List of people associated with Birkbeck, University of London

This article is a list of people associated with Birkbeck, University of London, including alumni, members of faculty and fellows.

Current and former faculty

 * Georgios Alogoskoufis, Greek Minister of Economy and Finance from March 2004 till January 2009.
 * Anthony Bale, medievalist
 * Julia Bell, author
 * J. D. Bernal, pioneer of X-ray crystallography
 * Derek Barton, organic chemist and Nobel Laureate for Chemistry, 1969
 * Antony Beevor, historian
 * Patrick Blackett, Baron Blackett, professor and Nobel Laureate for Physics, 1948
 * Sir Tom Blundell, crystallographer, FRS
 * David Bohm, quantum physicist
 * Andrew Donald Booth, head of Numerical Automation
 * Kathleen Booth née Britten, computer scientist
 * C. Delisle Burns (1879-1942), atheist and secularist writer and lecturer
 * Ian Christie, professor of film and media history
 * Steven Connor, professor
 * Ian Crawford, Professor of Planetary Science and Astrobiology
 * Diana Coole, social scientist
 * Costas Douzinas, law professor
 * T. S. Eliot, Nobel Laureate for Literature 1948, publisher, playwright, literary and social critic
 * Hilda Ellis Davidson, academic and English antiquarian
 * Martina Evans, poet
 * Richard J. Evans, Regius Professor of Modern History at Cambridge
 * Martin Paul Eve, professor
 * Dame Millicent Fawcett, suffragist
 * Orlando Figes, professor of history
 * Ben Fine, professor
 * Rosalind Franklin, crystallographer
 * Hugh Gaitskell, lecturer
 * Caroline Goodson, medievalist
 * A. C. Grayling, philosopher
 * Vittorio Grilli, Italy's economy and finances minister (Monti cabinet) from 2012 to 2013.
 * Richard Hamblyn, lecturer in creative writing
 * Vanessa Harding, professor of London history
 * Basil Hiley, quantum physicist and emeritus professor
 * Paul Hirst, professor
 * Eric Hobsbawm, professor of History
 * Thomas Hodgskin, lecturer in economic theory
 * Kenneth Holmes, crystallographer
 * Elizabeth Hounsell, carbohydrate scientist
 * C. E. M. Joad, Reader in Philosophy, author and popular broadcaster
 * Mark Johnson, professor
 * Charlotte Jolles, Professor, historian
 * Russell Celyn Jones, professor of creative writing
 * Annette Karmiloff-Smith, professor
 * Anthony Julius, visiting professor
 * Aaron Klug, crystallographer and Nobel Laureate for Chemistry, 1982
 * Jon Lansman, Labour Party activist
 * Gail Lewis, academic and activist
 * Toby Litt, author, lecturer
 * Joni Lovenduski, political scientist
 * Mark Mazower, professor
 * Louis Mordell, researcher in mathematics
 * Laura Mulvey, professor of film and media studies
 * Jeremy K. Nicholson, professor of biological chemistry
 * Roger Penrose, theoretical physicist and Nobel Laureate for Physics, 2020
 * Nikolaus Pevsner, professor
 * Ben Pimlott, professor
 * Lucy Riall, historian
 * Helen Saibil, molecular biologist, FRS, FMedSci
 * Roger Scruton, professor
 * Lynne Segal, professor
 * Colin Teevan, professor of playwriting
 * Dame Janet Thornton, structural bioinformatics, FRS, Director EBI
 * Li Wei, academic, linguist
 * Ralph Vaughan Williams, lecturer, composer
 * Kalpana Wilson, author, researcher, lecturer
 * Tony Wright, politician, distinguished professor at Birkbeck
 * Slavoj Žižek, philosopher

Presidents
The following have served as President of Birkbeck:
 * 1823–1841: George Birkbeck FRS (founder of Birkbeck)
 * 1841–1888: William Lloyd Birkbeck
 * 1888–1897: The Rt Hon The Earl of Northbrook, GCSI
 * 1903–1915: The Rt Hon Lord Alverstone, GCMG
 * 1919–1928: The Rt Hon Viscount Haldane, KT, OM, FRS
 * 1929–1933: The Rt Hon Viscount Burnham, GCMG, CH, LLD, DLitt
 * 1935–1936: His Royal Highness The Duke of York (later King George VI)
 * 1942–1944: The Most Rev and Rt Hon William Temple, PC (Archbishop of Canterbury)
 * 1947–1950: Field-Marshal The Rt Hon Earl Wavell, GCB, GCSI, GCIE, CMG, MC, LLD
 * 1952–1983: The Rt Hon Lord Denning, LLD, DCL, FBA
 * 1983–1989: The Rt Hon Baroness Lockwood
 * 1989–1993: The Rt Hon Lord Young of Dartington, HonFBA
 * 1993–1998: The Rt Hon Lord Healey, CH, MBE
 * 1998-2002: The Rt Hon Baroness Smith of Gilmorehill
 * 2002-2012: Professor Eric Hobsbawm
 * 2012-present: The Rt Hon Baroness Bakewell

Masters and Vice Chancellors

 * John Redcliffe Maud (1939–1943)
 * E.H. Warmington (acting, 1950–1951)
 * John Francis Lockwood (1951–1965; Vice-Chancellor of the University of London 1955–1958)
 * E.H. Warmington (acting, 1965–1966)
 * Kenneth Hare (1966–1968)
 * Ronald Tress (1968–1977)
 * Tessa Blackstone, Baroness Blackstone (1987–1997; Vice-Chancellor of University of Greenwich)
 * Timothy O'Shea (1998–2002; Principal of the University of Edinburgh)
 * David Latchman (2003–2023)
 * Sally Wheeler (since 2024)

Alumni

 * Mukhlesur Rahman Chowdhury, politician, editor, Minister and former Adviser to the President of Bangladesh
 * Chris Abani, writer
 * Kemi Badenoch, politician and Member of Parliament, candidate for Leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
 * Marian Bell, economist; former member of the Monetary Policy Committee
 * Luciana Berger, politician and Member of Parliament
 * Annie Besant, theosophist
 * Simon Bird, actor and comedian
 * Oliver Chris, actor
 * Alex Corbisiero, England and British Lions rugby player
 * Beth Cordingly, actress
 * David Cox, statistician
 * Bernard Crick, political theorist
 * Juliet Davenport, businesswoman
 * Alan Davey, civil servant; current Chief executive of British Arts Council
 * Edward Davey, politician and Member of Parliament
 * Dido, singer
 * Jennifer Donnelly, writer
 * Samir El-Youssef, writer
 * Tracey Emin, artist
 * Nissim Ezekiel, professor, poet
 * Rachel Glennerster, economist, Chief Economist at the Department for International Development
 * Tomás González Estrada, Colombian politician, former minister of energy
 * Marcus Garvey, founder Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League
 * Eliane Glaser, writer, broadcaster
 * Julia Goldsworthy, politician; former Liberal Democrat MP for Falmouth and Camborne
 * Bear Grylls, adventurer, author and television presenter
 * John Joseph Haldane, philosopher
 * Frank Hartley, vice-chancellor of the university
 * Zhu Hua, applied linguist
 * Vernon Ingram, Fellow of the Royal Society
 * Paul Johnson, economist, Director of Institute of Fiscal Studies
 * William Joyce, deputy Leader of the British Union of Fascists, Nazi wartime broadcaster and convicted traitor
 * Oliver Kamm, journalist
 * James Lovelock, developer of the Gaia Hypothesis
 * Ramsay MacDonald, politician; first Labour Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
 * John McDonnell, politician
 * Denis MacShane, politician
 * Leonard Mandel, nuclear physicist
 * Ehsan Masood, science writer and editor of Research Fortnight
 * Ram Charan Mehrotra, organometallic chemist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
 * Ernest Millington, politician
 * Seumas Milne, journalist and political aide
 * Lisa Nandy, politician and Member of Parliament
 * Jesse Norman, politician and Member of Parliament
 * Nerina Pallot, singer
 * Nick Palmer, politician and former Member of Parliament
 * Arthur Wing Pinero, actor, stage director and dramatist
 * Daisy Ridley, actress
 * J. Philippe Rushton, psychologist
 * John Rowan (psychologist), psychologist
 * Jenny Rowe, Chief Executive, UK Supreme Court
 * Richard Sambrook, broadcaster, formerly director of the BBC World
 * Frank Sando, former International Cross-Country Champion
 * Andy Saull, rugby player
 * Helen Sharman, chemist and cosmonaut
 * Joost Smiers, academic
 * Nick Smith, politician
 * Vaughan Smith, soldier, journalist, cameraman, and social entrepreneur
 * Laura Solomon, writer
 * Nicola Spence, Chief Plant Health Officer, Defra
 * William Stanley, inventor, engineer and philanthropist
 * Kim Thomson, stage, film and television actress
 * Mark P. Taylor, economist, Dean of Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis
 * Laurie Taylor, sociologist
 * Tracey Thorn, pop star, singer with Everything but the Girl
 * Ronald Tress, economist
 * Kitty Ussher, British economist and former Labour Party politician
 * Alfred Russel Wallace, naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist, and biologist. He is best known for independently conceiving the theory of evolution through natural selection
 * Rob Williams, rower, silver medallist in the 2012 Olympics
 * Sidney James Webb, 1st Baron Passfield, founder of the London School of Economics
 * Jah Wobble, musician/writer
 * Wai Hnin Pwint Thon, Burmese Muslim political activist
 * Sidin Vadukut, columnist, writer and blogger
 * Claudia Webbe, Labour MP
 * Omeima Mudawi-Rowlings, deaf British-Sudanese textile artist based in Brighton

Fellows

 * Edward Davey, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Kingston and Surbiton
 * Frank Dobson, Labour politician
 * Dame Vivien Duffield, philanthropist
 * Sir Richard J. Evans, historian
 * Dame Julia Goodfellow, former Chief Executive of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
 * Sir Peter Lampl, educationalist and philanthropist, founder of the Sutton Trust
 * Leonard Wolfson, Baron Wolfson