100 Notable alumni of University of Fribourg

Raphaël Mahaim is a Swiss attorney and politician who serves on the National Council (Switzerland) for the Green Party since 2022. He previously served on the Grand Council of Vaud between 2007 and 2021.

Motiejus Gustaitis was a Lithuanian Symbolist poet, who used numerous pseudonyms (among them Balandis, Bendrakelionis, Embė, G. M., K. M. G.). He was also a translator and educator, as well as a Catholic priest. A long-term chairman of the Žiburys Society, Gustaitis worked to establish Lithuanian schools and advocated girls' education. He worked as principal of girls' pro-gymnasium in Marijampolė...

Anton Cottier was a Swiss politician with the Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland (CVP).

Farhad Hafezi is a Swiss eye surgeon and researcher. Hafezi first gained recognition as a leading retina researcher in 1994, having been the first to discover a gene responsible for light-induced retinal degeneration. However, he changed his research focus to the cornea in 2003, and it is this work, particularly on corneal collagen cross-linking (CXL), which he helped pioneer, and...

Jürgen Martens is a German lawyer and politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag from the state of Saxony since 2017.

Maurice Zermatten was a French-speaking Swiss writer.

Vincentas Borisevičius was a Lithuanian Roman Catholic bishop of the Telšiai Diocese. The process of his beatification was initiated in 1990.

Pranciškus Petras Būčys was a Lithuanian Roman Catholic priest, university professor, titular bishop of the Eastern Catholic Church (consecrated in 1930), and Superior-General of the Congregation of Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception (1927–1933, 1939–1951).

Monika Stolz is a German politician for the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in Baden-Württemberg and was Minister of Work, Social Order, Women and the Elderly from 2006 to 2011.

Elisabeth Blunschy was a Swiss politician. She served as the first woman President of the National Council of Switzerland and was one of the first women elected to the National Council of Switzerland.

Valérie Piller Carrard is a Swiss politician of the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland (SP) and a current member of the National Council.

Michel Plancherel was a Swiss mathematician.

Ernst Pfister was a German politician. A member of the Free Democratic Party, he served as Minister of Economics, Labour and Housing of Baden-Württemberg from 2004 to 2011.

Gerard Batliner was a lawyer and politician from Liechtenstein who served as Prime Minister of Liechtenstein from 1962 to 1970. He later served in the Landtag of Liechtenstein from 1974 to 1982 and as the President of the Landtag of Liechtenstein from 1974 to 1977. Additionally, he held numerous positions within the Council of Europe.

Avraham Granot was a Zionist activist, Israeli politician and a signatory of the Israeli declaration of independence.

Urs App is a historian of ideas, religions, and philosophies with a special interest in the history and modes of interaction between East and West.

Markus Büchel is a Swiss Catholic prelate who served as Bishop of Saint Gallen from 2006 to 2025.

John Wolf Brennan is an Irish pianist, organist, melodica player, and composer based in Weggis, Switzerland.

Fernand Gobet is a cognitive scientist and a cognitive psychologist, currently Professorial Research Fellow at the London School of Economics and Professor of Cognitive Psychology at the University of Roehampton. His research interests focus on the study of cognition, especially in the areas of cognitive architectures, perception, intuition, problem solving, learning and decision making. He has developed the CHREST cognitive...

Robert Jean Louis Le Gall O.S.B. is a French prelate of the Catholic Church who was Archbishop of Toulouse from 2006 to 2021. He was previously the Bishop of Mende from 2001 to 2006.

Pasqua Maria Perrig-Chiello, now based in Ried-Brig, Switzerland, is a Swiss developmental psychologist and psychotherapist. She is professor emeritus at the University of Bern, specialising in lifespan developmental psychology, in particular for middle and old-aged people.

Arie de Jong was a Dutch enthusiast and reformer of the constructed language Volapük by Johann Martin Schleyer, with whose help the Volapük movement gained new strength in the Netherlands. He not only revised Volapük, but also (together with other Volapükist contemporaries) began Volapükaklub Valemik Nedänik (Dutch Universal Volapük Club) and founded Diläd valemik Feda Volapükaklubas. He also founded and...

Henry Wansbrough OSB is an English biblical scholar, Catholic priest, and monk of Ampleforth Abbey. From 1990 to 2004, he served as Master of St Benet's Hall, Oxford.

Martin Charles Gutzwiller was a Swiss-American physicist, known for his work on field theory, quantum chaos, and complex systems. He spent most of his career at IBM Research, and was also an adjunct professor of physics at Yale University.

Gerhart Moritz Riegner was a German philosopher, and the secretary-general of the World Jewish Congress from 1965 to 1983. He studied law in Heidelberg, Paris and at the Geneva Graduate Institute.

Albert Tévoédjrè was a Beninese writer and politician. He was Information Minister of Dahomey (now Benin) from 1960 to 1963.

Achille Casanova was a Swiss journalist and politician. He held the office of Vice-Chancellor of Switzerland between 1981 and 2005, and during this time became the first official spokesman for the Swiss Federal Council when that role was created on 1 September 2000.

Giorgio Orelli was an Italian-speaking Swiss poet, writer and translator.

Paul Aulagnier was a French Traditionalist Catholic priest. Once a member of the Society of Saint Pius X, he then became one of the principal founders of the Institute of the Good Shepherd (French: Institut du Bon Pasteur), an organisation in full communion with the Pope which upholds the Tridentine Mass.

Aloisius Joseph Muench was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as bishop of Fargo in North Dakota from 1935 to 1959, and as apostolic nuncio to Germany from 1951 to 1959. He was elevated to the cardinalate in 1959.

Michael Bordt SJ is a German philosopher and academic. He is a professor at the Munich School of Philosophy and specialized in the area of ancient philosophy, especially Plato and Aristotle. Since 2011 he has been the chair of the Institute of Philosophy and Leadership at Munich.

Juli Minoves i Triquell is an Andorran diplomat, author, and the 13th President of Liberal International.

Edward O'Rourke, full name Eduard Alexander Ladislaus Graf O'Rourke was a Russian-born Roman Catholic priest, bishop of Riga and the first head of the bishopric of the Free City of Danzig (Gdańsk).

Andrea Gmür-Schönenberger is a Swiss politician from The Centre, formerly of the Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland.

Christian Frei is a Swiss filmmaker and film producer. He is mostly known for his films War Photographer (2001), The Giant Buddhas (2005) and Space Tourists (2009).

Albert Pintat Santolària is an Andorran citizen who served as the prime minister of Andorra from 27 May 2005 to 5 June 2009.

Géza Ladislaus Euseb Gerhard Rafael Albert Maria von Habsburg is a Fabergé expert who has published books and articles on the jewellers Peter Carl Fabergé and Victor Mayer. He is the curator of several major international Fabergé exhibitions. Géza von Habsburg coined the term Fauxbergé. As a member of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, he holds the abolished but courtesy titles...

Filippo Lombardi is a Swiss politician. He represented Ticino in the Council of States from 2014 to 2019 and served as the President of the Council of States from 2012 to 2013. He is a member of the Christian Democratic People's Party.

Ramon Saizarbitoria is a contemporary Basque writer and sociologist.

Otmar Hasler is a former politician from Liechtenstein who served as Prime Minister of Liechtenstein from 2001 to 2009. He was previously the President of the Landtag of Liechtenstein in 1995 and served in the Landtag from 1989 to 2001.

Niklaus Meienberg was a Swiss writer and investigative journalist.

Patrick Aebischer was the president of the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) from 17 March 2000 to 31 December 2016. He is a professor in neuroscience and head of the Neurodegenerative Disease Laboratory at the EPFL.

Adam Marian Tomasz Pius Leon duke Korybut Woroniecki, religious name Jacek was a Polish Dominican priest, theologian, professor of ethics, scholastic philosopher, and rector of the Catholic University of Lublin from 1922 to 1924.

Panagiotis Pipinelis was a Greek politician and diplomat.

Franz-Josef Wuermeling was a West German CDU politician and minister who served as Federal Minister for Family Affairs from 1953 to 1962.

Elmar Theodor Mäder is a Swiss military officer who served as the 33rd Commander of the Pontifical Swiss Guards, a position which he held between 2002 and 2008, serving Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI.

Urban Federer OSB OESSH is a Swiss Benedictine prelate who has served as the abbot of Einsiedeln Abbey and Fahr Convent since 2013. Federer was formerly the prior and vicar general of Einsiedeln Abbey and the editor-in-chief of Salve, the abbey's official magazine. In 2017, he was made a Knight of the Pontifical Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher of...

Marc Marie Max Aillet is a French Roman Catholic prelate, who has been the bishop of Bayonne since 30 November 2008. He had previously served as vicar general of the diocese of Fréjus-Toulon.

Peter Hauk is a German politician of the CDU party. He has been a member of the Landtag (state parliament) of Baden-Wuerttemberg since 1992. From 2005 until 2010 he was Minister for Nutrition and Rural Areas (Ländlicher Raum), and from 2010 until the election of Guido Wolf to faction leader in 2015, he was CDU group leader and leader of...

Aurelia Cäcilia Katharina Frick commonly known as Aurelia Frick is a Liechtensteiner politician who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Education and Culture of Liechtenstein from 2009 to 2019.

Giuseppe Motta was a Swiss politician. He served as President of the Swiss Confederation 5 times. He was a member of the Swiss Federal Council (1911–1940) and President of the League of Nations (1924–1925). He was a Catholic-conservative foreign minister and a staunch opponent of communism and Stalinism.

Òscar Ribas Reig was an Andorran politician, lawyer, and businessman who became the first prime minister of Andorra in 1982. He twice served as head of government, first from 8 January 1982 to 21 May 1984 and again from 12 January 1990 to 7 December 1994.

Sami Awad Aldeeb Abu-Sahlieh is a Swiss Palestinian lawyer.

Flavio Cotti was a Swiss politician who served as member of the Federal Council from 1986 to 1999. He was a member of the Christian Democratic People's Party from the canton of Ticino. In the 1990s, Cotti led the Swiss government's unsuccessful attempts to further Switzerland's political integration into the European Union. He was President of the Confederation in 1991...

William H. Press is an American talk radio host, podcaster, liberal pundit and author. He was chairman of the California Democratic Party from 1993 to 1996, and is a senior political contributor on CNN. He hosts The Bill Press Pod podcast, and his weekly column is syndicated by Tribune Content Agency.

Joseph Deiss is a Swiss economist and politician who served as a Member of the Swiss Federal Council from 1999 to 2006. A member of the Christian Democratic People's Party (CVP/PDC), he first headed the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (1999–2002) before transferring to the Federal Department of Economic Affairs (2003–2006). Deiss was elected President of the United Nations General...

Gerhard Michael Pfister is a Swiss educator and politician who currently serves as a member of the National Council for The Centre (previously Christian Democratic People's Party) since 2003. In 2016, he succeeded Christophe Darbellay as president of The Centre. Pfister is currently also co-president of the Swiss Private School Association and founder and controlling shareholder of the day school...

Corina Casanova is a Swiss politician who was the Federal Chancellor of Switzerland between 2008 and 2015.

Kurt Furgler was a Swiss politician and member of the Swiss Federal Council (1972–1986).

Christian Levrat is a Swiss politician. He served as the President of the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland from 2008 until 2020. He has served as a member of the Council of States from Fribourg since 2012. Prior to the Council of states, He was a member of the National Council from 2003 to 2012. He became Chairman of the...

Kariem Hussein is a Swiss athlete who specialises in the 400 metres hurdles. His first major success was the gold medal at the 2014 European Championships in Zurich. His personal best in the event is 48.45, set at a meeting in Zug in 2015 and again at Weltklasse Zürich in 2017. It is also technically his fastest flat 400 m...

Ruth Metzler is a Swiss politician who served as a Member of the Swiss Federal Council from 1999 to 2003. A member of the Christian Democratic People's Party (CVP/PDC), she headed the Federal Department of Justice and Police.

Joseph Bech was a Luxembourgish politician and lawyer. He was the prime minister of Luxembourg, serving for eleven years, from 16 July 1926 to 5 November 1937. He returned to the position after World War II, and served for another four years, from 29 December 1953 until 29 March 1958. The 1982–1983 academic year at the College of Europe was...

Oskar Freysinger is a Swiss author and former politician for the Swiss People's Party, who served as a member of the National Council of Switzerland from 2003 to 2015 and as

George Basil Hume OSB OM was an English Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Westminster from 1976 until his death in 1999. A member of the Benedictines, he was made a cardinal in 1977.

Mahmut Esat Bozkurt was a Turkish jurist, politician, government minister and academic. His birth name was Mahmut Esat. But after the adaptation of the Turkish Surname Law in 1934, he chose the surname Bozkurt in remembrance of the Grey Wolf, a symbol for Turkdom. The surname also refers to the Turkish steamer S.S. Bozkurt in the Lotus case. He was...

Pierre Maudet is a Swiss and French politician. A former member of FDP.The Liberals, he was the mayor of Geneva from 1 June 2011 to 31 May 2012.

Théo Marclay, known professionally as Nuit Incolore, is a Swiss musician and composer, most known for his song Dépassé, which went Platinum in France. He was named French Speaking Revelation of the Year by the NRJ Music Awards, where he was the first Swiss artist to receive the honor.

Šatrijos Ragana was the pen name of Marija Pečkauskaitė (Polish: Maria Pieczkowska; March 8, 1877 – July 24, 1930), a Lithuanian humanist and romantic writer and educator. Her most successful works are Sename dvare (In the Old Estate, 1922) and Irkos tragedija (Tragedy of Irka).

René Fasel is a Swiss-Russian retired ice hockey administrator. He served as president of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) from 1994 to 2021. He started his ice hockey career as a player for HC Fribourg-Gottéron, in 1960, and became a referee in 1972. He became president of the Swiss Ice Hockey Federation in 1985, then was elected president of...

Lionel Groulx was a Canadian Roman Catholic priest, historian, professor, public intellectual and Quebec nationalist.

Matthias Erzberger was a German Centre Party politician who served as the minister of finance of Germany from 1919 to 1920.

Simonetta Myriam Sommaruga is a Swiss politician who served as a Member of the Swiss Federal Council from 2010 to 2022. A member of the Social Democratic Party (SP/PS), she was President of the Swiss Confederation in 2015 and 2020.

Clemens Augustinus Emmanuel Joseph Pius Anthonius Hubertus Marie Graf von Galen, better known as Clemens August Graf von Galen, was a German count, Bishop of Münster, and cardinal of the Catholic Church. During World War II, Galen led Catholic protests against Nazi euthanasia and denounced Gestapo lawlessness and the persecution of the Church in Nazi Germany. He was appointed a...

Viola Patricia Amherd is a Swiss politician who served as a member of the Swiss Federal Council from 2019 to 2025, and as President of the Swiss Confederation for 2024 between 1 January and 31 December. She was the head of the Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport. Amherd was a member of the Christian Democratic People's Party...

Karin Maria Keller-Sutter is a Swiss politician and pedagogist who has served as a member of the Federal Council of Switzerland since 2019 and as President of the Swiss Confederation for 2025.

Karl Friedrich Emich Meinrad Benedikt Fidelis Maria Michael Gerold Prinz von Hohenzollern is the eldest son of the late Friedrich Wilhelm, Prince of Hohenzollern, and Princess Margarita of Leiningen. He became head of the Catholic Swabian branch of the House of Hohenzollern upon his father's death on 16 September 2010.

Daniel Risch is a politician from Liechtenstein who served as the Prime Minister of Liechtenstein from 2021 to 2025. He was previously the Deputy Prime Minister from 2017 to 2021, under the government of Adrian Hasler.

Vincas Mykolaitis, known by his pen name Putinas; 6 January 1893 – 7 June 1967), was a Lithuanian writer, poet and translator, accorded the honour of being a People's Writer of the Lithuanian SSR in 1963. He was also a Catholic priest, but renounced his priesthood in 1935.

Klaus Martin Schwab is a German mechanical engineer, economist, and founder of the World Economic Forum (WEF). He served as the WEF's chairman from 1971 until his resignation in 2025.

Antonin Gregory Scalia was an American jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1986 until his death in 2016. He was described as the intellectual anchor for the originalist and textualist position in the U.S. Supreme Court's conservative wing. For catalyzing an originalist and textualist movement in American law, he has...

Elmar Ledergerber is a former Mayor of Zurich. He is a member of the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland and was once named one of the most outstanding mayors of the year by a London think-tank. However he has also been criticized for not seeing through projects. He is currently active in promoting tourism to Zurich.

Arnold Koller is a Swiss professor and politician. He served as a member of the Federal Council from 1987 to 1999 for the Christian Democratic People's Party (CVP). Koller previously served as a member of the National Council from 1971 to 1986. He did also serve two terms of the as President of the Swiss Confederation in 1990 and 1997....

Giovanni Vincenzo Infantino is a football administrator and the president of FIFA since 2016. He has also been an International Olympic Committee member since 2020.

Daniel-Constantin Barbu was a Romanian political scientist, publisher, essayist, journalist, and professor of political science at the University of Bucharest. He served as dean of the Faculty of Political Science and director of the Institute for Political Research at the University of Bucharest. He was the author as of June 2007 of eight books and many more articles on political...

Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka was a Polish philosopher, phenomenologist, founder and president of The World Phenomenology Institute, and editor (from its inception in the late 1960s) of the book series, Analecta Husserliana. She had a thirty-two-year friendship and occasional academic collaboration with Pope John Paul II.

Baron Berend-Jan Marie van Voorst tot Voorst was a Dutch politician and diplomat of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) party and jurist.

Angelo Scola is an Italian Cardinal of the Catholic Church, a prominent philosopher, and theologian. He served as Archbishop of Milan from 2011 to 2017, overseeing one of the largest dioceses in the world, and previously as Patriarch of Venice from 2002 to 2011. Elevated to the cardinalate in 2003 by Pope John Paul II, Scola has been a key...

Gilberto Agustoni was a Swiss prelate of the Catholic Church. He worked in the Roman Curia from 1950 to 1998, ending his career as head of the Apostolic Signatura from 1992 to 1998. He became a cardinal in 1994.

Georges Marie Martin Cottier OP was a Swiss Catholic prelate who served as Theologian of the Pontifical Household under Pope John Paul II from 1990 to 2005, after a career as a theologian and teacher. He was a member of the Dominicans and was made a cardinal in 2003.

Józef Maria Bocheński or Innocentius Bochenski was a Polish Dominican, logician and philosopher.

Hermann Volk was a German cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Mainz from 1962 to 1982, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1973.

Walter Johannes Mixa is a German prelate of the Catholic Church who is the Bishop of Augsburg and Ordinary Emeritus of the Bundeswehr. He resigned as bishop of Military and Bishop of Augsburg on 8 May 2010 at age 69 after accusations he severely beat children at a Schrobenhausen orphanage in the 1970s and misappropriated the orphanage's funds. Mixa reportedly...

Carlo Schmid was a German academic and politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD).

Charles Morerod, OP, is a Swiss Dominican prelate who has served as Bishop of Lausanne, Geneva and Fribourg since 2011. Previously, he served as rector of the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome, as a professor of dogmatic theology and as secretary general of the International Theological Commission.

Christof Wetterich is a German theoretical physicist. He is a professor of theoretical physics at the Heidelberg University. He is known for his work on the Seesaw mechanism in grand unification theory (GUT), quintessence, the Wetterich equation for the functional renormalization group (FRG) and asymptotic safety in quantum gravity.

Sérgio Vieira de Mello was a Brazilian United Nations diplomat who worked on several UN humanitarian and political programs for over 34 years. The Government of Brazil posthumously awarded the Sergio Vieira de Mello Medal to honor his legacy in promoting sustainable peace, international security and better living conditions for individuals in situations of armed conflict, challenges to which Sérgio...

Frédéric Lenoir is a French sociologist, philosopher and writer.

Christian Wiyghan Tumi was a Cameroonian prelate of the Catholic Church who was archbishop of Douala from 1991 to 2009. He was bishop of Yagoua from 1980 to 1982. After serving as coadjutor bishop of Garoua beginning in 1982, he was bishop there from 1984 to 1991. He was made a cardinal 1988. Tumi was the first and so far...