List of University of Alberta people

This is a list of distinguished people affiliated with the University of Alberta.

Current faculty
• Ali A. Abdi – anthropologist and author; education and international development

• Jordan Abel – poet

• John Acorn – naturalist and science communicator

• William Anselmi – professor of Italian and Italian-Canadian literature and culture

• Florence Ashley – law professor, first openly transfeminine clerk of the Supreme Court of Canada

• Lorne Babiuk – immunologist and virologist

• Harold Barclay – anthropologist

• Howard Bashaw – composer

• Norman C. Beaulieu – electrical engineer

• Ted Bishop – English professor

• Stan Boutin – wildlife population ecologist

• Mark Boyce – wildlife population ecologist

• Ludwig N. Carbyn – wolf biologist

• D. Jean Clandinin – education researcher

• Kerry Courneya – kinesiologist

• Philip J. Currie – palaeontologist

• Patricia Demers – English professor

• Jaroslaw Drelich – chemical engineer

• Marilyn Dumont - poet

• Janet A. W. Elliott – distinguished professor, faculty of engineering

• Pierre Flor-Henry – psychologist

• Andrew Gow – historian of medieval and early modern Europe

• Jonathan Locke Hart – author, literary scholar and historian

• Peter Hide – sculptor

• John-Paul Himka – professor of East European history

• Greg Hollingshead – novelist and professor of English

• Michael Houghton – Nobel laureate, co-discoverer of hepatitis C

• Peter L. Hurd – biologist

• Karim Jamal – business professor

• Stephen A. Kent – sociologist

• Jacobus Kloppers – organist

• Natalie Kononenko – folklorist

• Mark A. Lewis – mathematical ecologist and the Canada Research Chair in Mathematical Biology at the Centre for Mathematical Biology

• Andy Liu – mathematician

• Michael Lounsbury – Associate Dean of Research, Thornton A. Graham Chair and professor of strategic management, organizations and sociology

• Austin Mardon – adjunct professor, recipient of Order of Canada

• Jacob Masliyah – pioneer researcher in oil-sands extraction, recipient of Order of Canada

• Takahiko Masuda – psychologist

• Anne McLellan – law professor

• Iman Mersal – poet, professor of Arabic literature and Middle Eastern and African studies

• Robert Moody – mathematician, co-inventor of Kac–Moody algebra

• Adam Morton – philosopher and member of the Royal Society of Canada

• Don Page – theoretical cosmologist

• Raj Pannu – sociologist, former head of the Alberta New Democratic Party

• Graham Pearson – geologist

• Mike Percy – economist

• Leonard Ratzlaff – professor of choral music

• Jia Rongqing – mathematician

• Arturo Sanchez-Azofeifa – director of the university's Center for Earth Observation Sciences

• Jonathan Schaeffer – computer scientist and the Canada Research Chair in Artificial Intelligence

• James Shapiro – professor of surgery, medicine and surgical oncology; director of the Clinical Islet Transplant Program

• Arya Mitra Sharma – Alberta Health Services endowed Chair in Obesity Research and Management

• Toby Spribille – lichenologist

• Richard S. Sutton – computer scientist

• Darren Tanke – palaeontologist

• Nicole Tomczak-Jaegermann – mathematician

• Ban Tsui – professor of anesthesiology and pain medicine

• Allan Warrack – Department of Marketing, Business Economics and Law in the Faculty of Business and also serves as the Associate Dean of the Master of Public Management Program and Vice-President of Administration

• Rudy Wiebe – novelist

• Douglas Wiens – statistician

• David S. Wishart – computational biologist

• Toshifumi Yokota – medical geneticist

• Osmar R. Zaiane – computer scientist

• Vaclav Zizler – mathematician

Past faculty
• Ibrahim M. Abu-Rabi‘ – Islamic scholar

• Jane Alexander – Anglican bishop

• William Hardy Alexander – one of the university's first four professors; university historian

• Margaret Atwood – author of The Handmaid's Tale and many other novels, poetry collections, and works of criticism; two-time Booker Prize winner

• Henry Beissel – poet and playwright

• C. Fred Bentley – soil scientist

• Stanford Blade – agronomist

• Edward D. Blodgett – author and researcher in comparative literature, religion and film/media

• Russell Brown – professor of law, Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada

• Donald Cameron – academic administrator and member of the Senate of Canada

• Clive Carruthers – classicist

• Karl Clark – chemist and oil sands researcher

• Jagannath Prasad Das – educational psychologist; member of the Order of Canada

• John B. Dossetor – professor emeritus of medicine and bioethics

• Robert Folinsbee – geologist

• Malcolm Forsyth – composer; Juno Award winner and member of the Order of Canada

• John Gamon – plant physiologist and Earth observation scientist, developer of the Photochemical Reflectance Index

• Victor Golla – linguist and anthropologist

• Thomas B. Greenfield – scholar of educational administration

• Allan Gregg – pollster and political advisor

• Ronald Hamowy – libertarian intellectual

• W. G. Hardy – classicist, writer, ice hockey administrator, member of the Order of Canada

• H. A. Hargreaves – science fiction writer

• Walter Edgar Harris – analytical chemist

• Myer Horowitz – early childhood education scholar, president of the University of Alberta

• Werner Israel – professor of physics and leader in the theory of black holes; Fellow of the Royal Society and Royal Society of Canada

• George Ivany – president of the University of Saskatchewan

• Martin Joos – linguist

• William Alexander Robb Kerr – president of the University of Alberta

• Mors Kochanski – bushcraft and wilderness survival pioneer

• Karol Józef Krótki – demographer who helped establish the Population Research Laboratory, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada

• Gérard Vincent La Forest – dean of law (1968–1970), past Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada

• Francis John Lewis – botanist

• Dorothy Livesay – poet, two-time winner of Governor General's Awards

• John M. MacEachran – psychologist, proponent of eugenics

• Walter Mackenzie – surgeon

• Barry J. Mailloux – computer scientist

• Carlo Montemagno – bionanotechnologist, winner of the Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology

• Angus Munn – soldier and anesthesiologist

• Joseph S. Nelson – ichthyologist

• Hope A. Olson – library scientist

• John Orrell – theatre historian who advised the reconstruction of Shakespeare's Globe

• Jim Parr – metallurgist, broadcaster, and composer

• Solomiia Pavlychko – literary critic

• Anatol Roshko – physicist, one of only three people alive to have a dimensionless number (Roshko number) named after them

• George A. Rothrock – European historian

• David Schindler – limnologist, winner of the Volvo Environment Prize and the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement

• Stephen Scobie – poet

• Gail Sidonie Sobat – writer and educator

• Ian Stirling – Arctic ecologist

• Mathukumalli V. Subbarao – number theorist

• Morris Swadesh – pioneer of lexicostatistics and creator of the Swadesh list

• Yasushi Takahashi – physicist, co-discoverer of the Ward–Takahashi identity

• Henry Marshall Tory – first president of the University of Alberta, founder of three universities, the Alberta Research Council and National Research Council of Canada

• Thomas Thundat – Canada Excellence Research Chair in Oilsands Molecular Engineering

• Hiroomi Umezawa – physicist

• Maury Van Vliet – physical education scholar

• Ludwig von Bertalanffy – theoretical biologist who helped establish the Advanced Center for Theoretical Psychology, originator of General Systems Theory and creator of the Von Bertalanffy function

• Ella May Walker – visual artist and writer

• Sheila Watson – novelist, author of The Double Hook

• Wilfred Watson – poet and dramatist

• Thaddeus E. Weckowicz – psychologist

• John Alexander Weir – first Dean of Law

• Daniel Woolf – historian

• Norman Yates – painter

Academics
• Dominique Abrioux – President of Athabasca University (1995–2005)

• Charlene Bearhead – first educational lead at the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation at the University of Manitoba

• Sir John Bell – Regius Chair of Medicine, University of Oxford

• Andrew Brook – Chancellor's Professor of Philosophy and Cognitive Science at Carleton University

• Tania Bubela – professor and dean in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University

• Franco Romano Calaresu (1931–1996) – professor of neurophysiology, University of Western Ontario

• James Collip – biochemistry professor, played key role in discovery of insulin

• Jim Cummins – professor and author, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

• Bernadette Louise Dean – Principal of Kinnaird College, Pakistan

• Su Guaning – President of Nanyang Technological University

• Aja Huang – Google Deep Mind; with David Silver, a main researcher of Alpha Go

• Joy Johnson – Vice-President, Research, Simon Fraser University

• Raymond U. Lemieux – chemistry pioneer, winner of the Wolf Prize in Chemistry (1999) and the Albert Einstein World Award of Science (1992)

• Jacqueline P. Leighton - educational psychologist, academic and author

• Tak Wah Mak – molecular biologist

• Joseph B. Martin – Dean of Harvard Medical School

• Ravi S. Menon – Canadian-American biophysicist and professor The University of Western Ontario

• Martin P. Mintchev – bioengineering academic and inventor

• Piers Nash – cancer research professor at the University of Chicago and founder of Sympatic

• Jordan B. Peterson – clinical psychologist and professor at the University of Toronto

• Joseph Pivato – writer and researcher in ethnic minority writing in Canada; professor, Athabasca University, Edmonton

• Noris Salazar Allen – Panamanian bryologist

• David Silver – Google Deep Mind; with Aja Huang, a main researcher of Alpha Go

• Janice Stein – international relations researcher

• Wallace Sterling – past president of Stanford University

• Richard E. Taylor – Nobel Laureate

• Satish K. Tripathi – President of University at Buffalo

• Bas van Fraassen – Princeton University, McCosh Professor of Philosophy

Authors
• Jordan Abel

• Todd Babiak

• Billy-Ray Belcourt

• Gary Botting

• Norma Dunning

• Caterina Edwards

• Edmundo Farolan

• Katherine Govier

• Karen Graham – dietitian

• Myrna Kostash

• Arthur Kroeger

• Robert Kroetsch

• Steve Lillebuen

• Suzette Mayr

• Wendy McGrath

• W. O. Mitchell

• Premee Mohamed

• Mieko Ouchi

• Kit Pearson

• Emily Riddle

• Candace Savage

• Lesley-Anne Scorgie

• Vivek Shraya

• Timothy Taylor

• Vern Thiessen

• Adam Thrasher – author of Space Moose

• Brian Tracy

• Aritha Van Herk

• Matthew James Weigel

• Rudy Wiebe

Judges
• Adam Germain – Justice of the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta (retired), member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta (retired)

• Lionel Locksley Jones – Justice of the Court of King's Bench of Alberta (retired) (deceased 2016)

• Joe Kryczka – past Justice of the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta, president of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association

• Ronald Martland – past Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada

• Beverley McLachlin – Chief Justice of Canada

• Henry Grattan Nolan – past Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada

• William Stevenson – past Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada

• Allan Wachowich – past Chief Justice of the Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta (retired)

• Edward R. Wachowich – past Chief Judge of the Provincial Court of Alberta (deceased 2012)

Politicians
• Rona Ambrose – Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs

• Pat Binns – former Premier of Prince Edward Island

• Joe Clark – former Prime Minister of Canada

• Charles Dent – former NWT Cabinet Minister

• David Emerson – Minister of International Trade

• David Hancock – former Premier of Alberta and Minister of Education of Alberta

• Lou Hyndman – former Alberta cabinet minister

• Don Iveson – former Mayor of Edmonton

• Matt Jeneroux – Member of Parliament for Edmonton Riverbend, former MLA

• J. Wilton Littlechild – former Member of Parliament

• Peter Lougheed – former Premier of Alberta

• Preston Manning – former leader of the Reform Party of Canada, and founder of two Canadian political parties

• Greg McLean – Member of Parliament for Calgary Centre

• Roland Michener – former Governor General

• Rachel Notley – former Premier of Alberta

• Jim Prentice – former Premier of Alberta and Minister of Environment

• Jan Reimer – first female mayor of Edmonton

• Ed Stelmach – former Premier of Alberta (attended, did not graduate)

• Jane Sterk – Leader of the Green Party of British Columbia

• Claudette Tardif – Canadian Senator for Alberta, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate of Canada

Other notable alumni
• Greg Abel (born 1961/62) – businessman, Berkshire Hathaway

• Harry Ainlay – educational administrator, namesake of Harry Ainlay High School

• Doris Anderson – editor and rights activist

• Anil Arora – current Chief Statistician of Canada

• Nereo Bolzon – football player

• Ron Butlin – ice hockey executive

• Clarence Campbell – former National Hockey League president

• Neil Campbell – discovered gold in Yellowknife

• Juan Chioran – voice and stage actor at the Stratford Festival

• Joel H. Cohen – Canadian-Jewish comedy writer for The Simpsons

• Ted Corday – soap opera creator (Days of Our Lives)

• Ernest Côté – soldier, diplomat and civil servant

• Jim Coutts – political advisor

• Clare Drake – ice hockey coach in CIS history, inducted to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2017

• Nicole Dunsdon – the last person to win the Miss Canada competition before it was cancelled

• Bernard Ebbers – Worldcom co-founder and CEO; briefly attended the university

• William Epstein –- international expert on disarmament who worked at the United Nations

• Nathan Fillion – actor

• Jay Gilday – singer-songwriter

• Patrick Gilmore – actor

• Randy Gregg – former National Hockey League player and medical researcher

• Paul Gross – actor

• Ted Harrison – painter and illustrator

• Ivan Head – former policy adviser of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau

• Violet King Henry – first black woman lawyer in Canada

• Daryl Katz – billionaire entrepreneur, owner of the Rexall Pharmacy chain and the Edmonton Oilers

• Lewis Kay – scientist

• Lylian Klimek – sculptor

• Eric Allan Kramer – character actor, most notable in the role of Bob Duncan in Good Luck Charlie

• Joseph Kubanek – American psychiatrist

• Melina Laboucan-Massimo – climate justice and Indigenous rights advocate

• Thomas Rockwell Mackie – medical physicist, inventor of Tomotherapy

• Glenna Matoush – visual artist

• Shelley Moore – special education expert

• Ray Muzyka – BioWare co-founder

• Sidney Richard Carlyle Nelson – Canadian Air Marshal for the RAF

• Tom Radford – documentary filmmaker

• Jan Randall – composer and musician

• Daniel K. Riskin – evolutionary biologist and co-host of Daily Planet

• Joseph H. Shoctor – real estate developer, co-founder of the Citadel Theatre

• George Stanley – designer of the Canadian flag

• Robert Steadward – former International Paralympic Committee President

• Olawale Sulaiman – neurosurgeon, philanthropist and academic

• Esther Tailfeathers

• William Thorsell – editor, The Globe and Mail; Director, the Royal Ontario Museum

• Jason Tuffs – CEO of MNP LLP

• Malorie Urbanovitch – fashion designer

• Jean Wallbridge – architect

• Anne Wheeler – film director

• Dayo Wong Tze-Hwa (黃子華) – Hong Kong comedian, actor, singer-songwriter and screenwriter; pioneered Cantonese stand up comedy

• Suzie Wong (蘇施黃) – Hong Kong disk jockey and television cooking program host

• Greg Zeschuk – BioWare co-founder

• Jason Zuback – golfer; five-time world long drive champion

Rhodes Scholars
The University of Alberta has produced 76 Rhodes Scholars, including the following:
 * Roland Michener (1919) – 20th governor general of Canada
 * George Stanley (1929) – designer of the Canadian flag
 * Arthur Kroeger (1956) – academic, federal deputy minister and chancellor of Carleton University
 * Billy-Ray Belcourt (2016) – first First Nations Rhodes Scholar, poet and winner of the Griffin Poetry Prize

Honorary degree recipients
• His Highness the Aga Khan – spiritual leader of the Ismaili Muslims

• Douglas Cardinal – architect

• Victor Cavendish – former Governor General of Canada

• Charles III

• Jean Chrétien – former Prime Minister of Canada

• John Diefenbaker – former Prime Minister of Canada

• King Edward VIII

• Wayne Gretzky – former National Hockey League player

• Horace Harvey – second Chief Justice of Alberta; chairman of the University of Alberta Board of Governors

• Frederick Haultain – the first and only premier of Canada's North-West Territories

• Lois Hole – former Lieutenant Governor of Alberta

• Ernest Manning – former Premier of Alberta

• Don Mazankowski – former Deputy Prime Minister of Canada

• Walter Murray – first President of the University of Saskatchewan

• Alexander Rutherford – first Premier of Alberta

• Arthur Sifton – former Premier of Alberta

• Manmohan Singh – former Prime Minister of India

• Donald Smith – 1st Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal

• Harry Strom – former Premier of Alberta

• Mother Teresa – missionary

• Pierre Trudeau – former Prime Minister of Canada

• Desmond Tutu – former Archbishop of Cape Town and current chair of the Global Elders

• Max Ward – pioneering aviator