99 Notable alumni of University of Latvia

Aleksejs Loskutovs is a Latvian politician. He served as a Member of the European Parliament for Unity from January 24, 2019, until July 1, 2019.

Ivars Ijabs is a Latvian political scientist and politician. He is a lecturer and professor at the University of Latvia and holds a PhD in political science. In May 2019, representing political alliance Development/For!, he was elected as a Member of the European Parliament. He then joined Renew Europe Group.

Inese Šlesere is a Latvian politician, former model and beauty pageant titleholder. She was the runner-up in the 1999 Mrs. World and a contestant in Miss World 1991. She was a member of the Latvian Parliament from 2002 to 2011. Since 2010, she is the main organizer of the annual Latvian Prayers breakfast. She is married to Ainārs Šlesers and...

Ernst Rudolf Jaakson was an Estonian diplomat whose contribution was to maintain Estonia's legal continuity with his uninterrupted diplomatic service for 69 years.

Elita Veidemane is a Latvian journalist, publicist and public worker. In 1980 she graduated from the Latvian State University Faculty of Philology, and from 1981 to 1988 worked for the newspaper Padomju Jaunatne (Soviet Youth). She worked as a Latvian language and literature teacher at a school in Jūrmala in the 1980s. From 1988 until its closure in 1992 she...

Sarmīte Ēlerte is a Latvian politician who is a member of the Unity party. She was Minister of Culture of Latvia from 3 November 2010 until 25 October 2011.

Kārlis Būmeisters is a Latvian musician, artist, guitarist and TV host once using the stage name Kaža. He is now in politics in the European Parliament in Brussels as a press secretary for the European Parliament Member Roberts Zīle who is part of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group.

Kaspars Gerhards is a Latvian politician of the TB/LNNK (2008–11), respectively National Alliance (since 2011) party. He was the economy minister from 2007 to 2009, minister of transport from 2009 to 2010 and minister of environmental protection and regional development from 2014 to 2019. Since January 2019 he has served as minister of agriculture of Latvia.

Māris Riekstiņš is a Latvian politician and diplomat and a former Foreign Minister of Latvia (November 2007 – April 2010). He is a former Ambassador of Latvia to the Russian Federation (September 2017 – February 2023). He currently serves as Permanent Representative of Latvia to NATO.

Jānis Jurkāns is a Latvian politician, one of the leaders of the Popular Front of Latvia, who served as foreign minister (1990–1992).

Guntars Krasts is a Latvian politician, former Prime Minister, and former Member of the European Parliament for the single Latvia constituency. Born in Riga, he was the Minister of Economy of Latvia from December 1995 to August 1997, Prime Minister of Latvia from August 1997 to November 1998, and the Deputy Prime Minister from November 1998 to June 1999. Krasts...

Uldis Augulis is a Latvian politician and a member of the Union of Greens and Farmers. He holds a bachelor's degree in financial management from the University of Latvia. He was the former Welfare Minister from 2009 to 2010 and again between 2014 and 2016, and also again 2023 to 2025. He was also the former Minister of Transport from...

Inguna Sudraba is a Latvian politician.

Baiba Broka is a Latvian lawyer, academic, former politician, former Minister of Justice of Latvia from the National Alliance.

Edvīns Šnore is a Latvian film director and politician. He was elected to a four-year term in the Latvian Saeima in 2014 and 2018.

Yelena Alexandrovna Katishonok is an American Russian-language writer and translator, author of three books of poetry, seven novels, and one book of short stories.

Inese Vaidere is a Latvian politician who currently serves as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP).

Ilga Šuplinska is a Latvian politician. From 23 January 2019 to 3 June 2021, she served as Minister for Education and Science in the Kariņš cabinet.

Valērijs Belokoņs or Valeri Belokon is a Latvian businessman. He is a majority shareholder and chairman of the supervisory board of Baltic International Bank; a former co-owner of Blackpool F.C. From 12 January 2010 to 4 June 2013, he served as a Trustee of The Prince's Foundation for Building Community.

Ilze Juhansone is the Secretary-General of the European Commission. She is a European civil servant and former Latvian diplomat.

Benes Khristoferovich Ayo, also known by his nickname "Black Lenin" (Russian: Чёрный Ленин), is a Latvian-born Russian soldier and political activist. He has been active in the National Bolshevik movement since 1998 and has been repeatedly arrested and imprisoned for his political activities in various countries.

Inese Lībiņa-Egnere is a Latvian politician representing the Unity party. She has served as the minister of justice since 2022. She was a member and Deputy Speaker of the 11th Saeima (elected from Reform Party). She was the Deputy Speaker and the Chairperson of the National Security Committee of the 12th Saeima. In 2022, Lībiņa-Egnere was elected in the 14th...

Rihards Kozlovskis is a Latvian politician and lawyer. He has served as the Minister of the Interior of Latvia since 2023; he had previously served in the same position from 2011 to 2019. He is a member of Unity. Between 2011 and 2014 he was a member of the Reform Party.

Uldis Bērziņš was a Latvian poet and translator.

Andris Ambainis is a Latvian computer scientist active in the fields of quantum information theory and quantum computing.

Māris Čaklais was a Latvian poet, writer, and journalist.

Edvards Smiltēns is a Latvian politician. He was Speaker of the Saeima from 2022 to 2023.

Julija Stepanenko is a Latvian politician and lawyer, serving as a deputy of the Saeima, the parliament of Latvia. Formerly a member of Honor to serve Riga and Law and Order, she is now a member of Sovereign Power, having left Law and Order in June 2021 and Latvia First at 2022.

Linda Mūrniece is a Latvian politician and journalist. She is a member of Unity, and has served as both the Minister for the Interior as well as the Minister for Defence of Latvia.

Mārtiņš Bondars is a Latvian financier and politician. He has been a member of the Latvian parliament since 2014. Bondars previously served as chief of staff to then President of Latvia Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga and chairman of the Latvijas Krājbanka board (until 2009).

Jānis Reirs is a Latvian politician who served as Minister of Finance in the first Kariņš cabinet from 2019 until 2022, as well as Minister for Welfare in the Kučinskis cabinet from 2016 until 2019 and Minister of Finance in the second Straujuma cabinet.

Kirovs Lipmans is a Jewish Latvian business person and former ice hockey executive. He served as president of the Latvian Ice Hockey Federation from 1994 to 1995, and from 1998 to 2016; was a member of the Latvian Olympic Committee executive, and sat on International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) committees. He oversaw the increase of artificial ice hockey rinks in...

Juris Pūce is a Latvian economist, lawyer, and politician. Former Minister of Environmental Protection and Regional Development of Latvia in the government of Krisjanis Karins and chairman of the board of the "Latvian Development" party. Pūce was elected deputy of 13th Saeima from the "Development / For!". He is former the State Secretary of the Ministry of Economics (2010–2013), a...

Andris Piebalgs is a Latvian politician and diplomat who served as European Commissioner for Development at the European Commission from 2010 until 2014. Between 2004 and 2009 he served as Commissioner for Energy. Between 4 June 2016 and 19 August 2017, he served as the leader of the Unity party.

Laura Ikauniece is a Latvian athlete competing in heptathlon. She participated in two Olympic Games, finishing fourth in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. She won a silver medal at the 2012 European Athletics Championships, and a bronze medal at the 2015 World Athletics Championships. She set a Latvian record in the heptathlon (6,815 points) and a Latvian record in the...

Indulis Emsis is a Latvian biologist and politician. He was Prime Minister of Latvia for ten months in 2004, the first Green politician to lead a country in the history of the world. He was Speaker of the Saeima, the Latvian parliament from 2006 to 2007. Emsis' political views are described as rather conservative, unusual for members of green parties...

Pols Armāns, whose true name was Pauls Tiltiņš (4 April [O.S. 22 March] 1903 – 7 August 1943) was a Soviet officer and the first Red Army tankman to be awarded with title of Hero of Soviet Union. His brother was Alfred Tilton, a Soviet spy and bearer of Order of Lenin.

Daina Taimiņa is a Latvian mathematician, retired adjunct associate professor of mathematics at Cornell University, known for developing a way of modeling hyperbolic geometry with crocheted objects.

Andrejs Mamikins is a Latvian Russian former politician, former journalist, former Member of the European Parliament and pundit.

Jānis Vanags is a Latvian retired Lutheran bishop. He was Archbishop of Riga in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia from 1993 until his retirement in 2025.

Signe Zeikate is a Latvian economist and was director of the "Programme for the Development of Poor Countries" of the World Bank. She is currently the first lady of Costa Rica, as she is the wife of President Rodrigo Chaves.

Boris Leonidovich Tsilevitch is a Latvian politician, physicist and mathematician of Jewish descent. He is a member of the Harmony party and a former deputy of the Saeima.

Knuts Skujenieks was a Latvian poet, journalist, and translator from fifteen European languages.

Arvils Ašeradens is a Latvian politician who was a former Minister for Economics and Deputy Prime Minister in the Kučinskis cabinet.

Valdis Birkavs is a Latvian politician. He was born in Riga. Birkavs attended the University of Latvia, where he studied philosophy, sociology, law, psychology and mathematical logic. He was first elected to the Latvian parliament in 1990 and helped to found the Latvian Way party. After Latvian Way won the 1993 parliamentary election, Birkavs became the prime minister, leading a...

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).

Vilnis Ķirsis, is a Latvian politician, economist and businessman, who had served as one of the Deputy Mayors of the Riga City Council since 2025. Previously, he was the Mayor of Riga from 2023 to 2025.

Jānis Bordāns is a Latvian politician and lawyer, the Deputy Prime Minister and the former Minister of Justice of the Republic of Latvia from 2019 to 2022, and previously from 2012 to 2014.

Nora Ikstena was a Latvian writer and cultural manager. She was born in Riga and studied Latvian philology at the University of Latvia. After a subsequent period of residence in New York City for further studies, she returned home and worked to establish the Latvian Literature Centre.

Dainis Īvāns is a Latvian journalist and politician.

Vjačeslavs Dombrovskis is a Latvian Russian politician and economist, who has previously served as the Minister for Education and Science and as Minister of Economics of Latvia.

Ieva Ilvesa is a Latvian diplomat, politician and cyber security policy expert, and former First Lady of Estonia. Ilvesa ran as a Latvian candidate for the 2019 European Parliament election. She was the third place candidate for Development/For!, second on the list was Baiba Rubesa, the former CEO of Rail Baltica.

Baiba Braže is a Latvian politician and diplomat who has served as Minister of Foreign Affairs since 2024. She previously served as the NATO Assistant Secretary General for Public Diplomacy from 2020 to 2023. A member of New Unity, Braže has held various positions in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in her diplomatic career between 1993 and 2024.

Raivis Dzintars is a Latvian right-wing politician and chairman of the national-conservative National Alliance party. He has previously served as the party's co-chairman alongside Gaidis Bērziņš.

Valters Frīdenbergs was a Latvian musician, singer and TV-presenter. He was best known for representing Latvia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 as part of Valters and Kaža duo with the song "The War Is Not Over", written by Mārtiņš Freimanis, finishing in fifth place with 153 points.

Ivars Kalviņš is a Latvian (and former Soviet Union) chemist who invented the prescription drug meldonium, trade-named Mildronate.

Zenta Mauriņa was a Latvian writer, essayist, translator, and researcher in philology. She was married to the Electronic Voice Phenomena researcher Konstantin Raudive. She was nominated for the 1973 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Aldis Gobzems is a Latvian politician and lawyer. He first rose to prominence as a lawyer who represented victims of the 2013 Zolitūde shopping centre roof collapse, and was the prime ministerial candidate for the Who Owns the State? party in the 2018 Latvian parliamentary elections.

Solvita Āboltiņa is a Latvian politician who was Speaker of the Saeima from 2010 until 2014.

Einars Repše is a Latvian physicist, financier and politician, chairman of the Association for Latvian Development.

Tatjana Ždanoka or Tatyana Zhdanok is a Latvian politician and a former member of the European Parliament. She is co-chairwoman of the Latvian Russian Union and its predecessor parties (Equal Rights and For Human Rights in a United Latvia) since 1993. In 2024, leaked emails revealed her to being a Russian intelligence agent since at least 2004.

Eliyahu Rips was an Israeli mathematician of Latvian origin known for his research in geometric group theory. He became known to the general public following his co-authoring a paper on what is popularly known as Bible code, the supposed coded messaging in the Hebrew text of the Torah.

Aivars Lembergs is a Latvian politician, oligarch, and convicted money launderer who was the mayor of Ventspils from 1988 to 2021, a mandate from which he has been suspended since 2008. In February 2021, Lembergs was found guilty of charges relating to bribery and money-laundering. He received a sentence of five years in prison, confiscation of property, and a €20,000...

Lauris Reiniks is a Latvian pop music singer, songwriter, television host and actor. He has graduated from Jelgava Music college, studied communication science at the University of Latvia and trained as an actor in Los Angeles, California. Lauris Reiniks has released 9 solo albums and singles in 11 languages. He is also a composer and one of the creators of...

Māra Zālīte is a Siberian-born Latvian writer and cultural worker.

Ivars Godmanis is a Latvian politician who served as the Prime Minister of Latvia from 1990 to 1993 and again from 2007 to 2009. He was the first prime minister of Latvia after the country restored its independence from the Soviet Union.

Māris Kučinskis is a Latvian politician, who served as the prime minister of Latvia, from 2016 to 2019.

Marija Naumova-Bullīta, known professionally as Marija Naumova, is a Latvian singer. Under the stage name Marie N, she sings a broad range of music ranging from pop to musical theatre and jazz, and has recorded several albums, with songs in Latvian, French, English, Russian and Portuguese. In 2002, she won the Eurovision Song Contest for Latvia with her song "I...

Alexander Genis is a Russian–American writer, broadcaster, and cultural critic. He has written more than a dozen non-fiction books.

Guntis Ulmanis is a Latvian politician and the fifth President of Latvia from 1993 to 1999.

Martins Dukurs is a former Latvian skeleton racer, currently a coach, who has competed since 1998. He is a six-time world champion in men's skeleton, a double Olympic silver winner (at Vancouver 2010 and Sochi 2014), and the athlete with the most World Cup titles with a total of 11, having won eight consecutive titles between 2010 and 2017, plus...

Laimdota Straujuma is a Latvian economist who was the prime minister of Latvia from January 2014 to February 2016. Before her tenure as prime minister, she served as the minister of Agriculture from 2011 to 2014. She was the first woman to serve as the head of government of the country. After her resignation on 7 December 2015, she announced...

Aminata Savadogo, occasionally known as simply Aminata, is a Latvian singer, songwriter, record producer, and model. She represented Latvia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 with the song "Love Injected". She released her debut studio album, Inner Voice, in April 2015.

Efim Zalmanovich Shifrin (Russian: Ефи́м (Нахи́м) Залма́нович Шифри́н; born March 25, 1956) is a Soviet and Russian actor, humorist, and singer. He is the creator and artistic director of "Shifrin-Theater".

Edgars Rinkēvičs is a Latvian public official and politician serving as the 11th and current president of Latvia since July 2023. He previously served as the minister of foreign affairs of Latvia from 2011 to 2023, and head of the Chancery of the President of Latvia as state secretary of the Ministry of Defence, as well as a deputy of...

Raimonds Vējonis is a Latvian politician who served as the 9th President of Latvia from 2015 to 2019 and the president of the Latvian Basketball Association since 2020.

Renārs Kaupers is a Latvian pop/rock singer, instrumentalist, and songwriter who is the vocalist of the band Brainstorm.

Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen is a Lithuanian politician and chess Grandmaster who served as the speaker of the Seimas between 2020 and 2024. Awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 2010, she was European women's champion in 2011, and is a two-time Lithuanian champion.

Mikhail Tal was a Soviet Latvian chess grandmaster and the eighth World Chess Champion. He is considered a creative genius and is widely regarded as one of the most influential players in chess history. Tal played in an attacking and daring combinatorial style. His play was known above all for improvisation and unpredictability. Vladislav Zubok said of him, "Every game...

Agata Edgarovna Dranga is a Latvian actress, model, and television presenter.

Ģirts Valdis Kristovskis is a Latvian politician. He is a member of the centre-right Unity party.

Andris Ameriks is a Latvian politician and economist who has been serving as a Member of the European Parliament since the 2019 elections. He is a former deputy mayor of Riga.

Kārlis Šadurskis is a Latvian politician, who was a Member of the European Parliament for Latvia from 2011 until 2014. He is a member of the Unity party and sat with the European People's Party in the European Parliament.

Andris Bērziņš is a Latvian businessman and politician who was President of Latvia from 2011 to 2015. Bērziņš was the President of Unibanka from 1993 to 2004. He was elected as President by the Saeima on 2 June 2011.

Aigars Kalvītis is a Latvian businessman and a former politician who was the Prime Minister of Latvia from 2004 to 2007. Currently he is the president of Latvian Ice Hockey Federation and the Chairman of the Board of Latvian gas company Latvijas Gāze. He is the Chairman of the Council of Latvian telecommunications company Tet.

Roberts Zīle is a Latvian economist and politician and Vice President of the European Parliament for the National Alliance, a free market national conservative right-wing populist political party in Latvia. In the seventh term of the European Parliament, he works in the European Conservatives and Reformists group; he is a member of European Conservatives and Reformists Group Executive and a...

Dagnija Staķe is a Latvian politician (Latvian Farmers' Union) and the Minister of Regional Development and Local Governments of Latvia from 13 May to 3 November 2010.

Gundars Āboliņš is a Latvian actor. He worked for the New Riga Theatre in Riga, having formerly worked for the Dailes Theatre. He was awarded the Spēlmaņu nakts gada aktieris award (best actor) in 2006.

Kārlis Vērdiņš is a Latvian poet.

Dace Melbārde is a Latvian politician who has served as the Minister for Education and Science of Latvia since 2025. She is a member of New Unity, having defected from the National Alliance in 2022 and was the Latvian minister of culture from 2013 to 2019. In May 2019, representing the political party National Alliance, she was elected as a...

Evika Siliņa is a Latvian lawyer and politician who has been serving as the prime minister of Latvia since 15 September 2023. From 2022 to 2023, she served as Minister of Welfare in the second cabinet of prime minister Krišjānis Kariņš. She is a member of the Unity political party, and the second female head of government of Latvia.

Anita Muižniece is a Latvian politician. From June 3, 2021 until December 14, 2022 she served as Minister for Education and Science in the Kariņš cabinet. She is affiliated with The Conservatives She was also member of the 13th Saeima.

Ināra Mūrniece is a Latvian journalist, politician and a member of Saeima. She was Speaker of the Saeima from 2014 to 2022. In 2022, she was succeeded in that role by Edvards Smiltēns.

Marija Golubeva is a Latvian politician of Russian descent, political scientist, and historian. She is a member of the 13th Saeima and leader of the Development/For! Saeima fraction, and she also was elected by the Presidium of the Saeima to serve in the Saeima Secretariat. She served as Minister of the Interior of Latvia. In her academic work, she specializes...

Valdis Dombrovskis is a Latvian politician serving as European Commissioner for Economy and Productivity, and Commissioner for Implementation and Simplification. He previously served as Executive Vice President of the European Commission for An Economy that Works for People (2019-2024), European Commissioner for Trade (2020-2024). European Commissioner for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union (2016-2020) and Prime Minister of...

Mārtiņš Staķis is a Latvian politician and businessman, Mayor of Riga from 2020 to 2023. He served as a deputy of the 13th Saeima, the Latvian parliament, until he resigned on 5 June 2020. On 29 August 2020, Staķis was elected to the Riga City Council, and on 2 October, elected Mayor of Riga.

Ineta Ziemele is a Latvian jurist and judge at the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Latvia since 2015. On 8 May 2017 she was elected as President of the Constitutional Court.

Artis Pabriks is a Latvian politician. Since January 2019 he has been the Minister for Defence and Deputy Prime Minister of Latvia. From 2014 to 2018, he was a Member of the European Parliament.