List of University of Queensland people

This is a list of University of Queensland people. The University of Queensland has numerous notable alumni and faculty.

Academia
• Jock R. Anderson, agricultural economist at the World Bank; emeritus professor at the University of New England

• Paul Brindley, professor of microbiology, immunology, and tropical medicine at George Washington University

• Edward Byrne, Principal of King's College London; Vice-Chancellor of Monash University

• Colin Clark, economist

• Raymond Dart, anatomist and anthropologist, who discovered the first fossil of an Australopithecus africanus

• Peter C. Doherty, immunologist, Nobel Prize recipient and former Australian of the Year

• Joshua Gans, economist

• Sam Hawgood, Chancellor of University of California, San Francisco

• Colleen Higgins, plant pathologist in New Zealand

• Dorothy Hill, palaeontologist, who was described as the "most distinguished scholar of the first 75 years of the University of Queensland"

• Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, biologist and climate scientist known as a leading in the effects of climate change on coral reefs

• Philip Hogg, Head of ACRF Centenary Cancer Research Center at the Centenary Institute

• Donald Markwell, social scientist and Warden of Rhodes House

• Michael McRobbie, 18th President of Indiana University

• Dirk Moses, historian, professor of modern history at the University of Sydney, widely regarded as a leading expert on the history of genocide and ethnic cleansing, and on the history of colonialism

• Adrian Pagan, economist

• James Page, educationist

• A. W. Pryor, physicist

• Chandreshekhar Sonwane, Indian American Scientist

• Professor Paul Thomas AM, founding Vice-Chancellor of University of the Sunshine Coast

• Colin Murray Turbayne, Professor of Philosophy at University of Rochester and internationally recognized scholar on the works of George Berkeley

• Chelsea Watego, Indigenous health researcher

• Frank T. M. White, Foundation Professor, Mining and Metallurgical Engineering, University of Queensland; Macdonald Professor of Mining Engineering and Applied Geophysics, McGill University

• Franklin White, public health scientist focused on capacity building for international and global health

• Joy Wolfram, nanoscientist

• Craig Steven Wright, computer scientist, one of the possible inventors of the Bitcoin digital currency

• Patsy Yates, registered nurse specialized in palliative care, Distinguished Professor and Executive Dean of the Faculty of Health, Queensland University of Technology (Brisbane)

Arts
• Thea Astley, writer and four times winner of the Miles Franklin Award

• John Birmingham, novelist

• Bille Brown, actor and playwright

• Ross Clark, poet

• Nick Earls, novelist

• Janet Fielding, actress

• Janet Fletcher, linguist

• Matt Granfield, writer

• Steven Herrick, writer

• Janette Turner Hospital, writer

• Astrid Jorgensen, musician

• Madhan Karky, lyricist, screenwriter

• Bronwyn Lea, poet

• David Malouf, writer

• Geoffrey Rush, actor and Academy Award recipient

• Karin Schaupp, guitarist

• Joseph Twist, composer

• Kim Wilkins, writer

• Anita Monro, theologian, academic and Uniting Church in Australia minister

Business

 * Kathryn Fagg AO, chair of the CSIRO from 2021
 * Richard Goodmanson, former COO of Dupont; Board of Qantas
 * Sir Ronald Gordon Jackson AK, businessman
 * Andrew N. Liveris, CEO of Dow Chemical Company, second largest chemical manufacturer in the world
 * Vaine Nooana-Arioka, Executive Director of the Bank of the Cook Islands

Judicial
• Sir Gerard Brennan, former Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia

• Ian Callinan, former Justice of the High Court of Australia

• Sir Walter Campbell, former Governor of Queensland and Chief Justice of Queensland

• Paul de Jersey, former Chief Justice of Queensland

• Clare Foley, lawyer

• Sir Harry Gibbs, former Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia

• Sir Mostyn Hanger, former Chief Justice of Queensland

• Stanley Jones, Justice of the Supreme Court of Queensland

• Sir Buri Kidu, former Chief Justice of Papua New Guinea

• Susan Kiefel, Justice of the High Court of Australia

• Margaret McMurdo, President of the Queensland Court of Appeal

• Sir Noel Power, Vice-President of the Hong Kong Court of Appeal (Acting Chief Justice 1996–1997)

• Russell Skerman, Justice of the Supreme Court of Queensland

• Sir William Webb, former Justice of the High Court of Australia and President of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East

Media
• Tim Arvier, Nine News Queensland state political reporter and former US correspondent

• Robert Bell, host of the Channel 10 programme Scope

• Tracey Challenor, former journalist with Seven News

• Melissa Downes, weekday co-presenter of Nine News Queensland

• Heather Foord, former journalist with Nine News Queensland

• Sylvia Jeffreys, news presenter on Today

• George Negus, author and journalist

• Andrew Olle, television and radio presenter (ABC, Nine Network), dropped out after the first year

• Cameron Price, former reporter for Nine News Queensland and Seven News Sydney

• Ben Roberts-Smith, former general manager of Seven Brisbane and former Australian soldier

• Michael Ware, journalist, war correspondent

• Lis Wiehl, author and television legal analyst

• Marian Wilkinson, Walkley award winning journalist

Medicine

 * Graham Colditz, chronic disease epidemiologist, one of the global top three most cited academics
 * Michael Gabbett, clinical geneticist
 * Adele Green, epidemiologist
 * Mary Mahoney, medical practitioner and academic
 * Jian Zhou, co-inventor of Gardasil

Military

 * General Peter Gration, former Chief of the Defence Force and Chief of the General Staff
 * Major General Jim Molan
 * Ben Roberts-Smith, Australian war criminal

Premiers
• Michael Ahern, Premier of Queensland 1987–1989

• Peter Beattie, Premier of Queensland 1998–2007

• Anna Bligh, Premier of Queensland 2007–2012, first female Premier

• Wayne Goss, Premier of Queensland 1989–1996

• Mark McGowan, Premier of Western Australia 2017–2023

• Steven Miles, Premier of Queensland 2023–present

• Campbell Newman, Lord Mayor of Brisbane 2004–2011; Premier of Queensland 2012–2015

• Annastacia Palaszczuk, Premier of Queensland 2015–2023

State Members of Parliament
• Cameron Dick, Treasurer and Minister for Investment; State Member for Woodridge

• Stirling Hinchliffe, Minister for Local Government; State member for Sandgate

• Anthony Lynham, Minister for Natural Resources, Mines and Energy; State member for Stafford

• Evan Moorhead, former member for the Electoral district of Waterford; former Secretary of the Australian Labor Party in Queensland

• Curtis Pitt, Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland

• Mark Ryan, Minister for Police; State member for Morayfield

Federal Members of Parliament
• George Brandis, former Senator for Queensland

• Trevor Evans, former Member of the Australian House of Representatives for Brisbane

• Garth Hamilton, current Member of the Australian House of Representatives for Groom

• Bob Katter, current Member of the Australian Parliament for Kennedy and leader of Katter's Australian Party

• Chris Ketter, former Senator for Queensland

• Michael Macklin, Australian Democrat Senator elected while a staff member at UQ

• Clive Palmer, leader of the Palmer United Party; former member for Fairfax

• Wyatt Roy, youngest ever politician elected to Australian Parliament; former MP for Longman (failed to complete his undergraduate degree)

• Wayne Swan, former Treasurer of Australia and Deputy Prime Minister

• Murray Watt, Senator for Queensland; Former state member for Everton

Local government

 * Sallyanne Atkinson, politician and first female Lord Mayor of Brisbane

Outside Australia

 * Ernest Aderman, Member of Parliament in New Zealand
 * Raja Juli Antoni, 2nd Deputy Minister for Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning and Secretary-General of Indonesian Solidarity Party
 * Prof. Ranjith Bandara, Member of Parliament in Sri Lanka
 * Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim, 14th Chief Minister of Selangor, Malaysia
 * Ludwig Keke, Nauruan politician, Member of Parliament (1968–1972, 1989–1995, 1997–2000), Speaker of Parliament (1998–2000), and Ambassador to Taiwan (2007–2016)
 * Taneti Maamau, current President of Kiribati.
 * Ahmed Shaheed, former Maldives Minister of Foreign Affairs and former Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran
 * Lee Boon Yang, former Singaporean Cabinet Minister

Public service

 * Elisabeth Bowes, diplomat and trade policy advisor
 * Francis Patrick Donovan, diplomat and jurist
 * Max Moore-Wilton, former head of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet

Sport
• Natalie Cook, Olympic gold medallist, beach volleyball

• John Eales, former rugby union captain

• Thomas Lawton, former rugby union captain, Waratah Rugby player, Oxford Blue

• Mark Loane, former rugby union captain

• Michael Lynagh, former rugby union captain

• Greg Martin, former rugby union player and rugby commentator

• Lloyd McDermott, first Aboriginal person to represent Australia in rugby union, and the nation's first indigenous barrister

• John Roe, former Queensland rugby union captain

• Nathan Sharpe, former rugby union captain

• Lev Susany, powerlifter and Commonwealth record holder

• David Theile, Olympic medallist in swimming

• Clem Windsor, former rugby union player

Vice Regal
Those listed here may also be listed elsewhere, notably Politics and Public Service. • Peter Arnison, Governor of Queensland

• Quentin Bryce, Governor-General of Australia 2008–2014

• Sir Walter Campbell, former Governor of Queensland and Chief Justice of Queensland

• Paul de Jersey, Governor of Queensland 2014–2021

• Leneen Forde, Governor of Queensland 1992–1997

• Bill Hayden, Governor-General of Australia 1989–1996, Foreign Minister, Federal Treasurer and Federal Opposition Leader

• Penelope Wensley, Governor of Queensland 2008–2014

Other

 * Karen Gallman, Miss Intercontinental 2018
 * Ken Ham, creationist; founder of Answers in Genesis and the Creation Museum
 * Aila Inkero Keto, conservationist; recognized in the United Nations Environment Program's Global 500 Roll of Honour 1988
 * Elizabeth Powell, scientist
 * Lilla Watson, Indigenous Australian activist, visual artist and academic

Notable past and present staff
• Freda Bage, biology lecturer and first principal of the Women's College at UQ

• Dana Bergstrom, senior lecturer in ecology and botany, Antarctic researcher

• Quentin Bryce, former Governor of Queensland, former Governor-General of Australia, law lecturer at UQ

• Kathleen Campbell-Brown, French lecturer at UQ

• Christina Cho, adjunct professor in architecture, a director of Cox Architecture

• Raphael Cilento, honorary professor of medicine

• Colin Clark, economist

• Cyril John Connell, former registrar

• Sir Zelman Cowen, former vice-chancellor, former Governor-General of Australia, Privy Councillor

• Margaret Cribb, government and political science lecturer

• Frank Cumbrae-Stewart, founding registrar and librarian and Professor of Law at UQ

• Robert Elson, historian

• Robert Endean, marine biologist

• Michael Scott Fletcher, foundation master of King's College and Professor of Philosophy at UQ

• Elwyn Flint, senior lecturer, linguist

• Josephine Forbes, Professor of Medicine

• Ian Frazer, virologist and former Australian of the Year

• Mary Garson, chemist

• Alexander James Gibson, first Professor of Engineering at UQ

• Robert Gilbert, chemist

• Ernest James Goddard, Professor of Biology at UQ

• John Harsanyi, Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, UQ economics lecturer 1954

• Roger Hawken, Professor of Engineering

• Dorothy Hill, palaeontologist; first female professor appointed at an Australian university; first female President of the Professorial Board

• Rodney Huddleston, linguist

• Jolanda Jetten, social psychologist

• Thomas Harvey Johnston, Professor of Biology at UQ

• Lewis Keeble, former President of both the Royal Town Planning Institute (UK) and the Planning Institute of Australia

• Michael Lattke, religious studies

• Elton Mayo, first Professor of Philosophy at UQ

• Neal Menzies, former Vice-President of the International Union of Soil Sciences

• John Lundie Michie, first Professor of Classics at UQ

• John Moorhead, historian

• Donald Nicklin, retired Professor of Chemical Engineering and Pro Vice Chancellor for Physical Sciences

• Michael Nielsen, quantum physicist, formerly at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics

• Thomas Parnell, first Professor of Physics at UQ, who started the pitch drop experiment

• Hugh Possingham, conservation biologist

• Elizabeth Powell, Director, Centre for Liver Disease Research

• Henry Priestley, first Professor of Mathematics at UQ

• John Quiggin, economist

• Suri Ratnapala, law

• Henry Caselli Richards, first Professor of Geology at UQ

• Frederick Walter Robinson, founder of UQ's Fryer Library

• Dorothea Sandars, parasitologist

• Fred Schonell, founding Professor of Education and Vice-Chancellor

• Jeremiah Joseph Stable, first Professor of English at UQ

• Bertram Steele, first Professor of Chemistry at UQ

• Roland Sussex, linguist

• Clem Tisdell, economist

• Graeme Turner, President of the Australian Academy of the Humanities

• Joseph Twist, composer

• Hermiene Ulrich, first female lecturer at UQ

• Lilla Watson, Indigenous Australian activist, visual artist and academic

• Frank T. M. White, founding Professor of Mining and Metallurgical Engineering

• Ghil'ad Zuckermann, linguist, revivalist, President of the Australian Association for Jewish Studies

Chancellors

 * 1910–1915 – Sir William MacGregor
 * 1915–1922 – Sir Pope Alexander Cooper
 * 1922–1925 – Lt-Col. Sir Matthew Nathan
 * 1925–1927 – Andrew Joseph Thynne
 * 1927–1944 – Sir James Blair
 * 1944–1953 – William Forgan Smith
 * 1953–1957 – Otto Hirschfeld
 * 1957–1966 – Sir Albert Axon
 * 1966–1976 – Sir Alan Mansfield
 * 1977–1985 – Sir Walter Campbell
 * 1985–1992 – Sir James Foots
 * 1993–2009 – Sir Llewellyn Edwards
 * 2009–2015 – John Story
 * 2016–2016 – Jane Wilson (acting)
 * 2016–present – Peter Varghese

Vice Chancellors

 * 1910–1916 – Reginald Heber Roe
 * 1916–1925 – Andrew Joseph Thynne
 * 1925–1938 – William Nathaniel Robertson
 * 1938–1959 – John Douglas Story
 * 1960–1969 – Sir Fred Schonell
 * 1970–1977 – Sir Zelman Cowen
 * 1979–1996 – Brian Wilson, Australia's longest serving Vice-Chancellor
 * 1996–2007 – John A. Hay
 * 2008–2012 – Paul Greenfield
 * 2012–2012 – Deborah Terry (acting)
 * 2012–2020 – Peter Høj
 * 2020–present – Deborah Terry