarist jazz musician

Nathan Harrell East is an American jazz, R&B, and rock bass guitarist and vocalist. With more than 2,000 recordings, East is one of the most recorded bass players in the history of music. East holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in music from the University of California, San Diego (1978). He is a founding member of contemporary jazz quartet Fourplay...

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52. Alicia Garza

1981-. (aged 45)

activist

Alicia Garza is an American civil rights activist and writer known for co-founding the Black Lives Matter movement. She is a recognized advocate for social and racial justice, with a particular focus on issues affecting marginalized communities, including Black women, LGBTQ+ people, and immigrants. Garza is also a writer and public speaker. She has written extensively on issues related to...

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53. Ricardo Chavira

1971-. (aged 55)

film actor television actor stage actor

Ricardo Antonio Chavira is an American actor. He is best known as Carlos Solis in Desperate Housewives (2004–12) and Abraham Quintanilla in Selena: The Series (2020).

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54. Robert Buckley

1981-. (aged 45)

model television actor actor film actor

Robert Earl Buckley is an American actor, known for his roles as Kirby Atwood on the NBC dramedy series Lipstick Jungle, Clay Evans on The CW drama series One Tree Hill, Brian Leonard on the ABC horror-drama series 666 Park Avenue, Major Lillywhite on The CW dramedy series iZombie, and Evan Kincaid on the Hallmark Channel drama series Chesapeake Shores.

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55. Steve Blum

1960-. (aged 66)

screenwriter voice actor entrepreneur actor

Steven Jay Blum is an American voice actor. Known for his distinctively deep voice, his roles include Spike Spiegel from the anime series Cowboy Bebop; Amon from The Legend of Korra; Heatblast, Ghostfreak, and Vilgax from Ben 10; Garazeb Orrelios from Star Wars Rebels; Starscream from Transformers: Prime; Sub-Zero from the Mortal Kombat franchise; Tank Dempsey from the Call of...

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56. Jimmy O. Yang

1987-. (aged 39)

actor comedian screenwriter

Jimmy O. Yang is a Hong Kong-American stand-up comedian and actor. As an actor, he is best known for starring as Jian-Yang in the HBO comedy series Silicon Valley, as Dr. Chan Kaifang in the Netflix comedy series Space Force, and as Josh Lin in the Netflix romantic comedy film Love Hard (2021).

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57. Rachel Campos-Duffy

1971-. (aged 55)

television personality

Rachel Campos-Duffy is an American conservative television personality. She first appeared on television in 1994 as a cast member on the MTV reality television series The Real World: San Francisco, before moving on to work as a television host. She was a guest host on the ABC talk show The View, before moving to Fox News, where she has guest-hosted...

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58. Billy Beane

1962-. (aged 64)

manager businessperson baseball player general manager

William Lamar Beane III is an American former professional baseball player and current front office executive. He is currently senior advisor to owner John Fisher and minority owner of the Athletics of Major League Baseball (MLB) and formerly the executive vice president of baseball operations. He is also a minority owner of soccer clubs Barnsley of the EFL League One...

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59. Milana Vayntrub

1988-. (aged 38)

political activist spokesperson vlogger comedian film director

Milana Aleksandrovna Vayntrub is an American actress, comedian, and activist. She began her career as a child actress and came to prominence for her appearances in AT&T television commercials as saleswoman Lily Adams from 2013 to 2016 and since 2020. In addition to her commercial appearances, she was a series regular on the Yahoo! Screen science fiction comedy Other Space...

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60. Mike Judge

1962-. (aged 64)

film producer film actor showrunner animator television actor

Michael Craig Judge is an American actor, animator, writer, producer, and director. He is the creator of the animated television series Beavis and Butt-Head (1993–1997, 2011, 2022–present), and co-created the television series King of the Hill (1997–2010, 2025–present), The Goode Family (2009), Silicon Valley (2014–2019), and Mike Judge Presents: Tales from the Tour Bus (2017–2018). He wrote and directed the...

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61. Benicio del Toro

1967-. (aged 59)

actor television actor screenwriter film actor film director

Benicio Monserrate Rafael del Toro Sánchez is a Puerto Rican actor. His accolades include an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Goya Award, and the Best Actor awards at the Berlin International Film Festival and the Cannes Film Festival. Films in which he has appeared have grossed over $5.9 billion worldwide.

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62. Polly Matzinger

1947-. (aged 79)

biologist immunologist

Polly Celine Eveline Matzinger is a French-born immunologist who proposed the danger model theory of how the immune system works.

63. David Brin

1950-. (aged 76)

novelist science fiction writer physicist astrophysicist screenwriter

Glen David Brin is an American science fiction author. He has won the Hugo, Locus, Campbell and Nebula Awards. His novel The Postman was adapted into a 1997 feature film starring Kevin Costner.

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64. Teri Reeves

1981-. (aged 45)

film actor television actor stage actor

Teri Lynn Reeves is an American theater and television actress. Her television credits include Chicago Fire, Battleground, and NCIS.

65. Jonah

1959-. (aged 67)

Eastern Orthodox priest

Metropolitan Jonah is a retired American Eastern Orthodox bishop who served as the primate of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) with the title The Most Blessed Archbishop of Washington, Metropolitan of All America and Canada from his election on November 12, 2008, until his resignation on July 7, 2012. Metropolitan Jonah was the first convert to the Orthodox faith...

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66. Jack Sarfatti

1939-. (aged 87)

physicist theoretical physicist

Jack Sarfatti is an American theoretical physicist. Working largely outside academia, most of Sarfatti's publications revolve around quantum physics and consciousness.

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67. Marion Ross

1928-. (aged 98)

stage actor television actor voice actor actor film actor

Marion Ross is a retired American actress. Her best-known role is that of Marion Cunningham on the ABC television sitcom Happy Days, on which she starred from 1974 to 1984 and for which she received two Primetime Emmy Award nominations. Before her success on Happy Days, Ross appeared in a variety of film roles, appearing in The Glenn Miller Story...

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68. Khaled Hosseini

1965-. (aged 61)

novelist writer physician writer medical writer physician

Khaled Hosseini or Khalid Husseini is an Afghan and American novelist, UNHCR goodwill ambassador, and former physician. His debut novel The Kite Runner (2003) was a critical and commercial success; the book and his subsequent novels have all been at least partially set in Afghanistan and have featured an Afghan as the protagonist. Hosseini's novels have spread awareness about Afghanistan's...

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69. Robb Kulin

1983-. (aged 43)

Robb Michael Kulin is an American aerospace engineer, entrepreneur, and former NASA astronaut candidate. He was a member of NASA Astronaut Group 22 but resigned before completing astronaut training.

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70. Nicole Mitchell

1967-. (aged 59)

flautist jazz composer jazz musician university teacher

Nicole Lynn Mitchell is an American former politician, military officer, and meteorologist. She represented the cities of Woodbury and Maplewood in the Minnesota Senate as a member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party until her resignation on July 25, 2025. Mitchell was also a lieutenant colonel in the Wisconsin Air National Guard, commanding the 126th Weather Flight, and previously served in...

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71. Alexander Butterfield

1926-. (aged 100)

military officer entrepreneur politician

Alexander Porter Butterfield is a retired United States Air Force officer, public official, and businessman.

72. Kim Stanley Robinson

1952-. (aged 74)

novelist science fiction writer writer

Kim Stanley Robinson is an American science fiction writer best known for his Mars trilogy of novels. Many of his novels and stories have ecological, cultural, and political themes, featuring scientists as heroes. Robinson has won numerous awards, including the Hugo Award for Best Novel, the Nebula Award for Best Novel, and the World Fantasy Award. The Atlantic magazine has...

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73. Kathy Acker

1947-1997 (aged 50)

performance artist university teacher writer comics writer prose writer

Kathy Acker was an American experimental novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, critic, performance artist, and postmodernist writer, known for her idiosyncratic and transgressive writing that dealt with complex themes such as childhood trauma, sexuality, language, identity, and rebellion. Her writing incorporates pastiche and the cut-up technique, involving cutting-up and scrambling passages and sentences; she also defined her writing as existing in...

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74. Brian Wecht

1975-. (aged 51)

musician theoretical physicist

Brian Alexander Wecht, also known by his character name Ninja Brian, is an American musician, Internet personality, podcaster, and theoretical physicist. He is best known as a member of comedy musical duo Ninja Sex Party and video game-based comedy music trio Starbomb. He has also appeared on the Let's Play webseries Game Grumps, all three alongside Dan Avidan.

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75. B. Alan Wallace

1950-. (aged 76)

teacher writer translator

Bruce Alan Wallace is an American Buddhologist of Tibetan Buddhism. He has authored many texts in the field of contemplative science, most notably The Attention Revolution on the cultivation of Samatha, and Dreaming Yourself Awake on the lucid dreaming practice of dream yoga. Wallace's works include an English translation of the foremost Tibetan Buddhism text, the Bardo Thodol, by Padmasambhava....

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76. Kathleen Woodward

academic university teacher

Kathleen Woodward is an American academic. She is a Lockwood Professor in Humanities and in English at the University of Washington and has been the Director of the Simpson Center for the Humanities since 2000. Her areas of specialization include 20th-century American literature and culture; discourse of the emotions; technology and science studies; and age studies; digital humanities; and gender,...

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77. Vernor Vinge

1944-2024 (aged 80)

science fiction writer writer university teacher novelist mathematician

Vernor Steffen Vinge was an American science fiction author and professor. He taught mathematics and computer science at San Diego State University. He was the first wide-scale popularizer of the technological singularity concept and among the first authors to present a fictional "cyberspace". He won the Hugo Award for his novels A Fire Upon the Deep (1992), A Deepness in...

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78. Ryan Dahl

1981-. (aged 45)

programmer software engineer inventor

Ryan Dahl is an American software engineer who is best known for creating the Node.js JavaScript runtime as well as the Deno JavaScript/TypeScript runtime.

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79. Linda Arrigo

1949-. (aged 77)

human rights defender

Linda Gail Arrigo is an American political activist, human rights activist, and academic researcher in Taiwan. She formerly served as the international affairs officer of Green Party Taiwan. She is the ex-wife of the former chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party, Shih Ming-teh.

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80. Lorna Simpson

1960-. (aged 66)

filmmaker draftsperson installation artist video artist photographer

Lorna Simpson is an American photographer and multimedia artist whose works have been exhibited both nationally and internationally. In 1990, she became one of the first African-American women to exhibit at the Venice Biennale. She came to prominence in the 1980s and 1990s with photo-text installations such as Guarded Conditions and Square Deal that questioned the nature of identity, gender,...

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81. Gregory Benford

1941-. (aged 85)

science fiction writer writer astronomer university teacher novelist

Gregory Benford is an American science fiction author and astrophysicist who is professor emeritus at the department of physics and astronomy at the University of California, Irvine. He is a contributing editor of Reason magazine.

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82. Silas Weir Mitchell

1970-. (aged 56)

film actor actor television actor

Silas Weir Mitchell is an American character actor. He is known for starring as Charles "Haywire" Patoshik in the Fox television series Prison Break (2005–2007), for the recurring role of Donny Jones in My Name Is Earl (2005–2009), and as Monroe in the NBC television series Grimm (2011–2017).

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83. Bruce Beutler

1957-. (aged 69)

scientist university teacher geneticist immunologist physician

Bruce Alan Beutler is an American immunologist and geneticist. Together with Jules A. Hoffmann, he received one-half of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, for "discoveries concerning the activation of innate immunity." Beutler discovered the long-elusive receptor for lipopolysaccharide (LPS; also known as endotoxin). He did so by identifying spontaneous mutations in the gene coding for mouse Toll-like...

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84. James Avery

1945-2013 (aged 68)

actor poet screenwriter film actor voice actor

James La Rue Avery was an American actor. He was best known for his roles as Philip Banks in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Judge Michael Conover on L.A. Law, Steve Yeager in The Brady Bunch Movie, and Dr. Crippen on The Closer (2005–2007); and as the voice actor for Shredder in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Haroud Hazi Bin...

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85. Bonnie Henry

1966-. (aged 60)

chief medical officer

Bonnie J. Fraser Henry is a Canadian epidemiologist, physician, and public official who has been the provincial health officer at the British Columbia Ministry of Health since 2014. Henry is also a clinical associate professor at the University of British Columbia. She is a specialist in public health and preventive medicine, and is a family doctor. In her role as...

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86. Jetrin Wattanasin

1970-. (aged 56)

actor television actor

Jetrin Wattanasin or J Jetrin, is a Thai singer, rapper, and dancer who got his first major break in the music business when he secured heavy promotion by the Thai entertainment company, GMM Grammy. Since 1991, he has produced numerous commercially successful music albums, and continues to tour internationally in support of his most recent recordings. Upon the conclusion of...

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87. Chu Ching-wu

1941-. (aged 85)

justice of the peace physicist

Paul Ching Wu Chu is a Taiwanese-American physicist specializing in superconductivity, magnetism, and dielectrics. He is a professor of physics and T.L.L. Temple Chair of Science in the Physics Department at the University of Houston College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. He was the president of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology from 2001 to 2009. In 1987,...

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88. Kuan Chung-ming

1956-. (aged 70)

writer economist university teacher politician

Kuan Chung-ming is a Taiwanese economist and econometrician. He was the last minister of the Council for Economic Planning and Development from 2013 to 2014 and served as the first minister of the succeeding government agency, the National Development Council (NDC), from 2014 to 2015. He was formerly the President of National Taiwan University from 2019 to 2023 and is...

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89. Susumu Tonegawa

1939-. (aged 87)

scientist neuroscientist chemist geneticist professor

Susumu Tonegawa is a Japanese scientist who was the sole recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1987 for his discovery of V(D)J recombination, the genetic mechanism which produces antibody diversity. Although he won the Nobel Prize for his work in immunology, Tonegawa is a molecular biologist by training and he again changed fields following his Nobel...

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90. Debito Arudou

1965-. (aged 61)

writer

Debito Arudou is an American-born Japanese writer, blogger, and human rights activist. He was born in the United States and became a naturalized Japanese citizen in 2000. Arudou has since left Japan after living in the country for over 20 years.

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91. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

1952-. (aged 74)

biophysicist biologist molecular biologist chemist biochemist

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan is a British-American structural biologist. He shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Thomas A. Steitz and Ada Yonath for research on the structure and function of ribosomes.

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92. Subhasis Chaudhuri

1963-. (aged 63)

computer scientist electrical engineer university teacher

Subhasis Chaudhury is an Indian electrical engineer, former director at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT Bombay) and currently Chairman of the Board of Directors of BSE Limited. He is a former K. N. Bajaj Chair Professor of the Department of Electrical Engineering of IIT Bombay. He is known for his pioneering studies on computer vision and is an...

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93. Hung Liu

1948-2021 (aged 73)

visual artist painter university teacher photographer

Hung Liu was a Chinese-born American contemporary artist. She was predominantly a painter, but also worked with mixed-media and site-specific installation and was also one of the first artists from China to establish a career in the United States.

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94. Kurt M. Campbell

1957-. (aged 69)

diplomat

Kurt Michael Campbell is an American diplomat and businessman who served as the United States deputy secretary of state from 2024 to 2025. He previously served as deputy assistant advisor to President Biden and National Security Council coordinator for the Indo-Pacific from 2021 to 2024. In this capacity, Campbell had been referred to as the Biden administration's "Asia coordinator" or...

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95. Clive Granger

1934-2009 (aged 75)

econometrician economist statistician university teacher

Sir Clive William John Granger was a British econometrician known for his contributions to nonlinear time series analysis. He taught in Britain, at the University of Nottingham and in the United States, at the University of California, San Diego. Granger was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2003 in recognition of the contributions that he and his...

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96. Maria Goeppert Mayer

1906-1972 (aged 66)

physicist scientist university teacher nuclear physicist

Maria Goeppert Mayer was a German–American theoretical physicist who shared the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physics with J. Hans D. Jensen and Eugene Wigner. One half of the prize was awarded jointly to Goeppert Mayer and Jensen "for their discoveries concerning nuclear shell structure". She was the second woman to win the Nobel Prize in Physics, the first being Marie...

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97. Angela Davis

1944-. (aged 82)

university teacher women's rights activist human rights defender political prisoner writer

Angela Yvonne Davis is an American Marxist and feminist political activist, philosopher, academic, author and social theorist. She is Distinguished Professor Emerita of Feminist Studies and History of Consciousness at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Davis was a longtime member of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) and a founding member of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism...

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98. Katharina Schulze

1985-. (aged 41)

politician

Katharina Elisabeth Schulze is a German politician of Alliance 90/The Greens who has been serving as a member of the State Parliament of Bavaria (Landtag) since 2013. Along with Ludwig Hartmann, she was one of the two leading candidates of her party in the 2018 Bavarian state election. Since 2019, she has been part of her party's national leadership, under...

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99. Mario Testino

1954-. (aged 72)

photographer fashion photographer

Mario Eduardo Testino Silva OBE HonFRPS is a Peruvian fashion and portrait photographer.

100. Jamus Lim

1976-. (aged 50)

politician economist

Jamus Jerome Lim Chee Wui is a Singaporean politician, economist and associate professor. A member of the Workers' Party (WP), Lim has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Anchorvale division of Sengkang Group Representation Constituency (GRC) since 2020.

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