100 Notable alumni of University of Delaware

George Read Riddle was an American engineer, lawyer and politician from Wilmington, Delaware. He was a member of the Democratic Party who served as U.S. representative and as U.S. senator from Delaware.

Robert Houston Pepper was an officer of the United States Marine Corps with the rank of lieutenant general, who is most noted for his work in the development of the Marine defense battalions during World War II and later as commanding general of the Fleet Marine Force, Pacific or 3rd Marine Division.

Anthony Clark Higgins was an American lawyer and politician from Wilmington, in New Castle County, Delaware. He was a veteran of the Civil War and a member of the Republican Party, who served as United States Senator from Delaware.

Ernie George Wasson is an American gardener, horticulturist and author.

Carrie Ann Baade is an American painter whose work has been described by Curator of Contemporary Art Margaret Winslow as "autobiographical parables combin(ing) fragments of Renaissance and Baroque religious paintings, resulting in surreal landscapes inhabited by exotic flora, fauna, and figures." The context and the compositional building blocks of her work are fragments of historical masterpieces, which Baade reinterprets using...

Mark McClafferty is an American film producer, television producer/writer, and Chairman of Spellbound Pictures.

John George Stewart was an American architect and politician from Wilmington, Delaware. He was a member of the Republican Party, who served as U.S. Representative from Delaware and as Architect of the Capitol. He was known by his middle name.

John Richard Schmidhauser was an American politician. He served one term as a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives from southeastern Iowa, defeating incumbent Republican Fred Schwengel in 1964 but losing to Schwengel two years later in 1966, and again in 1968. He was, until his death in 2018, a professor emeritus of political science at the University...

John R. Ewers, Jr. is a retired major general in the United States Marine Corps. He was the 19th staff Judge advocate to the Commandant of the Marine Corps.

William Medill was a 19th-century American lawyer and Democratic politician from Ohio. He was the 22nd governor of Ohio from 1853 to 1856. He had previously served two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1839 to 1843.

Major General John M. Custer III was a United States Army officer. He was the Commanding General, United States Army Intelligence Center and Fort Huachuca.

John Leonard Anderson is the former president of the National Academy of Engineering. He was a professor of chemical engineering, who served as the eighth president of Illinois Institute of Technology. Prior to his appointment at IIT, Anderson held positions in academia at various institutions, serving both as the provost of Case Western Reserve University and the dean of the...

Steven Craig Bondy is an American diplomat who had served as the United States Ambassador to Bahrain.

G. Terry Madonna is a Senior Fellow in Residence at Millersville University of Pennsylvania. He was Professor of Public Affairs and Director of the Center for Politics and Public Affairs at Franklin and Marshall College. He is also the Director of the Franklin & Marshall College Poll. In the early 1970s, he served as County Commissioner of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

Patricia Flatley Brennan was the director of the National Library of Medicine from 2016 to 2023. Prior to that, she was the Lillian L. Moehlman Bascom Professor, School of Nursing and College of Engineering, at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Brennan received a Master of Science in nursing from the University of Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. in industrial engineering from the...

Thomas Dean Willeford V is a steampunk writer, artist and maker. He is known for his work appearing on television and for his book Steampunk Gear, Gadgets, and Gizmos. He lives and works in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, doing business as Brute Force Studios. His steampunk subculture persona is Lord Archibald "Feathers" Featherstone.

Lewis Heisler Ball was an American physician and politician from Mill Creek Hundred, New Castle County, Delaware. He was a member of the Republican Party and served as U.S. Representative from Delaware and two terms as U.S. Senator from Delaware. He was known by his middle name.

Siddhartha Roy is an Indian Chemical and Structural biologist, biophysicist, former director of the Indian Institute of Chemical Biology and the former director (officiating) of Bose Institute. Widely known for his studies on Gene Regulation, Peptidomimetics, bacteriophage lambda and protein synthesis, he is an elected fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences and the Indian National Science Academy. In 1999,...

Bryan Jeffrey Schurgard Townsend is an American politician who represents District 11 in the Delaware Senate. Townsend was elected Senate Majority Leader in 2020. He serves as Chair of the Delaware Senate Labor Committee as well as Vice-Chair of the Senate Executive, Legislative Council, Judiciary, and Health and Social Services committees.

Mick Purzycki is an American internet entrepreneur and the CEO of Jerry Media. He is the co-creator and Emmy nominated producer of the 2019 Netflix documentary Fyre, in which he also appears. He is the founder and lead strategist for Meme 2020, an issue based political marketing company that launched the first influencer marketing campaign in presidential political history when...

Frank DeHass Robison was an American businessman, best known as a baseball executive. He was the organizer of the Cleveland Spiders franchise, and owned or part-owned the club throughout its existence, from its founding in 1887 as the Cleveland Blues until 1899. Along with his brother, Stanley Robison, he was also co-owner of the St. Louis Perfectos/Cardinals baseball team of...

David Clair Munson Jr. is an American electrical engineer. In 2025 he retired after having served for 8 years as the 10th president of the Rochester Institute of Technology since 2017. He was the 14th dean of the University of Michigan College of Engineering from 2006 to 2016.

Joe Bleymaier is an American football coach who is the pass game coordinator for the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League (NFL). He was previously a quality control coach, pass game analyst, assistant quarterbacks coach, and wide receivers coach for the Chiefs. He was previously a quality control coach at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Kurt Akeley is an American computer graphics engineer.

James W. Wagner is an American materials engineer. He served as the 19th president of Emory University in Georgia from 2003 to 2016 and as provost of Case Western Reserve University in Ohio from 2000 to 2003.

Joseph Allen Frear Jr. was an American businessman and politician. A Democrat, he served as a United States senator from Delaware from 1949 to 1961. He was defeated for a third term by Republican Governor J. Caleb Boggs in 1960.

Thomas Clayton was an American lawyer and politician from Dover in Kent County, Delaware. He was a member of the Federalist Party and later the National Republican Party and the Whig Party. He served in the Delaware General Assembly, as Attorney General of Delaware, as Secretary of State of Delaware, as Chief Justice of the Delaware Supreme Court, as U.S....

Brian Scott Gorman is an American former umpire in Major League Baseball. After working in the National League from 1991 to 1999, he umpired in both leagues from 2000-2021. Gorman was promoted to crew chief in 2010. He is the son of Tom Gorman, who served as an NL umpire from 1951 to 1977. He wore uniform number 9 throughout...

Jacqueline Jones is an American social historian and winner of the Pulitzer Prize in history. She held the Walter Prescott Webb Chair in History and Ideas from 2008 to 2017, is the Ellen C. Temple Professor of Women’s History Emerita at the University of Texas at Austin, and is the past president of the American Historical Association. University of Texas...

Jamelle William Hagins is an American professional basketball player with a 13-year international career spanning top leagues in France, Greece, Italy, Turkey, Belgium, Poland, Dubai, and Tunisia. A seasoned power forward and center, Hagins has won championships in Italy’s Serie A and the Turkish Basketball Super League, and has reached the Final Four in both the FIBA Europe Cup and...

David Penrose Buckson was an American lawyer and politician from Camden in Kent County, Delaware. A veteran of World War II and a member of the Republican Party, he served as the 15th lieutenant governor of Delaware from 1957 to 1960, as the 63rd governor of Delaware from 1960 to 1961, and as the 37th attorney general of Delaware from...

Lawrence M. Principe is the Drew Professor of the Humanities at Johns Hopkins University in the Department of History of Science and Technology and the Department of Chemistry. He was the Director of the Charles Singleton Center for the Study of Premodern Europe, an interdisciplinary center for research at Johns Hopkins from 2011 until 2024. He is the first recipient...

Jancee Dunn is an American journalist, author and former VJ. She is a columnist with The New York Times.

Kendel Sibiski Ehrlich is a former First Lady of Maryland, having served from 2003 to 2007 during the administration of Maryland Governor Robert Ehrlich. She is the first woman of Polish descent to have been Maryland's First Lady.

Scott H. Green is a former American football official in the National Football League (NFL) from the 1991 NFL season until the 2013 NFL season. He had officiated Super Bowls XXXVI in 2002, XXXVIII in 2004, and was the referee for XLIV in 2010. Green was also the head of the NFL Referees Association (NFLRA) and led negotiations during the...

Julian Constable Smith was a United States Marine Corps general who served for 37 years, including service in Nicaragua (Navy Cross) and during World War II's Battle of Tarawa (Distinguished Service Medal).

Antje Duvekot is a German-American singer-songwriter and guitarist based in Somerville, Massachusetts. She holds three top songwriting awards including the Kerrville New Folk Competition's Best New Folk Award, Boston Music Award for Outstanding Folk Act, and Grand Prize in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest.

Michael S. Purzycki is an American businessman and politician who served as the 56th mayor of Wilmington, Delaware, from 2017 to 2025. He previously served as the executive director of the Riverfront Development Corporation and briefly played in the National Football League for the New York Giants in the 1967–1968 season.

Steven Leath is an American academic administrator. He was president of Iowa State University from 2012 to 2017, when he became president of Auburn University. He resigned from his position at Auburn in 2019.

Nuno Paulo de Sousa Arrobas Crato, GCIH, GCPI is a Portuguese university professor, researcher, applied mathematician, economist, and writer. For many years, Crato was a researcher and professor in the United States. Back in Portugal, he taught mathematics and statistics at the ISEG/Technical University of Lisbon, now University of Lisbon, while pursuing his research in stochastic models and time series....

Leonard Philip Stark is an American lawyer who serves as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. He is a former United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Delaware and was a United States magistrate judge of the same district.

Chad Michael Kuhl is an American professional baseball pitcher who is a free agent. He has previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Colorado Rockies, Washington Nationals, and Chicago White Sox. He made his MLB debut in 2016.

Shaun Michael Taylor-Corbett or I’Pyooksisstiiko’om is an American actor, singer and writer. Taylor-Corbett is known for his roles in Jersey Boys (2nd National Tour), In the Heights by Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Between Two Knees by The 1491s. He also stars as 'Darrell Walters' in the musical he co-created, Distant Thunder, and is a prolific audiobook narrator with credits including There...

Thomas Edward Conwell is an American guitarist, songwriter and performer. He is best known as the frontman for the Philadelphia-based band Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers. The band had a #1 US mainstream rock hit in 1988 with "I'm Not Your Man", which also peaked at 74 on the Billboard Hot 100. The original band, consisting of Conwell (guitar,...

Louis McLane was an American lawyer and politician from Wilmington, in New Castle County, Delaware, and Baltimore, Maryland. He was a veteran of the War of 1812, a member of the Federalist Party and later the Democratic Party. He served as the U.S. representative from Delaware, U.S. senator from Delaware, the tenth U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, the twelfth U.S....

Rein Taagepera is an Estonian political scientist and former politician.

Lawrence Francis Probst III is an American businessman who served as CEO of video game publisher Electronic Arts from 1991 until 2007, and as executive chairman from 2013 to 2015. He continued to serve as chairman of the board of EA until 2021, when he was succeeded by CEO Andrew Wilson. Probst also served as chairman of the United States...

Divya Singh is former captain of the Indian National Women's Basketball Team. Singh led the Indian women's basketball team at the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games. She is known for her game skills, leadership qualities, academic strength and personality. She has done sports management at the University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware, (UD) in the year 2008 to 2010 and worked as...

Julia Beatrice Keleher is an American educator and former Secretary of the Puerto Rico Department of Education (PRDE) under the Ricardo Rosselló administration.

Maureen Johnson is an American author of young adult fiction. Her published novels include series leading titles such as 13 Little Blue Envelopes, The Name of the Star, Truly Devious, and Suite Scarlett. Among Johnson's works are collaborative efforts such as Let It Snow, a holiday romance novel of interwoven stories co-written with John Green and Lauren Myracle, and a...

Robert W. Gore was an American engineer and scientist, inventor and businessman. Gore led his family's company, W. L. Gore & Associates, which was founded by his father Bill Gore, in developing applications of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) ranging from computer cables to medical equipment to the outer layer of space suits. His most significant breakthrough was likely the invention of Gore-Tex,...

Evan Washburn is an American reporter for CBS Sports. He joined CBS in 2014, and is a part of the network's coverage of the NFL and NCAA basketball, along with contributing to CBS Sports Network. He is also the sideline reporter for the local TV broadcasts of the Baltimore Ravens pre-season games.

Susan P. Stroman is an American theatre director, choreographer, and performer. Her notable theater productions include Oklahoma!, The Music Man, Crazy for You, Contact, The Producers, The Frogs, The Scottsboro Boys, Bullets Over Broadway, POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive, and New York, New York.

Richard Frederick Heck was an American chemist noted for the discovery and development of the Heck reaction, which uses palladium to catalyze organic chemical reactions that couple aryl halides with alkenes. The analgesic naproxen is an example of a compound that is prepared industrially using the Heck reaction.

Theodore Cordy Freeman was an American aeronautical engineer, U.S. Air Force officer, test pilot, and NASA astronaut. Selected in the third group of NASA astronauts in 1963, he was killed a year later in the crash of a T-38 jet, marking the first fatality among the NASA Astronaut Corps. At the time of his death, he held the rank of...

Robert Earl Filner was an American politician who was the 35th mayor of San Diego from December 2012 through August 2013, when he resigned amid multiple allegations of sexual harassment. He later pleaded guilty to state charges of false imprisonment and battery. He was a member of the Democratic Party.

Joseph Hugh Moglia is an American businessman and former football coach. He was head football coach at Coastal Carolina University from 2012 to 2016 and again in 2018 after spending the 2017 season on medical leave. During his tenure, the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers transitioned from the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) to the NCAA Division I Football Bowl...

Louise Mushikiwabo is the fourth and current Secretary General of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. She previously served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Rwanda from 2009 to 2018. She also served as Government Spokesperson. She had previously been Minister of Information.

Yeh Kuang-shih is a Taiwanese politician and management scientist. He was the Minister of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications from 18 February 2013 until 9 January 2015, and one of the three deputy mayors of Kaohsiung within the municipal administration of Han Kuo-yu from 25 December 2018 to 12 June 2020.

John Charles Carney Jr. is an American politician serving as the 58th mayor of Wilmington, Delaware, since 2025. A member of the Democratic Party, Carney previously served as the 74th Governor of Delaware from 2017 to 2025, the U.S. representative for Delaware's at-large congressional district from 2011 to 2017, the 24th lieutenant governor of Delaware from 2001 to 2009, and...

George Dallas Green was an American professional baseball pitcher, manager, scout and executive in Major League Baseball (MLB). He played big league baseball for the Philadelphia Phillies, Washington Senators and New York Mets, from 1960 through 1967. A man of towering stature, at 6 feet 5 inches (1.96 m) tall and 210 pounds (95 kg), Green achieved notoriety for his...

Jeffrey Bossert Clark is an American lawyer who is Acting Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the Office of Management and Budget. Clark was Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division from 2018 to 2021. In September 2020, he was also appointed acting head of the Civil Division. In 2020 and 2021, Clark...

James Caleb Boggs was an American lawyer and politician from Claymont, Delaware. A Republican, he was commonly known by his middle name, Caleb, frequently shortened to Cale.

David Plouffe is an American political and business strategist best known as the campaign manager for Barack Obama's successful 2008 presidential campaign. He was the senior advisor to Kamala Harris's 2024 presidential campaign. A long-time Democratic Party campaign consultant, he was a partner at the party-aligned campaign consulting firm AKPD Message and Media, which he joined in 2000.

Mary Valerie Biden Owens is an American political strategist, campaign manager, and former educator. She is the younger sister of Joe Biden, the 46th president of the United States. In 2016, President Barack Obama nominated her as alternate representative of the United States to the 71st Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations.

Stephen Edward Schmidt is an American political and corporate strategist. He is best known as a co-founder of the Lincoln Project in 2019, in opposition to Donald Trump and his leadership of the Republican Party. He left it in 2021 and has co-founded the Save America Movement, a PAC organized to oppose the actions of the Republican Party under Trump.

No Kum-sok was a North Korean–born American engineer and aviator who served as a senior lieutenant in the Korean People's Army Air and Anti-Air Force during the Korean War. Under colonial rule, No was required to adopt a Japanese name, Okamura Kiyoshi. Approximately two months after the end of hostilities, he defected to South Korea in a MiG-15 aircraft, and...

Elena Delle Donne is an American former professional basketball player. Delle Donne played college basketball for the Delaware Blue Hens from 2009 to 2013. She was drafted by the Chicago Sky with the second overall pick of the 2013 WNBA draft, and led the Sky to the 2014 WNBA Finals, where they were defeated by the Phoenix Mercury. Delle Donne...

George Lawrence Thorogood is an American musician, singer and songwriter. His "high-energy boogie-blues" sound became a staple of 1980s US rock radio, with hits like his original songs "Bad to the Bone" and "I Drink Alone". He has also helped to popularize older songs by American icons, such as "Move It on Over", "Who Do You Love?", and "House Rent...

Scott Levy is an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, Raven. He is best known for his appearances with professional wrestling promotions Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) / World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and NWA Total Nonstop Action (TNA).

John Garvin Weir is an American television commentator and retired figure skater. He is a two-time Olympian (2006 and 2010 Winter Olympics), the 2008 World bronze medalist, a two-time Grand Prix Final bronze medalist, the 2001 World Junior Champion, and a three-time U.S. National champion (2004–2006). He was the youngest U.S. National champion since 1991, in 2006 the first skater...

Dana Lynn Ulery is an American computer scientist and pioneer in scientific computing applications.

Matthew Shipp is an American avant-garde jazz pianist, composer, and bandleader.

Page Kennedy is an American actor and rapper. In television, he is known for portraying Radon Randell in the Spike sports comedy series Blue Mountain State and "U-Turn" in the Showtime series Weeds. He has also appeared in film, with roles in S.W.A.T. and The Meg. Outside of acting, Kennedy is active on social media, best known for being a...

Daniel Nathans was an American microbiologist. Along with American researcher Hamilton Smith and Swiss researcher Werner Arber, he shared the 1978 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of restriction enzymes and their application in restriction mapping.

Kenneth John Lacovara is an American paleontologist and geologist at Rowan University and fellow of the Explorers Club, known for the discovery of the titanosaurian dinosaur Dreadnoughtus and his involvement in the discovery and naming of the giant sauropod dinosaur Paralititan, as well as his work applying 3D printing technology to paleontology. Lacovara is founder and executive director of the...

Mary Pat Christie is an American investment banker who was the First Lady of New Jersey between 2010 and 2018. She is married to former New Jersey Governor and 2016 and 2024 presidential candidate Chris Christie.

Christopher James Christie is an American politician and lawyer who served as the 55th governor of New Jersey from 2010 to 2018. A member of the Republican Party, he was the United States attorney for the District of New Jersey from 2002 to 2008 and a Morris County commissioner from 1995 to 1997. He was a candidate for the Republican...

Lisa LaTrelle Blunt Rochester is an American politician serving since 2025 as the junior United States senator from Delaware. From 2017 to 2025, she served as the U.S. representative for Delaware's at-large congressional district. A member of the Democratic Party, she is the first woman and first African American to represent Delaware in both chambers of Congress.

Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. is an American politician who was the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party, he represented Delaware in the United States Senate from 1973 to 2009 and also served as the 47th vice president under President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2017.

James "Bonecrusher" Smith is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1981 to 1999 and held the WBA heavyweight title from 1986 to 1987.

Thomas Richard Carper is an American politician and former military officer who served from 2001 to 2025 as a United States senator from Delaware. A member of the Democratic Party, Carper served from 1983 to 1993 in the United States House of Representatives and from 1993 to 2001 as the 71st governor of Delaware.

Clarence Cleveland Dill was an American politician from the state of Washington. A Democrat, he was elected to two terms each in both houses of Congress.

Brennan Carroll is an American professional football coach who most recently served as offensive line coach for the Las Vegas Raiders of the National Football League (NFL). He formerly served as the offensive coordinator and offensive line coach for the University of Washington. He also coached for USC, Miami (FL), Arizona, and the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League...

Kathleen Jennings is an American lawyer and politician serving as the Attorney General of Delaware. She is a member of the Democratic Party.

Jill Tracy Jacobs Biden is an American educator who served as the First Lady of the United States from 2021 to 2025, as the second wife of Joe Biden, the 46th president of the United States. She was second lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017 when her husband was vice president. From 2009 to 2024 she was...

Ryan Patrick Daly is an American basketball coach and former player who is currently an assistant coach for the VCU Rams. He played college basketball for the Delaware Blue Hens and the Saint Joseph's Hawks.

Willard Saulsbury Sr. was an American lawyer and politician from Georgetown, Delaware. He was a member of the Democratic Party, who served as Attorney General of Delaware, U.S. Senator from Delaware and Chancellor of Court of Chancery of Delaware.

Carl C. Danberg is an American judge from Newark in New Castle County, Delaware. He is a member of the Democratic Party and was the Attorney General of Delaware, and commissioner of the Delaware Department of Correction. He also serves as a brigadier general in the Delaware Army National Guard.

David Hayes Agnew was an American surgeon, anatomist, and educator. During the American Civil War he worked as a surgeon at Satterlee General Hospital, Hestonville Military Hospital, and as consulting surgeon to a staff of 47 resident physicians at Mower General Hospital in Philadelphia. He purchased and taught at the Philadelphia School of Anatomy and founded the Philadelphia School of...

Kim Byong-joon is a former chief of staff (minister), Presidential Office of National Policies, Republic of Korea/ the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education and Human Resources Development. He is designated Prime Minister of South Korea by President Park Geun-hye, on November 2, 2016, but Park withdrew her designate November 8.

Dinesh Mohan was honorary professor at Indian Institute of Technology Delhi since 2017. He was distinguished professor at Shiv Nadar University, Gautam Buddha Nagar (India) from 2016 to 2018. From 2010 to 2015 he was Emeritus Volvo Chair Professor for Transportation Planning & Safety at IITD. He was head of Centre for Biomedical Engineering (1991–1996), Coordinator of the Transportation Research...

Rakesh Agrawal is the Winthrop E. Stone Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. He is a chemical engineer known for contributions to separations, cryogenic gas separation and liquefaction, and for contributions to renewable energy including the conversion of biomass to chemicals and fuels, inorganic solar cell fabrication, and the synergistic use of solar energy.

Halil İbrahim Akça is the Turkish ambassador to Brazil, and was the 11th Secretary General of the Economic Cooperation Organization.

Wang Xing is a Chinese businessman, who co-founded Meituan and has been serving as chief executive officer of Meituan since January 2010. He previously served as chief executive officer of Fanfou from 2007 to 2010.

Lütfi Elvan is a Turkish politician. Elvan has served as the Minister of Finance and Treasury of Turkey from November 2020 to December 2021. He previously served as the Minister of Transport, Maritime and Communication from 2013 to 2015. He has served as a Member of Parliament for the electoral district of Karaman from 2007 to June 2015, for Antalya...

Adam Osborne was a British author, software publisher, and computer designer who founded several companies in the United States and elsewhere. He introduced the Osborne 1, the first commercially successful portable computer.

Marta Flich is a Spanish economist, comedian and TV host.

Lodewijk van den Berg was a Dutch-born American chemical engineer. He studied crystal growth and flew on a 1985 Space Shuttle Challenger mission as a payload specialist.