100 Notable alumni of University of St Andrews

Wajid Ali Khan Burki was a Pakistani ophthalmologist, surgeon, agriculturist, diplomat and author, who served as a three-star rank general in the Pakistan Army Medical Corps. He has been described as the "Father of Medical Services in Pakistan" and the "Argyll Robertson of Pakistan".

Duncan Madsen Pirie OBE is a British researcher and author. He is a co-founder and current president of the Adam Smith Institute, a UK neoliberal think tank which has been in operation since 1977.

James Edward George Younger, 5th Viscount Younger of Leckie, is an elected hereditary peer who sits on the Conservative benches in the House of Lords.

Hugh Blair FRSE was a Scottish minister of religion, author and rhetorician, considered one of the first great theorists of written discourse.

Golding Bird FRS FRCP FLS FGS was a British medical doctor and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. He became a great authority on kidney diseases and published a comprehensive paper on urinary deposits in 1844. He was also notable for his work in related sciences, especially the medical uses of electricity and electrochemistry. From 1836, he lectured...

Robert Henryson was a poet who flourished in Scotland in the period c. 1460–1500. Counted among the Scots makars, he lived in the royal burgh of Dunfermline and is a distinctive voice in the Northern Renaissance at a time when the culture was on a cusp between medieval and renaissance sensibilities. Little is known of his life, but evidence suggests...

John Jonston or Johnston was a Polish scholar and physician, descended from Scottish nobility and closely associated with the Polish magnate Leszczyński family. The standard author abbreviation Jonst. is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.

John Roddick Russell MacGregor, Baron MacGregor of Pulham Market, OBE, PC, FKC, is a British politician. A member of the Conservative Party, he was the Member of Parliament (MP) for South Norfolk from 1974 to 2001. He served in the Cabinet as Chief Secretary to the Treasury (1985–87), Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (1987–89), Secretary of State for Education...

Zbigniew Pełczyński was a Polish-British political philosopher and academic. He taught politics at Pembroke College, Oxford, from 1957 to 1992, and was later an Emeritus Fellow of the college. Pełczyński was instrumental in providing opportunities for scholars from Poland and other post-communist countries to study at British universities, especially at Oxford and Cambridge.

William Douglas Cullen, Baron Cullen of Whitekirk is a former senior member of the Scottish judiciary. He formerly served as Lord Justice General and Lord President of the Court of Session, and was an additional Lord of Appeal in the House of Lords prior to the transfer of its judicial functions to the Supreme Court.

Sir William Bruce of Kinross, 1st Baronet, was a Scottish gentleman-architect, "the effective founder of classical architecture in Scotland," as Howard Colvin observes. As a key figure in introducing the Palladian style into Scotland, he has been compared to the pioneering English architects Inigo Jones and Christopher Wren, and to the contemporaneous introducers of French style in English domestic architecture,...

William Maitland of Lethington was a Scottish politician and reformer, and the eldest son of poet Richard Maitland.

Sir George Newlands Reid was a Scottish politician and journalist who served as Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament from 2003 to 2007. A member of the Scottish National Party (SNP), he was a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Mid Scotland and Fife region from 1999 to 2003 and then for the Ochil constituency from 2003 to...

Helen-Ann Macleod Hartley is a British Anglican diocesan bishop, Lord Spiritual, and academic. Since 2023, she has served as the 13th Bishop of Newcastle in the Church of England. She previously served as Bishop of Waikato in New Zealand from 2014 to 2017, and area Bishop of Ripon in the Diocese of Leeds from 2018 to 2023. She was the...

Hector Boece, known in Latin as Hector Boecius or Boethius, was a Scottish philosopher and historian, and the first Principal of King's College in Aberdeen, a predecessor of the University of Aberdeen.

Andrew Bell FRSE FRAS was a Scottish Anglican priest and educationalist who pioneered the Madras System of Education (also known as "mutual instruction" or the "monitorial system") in schools. He was the founder of Madras College, a secondary school in St Andrews, and helped fund other schools.

Thomas Thomson was a Scottish chemist and mineralogist whose writings contributed to the early spread of Dalton's atomic theory. His scientific accomplishments include the invention of the saccharometer and he gave silicon its current name. He served as president of the Philosophical Society of Glasgow.

John Murray, 1st Duke of Atholl, KT, PC was a Scottish politician and military officer. He served in numerous positions during his life, and fought in the Glorious Revolution for William III and Mary II.

Jay Parini is an American writer and academic. He is known for novels, poetry, biography, and criticism. He has published novels about Leo Tolstoy, Walter Benjamin, Paul the Apostle, Herman Melville, and a novelized memoir about his road trip with Jorge Luis Borges.

Narendra Babubhai Patel, Baron Patel is a Tanzanian-British obstetrician and crossbench life peer. He served as president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists from 1995 to 1998 and as Chancellor of the University of Dundee from 2006 to 2017.

Robert Fergusson was a Scottish poet. After formal education at the University of St Andrews, Fergusson led a bohemian life in Edinburgh, the city of his birth, then at the height of intellectual and cultural ferment as part of the Scottish Enlightenment. Many of his extant poems were printed from 1771 onwards in Walter Ruddiman's Weekly Magazine, and a collected...

James Bowman Lindsay was a Scottish inventor and writer. He is credited with early developments in several fields, such as incandescent lighting and telegraphy.

Ian James Duncan, Baron Duncan of Springbank is a Scottish politician serving as a deputy speaker in the House of Lords. A member of the Conservative Party, he was formerly Minister for Climate Change in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and minister in the Northern Ireland Office. He initially joined the UK Government as a Scotland Office...

Sir Ian David Diamond DL FRSE FBA FAcSS FLSW is a British statistician, academic, and administrator, who served as Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Aberdeen until 2018. He was UK's National Statistician from October 2019 until May 2025.

Julian "Jules" Knight is an English actor and singer. He is best known for being a member of the British vocal group Blake and his portrayal of Harry Tressler in the medical drama Holby City. He left Blake in January 2013 and first appeared in Holby City as doctor Harry Tressler on 14 May 2013. Knight left Holby City on...

James Crichton, known as the Admirable Crichton, was an alleged Scottish polymath noted for his extraordinary accomplishments in languages, the arts, and sciences before he was murdered at the age of 21.

John Campbell Hamilton-Gordon, 1st Marquess of Aberdeen and Temair, styled Earl of Aberdeen from 1870–1916, was a Scottish peer and colonial administrator. Born in Edinburgh, Aberdeen held office in several countries, serving twice as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (1886; 1905–1915) and serving from 1893 to 1898 as Governor General of Canada.

Lieutenant General Sir Edward Alexander Smyth-Osbourne, KCVO, CBE is a retired senior British Army officer.

James Hume Walter Miéville Stone is a Scottish Liberal Democrat politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross since 2017. He is Chair of the Petitions Committee.

John Scott Russell was a Scottish civil engineer, naval architect and shipbuilder who built Great Eastern in collaboration with Isambard Kingdom Brunel. He made the discovery of the wave of translation that gave birth to the modern study of solitons, and developed the wave-line system of ship construction.

Lord Colin Campbell was a Scottish Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1878 to 1885.

William Dunbar was a Scottish makar, or court poet, active in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. He was closely associated with the court of King James IV and produced a large body of work in Scots distinguished by its great variation in themes and literary styles. He was probably a native of East Lothian, as assumed from a...

Christina McKelvie was a Scottish politician and social worker who was a member of the Scottish National Party (SNP). She was the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse from 2011 until her death in 2025, having previously represented the Central Scotland region from 2007 to 2011.

Patrick Hamilton was a Scottish Roman Catholic priest and an early Protestant Reformer in Scotland. He travelled to Europe, where he met several of the leading reformed thinkers, before returning to Scotland to preach the doctrines of Lutheranism. Hamilton began preaching in Scotland in 1527 and was invited as a friend by Archbishop James Beaton to a conference in St....

Sir Andrew Stewart Mackenzie FRS is a Scottish businessman, who is the chairman of Shell plc and UK Research and Innovation, and formerly CEO of BHP, the world's largest mining company. He succeeded Marius Kloppers, on 10 May 2013, and was succeeded by Mike Henry, at the start of 2020.

Michael Bruce Forsyth, Baron Forsyth of Drumlean, PC is a British financier and politician, who has held the office of Lord Speaker, the presiding officer of the House of Lords, since February 2026. He was Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Stirling from 1983 to 1997 and served in the cabinet of John Major as Secretary of State for Scotland...

John Playfair FRSE, FRS was a Church of Scotland minister, remembered as a scientist and mathematician, and a professor of natural philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. He is best known for his book Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth (1802), which summarised the work of James Hutton. It was through this book that Hutton's principle of uniformitarianism,...

David Beaton was Archbishop of St Andrews and the last Scottish cardinal prior to the Reformation.

Major-General John Graham of Claverhouse, 1st Viscount Dundee was a Scottish army officer. A Tory and Episcopalian, he was responsible for policing southwest Scotland to suppress religious unrest and rebellion of Covenanters during the late 17th century. His allegedly brutal conduct during this period led him to be nicknamed "Bluidy Clavers".

Dougal Dixon is a Scottish geologist, palaeontologist, educator and author. Dixon has written well over a hundred books on geology and palaeontology, many of them for children, which have been credited with attracting many to the study of the prehistoric animals. Because of his work as a prolific science writer, he has also served as a consultant on dinosaur programmes.

John Arbuthnot FRS, often known simply as Dr Arbuthnot, was a Scottish physician, satirist and polymath in London. He is best remembered for his contributions to mathematics, his membership in the Scriblerus Club (where he inspired Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels book III and Alexander Pope's Peri Bathous, Or the Art of Sinking in Poetry, Memoirs of Martin Scriblerus, and possibly...

Thomas Chalmers FRSE, was a Scottish Presbyterian minister, professor of theology, political economist, and a leader of both the Church of Scotland and of the Free Church of Scotland. He has been called "Scotland's greatest nineteenth-century churchman".

Helen Brodie Cowan Bannerman was a Scottish children's writer. She is best known for her first book, Little Black Sambo (1899).

Colleen Bell is an American television producer known for her work on the soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful and for her involvement in various social issues. She was appointed Director of the California Film Commission by Governor Gavin Newsom on May 23, 2019, to manage the state's tax credit program, increase the representation of women and minorities, and...

Elizabeth Mair is an American political and communications consultant. She has worked as a journalist and commentator. She was the Online Communications Director at the 2008 Republican National Committee and has been a political strategist for a number of Republicans.

Alastair Warren Crooke CMG, born 30 June 1949, is a former British diplomat, and is the founder and director of the Beirut-based Conflicts Forum, an organisation that advocates for engagement between political Islam and the West. Previously he was a ranking figure in both British intelligence (MI6) and European Union diplomacy.

Dame Barbara Janet Woodward GCMG OBE is a British diplomat and China expert. She served as Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the United Nations from 2020 to 2025, having previously been the British Ambassador to China from 2015 to 2020, the first woman to hold that position. Woodward currently serves as a Deputy National Security Adviser to the...

George Buchanan was a Scottish historian and humanist scholar. According to historian Keith Brown, Buchanan was "the most profound intellectual sixteenth-century Scotland produced." His ideology of resistance to royal usurpation gained widespread acceptance during the Scottish Reformation. Brown says the ease with which King James VII was deposed in 1689 shows the power of Buchananite ideas.

Archibald Campbell, 1st Marquess of Argyll was a Scottish nobleman, politician, and peer. The de facto head of Scotland's government during most of the conflict of the 1640s and 1650s known as the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, he was the main leader of the Covenanter movement that fought for the Establishment of Presbyterianism in opposition to the preference of...

John Hutton Balfour FRSE FRS FRCSE FLS MWS was a Scottish botanist. Balfour became a Professor of Botany, first at the University of Glasgow in 1841, moving to the University of Edinburgh and also becoming the 7th Regius Keeper of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and Her Majesty's Botanist in 1845. He held these posts until his retirement in 1879....

Stephen John Doughty is a Welsh Labour Co-op politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Cardiff South and Penarth since 2012. He has served as Minister of State for Europe, North America and Overseas Territories since July 2024.

Sir Michael Victor Berry is a British theoretical physicist. He is the Melville Wills Professor of Physics (Emeritus) at the University of Bristol.

Hugo George William Swire, Baron Swire, KCMG, PC is a British politician. He served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for East Devon from 2001 until 2019. A member of the Conservative Party, he has had several ministerial roles, most recently as Minister of State for Europe and the Americas, a role he held until July 2016. Swire is currently...

Mark Philip Sedwill, Baron Sedwill, GCMG, FRGS, is a British diplomat and senior civil servant who served as Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Home Civil Service to Prime Ministers Theresa May and Boris Johnson from 2018 to 2020. He also served as the United Kingdom National Security Adviser from 2017 to 2020. He is a candidate in the 2026...

Fay Weldon was a British author, essayist and playwright.

James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose was a Scottish nobleman, poet, soldier and later viceroy and captain general of Scotland. Montrose initially joined the Covenanters in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, but subsequently supported King Charles I as the English Civil War developed. From 1644 to 1646, and again in 1650, he fought in the civil war in Scotland...

Adam Ferguson, FRSE, also known as Ferguson of Raith (1 July N.S. / 20 June O.S. 1723 – 22 February 1816), was a Scottish philosopher and historian of the Scottish Enlightenment.

Thomas Bowdler LRCP FRS was an English physician known for publishing The Family Shakespeare, an expurgated edition of William Shakespeare's plays edited by his sister Henrietta Maria Bowdler. The two sought a version they saw as more appropriate than the original for 19th-century women and children. Bowdler also published works reflecting an interested knowledge of continental Europe. His last work...

James Wilson was a Scottish American Founding Father, legal scholar, jurist, and statesman who served as an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1789 to 1798. Wilson was elected twice to the Continental Congress, and was a signatory of the Declaration of Independence. In 1787 he was a major participant in drafting the U.S. Constitution, and became...

David Malcolm Nott OBE OStJ FRCS is a Welsh consultant surgeon who mainly works in London hospitals as a general and vascular surgeon, but also volunteers to work in disaster and war zones. Having recognised that training others could greatly increase his capacity to help, Nott established the David Nott Foundation, along with his wife, to organise training in emergency...

Elizabeth Barchas Prelogar is an American lawyer who served as solicitor general of the United States from 2021 to 2025. Before that, she served as acting solicitor general from January 20, 2021, at the start of the Biden administration, until President Joe Biden sent her nomination to the U.S. Senate on August 11, 2021.

Bertie Charles Forbes was a Scottish-American financial journalist and author who founded Forbes magazine.

Sir Christopher Robert Chope OBE is a British politician and former barrister who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Christchurch in Dorset since 1997. A member of the Conservative Party, he was first elected in 1983 for Southampton Itchen, but lost this seat in 1992 to Labour. He returned to Parliament in 1997 and has remained an...

Andrew Lang FBA was a Scottish poet, novelist, literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropology. He is best known as a collector of folk and fairy tales. The Andrew Lang lectures at the University of St Andrews are named after him.

Robert Dennis Blanchflower was a Northern Ireland footballer, football manager and journalist who played for and captained Tottenham Hotspur, including during their double-winning season of 1960–61. He was twice Footballer of the Year and ranked as the greatest player in Spurs history by The Times in 2009. After a lengthy playing career, he retired at the age of 38. He...

Sir Desmond Angus Swayne TD VR is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for New Forest West since 1997.

Sir Michael Cathel Fallon KCB is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Defence from 2014 to 2017. A member of the Conservative Party, he served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Sevenoaks from 1997 to 2019, having previously served as MP for Darlington from 1983 to 1992.

Philippe-Pierre Jacques-Yves Arnault Cousteau Jr. is a French-American oceanographer and environmental activist, the son of Philippe Cousteau and the grandson of Jacques Cousteau. Cousteau has continued the work of his father and grandfather by educating the public about environmental and conservation issues. In 2017, he received an Emmy nomination for hosting the syndicated science series Awesome Planet.

Dominic Christopher Sandbrook is a British historian, author, columnist, podcaster, and television presenter. He has written many popular history books as well as articles in newspapers, presented history shows on BBC Television and Radio, and since 2020 co-hosts The Rest is History podcast with the historian and author Tom Holland.

Barry Strachan Gardiner is a British politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Brent North from 1997 until the seat's abolition in 2024 and Brent West since 2024. He is a member of the Labour Party.

Russell Amos Kirk was an American political philosopher, moralist, historian, social critic, literary critic, lecturer, author, and novelist who influenced 20th century American conservatism. In 1953, he authored The Conservative Mind, which traced the development of conservative thought in the Anglo-American tradition and Edmund Burke. The book helped establish the intellectual framework for a religious and humanistic understanding of conservatism...

John George Edward Henry Douglas Sutherland Campbell, 9th Duke of Argyll, known by the courtesy title Marquess of Lorne from 1847 to 1900, was a British nobleman who was Governor General of Canada from 1878 to 1883. He was the husband of Princess Louise, fourth daughter of Queen Victoria.

Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin and 11th Earl of Kincardine, PC, FSA Scot, often known as Lord Elgin, was a Scottish nobleman, diplomat, and collector, known primarily for the controversial procurement of marble sculptures (known as the Elgin Marbles) from the Parthenon and other structures on the Acropolis of Athens.

Lily Nicksay is an American actress. She is known for originating the role of Morgan Matthews, Cory's little sister, in the first two seasons of Boy Meets World. She reprised the role for the season 3 finale of Girl Meets World.

Pierre Olivier Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa is a French banker based in the United States. His half-brother is Nicolas Sarkozy, the former President of France.

John Knox was a Scottish minister, Reformed theologian, and writer who was a leader of the country's Reformation. He was the reformer of the Church of Scotland.

John Napier of Merchiston, nicknamed Marvellous Merchiston, was a Scottish landowner known as a mathematician, physicist and astronomer. He was the 8th Laird of Merchiston. Napier is best known as the discoverer of logarithms. He also invented the Napier's bones calculating device and popularised the use of the decimal point in arithmetic.

Alexander Elliot Anderson Salmond was a Scottish politician who served as First Minister of Scotland from 2007 to 2014. A prominent figure in the Scottish nationalist movement, he was Leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) on two occasions, from 1990 to 2000 and from 2004 to 2014. He then served as leader of the Alba Party from 2021 until...

James II was King of Scots from 1437 until his death in 1460. The eldest surviving son of James I of Scotland, he succeeded to the Scottish throne at the age of six, following the assassination of his father. The first Scottish monarch not to be crowned at Scone, James II's coronation took place at Holyrood Abbey in March 1437....

James Albert Michener was an American writer. He wrote more than 40 books, most of which were long, fictional family sagas covering the lives of many generations, set in particular geographic locales and incorporating detailed history. Many of his works were bestsellers and were chosen by the Book of the Month Club. He was also known for the meticulous research...

Louise Mary Minchin is a British television presenter, journalist and former news presenter who currently works freelance within the BBC.

Jean-Paul Marat was a French political theorist, physician, and scientist. A journalist and politician during the French Revolution, he was a vigorous defender of the sans-culottes, a radical voice, and published his views in pamphlets, placards and newspapers. His periodical L'Ami du peuple (The Friend of the People) made him an unofficial link with the radical Jacobin group that came...

William, Prince of Wales, is the heir apparent to the British throne. He is the elder son of King Charles III and Diana, Princess of Wales.

Catherine, Princess of Wales, is a member of the British royal family. She is married to William, Prince of Wales, heir apparent to the British throne.

Jonathan Taylor Thomas is an American actor and director. He is known for portraying Randy Taylor on Home Improvement (1991–1998) and Pinocchio in the film The Adventures of Pinocchio (1996), and voicing young Simba in the animated film The Lion King (1994).

Lady Louise Alice Elizabeth Mary Mountbatten-Windsor is a member of the British royal family. She is the elder child and only daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh, and Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh. Louise is the youngest niece of King Charles III. She was born during the reign of her paternal grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, and at the time of...

Alexander Duff, was a Scottish missionary in India; where he played a large part in the development of higher education. He was a Moderator of the General Assembly and convener of the foreign missions committee of the Free Church of Scotland and a scientific liberal reformer of anglicized evangelism across the Empire. He was the first overseas missionary of the...

Sir George Mackenzie of Rosehaugh was a Scottish lawyer, Lord Advocate, essayist and legal writer. He was nicknamed Bloody Mackenzie.

Malcolm Gray Bruce, Baron Bruce of Bennachie, PC is a British Liberal Democrat politician. He was the Member of Parliament for Gordon from 1983 to 2015 and was the chairman of the International Development Select Committee from 2005 to 2015. He was deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats from January 2014 to May 2015. He was nominated for a life...

Sir James Whyte Black was a Scottish physician and pharmacologist. Together with Gertrude B. Elion and George H. Hitchings, he shared the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1988 for pioneering strategies for rational drug-design, which, in his case, led to the development of propranolol and cimetidine. Black established a Veterinary Physiology department at the University of Glasgow, where he became...

Michelle Duncan is a Scottish-Canadian actress, known for films such as Driving Lessons (2006), Atonement (2007), The Broken (2008) and Bohemian Rhapsody (2018).

Ian McDiarmid is a Scottish actor and director of stage and screen. Making his stage debut in Hamlet in 1972, McDiarmid joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1974, and has since starred in a number of William Shakespeare's plays. He has received an Olivier Award for Best Actor for Insignificance (1982) and a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in...

Kathleen Mary Linn Stock OBE is a British philosopher and writer. She was a professor of philosophy at the University of Sussex until 2021. She has published academic work on aesthetics, fiction, imagination, sexual objectification, and sexual orientation.

Alastair Preston Reynolds is a Welsh science fiction author. He specialises in hard science fiction and space opera.

David Michael Kurten is a British politician who has served as leader of the Heritage Party since September 2020. He was previously a member of the London Assembly (AM) for Londonwide from 2016 to 2021. Elected as a UK Independence Party (UKIP) candidate, he subsequently left the party in January 2020. He is the registered leader of the Heritage Party...

Edward Jenner was an English physician and scientist who pioneered the concept of vaccines and created the smallpox vaccine, the world's first vaccine. The terms vaccine and vaccination are derived from Variolae vaccinae ('pustules of the cow'), the term devised by Jenner to denote cowpox. He used it in 1798 in the title of his Inquiry into the Variolae vaccinae...

Fiona Hill CMG is a British-American academic, foreign affairs advisor and author, who since 2023 has served as Chancellor of Durham University.

Anthony Dirk Moses is an Australian scholar who researches various aspects of genocide. In 2022 he became the Anne and Bernard Spitzer Professor of Political Science at the City College of New York, after having been the Frank Porter Graham Distinguished Professor of Global Human Rights History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is a leading...

Asha de Vos is a Sri Lankan marine biologist, ocean educator and pioneer of blue whale research within the northern Indian Ocean. She is known for her Blue Whale Project. She is a Senior TED Fellow and was chosen for a BBC 100 Women award in 2018. She is a National Geographic 2016 Emerging Explorer Grantee.