100 Notable alumni of University of Illinois at Chicago

Zerefeh Bashur, MD was the first female licensed physician in the Levant.

Gregory Klazura is an American former soccer player who most recently played for the Vancouver Whitecaps FC in Major League Soccer.

M. Miriam Herrera is an American author and poet. She teaches at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and currently teaches Introduction to Mexican Studies as well as Composition and Rhetoric and Creative Writing. She is a Lecturer with the Department of Writing Language Studies, and a Mexican American Studies Program (MASC) Affiliate.

Laura Kina is an artist. Kina was born in Riverside, California. and raised in Poulsbo, Washington. She moved to Chicago, Illinois, in 1990 to attend the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she studied with Michiko Itatani, the revered fashion designer and Ray Yoshida, earning her B.F.A. in 1994. Furthermore, and henceforth, in 2001, Kina received her M.F.A....

Penny Pullen is an American politician and conservative activist. Pullen spent eight terms in the Illinois General Assembly representing a district in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. Pullen also served on various presidential commissions and is best known for her work on anti-abortion causes.

Pat McMahon is an American soccer player.

Freddrenna Margaret Lyle serves as Judge of the First Municipal District of State of Illinois' Circuit Court of Cook County. Appointed on December 16, 2011 by all seven Illinois Supreme Court Justices. She served as alderman from the 6th ward of the city of Chicago for 13 years.

Jennifer J. Quinn is an American mathematician specializing in combinatorics who is a professor of mathematics at the University of Washington Tacoma. She sits on the board of governors of the Mathematical Association of America, and served as its president for the years 2021 and 2022. From 2004 to 2008, she was co-editor of Math Horizons.

Ravindra B. Bapat is an Indian mathematician known for the Bapat–Beg theorem.

Maxine Chernoff is an American novelist, writer, poet, academic and literary magazine editor.

Barbara Anna Schaal American scientist, evolutionary biologist, is a professor at Washington University in St. Louis and served as vice president of the National Academy of Sciences from 2005 to 2013. She is the first woman to be elected vice president of the academy. From 2009 to 2017, Schaal served on the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology...

Reika Yokochi was a Japanese geochemist who worked on the origin and geological behavior of volatile elements. She held the position of Research Professor in the Department of the Geophysical Sciences at the University of Chicago. Yokochi led a laboratory specializing in the purification and analysis of noble gases for dating and tracing water circulation within Earth's crust.

Ariel Reboyras is alderman of the 30th ward of the City of Chicago; he was first elected in 2003. He was previously a deputy commissioner in the general service department.

Robert Hansen Gray was an American data analyst, author, and astronomer, and author of The Elusive Wow: Searching for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.

Renato Guerino Turano was an Italian and American politician and businessman. He served in the Italian Senate from 2006 to 2008 as a representative of Italian citizens in North and Central America and was re-elected to the same position in the 2013 Italian general election.

Stanley Joel Korsmeyer was an American research scientist known for his work on B cell lymphomas and apoptosis. Born and educated in the US state of Illinois, Korsmeyer spent most of his career as a professor at Washington University School of Medicine and later the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute. He rose to prominence in the early 1980s as a research fellow...

Cary Allan Kochman is an American banker and the retired Sole Head of the Global Mergers and Acquisitions Group at Citigroup, as well as the Chairman of the Chicago Citi office. He also served as a member of the Global Investment Banking Operating and Risk Committees. He has also specialized in Mergers and Acquisitions.

Charles Blackstone is an American writer. His most recent novel is the semi-autobiographical Vintage Attraction (2013).

Luisa A. Igloria is a Filipina American poet and author of various award-winning collections, and is the most recent Poet Laureate of Virginia (2020-2022).

Rudolph Moise is the owner and medical director of Comprehensive Medical Aesthetics in Miami. Prior to becoming a physician, he served as a flight surgeon in the United States Air Force for more than 21 years, earning the rank of colonel, the highest position awarded to an American of Haitian descent at that time. In July 2023, Moise was awarded...

James Cappleman is an American politician and a former member of the Chicago City Council. He was elected to the Council in 2011 as the alderman for the city's 46th ward, which includes parts of the Uptown and Lakeview neighborhoods. He won re-election in 2015 and 2019.

Michael Bidlo is an American conceptual artist who employs painting, sculpture, drawing, performance, and other forms of "social sculpture".

Richard J. McNally is an American psychologist and director of clinical training at Harvard University's department of psychology. As a clinical psychologist and experimental psycho-pathologist, McNally studies anxiety disorders and related syndromes, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive–compulsive disorder, and complicated grief.

George William Crabtree was an American physicist known for his highly cited research on superconducting materials and, since 2012, for his directorship of the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR) at Argonne National Laboratory.

George J. Efstathiou, FAIA, RIBA is an American architect of Greek descent. George joined Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, LLP in 1974, where he served as Managing Partner and later Consulting Partner in the Chicago office until 2016. He is currently leading the consulting practice of Efstathiou Consulting LLC which serves clients in the architecture, planning, interiors design as well as...

Andre Vasquez is a Chicago politician, community organizer, and former rapper. He is currently serving in the Chicago City Council as alderperson for the 40th ward, which includes parts of Lincoln Square, West Ridge, and Edgewater. He won election to that office in 2019, defeating incumbent Patrick O'Connor, and was re-elected in 2023. Since 2023, he has served as co-chair...

Frank B. Hu is a Chinese American nutrition and diabetes researcher. He is Chair of the Department of Nutrition and the Fredrick J. Stare Professor of Nutrition and Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Professor of Medicine at the Harvard Medical School.

Hasia R. Diner is an American historian. Diner is the Paul S. and Sylvia Steinberg Professor of American Jewish History; Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, History; Director of the Goldstein-Goren Center for American Jewish History at New York University and Interim Director of Glucksman Ireland House NYU.

Joshua Andrew Mayo is an American professional basketball player who last played for Napoli Basket of the Italian Lega Basket Serie A (LBA).

Richard Kling is a Clinical Professor of Law at the Chicago–Kent College of Law in Chicago, Illinois, where he has been teaching since 1981. He teaches evidence, forensic science, and professional responsibility. He has personally tried over 500 jury trials, including 28 capital cases, and currently has a full-time Clinical Criminal practice through the Law Offices of the Chicago-Kent College...

Steven Harvey Schiff was an American politician and lawyer. A member of the Republican Party, Schiff served as a U.S. Representative from New Mexico's 1st congressional district from 1989 until his death in 1998.

Dan Meis, FAIA, RIBA is an American architect known for designing sports and entertainment facilities including Staples Center, Safeco Field, Paycor Stadium, Saitama Super Arena, Stadio Della Roma, and Everton FC's Hill Dickinson Stadium.

Tai Osazeeonamen Odiase is a Nigerian American and naturalized Puerto Rican professional basketball player for Hapoel Tel Aviv of the Israeli Ligat HaAl and the EuroLeague. Standing at 2.06 m (6 ft 9 in), he plays at the center position. After playing four years of college basketball at UIC, Odiase entered the 2018 NBA draft, but he was not selected...

Radovan Jelašić is a Hungarian-Serbian economist who served as the Governor of the National Bank of Serbia from 2004 to 2010. He has been the CEO of Erste Bank Hungary since June 2011 and is also the chairman of the Hungarian Banking Association.

Adis "Baggio" Hušidić is a Bosnian former footballer. He mainly played as a midfielder but was also deployed as a left-back.

Ertharin Cousin is an American lawyer who served as the twelfth executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme from 2012 to 2017. Following the completion of her term, Cousin became Payne Distinguished Professor at Stanford University's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, distinguished fellow at the Center on Food Security and the Environment and the Center on Democracy,...

Othyus Jeffers is an American former professional basketball player and coach. Jeffers played college basketball with the University of Illinois at Chicago for two years, before transferring to Robert Morris University for his senior season. He then started his professional career with the Iowa Energy of the NBA D-League, a minor league basketball organization owned and run by the NBA....

Santiago Alonso Durango is a Colombian–American attorney and retired musician. He is best known for his work with the 1980s punk rock groups Naked Raygun and Big Black.

Gery J. Chico is an American politician, lawyer, public official and former Democratic primary candidate to become the U.S. Senator from Illinois.

André Jael Curbelo Rodríguez is a Puerto Rican professional basketball player for Atléticos de San Germán of the Baloncesto Superior Nacional (BSN) in Puerto Rico. He previously played college basketball for the Southern Miss Golden Eagles, the Illinois Fighting Illini and St. John's Red Storm. Curbelo represents the Puerto Rican national team in international tournaments. Listed at 6 feet 1...

Minyon Moore is an American political activist and civil servant. Moore is the founder of Women Building for the Future, and heads Dewey Square Group's state and local practice. She is chairperson of the 2024 Democratic National Convention, held in Chicago, Illinois. She was formerly chief executive officer and before that chief operating officer of the Democratic National Committee, and...

Azhar Muhammad Usman is an American comedian, actor, screenwriter, and producer of Indian descent. He is a former lecturer, community activist and lawyer and has been referred to as the "Ayatollah of Comedy" and "Bin Laughin". He is best known as one third of comedy trio Allah Made Me Funny. In December 2020, Marvel Studios announced that Usman had joined...

General John Reed Hodge was an American military officer of the United States Army. Hodge commanded Operation Blacklist Forty in 1945. He served as the governor of the American military government in Korea from 1945 to 1948.

Jesús G. "Chuy" García is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for Illinois's 4th district since 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he served on the Cook County Board of Commissioners, as well as in the Illinois Senate and on the Chicago City Council before his election to Congress. He was also a candidate for mayor of...

Jay Michael DeMerit is an American former soccer player who played as a center back.

Brandon J. Dirden is an American actor, best known for portraying Martin Luther King Jr. in the Broadway production of Robert Schenkkan's All the Way.

Nnedimma Nkemdili Listen"Nnedi" Okorafor is a Nigerian American writer of science fiction and fantasy for both children and adults. She is best known for her Binti Series and her novels Who Fears Death, Zahrah the Windseeker, Akata Witch, Akata Warrior, Lagoon and Remote Control. She has also written for comics and film.

Jeremy Alexander Hammond, also known by his online moniker sup_g, is an American anarchist activist and former computer hacker from Chicago. He founded the computer security training website HackThisSite in 2003. He was first imprisoned over the Protest Warrior hack in 2005 and was later convicted of computer fraud in 2013 for hacking the private intelligence firm Stratfor and releasing...

Megan Hauserman is an American model, reality television star and actress. She is best known for her appearances on the hit VH1 celebreality series, Rock of Love with Bret Michaels season 2, I Love Money season 1 and Rock of Love: Charm School.

Anthony Thomas Podesta is an American lobbyist best known for founding the Podesta Group. The brother of former White House Chief of Staff John Podesta, he was formerly one of Washington's most powerful lobbyists and fundraisers.

Bernard Shaw was an American journalist and lead news anchor for CNN from 1980 until his retirement on March 2, 2001. Prior to his time at CNN, he was a reporter and anchor for WNUS, Westinghouse Broadcasting, CBS News, and ABC News.

Joseph Michael Mercola is an American alternative medicine proponent, osteopathic physician, and Internet business personality. He markets largely unproven dietary supplements and medical devices. On his website, Mercola and colleagues advocate unproven and pseudoscientific alternative health notions including homeopathy and opposition to vaccination. These positions have received persistent criticism. Mercola is a member of several alternative medicine organizations as well...

Carol Elizabeth Moseley Braun, also sometimes Moseley-Braun, is an American diplomat, politician, and lawyer who represented Illinois in the United States Senate from 1993 to 1999. Moseley Braun was the first African-American woman elected to the U.S. Senate, the first African-American U.S. senator from the Democratic Party and the first female U.S. senator from Illinois.

Alain David Jourgensen is a Cuban-American singer, musician and music producer. Closely related with the independent record label Wax Trax! Records, his musical career spans five decades. He is the frontman and lyricist of the industrial metal band Ministry, which he founded in 1981 and of which he remains the only constant member. He was the primary musician of several...

Curtis Granderson Jr., nicknamed "the Grandyman", is an American former professional baseball outfielder. He played 16 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Detroit Tigers, New York Yankees, New York Mets, Los Angeles Dodgers, Toronto Blue Jays, Milwaukee Brewers, and Miami Marlins.

Janina Zione Gavankar is an American actress and musician. She is trained as a pianist, vocalist, and orchestral percussionist and majored in theatre at the University of Illinois Chicago. Her roles include Eva "Papi" Torres on Showtime's The L Word, Shiva on The League, Leigh Turner on The Gates, Luna Garza on HBO's True Blood, McKenna Hall on The CW's...

Kelly Cheung is a Hongkonger-American actress, tv host and beauty pageant titleholder. She currently contracted to TVB. She is the winner of Miss Chinese International 2012 and represented Hong Kong at Miss World 2012.

Todd Matthew Ricketts is an American businessman and politician who is a co-owner of the Chicago Cubs, a former member of Charles Schwab & Co. board of directors, and a former Republican National Committee Finance Chairman.

Georges C. Benjamin is an American public health official who has served as Executive Director of the American Public Health Association since 2002, and previously as Secretary of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene in the Cabinet of Governor Parris Glendening from 1999 to 2002. He is a member of the National Infrastructure Advisory Council and a fellow...

John Herman Cox is an American businessman, housing developer, political activist, and perennial candidate. A Republican, he was the party's nominee for Governor of California in 2018, as well as one of the party's replacement candidates in the state's 2021 recall election.

Diana Pavlac Glyer is an American author, speaker and teacher whose work centers on C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien and the Inklings. She teaches in the Honors College at Azusa Pacific University in California.

Kevin M. Folta is a professor of the horticultural sciences department at the University of Florida. From 2007 to 2010 he helped lead the project to sequence the strawberry genome, and continues to research photomorphogenesis in plants and compounds responsible for flavor in strawberries. Folta has been active as a science communicator since 2002, especially relating to biotechnology. He has...

Justin Scott Hartley is an American actor, television producer, and director. He has played Fox Crane on the NBC daytime soap opera Passions (2002–2006), Oliver Queen on the WB/CW television series Smallville (2006–2011), and Adam Newman on the CBS daytime soap opera The Young and the Restless (2014–2016) which earned him a Daytime Emmy nomination. He also had recurring roles...

Hemant Mehta is an American author, blogger, YouTuber and atheist activist. Mehta is a regular speaker at atheist events, and he has been a board member of charitable organizations such as the Secular Student Alliance and the Foundation Beyond Belief.

James Adelbert McDermott is an American politician and psychiatrist who was the U.S. representative for Washington's 7th congressional district from 1989 to 2017. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The 7th district includes most of Seattle, Vashon Island, Tukwila, Burien, Shoreline, Lake Forest Park, Lynnwood, Mountlake Terrace, Woodway, and Edmonds. He served on the House Ways and Means...

Richard Howard Hunt was an American artist and sculptor. In the second half of the 20th century, he became "the foremost African-American abstract sculptor and artist of public sculpture." A Chicago native, Hunt studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the 1950s. While there he received multiple prizes for his work. In 1971, he was the...

Nancy Davidson is an American artist best known for large-scale inflatable sculptures regarded as hyper-feminized abstractions of the human female form. Bulbous and flesh-like, the sculptures resemble buttocks and breasts and employ erotic cultural signifiers in their shape and decoration. Davidson's work spans art media but centers around sculpture. It is largely post-minimal in character and described by commentators as...

Iris Y. Martinez is a former American politician and administrator. In 2020, she was elected clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County. She previously served as a member of the Illinois Senate, representing the 20th district from 2003 until becoming clerk. A member of the Democratic Party, she rose to Assistant Majority Leader in the State Senate. As court...

Walter Burnett Jr. is an American politician who served as the alderman for Chicago's 27th ward from 1995 to 2025. The 27th ward includes the West Loop, Greektown, East Garfield Park, Near North Side, Old Town, West Humboldt Park, West Town, Goose Island and the Illinois Medical District. From 2023 to 2025, he also served as vice mayor of Chicago.

Al Riley is a former Democratic member of the Illinois House of Representatives, representing the 38th District between January, 2007 and January 2019. The district includes all or portions of Country Club Hills, Flossmoor, Frankfort, Frankfort Square, Hazel Crest, Homewood, Markham, Matteson, Oak Forest, Olympia Fields, Park Forest, Richton Park, Tinley Park, and University Park.

William J. Walker is a retired United States Army major general and former Sergeant at Arms of the U.S. House of Representatives. He was the 38th House Sergeant at Arms and the first African-American to hold the office. He last served as the 23rd Commanding General of the District of Columbia National Guard. This responsibility includes command of the District...

Sheryl Patrice Underwood is an American comedian, actress and television host. She first rose to prominence in the comedy world as the first female finalist in 1989's Miller Lite Comedy Search. Underwood was one of the hosts on the CBS Daytime talk show The Talk from September 2011 to December 2024, becoming the show's longest running co-host. She received a...

Michael Noland is a former Democratic member of the Illinois Senate, representing the 22nd District from 2007 to 2017. In November 2018, he was elected Kane County Circuit Court Judge in the 16th Judicial Circuit of Illinois.

James Robert Thompson Jr. was an American politician and federal prosecutor who served as the 37th governor of Illinois from 1977 to 1991. He was Illinois's longest-serving governor, having been elected to four consecutive terms and holding the office for 14 years, and is also the only governor to have served more than two terms. A member of the Republican...

Bobby Lee Rush is an American politician, activist, and pastor who served as the U.S. representative for Illinois's 1st congressional district for three decades, ending in 2023. A civil rights activist during the 1960s, Rush co-founded the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party.

Gertrude Abercrombie was an American painter based in Chicago. Called "the queen of the Bohemian artists", Abercrombie was involved in the Chicago jazz scene and was friends with musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and Sarah Vaughan, whose music inspired her own creative work.

Ludvig Hektoen was an American pathologist known for his work in the fields of pathology, microbiology and immunology. Hektoen was appointed to the National Academy of Sciences in 1918, and served as president of many professional societies, including the American Association of Immunologists in 1927 and the American Society for Microbiology in 1929. He was the founding editor of the...

Professor Sheila Dinotshe Tlou is a Botswana nurse, specialist in HIV/AIDS and women's health, and nursing educator. She was Minister of Health from 2004 to 2008. Professor Tlou is a distinguished advocate for human resources for health issues. She is a recognized visionary leader and champion.

Tom Friedman is an American conceptual sculptor. He was born in St. Louis, Missouri and received a BFA in graphic illustration from Washington University in St. Louis (1988) and an MFA in sculpture from the University of Illinois at Chicago (1990.). As a conceptual artist he works in diverse media including sculpture, painting, drawing, video, and installation.

William Albert Dembski is an American mathematician, philosopher, and theologian. He was a proponent of intelligent design (ID), a pseudoscientific argument for the existence of God. He coined the intelligent design argument of specified complexity.

Erika L. Sánchez is an American poet and writer. She is the author of poetry collection Lessons on Expulsion, a young adult novel I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, a 2017 finalist for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature, and Crying in the Bathroom: A Memoir. She was a professor at DePaul University.

Polykarp Kusch was a German-American physicist who shared the 1955 Nobel Prize in Physics with Willis Eugene Lamb for his accurate determination that the electron magnetic moment was greater than its theoretical value, thus leading to reconsideration of and innovations in quantum electrodynamics.

Mary Biddinger is an American poet, editor, and academic.

Nancy Cartwright, Lady Hampshire FBA, FAcSS is an American philosopher of science. She is a professor of philosophy at the University of California at San Diego and the University of Durham. Currently, she is the past president of the Division for Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science and Technology (DLMPST) of the International Union of History and Philosophy of Science...

Steve Grand is an American singer, songwriter and model from Lemont, Illinois, a Chicago suburb. He became an overnight internet celebrity and the music video of his first hit "All-American Boy" went viral on YouTube in less than a week in July 2013. This attention landed Grand on Good Morning America, CNN and other national media. In addition to being...

Hendl Helen Mirra is an American conceptual artist. "[Like Henry David Thoreau, she is a] maximalist in a minimalist robe", with an idiosyncratic practice. She is engaged with ideas common to buddhist and pragmatist philosophies, and since 2008 her art practice has been integrated with walking. She has said of walking: "It is an unskilled activity, and a modest activity,...

Larry Dean Bucshon is an American politician and physician who was the U.S. representative for Indiana's 8th congressional district from 2011 to 2025. He is a member of the Republican Party.

Adrian Devaun Smith is an American architect. He designed the world's tallest structure, Burj Khalifa, as well as the building projected to surpass it, the Jeddah Tower. A long-time principal of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, he founded his own architectural partnership firm, Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, in Chicago in 2006. Among his other projects, he was the senior...

Samantha Jane Brennan is a British-born philosopher and scholar of women's studies who is currently dean of the College of Arts and faculty member in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Guelph. She was previously a professor in the Department of Women's Studies and Feminist Research at Western University, Canada. Brennan was Department Chair of Philosophy at Western...

Chen Ching-min is a Taiwanese nurse, health scientist, and politician. The American Academy of Nursing and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland have awarded her fellowship. Politically, Chen is a member of the Democratic Progressive Party and has served as an appointed at-large member of the Legislative Yuan twice, from 2018 to 2020, and from 2022 to 2024.

Professor Sivalingam Sivananthan is an American academic, scientist, businessman and Director of the Microphysics Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Soo Jung Lee is a South Korean forensic psychologist, professor of forensic psychology at Kyonggi University in Seoul, and part of the country's first generation of criminal profilers. She has been named part of BBC's list of 100 inspiring and influential women from around the world for 2019, in the leadership category. Lee has worked numerous high-profile murder cases, and...

Toshiko Abe is a Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party, a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet, since 2005.

Nirmalya Kumar is Professor of Marketing of the Lee Kong Chian School of Business at Singapore Management University. He has served on the Boards of ACC Limited, Ambuja Cements, Bata India, BP Ergo, Defaqto, Tata Capital, Tata Chemicals, Tata Industries, Tata Limited (UK), Tata Unistore, Ultratech, and Zensar Technologies. He received the 2021 Mahajan Award for Lifetime Contributions to Marketing...

Anuradha Acharya is an Indian entrepreneur. She is the founder and CEO of Ocimum Bio Solutions and Mapmygenome. She was awarded Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2011.

Michael Collins was an Irish revolutionary, soldier and politician who was a leading figure in the early-20th century struggle for Irish independence. During the War of Independence he was Director of Intelligence of the Irish Republican Army (IRA). He served in the government of the self-declared Irish Republic as the Minister for Home Affairs and later as the Minister for...

Michael Gross is a British science writer based at Oxford and has been awarded an honorary research fellowship at the School of Crystallography, Birkbeck, University of London.

Carolina Cruz-Neira is an American computer scientist, researcher, designer, educator, and a pioneer of virtual reality. She is known for inventing the cave automatic virtual environment (CAVE). She is a member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), Forbes Magazine 50 over 50 Innovator (2025), a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), a member of the...

Demetrius Klee Lopes is a cerebrovascular neurosurgeon specializing in neuroendovascular therapy. At Advocate Health, he serves as medical director of the cerebrovascular and neuroendovascular program and is co-director of their stroke program.