100 Notable alumni of University of Chile

José María Maza Sancho is a Chilean astronomer and astrophysicist. His work has focused on the study of supernovas, the execution of a search for objects with emission lines, dark energy, and quasars with an objective prism, which led him to be awarded the National Prize for Exact Sciences in 1999. Since 2017 he gained popular following with books aimed...

Domingo Santa María González was a Chilean political figure. He served as the president of Chile between 1881 and 1886.

José Andrés Rafael Zaldívar Larraín, popularly known as El Chico Zaldívar ("Short Zaldívar"), is a prominent Chilean Christian Democrat politician. Andrés Zaldívar is of Basque descent.

Jorge Edwards Valdés was a Chilean novelist, journalist and diplomat. He was the Chilean ambassador to France during the first Sebastián Piñera presidency.

Claudio Reyes was a Chilean singer, actor, politician and comedian.

Gonzalo Rojas Pizarro was a Chilean poet. His work is part of the continuing Latin American avant-garde literary tradition of the twentieth century. In 2003 he was awarded the Cervantes Prize.

Gabriel Salazar Vergara is a far-left Chilean historian. He is known in his country for his study of social history and interpretations of social movements, particularly the recent student protests of 2006 and 2011–12.

Jaime Patricio Vadell Amión is a Chilean film, theatre and television actor. He is one of the most recognisable faces in Chilean telenovelas and cinema, having played key roles in films directed by Raúl Ruiz, Silvio Caiozzi and Pablo Larraín.

Agustín Iván Edmundo Edwards Eastman was a Chilean media proprietor, journalist and owner of El Mercurio SAP. Edwards inherited the family's newspaper company El Mercurio SAP, which publishes Chile's leading national dailies El Mercurio and La Segunda among others. Known for his right-wing views, Edwards used El Mercurio SAP's newspapers to influence public opinion in Chile and supported the 1973...

Fernando Atria Lemaitre is a Chilean intellectual, lawyer, university teacher and politician. Atria has been an avid participant of the intellectual debates about reforms in the Chilean education system and the Constitution of Chile.

Ramón Barros Luco was President of Chile between 1910 and 1915.

Mariano Federico Picón Salas was a Venezuelan diplomatic, cultural critic and writer of the 20th century, born in Mérida on January 26, 1901, and died in Caracas on January 1, 1965.

Francisca Crovetto Chadid is a Chilean sport shooter. She won the gold medal at the 2024 Summer Olympics in the women's skeet event, marking the third gold medal in Chilean Olympic history and becoming the first Chilean woman to win gold.

Carmen Hertz Cádiz is a Chilean Communist Party politician and lawyer who participated in various institutions for the protection of human rights that arose as a result of the systematic violations committed during the dictatorship headed by Augusto Pinochet from 1973 to 1990. She worked with the Vicariate of Solidarity, the Social Aid Foundation of Christian Churches (FASIC), the National...

Daniel Alcaíno Cuevas is a Chilean actor and comedian. He is popularly known for his comedy characters Peter Veneno (roughly based in Ivan Zamorano), and Yerko Puchento, an outspoken showbusiness journalist and political satirist. Although he has gain further recognition for dramatic roles as well such as Exequiel Pacheco in Los 80 and Mario Medina in 42 Days of Darkness.

Viviana Cecilia Rodríguez Dreckmann is a Chilean actress.

José Tohá González was a Chilean journalist, lawyer, and politician of the Socialist Party (PS).

Pedro Elías Pablo Montt Montt was a Chilean political figure. He served as the president of Chile from 1906 to his death from a probable stroke in 1910. His government furthered railroad and manufacturing activities but ignored pressing social and labour problems.

Daniel Patricio Muñoz Bravo is a Chilean actor, comedian, and cueca singer.

Emilia Schneider is a Chilean activist, and politician. In the 2021 Chilean general election, she was elected to the Chamber of Deputies of Chile with the left-wing Commons party. She is the first openly transgender person to be elected to the Chamber of Deputies.

Eloísa Díaz Inzunza was a Chilean medical doctor. She was the first female medical student to attend the University of Chile, and the first woman to become a doctor of medicine in South America.

Francisco Javier Vidal Salinas is a Chilean politician and scholar.

Tomás Mosciatti is a Chilean radio host and political commentator of Radio Bío Bío.

Cecilia Magni Camino was a Chilean guerilla leader and sociologist, better known by the political name Comandante Tamara. She was one of the leaders of the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front (FPMR), a guerilla organization which arose from the Communist Party of Chile in the 1980s to fight against the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

Nicolás Eyzaguirre Guzmán is a Chilean economist, and the former Minister of Education of his country.

María Gabriela Hernández Gómez, also known as Gaby Hernández, is a Chilean theater, film and television actress with a long active career.

Aníbal Pinto Garmendia was a Chilean political figure. He served as the president of Chile between 1876 and 1881.

Álvaro Escobar Rufatt is a Chilean actor, television presenter, lawyer, musician, journalist, radio personality and politician. He was a deputy of the Republic of Chile for District No. 20, which included the communes of Cerrillos, Estación Central and Maipú during the 2006–2010 period. He is mainly known as an actor and television presenter, although he has been involved in many...

José Miguel Insulza Salinas is a Chilean politician, lawyer, and academic serving as a senator for the Arica y Parinacota Region since 2018. He previously served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1994 to 1999 and Minister Secretary-General of the Presidency from 1999 to 2000 under president Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, as Minister of the Interior from 2000 to 2005 under...

Alfredo Jaar is a Chilean-born artist, architect, photographer and filmmaker who lives in New York City. He is mostly known as an installation artist, often incorporating photography and covering socio-political issues and war—the best known perhaps being the 6-year-long The Rwanda Project about the 1994 Rwandan genocide. He has also made numerous public intervention works, like The Skoghall Konsthall one-day...

Carlos Altamirano Orrego was a Chilean lawyer and socialist politician. Altamirano was the General Secretary of the Chilean Socialist Party (PS) between 1971 and 1979. Before that, he was deputy from 1961 to 1965 and senator from 1965 to 1973. He fled Chile after Augusto Pinochet's coup d'état in 1973, and was exiled in Cuba, East Germany and France until...

Joan Alison Turner Roberts, known as Joan Jara or Joan de Jara was a British-Chilean dancer, activist, and widow of Chilean icon, democratic socialist, actor, dramaturg, theatre director, poet, dancer and esteemed folk songwriter Víctor Jara. After his death, she dedicated herself to perpetuating the memory of him, his work, and his values. She wrote An Unfinished Song: The Life...

Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna was a Chilean writer, journalist, historian and politician. Vicuña Mackenna was of Irish and Basque descent.

Andrés Allamand Zavala, a Chilean politician, is the founder and one of the past leaders of Renovación Nacional. He is of French, and Basque descent.

Delfina Guzmán Correa is a Chilean actress. She has appeared in more than 30 films and television shows since 1968. She starred in the 1968 Raúl Ruiz film Three Sad Tigers. She is the daughter of Florencio Guzmán Larraín and María Luisa Correa Ugarte. Her son, Nicolás Eyzaguirre, is a Chilean economist.

Ximena Cecilia Rincón González is a Chilean lawyer and politician. She served as a cabinet minister during the second government of President Michelle Bachelet, holding the positions of Minister Secretary-General of the Presidency (2014–2015) and Minister of Labor and Social Providence (2015–2016). Later, she was elected senator for the Maule Region (2018–2026) and served as President of the Senate from...

Loreto del Pilar Aravena Soto is a Chilean actress who is known for her role as Claudia Herrera, in the series Los 80 on Channel 13.

Hernán Alberto Büchi Buc is a Chilean economist who served as minister of finance of the Pinochet dictatorship. In 1989 he ran unsuccessfully for president with support of Chilean right-wing parties.

Juan Antonio Ríos Morales was a Chilean political figure who served as president of Chile from 1942 to 1946, during the height of World War II. He died in office.

Manuel Francisco Antonio Julián Montt Torres was a Chilean statesman and scholar who was twice elected President of Chile between 1851 and 1861. He was the first civilian to serve a full term as President of Chile.

Alejandro Javier González Legrand, better known as Coco Legrand, is a Chilean comedian, actor and TV presenter. His repertoire consists mainly of monologues that show daily experiences that allow us to review the most typical psychological features of society, satirizing them and thus rediscovering the profile of the average Chilean citizen.

Maya Alejandra Fernández Allende is a Chilean biologist, veterinarian and politician, a member of the Socialist Party of Chile (PS) who served as Minister of National Defense of Chile between 2022 and 2025. Since March 2018, she has served as a deputy of the Republic, representing the 10th district, Metropolitan Region. In her first legislative year, she presided over the...

Silvia Beatriz Guazzini Monsalve, best known as Coca Guazzini, is a Chilean television, theatre and film actress. Guazzini studied theatre at Universidad de Chile. She appeared in some popular Chilean telenovelas like Sucupira, Aquelarre and Tic Tac, in addition to participating in comedy programs such as De chincol a jote. In 2002 Coca Guazzini won the Apes Award for "Best...

Irací Luiza Hassler Jacob is a Chilean politician and economist who served as mayor of the commune of Santiago, which encompasses central Santiago, from 2021 to 2024. A member of the Communist Party of Chile (PCCh), she has been described as "the new face of feminism and environmentalism" in Chile.

Patricio Guzmán Lozanes is a Chilean documentary film director, screenwriter, director. He is most known for his film trilogy The Battle of Chile (1975–1979) and more recently for another trilogy; Nostalgia for the Light (2010), The Pearl Button (2015) and The Cordillera of Dreams (2019).

Mario Marcel Cullell is a Chilean economist who has served as Chile Minister of Finance from 11 March 2022 to 21 August 2025. He previously served as Governor of the Central Bank of Chile. He was named Governor in December 2016 and member of the Bank's Board from October 2015. He has been a close collaborator to the governments of...

Marcelo Alejandro Alonso Claro is a Chilean actor and theater director.

Cesar Epitácio Maia is a Brazilian politician, notable for having been elected three times for mayor of Rio de Janeiro.

Alfredo Arturo Castro Gómez, best known as Alfredo Castro, is a Chilean actor. With a well established trajectory in theater and television, he became one of the most well-known Latin American film actors of the 2010s.

Raúl Ernesto Ruiz Pino was an experimental Chilean filmmaker, writer and teacher whose work is best known in France. He directed more than 100 films.

Luis Enrique Gnecco Dessy is a Chilean actor.

Paola Volpato Martín is a Chilean actress.

Mercedes Hortensia Bussi Soto was the wife of Chilean President Salvador Allende. She was married to him from 1940 until he died by suicide during the 1973 Chilean coup d'état, serving as First Lady of Chile from 1970 to 1973. Her daughters are Beatriz, Isabel and Carmen Paz.

Jaime José Mañalich Muxi is a Chilean physician (nephrologist), and former Health Minister.

Elena Caffarena Morice was a Chilean lawyer, jurist and politician. Contemporary historians and humanists consider her to be one of the most important 20th-century public figures in Chile.

Gonzalo Rodolfo Winter Etcheberry is a Chilean lawyer and politician. Since March 2018, he has been a deputy of the Republic representing District 10, comprising Santiago Metropolitan Region.

Roque Antonio Dalton García, known professionally as Roque Dalton, was a Salvadoran poet, essayist, journalist, political activist, and intellectual. He is considered one of Latin America's most compelling poets and one of the greatest Salvadoran writers of the 20th century.

Juan Francisco Melo Miquel is a Chilean actor, producer and also model. His first TV performance was in the TVN program Mea Culpa in 1993. From then on he has appeared in several soap operas, movies and TV shows.

Claudia del Carmen Di Girolamo Quesney, is a Chilean actress and theater director of Italian descent, who has a prominent and distinguished artistic career in theater, film and television. Considered one of the best actresses of the performing arts in the history of Chilean television.

Claudio Benjamín Naranjo Cohen was a Chilean psychiatrist who is considered a pioneer in integrating psychotherapy and the spiritual traditions. He was one of the three successors named by Fritz Perls (founder of Gestalt Therapy), a student of Oscar Ichazo who originally developed the Enneagram of Personality, and a founder of the Seekers After Truth Institute. He was also an...

Carolina Montserrat Tohá Morales is a Chilean politician and political scientist. She served as Minister of the Interior and Public Security from 2022 to 2025 under President Gabriel Boric. A founding member of the Party for Democracy (PPD), she was the first woman to serve as Minister Secretary General of Government (2009) and also the first woman elected president of...

Izkia Jasvin Siches Pastén is a Chilean physician and politician, who served in 2022 as Minister of Interior and Public Security for President Gabriel Boric. She was the first woman to hold that position, the second most important in government after the President.

Esteban Antonio Skármeta Vranicic was a Chilean writer, screenwriter, and director. His novel Ardiente paciencia was the basis for the film Il Postino. In Chile, he was popularly known for hosting a television show on literature and the arts. He served as Chile’s ambassador to Germany from 2000 to 2003. In 2014, he was awarded the Chilean National Literature Prize.

Pedro Abelino Aguirre Cerda was a Chilean political figure, educator, and lawyer who served as the 23rd president of Chile from 1938 until his death in 1941. He was a center left moderate.

Franco Aldo Parisi Fernández is a Chilean economist and politician. He rose to prominence through his radio and television programs, where he broke down complex economic concepts into everyday language, earning him the nickname "the people's economist." He is a founder and the current leader of the Party of the People (PDG). Parisi has been a presidential candidate in the...

Marco Antonio Enríquez-Ominami Gumucio is a Chilean-French, filmmaker, politician, and perennial candidate. From 2006 to 2010 he was a Socialist Party deputy in Chile's lower chamber. In 2009 he quit the party and ran for President of the Republic as independent, where he finished third with 20% of the vote. He is currently the leader of the Progressive Party, which...

Óscar Daniel Jadue Jadue is a Chilean architect, sociologist and Marxist politician. A member of the Communist Party of Chile (PCCh), Jadue served as Mayor of Recoleta since 2012 until his dismissal on July 22, 2024.

Otto Friedmann Kernberg is an Austrian-born American psychoanalyst and professor of psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medicine, known for developing transference-focused psychotherapy (TFP). He is recognized internationally for his contributions to the psychoanalytic theories on borderline personality organization and narcissistic pathology.

Gabriel Enrique González Videla was a Chilean politician and lawyer who served as the 25th president of Chile from 1946 to 1952. He had previously been a member of the Chamber of Deputies from 1930 to 1941 and senator for Tarapacá and Antofagasta from 1945 to 1946. A long-time member and leader in the Radical Party, he left the party...

Patricio Aylwin Azócar OMCh was a Chilean politician, lawyer, author, professor and former senator who was the 30th president of Chile from 1990 to 1994. He was the first president to be elected after the end of Augusto Pinochet's military dictatorship following the 1988 Chilean presidential referendum, marking the Chilean transition to democracy in 1990. He was from the Christian...

Nicanor Segundo Parra Sandoval was a Chilean physicist and poet. He has been considered one of the most influential Spanish-language Chilean poets of the 20th century.

Ricardo Froilán Lagos Escobar is a Chilean lawyer, economist and social-democratic politician who served as president of Chile from 2000 to 2006. During the 1980s he was a well-known opponent of the Chilean military dictatorship and astounded contemporaries in 1988 by openly denouncing dictator Augusto Pinochet on live television. He served as Minister of Education from 1990 to 1992 and...

Camila Antonia Amaranta Vallejo Dowling is a Chilean geographer, politician, and former student leader. A prominent member of the Communist Party of Chile, she serves as the Minister General Secretariat of Government under President Gabriel Boric, a role she has held since March 2022, making her the government's chief spokesperson. She previously served as a member of the Chamber of...

Eduardo Alfredo Juan Bernardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle is a Chilean politician and civil engineer who served as president of Chile from 1994 to 2000. He was also a Senator, fulfilling the role of President of the Senate from 2006 to 2008. He attempted a comeback as the candidate of the ruling Concertación coalition for the 2009 presidential election, but was narrowly...

Agustín Arturo Prat Chacón was a Chilean Navy officer and lawyer. He was killed in the Battle of Iquique, during the War of the Pacific. During his career, Prat had taken part in several naval engagements, including battles at Papudo (1865), and at the Abtao (1866). Following his death, his name became a rallying cry for Chilean forces, and Arturo...

María Isabel Allende Bussi is a Chilean politician.

Jorge Eduardo Alessandri Rodríguez was the 27th President of Chile from 1958 to 1964, and was the candidate of the Chilean right in the crucial presidential election of 1970, which he lost to Salvador Allende. He was the son of Arturo Alessandri, who was president from 1920 to 1925 and again from 1932 to 1938.

Marcos Orlando Letelier del Solar was a Chilean Marxist and diplomat during the presidency of Salvador Allende. A member of the Socialist Party of Chile, he fled from the military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet, Letelier accepted several academic positions in Washington D.C. after his exile from Chile. In 1976, agents of Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA), the Pinochet regime's...

Arturo Fortunato Alessandri Palma was a Chilean political figure and reformer who served thrice as president of Chile, first from 1920 to 1924, then from March to October 1925, and finally from 1932 to 1938. He was a member of the Liberal Party.

Luis Sepúlveda Calfucura was a Chilean writer and journalist. A communist militant and fervent opponent of Augusto Pinochet's regime, he was imprisoned and tortured by the military dictatorship during the 1970s. Sepúlveda authored numerous poetry books and short stories; in addition to Spanish, his mother tongue, he also spoke English, the language in which he wrote his first novel, El...

Benjamín Vicuña Luco is a Chilean actor and entrepreneur.

Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte was a Chilean military officer, politician and dictator. From 1973 to 1981, he was the leader of the military junta, which in 1974 declared him President of Chile; in 1980, a referendum approved a new constitution confirming him in the office, after which he served as de jure president from 1981 to 1990. His time...

Pablo Neruda was a Chilean poet-diplomat and politician who won the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature. Neruda became known as a poet when he was 13 years old and wrote in a variety of styles, including surrealist poems, historical epics, political manifestos, a prose autobiography, and passionate love poems such as the ones in his collection Twenty Love Poems and...

Salvador Guillermo Allende Gossens was a Chilean socialist politician who served as the 29th president of Chile from 1970 until his death in 1973. As a socialist committed to democracy, he has been described as the first Marxist to be elected president in a liberal democracy in Latin America.

Alejandro Jodorowsky Prullansky is a Chilean and French avant-garde filmmaker. Known for his films El Topo (1970), The Holy Mountain (1973) and Santa Sangre (1989), Jodorowsky has been "venerated by cult cinema enthusiasts" for his work which "is filled with violently surreal images and a hybrid blend of mysticism and religious provocation".

Gabriel Boric Font is a Chilean politician who has served as the 37th president of Chile since 2022. A socialist, he was previously a member of the Chamber of Deputies for two consecutive terms from 2014 to 2022.

Verónica Michelle Bachelet Jeria is a Chilean politician who served as the 33rd and 35th president of Chile from 2006 to 2010 and from 2014 to 2018. She is the first and to date only woman to hold the presidency. She was re-elected in December 2013 with over 62% of the vote, having previously received 54% in 2006, making her...

Víctor Lidio Jara Martínez was a Chilean teacher, theater director, poet, singer-songwriter and Communist political activist. He developed Chilean theater by directing a broad array of works, ranging from locally produced plays to world classics, as well as the experimental work of playwrights such as Ann Jellicoe. He also played a pivotal role among neo-folkloric musicians who established the Nueva...

José Guillermo Abel López Portillo y Pacheco was a Mexican writer, lawyer, and politician affiliated with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) who served as the 58th president of Mexico from 1976 to 1982. López Portillo was the only official candidate in the 1976 presidential election, being the only president in recent Mexican history to win an election unopposed.

Álvaro Antonio Elizalde Soto is a Chilean politician and lawyer. He assumed the office of Ministry General Secretariat of the Presidency on 19 April 2023.

Alberto Manfredo Mayol Miranda is a Chilean sociologist, political analyst, and politician. An independent researcher, and author of several works on social sciences, politics, and culture, he was a candidate in the Broad Front 2017 presidential primary.

Alejandro Andrés Zambra Infantas is a Chilean poet, short-story writer and novelist. He has been recognized for his talent as a young Latin American writer, chosen in 2007 as one of the "Bogotá39" (the best Latin American writers under the age of 39) and in 2010 by Granta as one of the best Spanish-language writers under the age of 35.

José Manuel Donoso Yáñez, known as José Donoso, was a Chilean writer, journalist and professor. He lived most of his life in Chile, although he spent many years in self-imposed exile in Mexico, the United States and Spain. Although he stated that he had left Chile in the 1960s for personal reasons, after 1973 his exile was also a form...

Francisco Javier Varela García was a Chilean biologist, philosopher, cybernetician, and neuroscientist who, together with his mentor Humberto Maturana, is best known for introducing the concept of autopoiesis to biology, and for co-founding the Mind and Life Institute to promote dialog between science and Buddhism.

Karla Elizabeth Rubilar Barahona is a Chilean physician and politician. During the second government of Sebastián Piñera (2018–2022), she has been a minister twice.

Carolina Arredondo Marzán is a Chilean actress who serves as Chile's Ministry of Cultures, Arts and Heritage.

Inés Lucía Pinochet Hiriart is the eldest daughter of former Chile's dictator Augusto Pinochet and Lucía Hiriart de Pinochet. She was a councilor for the municipality of Vitacura from 2008 until 2012.

Irina Sabine Alice Karamanos Adrian is a Chilean anthropologist and political scientist who, as the then partner of President Gabriel Boric, served as first lady of Chile and sociocultural coordinator of the Presidency of the Republic between March and December 2022, when both positions were officially dissolved.

Luciano Cruz-Coke Carvallo is a Chilean actor and politician, and was the Minister of Arts and Culture under the 35th President Sebastián Piñera.