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This list of Cornell University faculty includes notable current and former instructors and administrators of
Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...
, an
Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference of eight Private university, private Research university, research universities in the Northeastern United States. It participates in the National Collegia ...
university A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...
located in Ithaca, New York.


Nobel laureates


Chemistry

*
Peter Debye Peter Joseph William Debye ( ; born Petrus Josephus Wilhelmus Debije, ; March 24, 1884 – November 2, 1966) was a Dutch-American physicist and physical chemist, and Nobel laureate in Chemistry. Biography Early life Born in Maastricht, Neth ...
(Professor of Chemistry, 1940–50; Department Chair) —
Chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...
1936; National Medal of Science (1965) *
Manfred Eigen Manfred Eigen (; 9 May 1927 – 6 February 2019) was a German biophysical chemist who won the 1967 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for work on measuring fast chemical reactions. Eigen's research helped solve major problems in physical chemistry and ...
(A.D. White Professor-at-Large, 1965–76) — Chemistry 1967 * Richard R. Ernst (A.D. White Professor-at-Large, 1996-2002) — Chemistry 1991 * Paul Flory (Chemistry faculty, 1948–57) — Chemistry 1974; National Medal of Science (1974) *
Otto Hahn Otto Hahn (; 8 March 1879 – 28 July 1968) was a German chemist who was a pioneer in the field of radiochemistry. He is referred to as the father of nuclear chemistry and discoverer of nuclear fission, the science behind nuclear reactors and ...
(George Fisher Baker Lecturer of Chemistry, 1933) — Chemistry 1944 * Gerhard Herzberg (George Fischer Baker Non-Resident Lecturer in Chemistry 1968) — Chemistry 1971 *
Roald Hoffmann Roald Hoffmann (born Roald Safran; July 18, 1937) is a Polish-American theoretical chemist who won the 1981 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He has also published plays and poetry. He is the Frank H. T. Rhodes Professor of Humane Letters Emeritus at C ...
(Frank H.T. Rhodes Professor in Humane Letters) — Chemistry 1981;
National Medal of Science The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral science, behavior ...
(1983) *
Linus Pauling Linus Carl Pauling ( ; February 28, 1901August 19, 1994) was an American chemist and peace activist. He published more than 1,200 papers and books, of which about 850 dealt with scientific topics. ''New Scientist'' called him one of the 20 gre ...
(George Fischer Baker Non-Resident Lecturer in Chemistry 1937-1938; Messenger Lecturer 1959) — Chemistry 1954; the bulk of his most influential scientific book ''The Nature of the Chemical Bond'' was completed while he was at Cornell and was published by
Cornell University Press The Cornell University Press is the university press of Cornell University, an Ivy League university in Ithaca, New York. It is currently housed in Sage House, the former residence of Henry William Sage. It was first established in 1869, maki ...
in 1939 * James B. Sumner (Professor, 1929–55 and Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry/Nutrition) — Chemistry 1946 * Henry Taube (Instructor and assistant professor, 1941-1946) — Chemistry 1983; National Medal of Science (1976) * Vincent du Vigneaud (Professor of Biochemistry, Medical College, 1938–67), Professor of Chemistry, 1967–75) — Chemistry 1955;
Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research The Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research is one of the Lasker Award, prizes awarded by the Lasker Foundation for a fundamental discovery that opens up a new area of biomedical science. The award frequently precedes a Nobel Prize in Phys ...
(1948)


Peace, Literature, or Economics

*
Norman Borlaug Norman Ernest Borlaug (; March 25, 1914September 12, 2009) was an American agronomist who led initiatives worldwide that contributed to the extensive increases in agricultural production termed the Green Revolution. Borlaug was awarded multiple ...
(A.D. White Professor-at-Large, 1982–88) —
Peace Peace is a state of harmony in the absence of hostility and violence, and everything that discusses achieving human welfare through justice and peaceful conditions. In a societal sense, peace is commonly used to mean a lack of conflict (suc ...
1970; National Medal of Science (2004) *
Linus Pauling Linus Carl Pauling ( ; February 28, 1901August 19, 1994) was an American chemist and peace activist. He published more than 1,200 papers and books, of which about 850 dealt with scientific topics. ''New Scientist'' called him one of the 20 gre ...
(George Fischer Baker Non-Resident Lecturer in Chemistry 1937-1938; Messenger Lecturer 1959) — Peace 1962 *
Octavio Paz Octavio Paz Lozano (March 31, 1914 – April 19, 1998) was a Mexican poet and diplomat. For his body of work, he was awarded the 1977 Jerusalem Prize, the 1981 Miguel de Cervantes Prize, the 1982 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, a ...
(A.D. White Professor-at-Large, 1972–74) — Literature 1990 *
Amartya Sen Amartya Kumar Sen (; born 3 November 1933) is an Indian economist and philosopher. Sen has taught and worked in England and the United States since 1972. In 1998, Sen received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions ...
(A.D. White Professor-at-Large, 1978–84) —
Economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...
1998;
National Humanities Medal The National Humanities Medal is an American award that annually recognizes several individuals, groups, or institutions for work that has "deepened the nation's understanding of the humanities, broadened our citizens' engagement with the humani ...
(2012) *
Wole Soyinka Wole Soyinka , (born 13 July 1934) is a Nigerian author, best known as a playwright and poet. He has written three novels, ten collections of short stories, seven poetry collections, twenty five plays and five memoirs. He also wrote two transla ...
(Senior Fellow, Society for the Humanities, 1985; Goldwin Smith professor for African Studies and Theatre Arts, 1988-1991) —
Literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...
1986 *
Richard Thaler Richard H. Thaler (; born September 12, 1945) is an American economist and the Charles R. Walgreen Distinguished Service Professor of Behavioral Science and Economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. In 2015, Thaler was p ...
(Professor 1978-1995) —
Economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...
2017; member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(2018)


Physics

*
Hannes Alfvén Hannes Olof Gösta Alfvén (; 30 May 1908 – 2 April 1995) was a Swedish electrical engineer, plasma physicist and winner of the 1970 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on magnetohydrodynamics (MHD). He described the class of MHD waves now ...
(Distinguished Professor in Engineering) — Physics 1970 *
Hans Bethe Hans Albrecht Eduard Bethe (; ; July 2, 1906 – March 6, 2005) was a German-American physicist who made major contributions to nuclear physics, astrophysics, quantum electrodynamics and solid-state physics, and received the Nobel Prize in Physi ...
(John Wendell Anderson Professor of Physics, 1935-2005) — Physics 1967; National Medal of Science (1975) *
Richard Feynman Richard Phillips Feynman (; May 11, 1918 – February 15, 1988) was an American theoretical physicist. He is best known for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics, the physics of t ...
(Physics faculty, 1945–50) —
Physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...
1965; National Medal of Science (1979) *
Pierre-Gilles de Gennes Pierre-Gilles de Gennes (; 24 October 1932 – 18 May 2007) was a French physicist and the Nobel Prize laureate in physics in 1991. Education and early life He was born in Paris, France, and was home-schooled to the age of 12. By the age of ...
(A.D. White Professor-at-Large, 1977–83) and Bethe Lecturer in Physics, 1989–90) — Physics 1991 * Brian D. Josephson (
NSF NSF may stand for: Political organizations *National Socialist Front, a Swedish National Socialist party *NS-Frauenschaft, the women's wing of the former German Nazi party * National Students Federation, a leftist Pakistani students' political g ...
Senior Foreign Scientist Fellow, 1971-1972) — Physics 1973 * David Lee (Professor of Physics) — Physics 1996 *
Anthony James Leggett Sir Anthony James Leggett (born 26 March 1938) is a British–American theoretical physicist and professor emeritus at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Leggett is widely recognised as a world leader in the theory of low-temp ...
(Visiting Professor, April 1973, July 1974, Bethe Lecturer, April 1980, visiting scientist, January — August 1983) — Physics 2003;
Wolf Prize in Physics The Wolf Prize in Physics is awarded once a year by the Wolf Foundation in Israel. It is one of the six Wolf Prizes established by the Foundation and awarded since 1978; the others are in Agriculture, Chemistry, Mathematics, Medicine and Arts. The ...
(2002) *
Roger Penrose Sir Roger Penrose (born 8 August 1931) is an English mathematician, mathematical physicist, Philosophy of science, philosopher of science and Nobel Prize in Physics, Nobel Laureate in Physics. He is Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics i ...
(Visiting Professor) — Physics 2020 *
Robert Coleman Richardson Robert Coleman Richardson (June 26, 1937 – February 19, 2013) was an American experimental physicist whose area of research included sub-millikelvin temperature studies of helium-3. Richardson, along with David Lee, as senior researchers, ...
(Floyd R. Newman Professor of Physics) — Physics 1996 *
John Robert Schrieffer John Robert Schrieffer (; May 31, 1931 – July 27, 2019) was an American physicist who, with John Bardeen and Leon Cooper, was a recipient of the 1972 Nobel Prize in Physics for developing the BCS theory, the first successful quantum theo ...
(A.D. White Professor-at-Large, 1969–75) — Physics 1972;
National Medal of Science The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral science, behavior ...
(1983) *
George Paget Thomson Sir George Paget Thomson (; 3 May 1892 – 10 September 1975) was an English physicist who shared the 1937 Nobel Prize in Physics with Clinton Davisson “for their experimental discovery of the diffraction of electrons by crystals”. Educa ...
(Non-resident Lecturer, 1929–30) — Physics 1937 *
Kip Thorne Kip Stephen Thorne (born June 1, 1940) is an American theoretical physicist and writer known for his contributions in gravitational physics and astrophysics. Along with Rainer Weiss and Barry C. Barish, he was awarded the 2017 Nobel Pri ...
(Andrew D. White Professor-at-Large, 1986-1992; Visiting Senior Research Associate, January — June 1977; Hans Bethe Lecturer, 1986; Yervant Terzian Memorial Lecture, 2016) — Physics 2017 *
Kenneth G. Wilson Kenneth Geddes "Ken" Wilson (June 8, 1936 – June 15, 2013) was an American theoretical physicist and a pioneer in using computers for studying particle physics. He was awarded the 1982 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on phase tran ...
(Professor of Physics and Nuclear Studies, 1963–88) — Physics 1982;
Wolf Prize in Physics The Wolf Prize in Physics is awarded once a year by the Wolf Foundation in Israel. It is one of the six Wolf Prizes established by the Foundation and awarded since 1978; the others are in Agriculture, Chemistry, Mathematics, Medicine and Arts. The ...
(1980)


Physiology or Medicine

*
James P. Allison James Patrick Allison (born August 7, 1948) is an American immunologist and Nobel laureate who holds the position of professor and chair of immunology and executive director of immunotherapy platform at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston ...
(Professor, Weill Cornell Medicine 2004-2012) — Physiology or Medicine 2018,
Wolf Prize in Medicine The Wolf Prize in Medicine is awarded annually by the Wolf Foundation in Israel. It is one of the six Wolf Prizes established by the Foundation and awarded since 1978; the others are in Agriculture, Chemistry, Mathematics, Physics and Arts. The ...
(2017) * Robert F. Furchgott (Assistant Professor of biochemistry, Research Associate, Medical College, 1940–49) — Physiology or Medicine 1998 *
Herbert Spencer Gasser Herbert Spencer Gasser (July 5, 1888 – May 11, 1963) was an American physiologist, and recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1944 for his work with action potentials in nerve fibers while on the faculty of Washington Unive ...
(Medical College, 1931–34) —
Physiology or Medicine The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine () is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute, Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or medicine. The Nobel Prize is not a single ...
1944 *
Paul Greengard Paul Greengard (December 11, 1925 – April 13, 2019) was an American neuroscientist best known for his work on the molecular and cellular function of neurons. In 2000, Greengard, Arvid Carlsson and Eric Kandel were awarded the Nobel Prize fo ...
(A.D. White Professor-at-Large, 1981–87) — Physiology or Medicine 2000 *
Haldan Keffer Hartline Haldan Keffer Hartline (December 22, 1903 – March 17, 1983) was an American physiologist who was a co-recipient (with George Wald and Ragnar Granit) of the 1967 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work in analyzing the neurophysiol ...
(Associate Professor, Medical College, 1940–41) — Physiology or Medicine 1967 *
Robert W. Holley Robert William Holley (January 28, 1922 – February 11, 1993) was an American biochemist. He shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1968 (with Har Gobind Khorana and Marshall Warren Nirenberg) for describing the structure of alani ...
(Ph.D. 1947 Organic Chemistry; Professor and Department Chair in Biochemistry, 1948–64) — Physiology or Medicine 1968 *
Har Gobind Khorana Har Gobind Khorana (9 January 1922 – 9 November 2011) was an Indian-American biochemist. While on the faculty of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, he shared the 1968 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Marshall W. Nirenberg and ...
(A.D. White Professor-at-Large, 1974–80) — Physiology or Medicine 1968; National Medal of Science (1987) *
Fritz Albert Lipmann Fritz Albert Lipmann (; June 12, 1899 – July 24, 1986) was a German-American biochemist and a co-discoverer in 1945 of coenzyme A. For this, together with other research on coenzyme A, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in ...
(Research Associate, Medical College, 1939-1941) — Physiology or Medicine 1953; National Medal of Science (1966) *
Peter Medawar Sir Peter Brian Medawar (; 28 February 1915 – 2 October 1987) was a British biologist and writer, whose works on graft rejection and the discovery of acquired immune tolerance have been fundamental to the medical practice of tissue and organ ...
(A.D. White Professor-at-Large, 1965–71) — Physiology or Medicine 1960 *
Harold E. Varmus Harold Eliot Varmus (born December 18, 1939) is an American Nobel Prize-winning scientist. He is currently the Lewis Thomas University Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine and a senior associate at the New York Genome Center. He was ...
(Lewis Thomas University Professor of Medicine, 2015-) — Physiology or Medicine 1989; National Medal of Science (2001)


MacArthur awards

* Archie Randolph Ammons (Professor of Creative Writing, 1964–98) — poetry 1981 * William Dichtel (Associate Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, 2008-2016) — Chemistry 2015 * Craig Fennie (Assistant Professor of Applied and Engineering Physics) — materials science 2013 * Mitchell J. Feigenbaum (Postdoc 1970-1972, professor, 1982-1988) — physics 1984;
Wolf Prize in Physics The Wolf Prize in Physics is awarded once a year by the Wolf Foundation in Israel. It is one of the six Wolf Prizes established by the Foundation and awarded since 1978; the others are in Agriculture, Chemistry, Mathematics, Medicine and Arts. The ...
(1986), member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
and fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...
*
Alice Fulton Alice Fulton (born 1952) is an American author of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Fulton is the Ann S. Bowers Professor of English Emerita at Cornell University. Her awards include the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature, ...
(Professor of Creative Writing) — poetry 1991 * Deborah Estrin (Associate Dean and Robert V. Tishman ’37 Professor of
Cornell Tech Cornell Tech is a graduate campus and research center of Cornell University on Roosevelt Island in Manhattan, New York City. It provides courses in technology, business, and design, and includes the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute, a partners ...
, 2013-) — computer science 2018; member of the
National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...
(2009) * Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (Professor, 1985–90) — literary critic (1981);
National Humanities Medal The National Humanities Medal is an American award that annually recognizes several individuals, groups, or institutions for work that has "deepened the nation's understanding of the humanities, broadened our citizens' engagement with the humani ...
recipient (1998) *
Paul Ginsparg Paul Henry Ginsparg is an American physicist. He developed the arXiv.org e-print archive. Education He is a graduate of Syosset High School in Syosset, New York, on Long Island. He graduated from Harvard University with a Bachelor of Arts in ...
(Professor of Physics and Computing & Information Science) — physics 2002 *
Jon Kleinberg Jon Michael Kleinberg (born 1971) is an American computer scientist and the Tisch University Professor of Computer Science and Information Science at Cornell University known for his work in algorithms and networks. He is a recipient of the Nevan ...
(Tisch University Professor of Computer Science) — computer science 2005 * Stephen Lee (Professor of Solid State Chemistry) — chemistry 1993 *
Michal Lipson Michal Lipson (born 1970) is an American physicist known for her work on silicon photonics. A member of the National Academy of Sciences since 2019 and the National Academy of Engineering since 2025, Lipson was named a 2010 MacArthur Fellow for c ...
(Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering 2001-2015) — optical physics 2010; member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(2019) * Robert Parris Moses (Frank H.T. Rhodes Class of '56 Professor, 2006-) — educator and philosopher (1982) *
Rebecca J. Nelson Rebecca J. Nelson (born 1961) is an American biologist and a professor at Cornell University and a MacArthur Foundation Fellow. Her work focuses on natural genetic diversity for disease resistance in maize. Biography Nelson's parents were rese ...
(Associate Professor of Plant Pathology, Plant Breeding and International Agriculture) — plant pathologist (1998) * Sheila Nirenberg (Professor at Weill Medical College) — neuroscience 2013 * Margaret W. Rossiter (Marie Underhill Noll Professor of the History of Science) — historian of science 1989 *
Gregory Vlastos Gregory Vlastos (; ; July 27, 1907 – October 12, 1991) was a preeminent scholar of ancient philosophy, and author of many works on Plato and Socrates. He transformed the analysis of classical philosophy by applying techniques of modern ana ...
(Faculty 1948-1955) — classicist and philosopher 1990


Sports

*
Bob Blackman Robert John Blackman Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), MP (born 26 April 1956) is a British politician who has been the chairman of the 1922 Committee and chair of the Backbench Business Committee since 2024. A member of the Conservative ...
(Head Coach, Football, 1977–82) — member of the
College Football Hall of Fame The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and interactive Tourist attraction, attraction devoted to college football, college American football. The National Football Foundation (NFF) founded the Hall in 1951 to immortalize the players ...
*
Charles E. Courtney Charles Edward Courtney (November 13, 1849 – July 17, 1920) was an American rower and rowing coach from Union Springs, New York. A carpenter by trade, Courtney was a nationally known amateur rower. Courtney never lost a race as an amateur an ...
(Head Coach, Rowing, 1883–1920) — rower and rowing coach * Melody Davidson (Head Coach, Women's Ice Hockey) — head coach of the Canadian national women's hockey team and the Canadian
2006 Winter Olympics The 2006 Winter Olympics (), officially the XX Olympic Winter Games () and also known as Torino 2006, were a winter multi-sport event held from 10 to 26 February in Turin, Italy. This marked the second time Italy had hosted the Winter O ...
women's hockey team * Hilary Gehman (Head Coach, Women's Rowing) — two-time Olympian; six-time member of the U.S. national rowing team * Edward Moylan (Head Coach, Tennis and Squash, 1962–72) — tennis player; gold medal winner at the 1955 Pan American Games with Art Larsen * Nicole Ross (Assistant Coach, Fencing, 2016–18) — Olympic foil fencer; won the 2010 NCAA individual women's foil title * Michel Sebastiani (Coach, Fencing, 1963–70) — Olympic fencing coach and member of the US Fencing Association Hall of Fame; his women’s team won the Intercollegiate Women's Fencing Association (NIWFA) National Championship in 1967, 1968, and 1969, and his fencers also won the NIWFA individual title in 1968, and another won the
NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...
men’s épée title in 1968 *
Michael Slive Michael Lawrence Slive (July 26, 1940 – May 16, 2018) was an American attorney and college sports executive. Slive was the commissioner of the Southeastern Conference (SEC), a college athletics association, from 2002 until 2015. Early life an ...
(Director of Athletics, 1981–83) — Commissioner of the
Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central United States, South Central and Southeastern United States. Its 16 members in ...
, 2002–15 * Phil Sykes (Interim Head Coach, Field Hockey, 2003) — U.S. Olympic field hockey defender * Al Walker (Head Coach, Basketball, 1993–96) — former basketball player and college coach, now a scout for the
Detroit Pistons The Detroit Pistons are an American professional basketball team based in Detroit. The Pistons compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Central Division (NBA), Central Division of the Eastern Conference (NBA), East ...
of the NBA


Education

* Arthur S. Adams (University Provost 1946-1948) — President of the
University of New Hampshire The University of New Hampshire (UNH) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Durham, New Hampshire, United States. It was founded and incorporated in 1866 as a land grant coll ...
(1948-1950); President of the
American Council on Education The American Council on Education (ACE) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) U.S. higher education association established in 1918. ACE's members are the leaders of approximately 1,600 accredited, degree-granting colleges and universities and higher educati ...
(1950-1961) *
Charles Kendall Adams Charles Kendall Adams (January 24, 1835 – July 26, 1902) was an American educator and historian. He served as the second president of Cornell University from 1885 until 1892, and as president of the University of Wisconsin from 1892 until 1901. ...
(University President, 1885-1892) — President of the
University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...
, 1892-1901 * John L. Anderson (Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering, 1971-1976) — President of the
Illinois Institute of Technology The Illinois Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Illinois Tech and IIT, is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Tracing its history to 1890, the present name was adopted upon the m ...
(2007-2015), Provost and University Vice President of
Case Western Reserve University Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a Private university, private research university in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It was established in 1967 by a merger between Western Reserve University and the Case Institute of Technology. Case ...
(2004-2007), Dean of the College of Engineering at
Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The institution was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools. In 1912, it became the Carnegie Institu ...
(1996-2004); member of the
National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...
and Fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...
and of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...
*
Elisha Andrews Elisha Benjamin Andrews (January 10, 1844 – October 30, 1917) was an American economist, soldier, and educator. Early life Andrews was born in Hinsdale, New Hampshire.Marquis Who's Who, Inc. ''Who Was Who in American History, the Military''. ...
(Faculty 1888-89) — President of
Denison University Denison University is a Private university, private liberal arts college in Granville, Ohio, United States. One of the earliest colleges established in the former Northwest Territory, Denison University was founded in 1831. It was first called ...
(1875–79) and
Brown University Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...
(1889-1898); chancellor of the
University of Nebraska A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...
(1900-1909) * Sanford Soverhill Atwood (University Provost 1955-1963) — President of
Emory University Emory University is a private university, private research university in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It was founded in 1836 as Emory College by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory. Its main campu ...
(1963-1977) *
Sarah Gibson Blanding Sarah Gibson Blanding (November 22, 1898 – March 3, 1985) was an American educator and academic administrator who served as Vassar College's sixth president (1946–1964) and its first female president. A strong public advocate, she work ...
(Dean of Human Ecology, 1941–46) — President of
Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States. The college be ...
, 1946-1964 *
Detlev Bronk Detlev Wulf Bronk (August 13, 1897 – November 17, 1975) was a prominent American scientist, educator, and administrator. He is credited with establishing biophysics as a recognized discipline. Bronk served as president of Johns Hopkins Universi ...
(Professor of Physiology at Cornell University Medical College 1939-1941) — President of
Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...
and of the Rockefeller Institute; member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(1939) * Robert F. Chandler (Professor of Forest Soils) — President of the
University of New Hampshire The University of New Hampshire (UNH) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Durham, New Hampshire, United States. It was founded and incorporated in 1866 as a land grant coll ...
(1950-1954); Winner of the
World Food Prize The World Food Prize is an international award recognizing the achievements of individuals who have advanced human development by improving the quality, quantity, or availability of food in the world. Conceived by Nobel Peace Prize laureate No ...
, 1988 * James Mason Crafts (Chemistry Professor, 1867-1870) — President of
MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...
, 1897-1900 * Cornelis W. de Kiewiet (University Provost 1948-1951; Acting President 1949-1951) — President of the
University of Rochester The University of Rochester is a private university, private research university in Rochester, New York, United States. It was founded in 1850 and moved into its current campus, next to the Genesee River in 1930. With approximately 30,000 full ...
(1951-1961) *
Lloyd Hartman Elliott Lloyd Hartman Elliott ( – ) was President of the George Washington University from 1965 to 1988. He was born in Crosby, Clay County, West Virginia in 1918. He was also a professor of educational administration at Cornell University and Pres ...
(Professor of Educational Administration) — President of the
University of Maine The University of Maine (UMaine) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Orono, Maine, United States. It was established in 1865 as the land-grant college of Maine and is the Flagship universitie ...
(1958-1965) and
George Washington University The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally-chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Originally named Columbian College, it was chartered in 1821 by ...
(1965-1988) * Thomas E. Everhart (Professor of Electrical Engineering, Dean of Engineering 1979-1984) — Chancellor of the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. Established in 1867, it is the f ...
(1984-1987), president of the
California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small group of institutes ...
(1987-1997); member of the
National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...
and foreign fellow of
the Royal Academy of Engineering The Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) is the United Kingdom's national academy of engineering. The Academy was founded in June 1976 as the Fellowship of Engineering with support from Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who became the first senior ...
* W. Kent Fuchs (University Provost, 2009-2014) — President of the
University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preem ...
, 2015- *
Richard H. Gallagher Richard H. Gallagher (November 17, 1927 – September 30, 1997) was an American civil and aerospace engineer, researcher and president of Clarkson University from 1988 to 1995. Early life and education Gallagher was born in Manhattan, New Yor ...
(Faculty 1967-1978) — President of
Clarkson University Clarkson University is a private research university with its main campus in Potsdam, New York. Clarkson has additional graduate programs and research facilities in the New York Capital District. It was established in 1896 and enrolled over 4 ...
(1988-1995) and member of
National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...
*
Charles De Garmo Charles De Garmo (also spelled DeGarmo; January 7, 1849 – May 14, 1934) was an American educator, education theorist and college president. Biography DeGarmo was born in Mukwonago, Wisconsin, on January 7, 1849. His parents moved to Sterling, ...
(Faculty) — President of
Swarthmore College Swarthmore College ( , ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the e ...
(1891-1898) * Theodore L. Hullar (Faculty, 1979-1984, 1997-) — Chancellor of
UC Riverside The University of California, Riverside (UCR or UC Riverside) is a public land-grant research university in Riverside, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The main campus sits on in ...
(1985-1987) and
UC Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Davis, California, United States. It is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University ...
(1987-1994) *
Harry Burns Hutchins Harry Burns Hutchins (April 8, 1847 – January 25, 1930) was the fourth president of the University of Michigan (1909–1920). Biography On April 8, 1847, Harry B. Hutchins was born in Lisbon, New Hampshire. Hutchins got his education at New Ha ...
(Law Faculty 1887-1894) — President of the
University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...
, 1909-1920 * William Rea Keast (Professor, Department Chair, Dean of Arts & Sciences, Vice President for Academic Affairs, 1951-1965) — President of
Wayne State University Wayne State University (WSU) is a public university, public research university in Detroit, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1868, Wayne State consists of 13 schools and colleges offering approximately 375 programs. It is Michigan's third-l ...
, 1965-1971 * David C. Knapp (University Provost, 1974-1978) — President of the
University of Massachusetts The University of Massachusetts is the Public university, public university system of the Massachusetts, Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The university system includes six campuses (Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth, University of Massachusetts Lowell ...
(1978-1990) *
Asa S. Knowles Asa Smallidge Knowles (January 15, 1909 – August 11, 1990) was the ninth President of the University of Toledo and the third President of Northeastern University. A graduate of Thayer Academy, Knowles went on to earn his AB from Bowdoin Colle ...
(Vice President for University Development, 1948-1951) — President of the
University of Toledo The University of Toledo (UToledo or UT) is a Public university, public research university in Toledo, Ohio, United States. It is the northernmost campus of the University System of Ohio. The university also operates a Health Science campus, ...
(1951-1958) and of
Northeastern University Northeastern University (NU or NEU) is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was founded by the Boston Young Men's Christian Association in 1898 as an all-male instit ...
(1959-1975) * Edward H. Litchfield (Dean of School of Business) — twelfth chancellor of the
University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The university is composed of seventeen undergraduate and graduate schools and colle ...
(1956-1965) *
Carolyn Martin Carolyn Arthur "Biddy" Martin (born 1951) is an American academic, author, and the 19th president of Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts. Before becoming president at Amherst, she was the eighth chancellor of the University of Wisconsin� ...
(University Provost, 2000-2008) — Chancellor of the
University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...
, 2008-2011; president of
Amherst College Amherst College ( ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zepha ...
, 2011- * Alan G. Merten (Dean of the Johnson School) — President of
George Mason University George Mason University (GMU) is a Public university, public research university in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. Located in Northern Virginia near Washington, D.C., the university is named in honor of George Mason, a Founding Father ...
(1996-2012) *
John Niland John Rodney Niland (born 10 September 1940) is an Australian academic and board director. Niland obtained a Bachelor and Master of Commerce from UNSW and his PhD is from the University of Illinois. He has held academic positions at Cornell Uni ...
(Assistant Professor 1970-1972) — Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the
University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW) is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It was established in 1949. The university comprises seven faculties, through which it offers bachelor's, master's and docto ...
,
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
(1992-2002) * Paul Olum (Faculty, 1949-1974; Mathematics Department Chair, 1963-1966) — President of the
University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a Public university, public research university in Eugene, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1876, the university is organized into nine colleges and schools and offers 420 undergraduate and gra ...
, 1980-1989 *
Russell K. Osgood Russell King Osgood is an American lawyer who was the dean of Washington University School of Law.Grinnell College Grinnell College ( ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Grinnell, Iowa, United States. It was founded in 1846 when a group of Congregationalism in the United States, Congregationalis ...
1998-2010 * Robert A. Plane (Chemistry Professor; University Provost 1969-1973) — President of
Clarkson University Clarkson University is a private research university with its main campus in Potsdam, New York. Clarkson has additional graduate programs and research facilities in the New York Capital District. It was established in 1896 and enrolled over 4 ...
(1974-1985) and of
Wells College Wells College was a private liberal arts college in Aurora, New York, a village in the Finger Lakes region of the state. From its founding in 1868 until it became coeducational in 2005, Wells was a women's college. The college maintained acad ...
(1991-1995) *
Don Michael Randel Don Michael Randel (born December 9, 1940) is an American musicologist, specializing in the music of the Middle Ages and Renaissance in Spain and France. He is currently the chair of the board of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a truste ...
(University Provost, Dean of Arts & Sciences) — President of the
University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...
, 2000-2006 * Charles Ashmead Schaeffer (Dean of Faculty) — President of the
University of Iowa The University of Iowa (U of I, UIowa, or Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized int ...
, 1887-1898 *
Benjamin Ide Wheeler Benjamin Ide Wheeler (July 15, 1854– May 2, 1927) was a professor of Greek and comparative philology at Cornell University, writer, and President of the University of California from 1899 to 1919. Life and career Early years Benjamin ...
(Professor of Greek and Comparative
Philology Philology () is the study of language in Oral tradition, oral and writing, written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also de ...
) — President of the
University of California The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...
, 1899-1919 *
Roy A. Young Roy Archibald Young (May 17, 1882 – December 31, 1960) was an American banker who served as the 4th chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1927 to 1930. During his tenure as chairman, the Wall Street crash of 1929 occurred, which signaled th ...
(President of
Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research The Boyce Thompson Institute (previously: Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research) is an independent research institute devoted to using plant sciences to improve agriculture, protect the environment, and enhance human health. The Boyce Thom ...
of
Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...
, 1980-1986) — Chancellor of the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...
, 1976-1980


Engineering and computer science


Computer science

* Robert L. Constable (Professor Emeritus, Computer Science) — Work connecting programs and mathematical proofs, especially the Nuprl system *
Richard W. Conway Richard Walter Conway (December 12, 1931 – March 19, 2024) was an American industrial engineer and computer scientist who was the Emerson Electric Company Professor of Manufacturing Management, Emeritus in the Johnson Graduate School of Manage ...
(Emerson Electric Company Professor of Manufacturing Management) – industrial engineering, simulation, scheduling theory,
PL/C PL/C is an instructional dialect of the programming language PL/I, developed at the Department of Computer Science of Cornell University in the early 1970s in an effort headed by Professor Richard W. Conway and graduate student Thomas R. Wilcox. ...
and other programming languages and dialects for instructional use, first director of the Office of Computing Services *
R. Keith Dennis Roger Keith Dennis (March 10, 1944 – December 12, 2024), known as R. Keith Dennis or Keith Dennis, was an American mathematician who worked in algebraic K-theory and group theory. His career was spent as a professor in the Department of Mathema ...
(Professor Emeritus, Mathematics) — Known for his work in
algebraic K-theory Algebraic ''K''-theory is a subject area in mathematics with connections to geometry, topology, ring theory, and number theory. Geometric, algebraic, and arithmetic objects are assigned objects called ''K''-groups. These are groups in the sens ...
* Carla Gomes (Professor of Computer Science) — Director of the Institute for Computational Sustainability *
Paul Ginsparg Paul Henry Ginsparg is an American physicist. He developed the arXiv.org e-print archive. Education He is a graduate of Syosset High School in Syosset, New York, on Long Island. He graduated from Harvard University with a Bachelor of Arts in ...
(Professor of Physics and Computing & Information Science, 2001-) — developer of the
arXiv arXiv (pronounced as "archive"—the X represents the Chi (letter), Greek letter chi ⟨χ⟩) is an open-access repository of electronic preprints and postprints (known as e-prints) approved for posting after moderation, but not Scholarly pee ...
e-print archive, MacArthur Award *
David Gries David Gries (born April 26, 1939) is an American computer scientist at Cornell University, mainly known for his books ''The Science of Programming'' (1981) and ''A Logical Approach to Discrete Math'' (1993, with Fred B. Schneider). He was asso ...
(Professor Emeritus, Computer Science) — author of ''The Science of Programming'' (1981), 4 national education awards *
Joseph Halpern Joseph Yehuda Halpern (born May 29, 1953) is an Israeli-American professor of computer science at Cornell University. Most of his research is on reasoning about knowledge and uncertainty. Biography Halpern graduated in 1975 from University of To ...
(Professor of Computer Science) — computer scientist; recipient of the
Gödel Prize The Gödel Prize is an annual prize for outstanding papers in the area of theoretical computer science, given jointly by the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science (EATCS) and the Association for Computing Machinery Special Inter ...
(1997), member of the
National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...
(2019) *
Juris Hartmanis Juris Hartmanis (July 5, 1928 – July 29, 2022) was a Latvian-born American computer scientist and computational theorist who, with Richard E. Stearns, received the 1993 ACM Turing Award "in recognition of their seminal paper which established ...
(Professor Emeritus, Computer Science) -
Turing Award The ACM A. M. Turing Award is an annual prize given by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) for contributions of lasting and major technical importance to computer science. It is generally recognized as the highest distinction in the fi ...
recipient, 1993; member of the
National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...
(1989) *
John Hopcroft John Edward Hopcroft (born October 7, 1939) is an American theoretical computer scientist. His textbooks on theory of computation (also known as the Cinderella book) and data structures are regarded as standards in their fields. He is a professo ...
(IBM Professor of Engineering and Applied Mathematics in Computer Science, Emeritus) — Turing Award recipient (1986),
IEEE John von Neumann Medal The IEEE John von Neumann Medal was established by the IEEE Board of Directors in 1990 and may be presented annually "for outstanding achievements in computer-related science and technology." The achievements may be theoretical, technological, or ...
recipient (2010), member of the
National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...
(1989) and of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(2009) *
Jon Kleinberg Jon Michael Kleinberg (born 1971) is an American computer scientist and the Tisch University Professor of Computer Science and Information Science at Cornell University known for his work in algorithms and networks. He is a recipient of the Nevan ...
(Tisch University Professor of Computer Science) — MacArthur Award and
Nevanlinna Prize The IMU Abacus Medal, known before 2022 as the Rolf Nevanlinna Prize, is awarded once every four years at the International Congress of Mathematicians, hosted by the International Mathematical Union (IMU), for outstanding contributions in Mathematic ...
, member of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...
(2007), the
National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...
(2008) and the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(2011) *
Trevor Pinch Trevor J. Pinch (1 January 1952 – 16 December 2021) was a British sociologist, part-time musician and chair of the science and technology studies department at Cornell University. In 2018, he won the J.D. Bernal Prize from the Society for ...
(Chair of Science and Technology Studies Department) — Chair of the Science and Technology Studies department *
Theodore Paul Wright Theodore Paul Wright (May 25, 1895 – August 21, 1970), also known as T. P. Wright, was a U.S. aeronautical engineer and educator. Biography He was born in Galesburg, Illinois on May 25, 1895. His father was the economist Philip Green Wrig ...
(Acting President, 1951) — aeronautical engineer and educator *
Dexter Kozen Dexter Campbell Kozen (born December 20, 1951) is an American theoretical computer scientist. He is Professor Emeritus and Joseph Newton Pew, Jr. Professor in Engineering at Cornell University. Career Kozen received his BA in mathematics from ...
(Professor of Computer Science) — computer scientist specializing in dynamic logic *
David Shmoys David Bernard Shmoys (born 1959) is a Professor in the School of Operations Research and Information Engineering and the Department of Computer Science at Cornell University. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 19 ...
(Professor of Operations Research and Information Engineering) —
ACM Fellow ACM Fellowship is an award and fellowship that recognises outstanding members of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). The title of ACM Fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals ...
and
INFORMS The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) is an international society for practitioners in the fields of operations research Operations research () (U.S. Air Force Specialty Code: Operations Analysis), often s ...
Fellow, and recipient of the
Frederick W. Lanchester Prize The Frederick W. Lanchester Prize is an Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences prize (U.S. $5,000 cash prize and medallion) given for the best contribution to operations research and the management sciences published in Engli ...
(2013) *
Gerard Salton Gerard A. "Gerry" Salton (8 March 1927 – 28 August 1995) was a professor of computer science at Cornell University. Salton was perhaps the leading computer scientist working in the field of information retrieval during his time, and "the father ...
(Professor of Computer Science) — father of
information retrieval Information retrieval (IR) in computing and information science is the task of identifying and retrieving information system resources that are relevant to an Information needs, information need. The information need can be specified in the form ...
; recipient of
Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...
(1962), ASIS Award for Best Information Science Paper (1970), Best Information Science Book (1975), the first
Gerard Salton Award The Gerard Salton Award is presented by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Special Interest Group on Information Retrieval (SIGIR) every three years to an individual who has made "significant, sustained and continuing contributions to re ...
(named in his honor) for Outstanding Contributions to Information Retrieval (1983), the
Alexander von Humboldt Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 1769 – 6 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, natural history, naturalist, List of explorers, explorer, and proponent of Romanticism, Romantic philosophy and Romanticism ...
Senior Science Award (1988), the ASIS Award of Merit (1989); ACM Fellow * Fred B. Schneider (Samuel B Eckert Professor of Computer Science) — member of the
National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...
(2011) *
Éva Tardos Éva Tardos (born 1 October 1957) is a Hungarian mathematician and the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of Computer Science at Cornell University. Tardos's research interest is algorithms. Her work focuses on the design and analysis of efficient ...
(
Jacob Gould Schurman Jacob Gould Schurman (May 2, 1854 – August 12, 1942) was a Canadian-American educator and diplomat, who served as President of Cornell University and United States Ambassador to Germany. Early life and education Schurman was born at Freetown ...
Professor of Computer Science) — Recipient of the
Fulkerson Prize The Fulkerson Prize for outstanding papers in the area of discrete mathematics is sponsored jointly by the Mathematical Optimization Society (MOS) and the American Mathematical Society (AMS). Up to three awards of $1,500 each are presented at e ...
(1988), the George B. Dantzig Prize (2006) and the
Gödel Prize The Gödel Prize is an annual prize for outstanding papers in the area of theoretical computer science, given jointly by the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science (EATCS) and the Association for Computing Machinery Special Inter ...
(2012); Member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
, the
National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...
, the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...
; Fellow of the
American Mathematical Society The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its publications, meetings, ...
and of the
Association for Computing Machinery The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is a US-based international learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 and is the world's largest scientific and educational computing society. The ACM is a non-profit professional membe ...
(ACM) *
Robert Tarjan Robert Endre Tarjan (born April 30, 1948) is an American computer scientist and mathematician. He is the discoverer of several graph theory algorithms, including his strongly connected components algorithm, and co-inventor of both splay trees a ...
(Assistant Professor of Computer Science 1973-1974) — computer scientist and mathematician, known for discovering several
graph Graph may refer to: Mathematics *Graph (discrete mathematics), a structure made of vertices and edges **Graph theory, the study of such graphs and their properties *Graph (topology), a topological space resembling a graph in the sense of discret ...
algorithms, including Tarjan's off-line least common ancestors algorithm; co-inventor of splay trees and
Fibonacci heap In computer science, a Fibonacci heap is a data structure for priority queue operations, consisting of a collection of heap-ordered trees. It has a better amortized running time than many other priority queue data structures including the binar ...
s; Distinguished University Professor of Computer Science at
Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...
; recipient of Turing Award (1986) * Tim Teitelbaum (Professor of Computer Science) – known for his early work on integrated development environments (IDEs), syntax-directed editing, and
incremental computation Increment or incremental may refer to: *Incrementalism, a theory (also used in politics as a synonym for gradualism) *Increment and decrement operators, the operators ++ and -- in computer programming *Incremental computing *Incremental backup, wh ...
*
David P. Williamson David Paul Williamson is a professor of operations research at Cornell University, and the editor-in-chief of the ''SIAM Journal on Discrete Mathematics''. He earned his Ph.D. in 1993 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under the supe ...
(Professor of Operations Research and Information Engineering) — Editor-in-chief of the
SIAM Journal on Discrete Mathematics '' SIAM Journal on Discrete Mathematics'' is a peer-reviewed mathematics journal published quarterly by the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM). The journal includes articles on pure and applied discrete mathematics. It was es ...
; recipient of the
Fulkerson Prize The Fulkerson Prize for outstanding papers in the area of discrete mathematics is sponsored jointly by the Mathematical Optimization Society (MOS) and the American Mathematical Society (AMS). Up to three awards of $1,500 each are presented at e ...
(2000) and the
Frederick W. Lanchester Prize The Frederick W. Lanchester Prize is an Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences prize (U.S. $5,000 cash prize and medallion) given for the best contribution to operations research and the management sciences published in Engli ...
(2013)


Engineering

* Lynden Archer (Joseph Silbert Dean of Engineering, David Croll Director of the Energy Systems Institute and James A. Friend Family Distinguished Professor of Engineering) — member of the
National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...
(2018) * Henry G. Booker (Professor of Electrical Engineering 1948-1965) — member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(1960) *
Lance Collins Lance Kitchener Collins (19 June 1916 – 3 January 1988) was a leading Australian rules footballer of the 1940s, playing for Carlton Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL). Born in Beulah, Victoria, Collins joined Victoria ...
(Joseph Silbert Dean of Engineering, 2010-2020) * Susan Daniel (Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering) * Lov Grover (Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering) *
Zygmunt Haas Zygmunt J. Haas is a professor and distinguished chair in computer science, University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) also the professor emeritus in electrical and computer engineering, Cornell University. His research interests include ad hoc networ ...
(Professor Emeritus of Electrical and Computer Engineering) * David A. Hammer (Professor of Nuclear Energy Engineering) * Mark E. Lewis (Professor of Operations Research and Information Engineering) *
Chekesha Liddell Chekesha M. Liddell Watson (née Liddell) is an Associate Professor of Material Science and Engineering at Cornell University. She researches colloidal materials, and the relationship between micron and submicron length scales. Early life Lidd ...
(Professor, Materials Science and Engineering) *
Hod Lipson Hod Lipson (born 1967) is an Israeli - American robotics engineer. He is the director of Columbia University's Creative Machines Lab. Lipson's work focuses on evolutionary robotics, design automation, rapid prototyping, artificial life, and creat ...
(Professor of Mechanical Engineering) *
Michal Lipson Michal Lipson (born 1970) is an American physicist known for her work on silicon photonics. A member of the National Academy of Sciences since 2019 and the National Academy of Engineering since 2025, Lipson was named a 2010 MacArthur Fellow for c ...
(Professor 2001-2014) — MacArthur Award, research into nanotech applications to optics *
Carlo Montemagno Carlo Montemagno (August 7, 1956 – October 11, 2018) was an American engineer and expert in nanotechnology and biomedical engineering, focusing on futuristic technologies to create interdisciplinary solutions for the grand challenges in health, ...
(Professor of Biological and Environmental Engineering 1995-2001, Director of Biomedical Engineering) — Father of
Bionanotechnology Nanobiotechnology, bionanotechnology, and nanobiology are terms that refer to the intersection of nanotechnology and biology. Given that the subject is one that has only emerged very recently, bionanotechnology and nanobiotechnology serve as blank ...
*
Christopher Ober Christopher Kemper Ober (born November 1, 1954) is an American/Canadian materials scientist and engineer. He is the Francis Norwood Bard Professor of Materials Engineering at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, Cornell University and was until July 2 ...
(Professor, Materials Science and Engineering) * Richard D. Robinson (Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering) * Britney Schmidt (Associate professor of astronomy, earth, and atmospheric sciences) *
Peter C. Schultz Peter C. Schultz (born 1942) is an American academic who is co-inventor of the fiber optics used for telecommunications. He is retired President (1988 to 2001) of Heraeus Tenevo Inc., a technical glass manufacturer specializing in fiber optics an ...
(Materials Science Visiting Professor 1978-1984) — co-inventor of the
fiber optics An optical fiber, or optical fibre, is a flexible glass or plastic fiber that can transmit light from one end to the other. Such fibers find wide usage in fiber-optic communications, where they permit transmission over longer distances and at ...
now used worldwide for
telecommunications Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communication technologies. These means of ...
; member of the
National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...
, inductee to the
National Inventors Hall of Fame The National Inventors Hall of Fame (NIHF) is an American not-for-profit organization, founded in 1973, which recognizes individual engineers and inventors who hold a US patent of significant technology. Besides the Hall of Fame, it also operate ...
, recipient of the
National Medal of Technology and Innovation The National Medal of Technology and Innovation (formerly the National Medal of Technology) is an honor granted by the president of the United States to American inventors and innovators who have made significant contributions to the development ...
(2000) *
William R. Sears William Rees Sears (March 1, 1913 – October 12, 2002) was an American aeronautical engineer and educator who worked at Caltech, Northrop Aircraft, Cornell University (as the J. L. Given Professor of Engineering), and the University of Arizona. ...
— notable aeronautical engineer and educator; member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
, the
National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...
, and the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...
* Huili Grace Xing (William L. Quackenbush Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering) * Fengqi You (Roxanne E. and Michael J. Zak Professor)


Government, law, business

*
Iajuddin Ahmed Iajuddin Ahmed (1 February 193110 December 2012) was the President of Bangladesh, serving from 6 September 2002 until 12 February 2009. With a doctorate in soil science, Ahmed became a full professor at the University of Dhaka and chairman of ...
(Visiting Professor, 1984) — President of
Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...
, 2002–09 * Ifeoma Ajunwa — organizational behavior, law * Alfred C. Aman, Jr. (Professor, 1977–91) — Dean of
Suffolk University Law School Suffolk University Law School (also known as Suffolk Law School) is the Private university, private, non-sectarian law school of Suffolk University located in Downtown Boston, downtown Boston, across the street from the Boston Common and the Fr ...
and Indiana University School of Law *
G. Robert Blakey George Robert Blakey (born January 7, 1936) is an American attorney and emeritus law professor. He is best known for his work in connection with drafting the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and for scholarship on that subject ...
professor of law and director of the Cornell Institute on Organized Crime (1973–80) — author of the RICO statute and chief counsel to House Select Committee on Assassinations * Herbert W. Briggs (Professor of Government 1929-1969)- prominent in international law * George W. Casey Jr. (Distinguished Senior Lecturer) — Chief of Staff of the United States Army, 2007–11; Commander of Multi-National Force — Iraq, 2004–07 * David J. Danelski (Goldwin Smith Professor of Government, 1970–79) — constitutional law, civil rights lawyer, University Ombudsman *
Michael J. Freeman Michael J. Freeman (born 1947) is an American inventor who works in trend analysis, advanced behavioral systems, programming of smart toys, cable television and robotics. He was a professor at three American universities and a consultant to busin ...
(Assistant Professor) — inventor; business consultant, behavior sciences * Benjamin Ginsberg (Professor of Government, 1973–c. 1992) — American government * Andrew Hacker (Professor) — political scientist; questioned race, class, and gender in American society * Harry George Henn * Robert C. Hockett *
Charles Evans Hughes Charles Evans Hughes (April 11, 1862 – August 27, 1948) was an American politician, academic, and jurist who served as the 11th chief justice of the United States from 1930 to 1941. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican ...
(Professor, Law School, 1891–93) — Governor of New York, 1907–10; U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice, 1910–16; U.S. Presidential candidate, 1916; U.S. Secretary of State, 1921–25;
Chief Justice of the United States The chief justice of the United States is the chief judge of the Supreme Court of the United States and is the highest-ranking officer of the U.S. federal judiciary. Appointments Clause, Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution g ...
, 1930-41 *
Irving Ives Irving McNeil Ives (January 24, 1896 – February 24, 1962) was an American politician and founding dean of the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations. A Republican, he served as a United States Senator from New York from 1 ...
(Trustee; Dean of Industrial & Labor Relations, 1945–47) — U.S. Senator from New York, 1947–59; namesake of Ives Hall * William A. Jacobson, attorney, Cornell Law School professor, and blogger * Robert Jarrow (Ronald P. and Susan E. Lynch Professor of Investment Management at the
Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management The Cornell Johnson Graduate School of Management is the graduate business school of Cornell University, a private Ivy League research university in Ithaca, New York. Established in 1946, Johnson is one of six List of Ivy League business schools ...
) — expert on derivative securities; co-developer of Heath-Jarrow-Morton framework and Jarrow-Turnbull model *
George McTurnan Kahin George McTurnan KahinSometimes referred to as George Kahin or George McT. Kahin. Some, but fewer, sources may also cite him as George M. Kahin. (January 25, 1918 – January 29, 2000) was an American historian and political scientist. He was on ...
(Professor of Government, 1951–88) — expert on
Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...
and critic of the
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...
*
Alfred E. Kahn Alfred Edward Kahn (October 17, 1917 – December 27, 2010) was an American economist and political advisor who specialized in regulation and deregulation. He was an important influence in the deregulation of the airline and energy industries. ...
( Robert Julius Thorne Professor Emeritus of Political Economy; Trustee; Dean of Arts & Sciences) — advisor to President
Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (October 1, 1924December 29, 2024) was an American politician and humanitarian who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party ...
on deregulation; economist *
Peter J. Katzenstein Peter Joachim Katzenstein Fellow of the British Academy, FBA (born February 17, 1945) is a German-American political scientist. He is the Walter S. Carpenter, Jr. Professor of International Studies at Cornell University. Katzenstein has made inf ...
(Walter S. Carpenter, Jr. Professor of International Studies, 1973–, Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow) — international relations;
Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science The Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science () was established in 1995 by the Johan Skytte Foundation at Uppsala University. The foundation itself goes back to the donation in 1622 from Johan Skytte (1577–1645), politician and chancellor of th ...
(2020) * Milton R. Konvitz — head of Liberian codification project *
Isaac Kramnick Isaac Kramnick (March 6, 1938 – December 21, 2019) was an American political theorist, historian of political thought, political scientist, and the Richard J. Schwartz Professor of Government at Cornell University. He was a subject-matter expert ...
(Richard J. Schwartz Professor of Government Emeritus, 1972–2015) — English and American political thought and history; fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...
(1998) * Theodore J. Lowi ( John L. Senior Professor of American Institutions, 1959–1965, 1972–2015, Emeritus –2017) — American government and public policy; president of the
American Political Science Association The American Political Science Association (APSA) is a professional association of political scientists in the United States. Founded in 1903 in the Tilton Memorial Library (now Tilton Hall) of Tulane University in New Orleans, it publishes four ...
(1991) *
Cynthia McKinney Cynthia Ann McKinney (born March 17, 1955) is a former American politician. As a member of the Democratic Party, she served six terms in the United States House of Representatives. She was the first African American woman elected to represent G ...
(Frank H.T. Rhodes Class of '56 University Professor, 2003–06) — U.S. Representative from
Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...
, 1993-2003, 2005-2007 * Edwin Barber Morgan (Trustee, 1865–74) — U.S. Representative from New York, 1853–59; Director of
American Express American Express Company or Amex is an American bank holding company and multinational financial services corporation that specializes in payment card industry, payment cards. It is headquartered at 200 Vesey Street, also known as American Expr ...
* Robert Parris Moses (Frank H.T. Rhodes Class of '56 Professor, 2006-) — a leader of the Civil Rights Movement; creator of the
Algebra Project The Algebra Project is a national U.S. mathematics literacy program aimed at helping low-income students and students of color achieve the mathematical skills in high school that are a prerequisite for a college preparatory mathematics sequence. F ...
; MacArthur "genius" * John Nesheim — venture capitalist, teaches classes on entrepreneurship *
Richard Neustadt Richard Elliott Neustadt (June 26, 1919 – October 31, 2003) was an American political scientist specializing in the United States presidency. He served as adviser to several presidents. His book ''Presidential Power'' has been described as "on ...
(Professor of Public Administration, 1952?-54?) —
political Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...
scientist A scientist is a person who Scientific method, researches to advance knowledge in an Branches of science, area of the natural sciences. In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engag ...
specializing in the United States presidency; advised presidents
John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), also known as JFK, was the 35th president of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. He was the first Roman Catholic and youngest person elected p ...
,
Lyndon Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), also known as LBJ, was the 36th president of the United States, serving from 1963 to 1969. He became president after assassination of John F. Kennedy, the assassination of John F. Ken ...
, and
Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...
*
Frances Perkins Frances Perkins (born Fannie Coralie Perkins; April 10, 1880 – May 14, 1965) was an American workers-rights advocate who served as the fourth United States Secretary of Labor from 1933 to 1945, the longest serving in that position. A member o ...
(Lecturer of Industrial & Labor Relations (?-1965) — U.S. Secretary of Labor, 1933-45); first female
U.S. Cabinet The Cabinet of the United States is the principal official advisory body to the president of the United States. The Cabinet generally meets with the president in a room adjacent to the Oval Office in the West Wing of the White House. The presi ...
member * Aziz Rana (Professor of Law, ?-2022) *
Richard Rosecrance Richard Newton Rosecrance (24 October 1930 – 7 March 2024) was an American political scientist. His research and teaching was focused on international relations, in particular the link between economics and international relations. His research an ...
(Walter S. Carpenter Jr. Professor of International and Comparative Politics, 1970s and 1980s) — international relations *
Clinton Rossiter Clinton Lawrence Rossiter III (September 18, 1917 – July 11, 1970) was an American historian and political scientist at Cornell University (1947-1970) who wrote ''The American Presidency'', among 20 other books, and won both the Bancroft Prize ...
(Professor of Government, 1946–70) — political scientist *
Myron Rush Myron Rush (January 1, 1922 – January 8, 2018) was an American academic who was professor of government at Cornell University where he focused on the politics and foreign policy of the Soviet Union. Before that he worked for the RAND Corporatio ...
(Professor of Government, 1965–1992) — the politics and foreign policy of the Soviet Union * Frederick A. Sawyer (Professor) —
Assistant Secretary of the Treasury United States Assistant Secretary of the Treasury is one of several positions in the United States Department of the Treasury, serving under the United States Secretary of the Treasury. History According to the U.S. statute, there are eight Assis ...
, 1873–74; Senator from
South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...
, 1968–73 *
Martin Shefter Martin Allen Shefter (1943 – November 3, 2023) was an American political scientist and author who was a professor emeritus in the Department of Government at Cornell University. He is noted for his research on New York City politics and on how ch ...
(Professor of Government, 1986-) — political scientist * Arthur E. Sutherland, Jr. (Professor of Law, 1945-1950), constitutional and commercial law expert and author;
Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United ...
professor (1950-1970) * Lynn Stout — Distinguished Professor of Corporate & Business Law *
Jessica Chen Weiss Jessica Chen Weiss is an American International relations, international relations scholar specializing in China–United States relations. She is currently the David M. Lampton Professor of China Studies at Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced Intern ...
— Michael J. Zak Professor for China and Asia-Pacific Studies


Humanities


Architecture and design

* Esra Akcan — Michael A. McCarthy Professor * Bristow Adams (Professor, 1914–45) — journalist, professor, forester, illustrator *
Buckminster Fuller Richard Buckminster Fuller (; July 12, 1895 – July 1, 1983) was an American architect, systems theorist, writer, designer, inventor, philosopher, and futurist. He styled his name as R. Buckminster Fuller in his writings, publishing more t ...
(Professor) — architect and inventor, known for work with
geodesic dome A geodesic dome is a hemispherical thin-shell structure (lattice-shell) based on a geodesic polyhedron. The rigid triangular elements of the dome distribute stress throughout the structure, making geodesic domes able to withstand very heavy ...
s *
Romaldo Giurgola Romaldo 'Aldo' Giurgola (2 September 1920 – 16 May 2016) was an Italian-Australian academic, architect, professor, and author. Giurgola was born in Rome, Italy in 1920. After service in the Italian armed forces during World War II, he was ...
(Professor) — architect, winner of the
AIA Gold Medal The AIA Gold Medal is awarded by the American Institute of Architects conferred "by the national AIA Board of Directors in recognition of a significant body of work of lasting influence on the theory and practice of architecture." It is the Ins ...
* Valerio Olgiati (Guest Professor, 2005) — architect and professor *
Colin Rowe Colin Rowe (27 March 1920 – 5 November 1999) was a British-born, American-naturalised architectural historian, critic, theoretician and teacher. He is acknowledged to have been a major theoretical and critical influence in the second half ...
(Professor, 1970s) — architectural historian and theoretician *
Oswald Mathias Ungers Oswald Mathias Ungers (12 July 1926 – 30 September 2007) was a German architect and architectural theorist, known for his rationalist designs and the use of cubic forms. Among his notable projects are museums in Frankfurt, Hamburg and Cologn ...
(Professor, 1968-1976) — architect * Raphael Zuber (assistant, 2005) — architect


Fine arts and photography

*
Michael Ashkin Michael Ashkin is an American artist who makes sculptures, videos, photographs and installations depicting marginalized, desolate landscapes. He is a professor at Cornell University College of Architecture, Art, and Planning. Ashkin was a 2009 Gug ...
— sculptor * Jacqueline Livingston (Professor of Photography and Art (?–1978) — feminist photographer *
Alison Lurie Alison Stewart Lurie (September 3, 1926December 3, 2020) was an American novelist and academic. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her 1984 novel ''Foreign Affairs''. Although better known as a novelist, she wrote many non-fiction books ...
(Professor of Literature, 1970-) — Pulitzer Prize-winning author *
Jason Seley Jason L. Seley (May 20, 1919 – June 23, 1983) was an American sculptor, educator, and academic administrator. He was an early teacher at the Centre d'Art in Haiti in the 1940s, and served as the dean of the Cornell University College of Archite ...
(Professor of Art 1966 to 1983, Dean 1980 to 1983) – sculptor


History

* Felix Adler (Professor of Hebrew and Oriental Literature, 1874–76) — early 20th-century Jewish rationalist and social reformer *
Glenn C. Altschuler Glenn Altschuler is an American writer, educator, administrator, and professor at Cornell University, where he is the Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Emeritus Professor of American Studies and a Weiss Presidential Fellow. Altschuler has taught large ...
— Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Professor of American Studies; Weiss Presidential Fellow; Dean of the School of Continuing Education and Summer Sessions at Cornell University *
Carl L. Becker Carl Lotus Becker (September 7, 1873 – April 10, 1945) was an American historian who studied the American Revolution and the Age of Enlightenment in America and Europe. Life He was born in Waterloo, Iowa. He enrolled at the University of Wisco ...
(John Wendell Anderson Professor of History, 1917–41) — historian; namesake of
Carl Becker House West Campus is a residential section of Cornell University main campus in Ithaca, New York Ithaca () is a city in and the county seat of Tompkins County, New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake in the Finger ...
*
Martin Bernal Martin Gardiner Bernal (; 10 March 1937 – 9 June 2013) was a British scholar of modern Chinese political history. He was a Professor of Government and Near Eastern Studies at Cornell University. He is best known for his work '' Black Athena'', ...
, (1972-2001) — professor of modern Chinese history; author of ''
Black Athena ''Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization'', published in 1987 (vol. 1), 1991 (vol. 2), and 2006 (vol. 3), is a pseudoarchaeological trilogy by the British Professor of Government and Near Eastern Studies Martin Bernal pr ...
'' * Sherman Cochran
Hu Shih Hu Shih ( zh, t=胡適; 17 December 189124 February 1962) was a Chinese academic, writer, and politician. Hu contributed to Chinese liberalism and language reform, and was a leading advocate for the use of written vernacular Chinese. He part ...
Professor Emeritus of Chinese history *
David Brion Davis David Brion Davis (February 16, 1927 – April 14, 2019) was an American intellectual and cultural historian, and a leading authority on slavery and abolition in the Western world. He was a Sterling Professor of History at Yale University, ...
(Professor of History, 1955-1969) — 1967 Pulitzer Prize winner; scholar of slavery and American intellectual history;
National Humanities Medal The National Humanities Medal is an American award that annually recognizes several individuals, groups, or institutions for work that has "deepened the nation's understanding of the humanities, broadened our citizens' engagement with the humani ...
(2014) *
Anthony Grafton Anthony Thomas Grafton (born May 21, 1950) is an American historian of early modern Europe and the Henry Putnam University Professor of History at Princeton University, where he is also the Director the Program in European Cultural Studies. He i ...
(Professor) — a leading scholar of the
Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...
*
D.G.E. Hall Daniel George Edward Hall (1891–1979) was a British historian, writer, and academic. He wrote extensively on the history of Burma. His most notable work is ''A History of Southeast Asia'', said to "...remain the most important single history o ...
— Emeritus Professor of Southeast Asian History * Charles Henry Hull (1864-1936) — Professor of American History, Dean of the Arts and Sciences College *
Donald Kagan Donald Kagan (; May 1, 1932August 6, 2021) was a Lithuanian-born American historian and classicist at Yale University specializing in ancient Greece. He formerly taught in the Department of History at Cornell University. Kagan was considered am ...
(Professor 1960-1969) — classicist;
National Humanities Medal The National Humanities Medal is an American award that annually recognizes several individuals, groups, or institutions for work that has "deepened the nation's understanding of the humanities, broadened our citizens' engagement with the humani ...
(2002) *
Michael Kammen Michael Gedaliah Kammen (October 25, 1936 – November 29, 2013) was an American professor of American cultural history in the Department of History at Cornell University. At the time of his death, he held the title "Newton C. Farr professor emer ...
(Professor of History) — 1973 Pulitzer Prize winner; U.S. Constitution scholar *
Bernard Lewis Bernard Lewis, (31 May 1916 – 19 May 2018) was a British-American historian specialized in Oriental studies. He was also known as a public intellectual and political commentator. Lewis was the Cleveland E. Dodge Professor Emeritus of Near ...
(Professor 1986-1990) — recipient of
National Humanities Medal The National Humanities Medal is an American award that annually recognizes several individuals, groups, or institutions for work that has "deepened the nation's understanding of the humanities, broadened our citizens' engagement with the humani ...
(2006), the
Harvey Prize The Harvey Prize is an annual Israeli award for breakthroughs in science and technology, as well as contributions to peace in the Middle East granted by the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Technion in Haifa. The prize has become a ...
(1978) *
Benzion Netanyahu Benzion Netanyahu (; born Benzion Mileikowsky; March 25, 1910 – April 30, 2012)''Contemporary Authors Online'', Gale, 2009. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Michigan: Gale, 2009. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/B ...
(Professor of History 1971-1975) —
Professor emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retirement, retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". ...
of history at
Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...
; father of
Israeli Prime Minister The prime minister of Israel (, Hebrew abbreviation: ; , ''Ra'īs al-Ḥukūma'') is the head of government and chief executive of the State of Israel. Israel is a parliamentary republic with a president as the head of state. The presiden ...
Benjamin Netanyahu Benjamin Netanyahu (born 21 October 1949) is an Israeli politician who has served as the prime minister of Israel since 2022, having previously held the office from 1996 to 1999 and from 2009 to 2021. Netanyahu is the longest-serving prime min ...
*
Walter LaFeber Walter Fredrick LaFeber (August 30, 1933March 9, 2021) was an American academic who served as the Andrew H. and James S. Tisch Distinguished University Professor in the Department of History at Cornell University. Previous to that he served as t ...
( Steven Weiss Presidential Teaching Fellow of History, 1958-2006) — U.S. foreign policy historian *
Fredrik Logevall Fredrik Logevall is a Swedish-American historian and educator at Harvard University, where he is the Laurence D. Belfer Professor of International Affairs at the John F. Kennedy School of Government and professor of history in the Harvard Facult ...
— ( John S. Knight Professor of International Studies) — 2013 Pulitzer Prize winner *
Mary Beth Norton Mary Beth Norton (born 1943) is an American historian, specializing in American colonial history and well known for her work on women's history and the Salem witch trials. She is the Mary Donlon Alger Professor Emeritus of American History at th ...
(Mary Donlon Alger Professor Emeritus of American History, 1971–) — American colonial history, women's history; fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...
(1999), president of the
American Historical Association The American Historical Association (AHA) is the oldest professional association of historians in the United States and the largest such organization in the world, claiming over 10,000 members. Founded in 1884, AHA works to protect academic free ...
(2016) * Richard Polenberg (Goldwin Smith Professor of American History, 1966–2011, Marie Underhill Noll Professor of History Emeritus, –2020) — 20th century American history * Hunter R. Rawlings III — 10th President of Cornell University * Joel H. Silbey (President White Professor of History Emeritus, 1966–2002) — 19th century American history *
Goldwin Smith Goldwin Smith (13 August 1823 – 7 June 1910) was a British-born academic and historian who was active in both Great Britain and North America. From 1856 to 1866, he was a professor of modern history at the University of Oxford. Smith taught a ...
(Professor of English and Constitutional History, 1868–71) — historian; university reformer; namesake of Goldwin Smith Hall * Carl Stephenson (Professor of Medieval history, 1930-54?) — early 20th-century medievalist *
John Szarkowski Thaddeus John Szarkowski (December 18, 1925 – July 7, 2007) was an American photographer, curator, historian, and critic. From 1962 to 1991 Szarkowski was the director of photography at New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Early life and ca ...
(A.D. White Professor-at-Large, 1983–89) — photography curator, historian, and critic * Eric Tagliacozzo — historian of modern Southeast Asia * Herbert Tuttle (Professor of international law) — 19th-century historian, author *
Andrew Dickson White Andrew Dickson White (November 7, 1832 – November 4, 1918) was an American historian and educator who co-founded Cornell University, one of eight Ivy League universities in the United States, and served as its first president for nearly two de ...
— first president of Cornell University; first president of the
American Historical Association The American Historical Association (AHA) is the oldest professional association of historians in the United States and the largest such organization in the world, claiming over 10,000 members. Founded in 1884, AHA works to protect academic free ...
*
L. Pearce Williams Leslie Pearce Williams (September 8, 1927 – February 8, 2015) was a chaired professor at Cornell University's Department of History who also chaired the department for many years. He was the founder, in the mid-1980s, of Cornell's program in t ...
(John Stambaugh Professor of the History of Science, 1960–1994, Emeritus –2015) — history of Western civilization, history of science * O. W. Wolters — 20th century historian of early
Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...


Languages

* Herbert Deinert — Emeritus Professor of German Studies


Literature

* M. H. Abrams — author of the ''Mirror and the Lamp''; literary critic; fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...
; recipient of
National Humanities Medal The National Humanities Medal is an American award that annually recognizes several individuals, groups, or institutions for work that has "deepened the nation's understanding of the humanities, broadened our citizens' engagement with the humani ...
(2013) * Frederick Ahl (Professor of Classics and Comparative Literature) — classics scholar * Charles Edwin Bennett (Goldwin Smith Professor of Latin, 1892-?) — classicist *
Thomas G. Bergin Thomas Goddard Bergin (November 17, 1904 – October 30, 1987) was an American scholar of Italian literature, who was "noted particularly for his research on Dante Alighieri, Dante's ''Divine Comedy'' and for its translation". He was the S ...
(Professor of Romance Languages) — author and translator *
Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen (September 23, 1848 – October 4, 1895) was a Norwegian-American author and college professor. He is best remembered for his novel ''Gunnar: A Tale of Norse Life'', which is generally considered to have been the first nov ...
(Professor of North European Languages, 1874 to 1880) — author *
Hiram Corson Hiram Corson (November 6, 1828 – June 15, 1911) was an American professor of literature. Life Corson was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He held a position in the library of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. (1849-1856), was a ...
(Professor) — professor of literature *
Jonathan Culler Jonathan Culler (born 1944) is an American literary critic. He was Class of 1916 Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Cornell University. His published works are in the fields of structuralism, literary theory and literary criti ...
(Professor) — literary critic and theorist * Louis Dyer (Acting Professor of Greek, 1895–96) — educator and author *
Roberto González Echevarría Roberto González Echevarría (born 1943) is a Cuban-born critic of Latin American literature and culture. He is the Sterling Professor of Hispanic and Comparative Literature at Yale University. Early life, education, and career González Eche ...
(Faculty 1971-1977) — literature critic; member of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...
and recipient of the
National Humanities Medal The National Humanities Medal is an American award that annually recognizes several individuals, groups, or institutions for work that has "deepened the nation's understanding of the humanities, broadened our citizens' engagement with the humani ...
(2010) *
Max Farrand Max Farrand (March 29, 1869 – June 17, 1945) was an American historian and university professor. Farrand served as the first director of the Huntington Library. Early life He was born in Newark, New Jersey, United States. He graduated fro ...
(Professor) — author of American historical subjects *
Emily Fridlund Emily Fridlund is an author and academic best known for her novel ''History of Wolves.'' Personal life Fridlund grew up in Edina, Minnesota. She has a bachelor's degree from Principia College in Illinois, an MFA in fiction from Washington Unive ...
— author of ''History of Wolves'' *
Alice Fulton Alice Fulton (born 1952) is an American author of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Fulton is the Ann S. Bowers Professor of English Emerita at Cornell University. Her awards include the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature, ...
(Professor of Creative Writing) — poet, fiction writer,
MacArthur Award The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and colloquially called the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to typically between 20 and 30 individuals workin ...
(1991) * Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (Professor, 1985–90) — Afro-American Studies scholar; MacArthur Fellow (1981) *
Robert Kaske Robert Earl Kaske (June 1, 1921 – August 8, 1989) was an American professor of medieval literature. He spent most of his career at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, where he was the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Avalon Foundation Profess ...
(Professor, 1963–74; Avalon Professor in the Humanities, 1974–89) — scholar of
medieval literature Medieval literature is a broad subject, encompassing essentially all written works available in Europe and beyond during the Middle Ages (that is, the one thousand years from the fall of the Western Roman Empire ca. AD 500 to the beginning of t ...
* Victor Lange (Professor) — professor of modern languages *
Alison Lurie Alison Stewart Lurie (September 3, 1926December 3, 2020) was an American novelist and academic. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her 1984 novel ''Foreign Affairs''. Although better known as a novelist, she wrote many non-fiction books ...
(Professor of Creative Writing, 1968-) — fiction writer, winner of the
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It recognizes distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life, published during ...
*
Paul de Man Paul de Man (; ; December 6, 1919 – December 21, 1983), born Paul Adolph Michel Deman, was a Belgian-born American literary critic and literary theorist. He was known particularly for his importation of German and French philosophical approac ...
(Professor) — Professor of Comparative Literature *
Vladimir Nabokov Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov ( ; 2 July 1977), also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin (), was a Russian and American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist. Born in Imperial Russia in 1899, Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Rus ...
(Professor of European and Russian Literature, 1948–58) — author of the novel ''
Lolita ''Lolita'' is a 1955 novel written by Russian-American novelist Vladimir Nabokov. The protagonist and narrator is a French literature professor who moves to New England and writes under the pseudonym Humbert Humbert. He details his obsession ...
'' *
Adrienne Rich Adrienne Cecile Rich ( ; May 16, 1929 – March 27, 2012) was an American poet, essayist and feminist. She was called "one of the most widely read and influential poets of the second half of the 20th century", and was credited with bringing "the ...
(A.D. White Professor-at-Large, 1981–87) — feminist poet * Noliwe Rooks — (W.E.B. Du Bois Professor of Literature) — interdisciplinary scholar * Edgar Rosenberg (Professor, 1965-2002) — Emeritus Professor of English and Comparative Literature, awarded Guggenheim Fellowship in 1973 * William Sale Jr. (Goldwin Smith Professor of English, 1959;
professor emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retirement, retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". ...
, 1968)Caputi, Anthony ''et al.'
"Cornell University Faculty Memorial Statement."
Cornell University. Retrieved 19 December 2019.
*
Nathaniel Schmidt Nathaniel Schmidt (May 22, 1862 – June 29, 1939) of Ithaca, New York, was a Swedish Americans, Swedish-American Baptists, Baptist Minister (Christianity), minister, Christian Hebraist, Oriental studies, orientalist, professor, Christian theolog ...
(Professor of Semitic Languages and Literatures) — American orientalist * William De Witt Snodgrass (Professor, 1955–57) — poet, winner of the
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry The Pulitzer Prize for Poetry is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes awarded annually for Letters, Drama, and Music. The award came five years after the first Pulitzers were awarded in other categories; Joseph Pulitzer's will had not ment ...
*
Melanie Thernstrom Melanie Thernstrom (born June 30, 1964) is an American author and contributing writer for ''The New York Times Magazine'' who frequently writes about murders and crime. Biography Thernstrom attended Harvard University, where she graduated w ...
(Professor) — author and freelance journalist *
Alvin Toffler Alvin Eugene Toffler (October 4, 1928 – June 27, 2016) was an American writer, futurist, and businessman known for his works discussing modern technologies, including the digital revolution and the communication revolution, with emphasis on th ...
(Professor) — writer, sociologist, and futurist; ''
Future Shock ''Future Shock'' is a 1970 book by American futurist Alvin Toffler, written together with his wife Adelaide Farrell, in which the authors define the term "future shock" as a certain psychological state of individuals and entire societies, and a ...
'' * Helena Maria Viramontes (Professor of English) —
Chicana Chicano (masculine form) or Chicana (feminine form) is an ethnic identity for Mexican Americans that emerged from the Chicano Movement. In the 1960s, ''Chicano'' was widely reclaimed among Hispanics in the building of a movement toward politic ...
fiction writer *
Wendy Wasserstein Wendy Wasserstein (October 18, 1950 – January 30, 2006) was an American playwright. She was an Andrew Dickson White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University. She received the Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1989 ...
(A.D. White Professor-at-Large, 2005–06) —
Tony Award The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ce ...
and
Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...
-winning playwright


Music

*
Malcolm Bilson Malcolm Bilson (born October 24, 1935) is an American pianist and musicologist specializing in 18th- and 19th-century music. He is the Frederick J. Whiton Professor of Music in Cornell University, Ithaca, New York Bilson is one of the foremost pl ...
(Professor) — music historian * David Borden (Director, Digital Music Program) — composer of
minimalist music In visual arts, music, and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in the post-war era in western art. The movement is often interpreted as a reaction to abstract expressionism and modernism; it anticipated contemporary post-m ...
*
Donald Byrd Donaldson Toussaint L'Ouverture Byrd II (December 9, 1932 – February 4, 2013) was an American jazz and rhythm & blues trumpeter, composer and vocalist. A sideman for many other jazz musicians of his generation, Byrd was one of the few h ...
— jazz trumpeter and educator *
Adolf Dahm-Petersen Adolf Dahm-Petersen (2 January 1856 – 29 January 1922) was a Norway, Norwegian voice specialist and Vocal pedagogy, singing teacher. Adolf Dahm-Petersen, son of Johan Frode Petersen (1819–1913) and Helena Thalia P. née Dahm (1828–1862), ...
— voice specialist and teacher of artistic singing *
Karel Husa Karel Husa (August 7, 1921 – December 14, 2016) was a Czech-born classical composer and conductor, winner of the 1969 Pulitzer Prize for Music and 1993 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition. In 1954, he emigrated to ...
(Professor, 1954-1992) — composer best known for his ''
Music for Prague 1968 ''Music for Prague 1968'' is a programmatic work written by Czech-born composer Karel Husa for symphonic band and later transcribed for full orchestra, written shortly after the Soviet Union crushed the Prague Spring reform movement in Czechoslo ...
''; won the 1969 Pulitzer Prize for his ''String Quartet No. 3'' * Hunter Johnson (Professor) — composer * Alejandro L. Madrid (Professor) — musicologist and ethnomusicologist — recipient of the Dent Medal (2017) *
Wynton Marsalis Wynton Learson Marsalis (born October 18, 1961) is an American trumpeter, composer, and music instructor, who is currently the artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. He has been active in promoting classical and jazz music, often to young ...
(AD White Professor-at-Large, 2015-2021) — Classical and Jazz musician, composer *
James Thomas Quarles James Thomas Quarles (November 7, 1877 in St. Louis, Missouri – March 4, 1954 in Los Angeles, California) was a 20th-century American organist, educator, and academic. He was National President of both the Music Teachers National Association ...
— organist and music educator *
Steven Stucky Steven Edward Stucky (November 7, 1949 − February 14, 2016) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer. Life and career Steven Stucky was born in Hutchinson, Kansas. At age 9, he moved with his family to Abilene, Texas, where, as a teenager ...
— Pulitzer Prize-winning composer


Philosophy

*
Kwame Anthony Appiah Kwame Akroma-Ampim Kusi Anthony Appiah ( ; born 8 May 1954) is an English-American philosopher and writer who has written about political philosophy, ethics, the philosophy of language and mind, and African intellectual history. Appiah is Prof ...
(Professor, 1986–89) — African Studies philosopher and novelist;
National Humanities Medal The National Humanities Medal is an American award that annually recognizes several individuals, groups, or institutions for work that has "deepened the nation's understanding of the humanities, broadened our citizens' engagement with the humani ...
(2012) *
Max Black Max Black (February 24, 1909 – August 27, 1988) was a Russian-born British-American philosopher who was a leading figure in analytic philosophy in the years after World War II. He made contributions to the philosophy of language, the philosoph ...
*
Allan Bloom Allan David Bloom (September 14, 1930 – October 7, 1992) was an American philosopher, classicist, and academician. He studied under David Grene, Leo Strauss, Richard McKeon, and Alexandre Kojève. He subsequently taught at Cornell Un ...
(Professor, 1963–70) — philosophy and government, author of '' Closing of the American Mind'', recipient of the
National Humanities Medal The National Humanities Medal is an American award that annually recognizes several individuals, groups, or institutions for work that has "deepened the nation's understanding of the humanities, broadened our citizens' engagement with the humani ...
(1992) *
Richard Boyd Richard Newell Boyd (May 19, 1942 – February 20, 2021) was an American philosopher, who spent most of his career teaching philosophy at Cornell University where he was Susan Linn Sage Professor of Philosophy and Humane Letters. He specialized ...
(Susan Linn Sage Professor of Philosophy and Humane Letters Emeritus, 1972–2017) — philosopher of epistemology *
Judith Butler Judith Pamela Butler (born February 24, 1956) is an American feminist philosopher and gender studies scholar whose work has influenced political philosophy, ethics, and the fields of third-wave feminism, queer theory, and literary theory. In ...
— philosophy 2003-2007; Andrew White Professor at Large *
Edwin Arthur Burtt Edwin Arthur Burtt (October 11, 1892 – September 6, 1989), usually cited as E. A. Burtt, was an American philosopher who wrote extensively on the philosophy of religion. His doctoral thesis published as a book under the title ''The Metaphysica ...
(Professor) — Susan Linn Sage Professor of Philosophy in 1941, author of works on philosophy *
Harold F. Cherniss Harold Fredrik Cherniss (11 March 1904 – 18 June 1987) was an American classicist and historian of ancient philosophy. While at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton, he was said to be "the country's foremost exper ...
(Professor) — author and expert on the philosophy of Ancient Greece *
Morris Raphael Cohen Morris Raphael Cohen (; July 25, 1880 – January 28, 1947) was a Russian-born American judicial philosopher, lawyer, and legal scholar who united pragmatism with logical positivism and linguistic analysis. This union coalesced into the "objecti ...
(Lecturer) — Jewish philosopher, lawyer and legal scholar * James Edwin Creighton (Professor) — philosopher * Werner J. Dannhauser (Professor, 1968–92) – political philosophy, expert on Nietzsche and on Judaism and politics *
Terence Irwin Terence Henry Irwin Fellow of the British Academy, FBA (; born 21 April 1947), usually cited as T. H. Irwin, is a scholar and philosopher specializing in ancient Greek philosophy and the history of ethics (i.e., the history of Western moral philo ...
*
Anthony Kenny Sir Anthony John Patrick Kenny (born 16 March 1931) is a British philosopher whose interests lie in the philosophy of mind, ancient and scholastic philosophy, the philosophy of religion, and the philosophy of Wittgenstein of whose literary est ...
*
Norman Kretzmann Norman J. Kretzmann (4 November 1928 – 1 August 1998) was an American philosopher at Cornell University. He specialised in the history of medieval philosophy and the philosophy of religion. Biography Kretzmann joined Cornell's Department of ...
* David Lyons (Professor of Philosophy, 1964–1995) —joint appointment in College of Arts and Sciences and School of Law *
Norman Malcolm Norman Adrian Malcolm (; 11 June 1911 – 4 August 1990) was an American philosophy, philosopher. Malcolm was primarily active in the fields of epistemology, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of psychology. Biography Malcolm was born in Selden ...
(Professor, 1947–58) —
Ludwig Wittgenstein Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. From 1929 to 1947, Witt ...
scholar * Evander Bradley McGilvary (Susan Linn Sage Professor of Ethics, 1899-1905) — philosophical scholar *
John Rawls John Bordley Rawls (; February 21, 1921 – November 24, 2002) was an American moral philosophy, moral, legal philosophy, legal and Political philosophy, political philosopher in the Modern liberalism in the United States, modern liberal tradit ...
(Professor) — philosopher; author of ''
A Theory of Justice ''A Theory of Justice'' is a 1971 work of political philosophy and ethics by the philosopher John Rawls (1921–2002) in which the author attempts to provide a moral theory alternative to utilitarianism and that addresses the problem of distribu ...
'', ''
Political Liberalism Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality, the right to private property, and equality before the law. Liberals espouse various and often mut ...
'', and ''
The Law of Peoples ''The Law of Peoples'' is American philosopher John Rawls' work on international relations. First published in 1993 as a short article, or "a sketch",Rawls, J. (1993)The Law of Peoples in ''Critical Inquiry'', no.20, accessed on 22 March 2025 in ...
'';
National Humanities Medal The National Humanities Medal is an American award that annually recognizes several individuals, groups, or institutions for work that has "deepened the nation's understanding of the humanities, broadened our citizens' engagement with the humani ...
(1999); namesake of Asteroid 16561 Rawls *
Sydney Shoemaker Sydney Sharpless Shoemaker (September 29, 1931 – September 3, 2022) was an American philosopher. He was the Susan Linn Sage Professor of Philosophy at Cornell University and is well known for his contributions to philosophy of mind and metaph ...
(Susan Linn Sage Professor of Philosophy) — philosopher and metaphysician *
Jason Stanley Jason Stanley (born 1969) is an American philosopher who is the Jacob Urowsky Professor of Philosophy at Yale University. He has accepted an appointment at the University of Toronto based on what he describes as the deteriorating political situ ...
* Brian Weatherson (Associate Professor of Philosophy) — philosopher, metaphysician * Allen W. Wood (Professor of Philosophy, 1968–1996) — leading scholar on Kant


Media


Journalism, film, television, theatre

*
John Cleese John Marwood Cleese ( ; born 27 October 1939) is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter, producer, and Television presenter, presenter. Emerging from the Footlights, Cambridge Footlights in the 1960s, he first achieved success at the Edinbur ...
(A.D. White Professor-at-Large, 1999–2006; Provost’s Visiting Professor, 2006–) — comedian and actor * David Feldshuh
playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Readin ...
*
John Pilger John Richard Pilger (; 9 October 1939 – 30 December 2023) was an Australian journalist, writer, scholar and documentary filmmaker. From 1962, he was based mainly in Britain. He was also a visiting professor at Cornell University in New York. ...
(Frank H.T. Rhodes Class of '56 University Professor, 2003–06) — journalist and documentary filmmaker * Amy Villarejo (Frederic J. Whiton Professor of Humanities, 1997–2020) — researcher of
feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...
and
queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are non-heterosexual or non- cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against LGBTQ people in the late 19th century. From the late 1980s, queer activists began to ...
media,
critical theory Critical theory is a social, historical, and political school of thought and philosophical perspective which centers on analyzing and challenging systemic power relations in society, arguing that knowledge, truth, and social structures are ...
, and
television studies Television studies is an academic discipline that deals with critical approaches to television. Usually, it is distinguished from mass communication research, which tends to approach the topic from a social sciences perspective. Defining the field ...


Natural sciences and related fields


Astronomy

*
Joseph A. Burns Joseph Burns (March 22, 1941February 26, 2025) was a professor at Cornell University with a dual appointment in the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) and the Astronomy department. His primary area of research was dynamics ...
(Professor of Astronomy, c. 1969–) — dual appointment with the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering * James L. Elliot (Former postdoctoral fellow, Faculty) — astrophysicist; discoverer of the ring system of
Uranus Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. It is a gaseous cyan-coloured ice giant. Most of the planet is made of water, ammonia, and methane in a Supercritical fluid, supercritical phase of matter, which astronomy calls "ice" or Volatile ( ...
while at Cornell; discoverer of the atmosphere of
Pluto Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of Trans-Neptunian object, bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the Su ...
*
Riccardo Giovanelli Riccardo Giovanelli (August 30, 1946 – December 14, 2022) was an Italian-born American astronomer. He was an emeritus professor of astronomy at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, United States. Background Born at Praticello, in northern ...
(Professor of Astronomy 1991-) —
Henry Draper Medal The Henry Draper Medal is awarded every 4 years by the United States National Academy of Sciences "for investigations in astronomical physics". Named after Henry Draper, the medal is awarded with a gift of USD $15,000. The medal was established ...
recipient (1989) *
Thomas Gold Thomas Gold (May 22, 1920 – June 22, 2004) was an Austrian-born astrophysicist, who also held British and American citizenship. He was a professor of astronomy at Cornell University, a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and a Fe ...
(John L. Wetherill Professor of Astronomy, 1959-2004) — astrophysicist, coined the term "
magnetosphere In astronomy and planetary science, a magnetosphere is a region of space surrounding an astronomical object in which charged particles are affected by that object's magnetic field. It is created by a celestial body with an active interior Dynamo ...
"; member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(1968) *
Martha P. Haynes Martha Patricia Haynes (born 24 April 1951) is an American astronomer who specializes in radio astronomy and extragalactic astronomy. She is the distinguished professor of arts and sciences in astronomy at Cornell University.Henry Draper Medal The Henry Draper Medal is awarded every 4 years by the United States National Academy of Sciences "for investigations in astronomical physics". Named after Henry Draper, the medal is awarded with a gift of USD $15,000. The medal was established ...
recipient (1989), member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(2000) * Jonathan Lunine (David C. Duncan Professor in the Physical Sciences) — Harold C. Urey Prize recipient (1988), member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(2010), fellow of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...
and the
American Geophysical Union The American Geophysical Union (AGU) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of Earth, Atmospheric science, atmospheric, Oceanography, ocean, Hydrology, hydrologic, Astronomy, space, and Planetary science, planetary scientists and enthusiasts that ...
*
Jean-Luc Margot Jean-Luc Margot (born 1969) is a Belgian-born astronomer and a UCLA professor with expertise in planetary sciences and SETI. Career Margot has discovered and studied several binary asteroids with radar and optical telescopes. His discoveries ...
(Assistant Professor) — astronomer, awarded the
H. C. Urey Prize The Harold C. Urey Prize is awarded annually by the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society. The prize recognizes and encourages outstanding achievements in planetary science by a young scientist. The prize is named af ...
by the
American Astronomical Society The American Astronomical Society (AAS, sometimes spoken as "double-A-S") is an American society of professional astronomers and other interested individuals, headquartered in Washington, DC. The primary objective of the AAS is to promote the adv ...
, 2004 *
Carl Sagan Carl Edward Sagan (; ; November 9, 1934December 20, 1996) was an American astronomer, planetary scientist and science communicator. His best known scientific contribution is his research on the possibility of extraterrestrial life, including e ...
(David Duncan Professor of Astronomy and Space Sciences, 1968–96) — space sciences *
Edwin Ernest Salpeter Edwin Ernest Salpeter (3 December 1924 – 26 November 2008,) was an Austrian–Australian–American astrophysicist. Life Born in Vienna to a Jewish family, Salpeter emigrated from Austria to Australia while in his teens to escape the Nazis. H ...
(James Gilbert White Distinguished Professor of the Physical Sciences Emeritus, 1948-2008) — astronomer;
Crafoord Prize The Crafoord Prize () is an annual science prize established in 1980 by Holger Crafoord, a Swedish industrialist, and his wife Anna-Greta Crafoord following a donation to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. It is awarded jointly by the Acade ...
(1997), member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(1967) *
Saul Teukolsky Saul Arno Teukolsky (born August 2, 1947, Johannesburg, South Africa) is a theoretical astrophysicist and a professor of Physics and Astronomy at Caltech and Cornell University. His major research interests include general relativity, relativ ...
(Professor 1974-) — theoretical astrophysicist and co-author of
Numerical Recipes ''Numerical Recipes'' is the generic title of a series of books on algorithm In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of Rigour#Mathematics, mathematically rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a cla ...
; member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(2003) *
Aleksander Wolszczan Aleksander Wolszczan (born 29 April 1946) is a Polish astronomer. He is the co-discoverer of the first confirmed extrasolar planets and pulsar planets. He is a graduate of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń and works as a professor a ...
(Professor) — discoverer of first
extrasolar planets An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first confirmed detection of an exoplanet was in 1992 around a pulsar, and the first detection around a main-sequence star was in 1995. A different planet, first detect ...
and pulsar planets


Biology, ecology, botany, and nutrition

* Louis Agassiz (Lecturer) — zoologist, glaciologist, and geologist * Liberty Hyde Bailey (Professor) — botanist, early progenitor of the 4-H movement, namesake of Bailey Hall; member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(1917) * Joan Jacobs Brumberg (Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow; Professor of History, Human Development, and Gender Studies, 1979-) — scholar in adolescence, body image and eating disorders, and related fields * T. Colin Campbell (Professor) — nutritionist; director of the China Project;author of ''The China Study'' * William Henry Chandler (botanist), William Henry Chandler (Professor 1913-1923) — botanist in pomology; member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(1943) * Anna Botsford Comstock — nature studies, appointed first woman assistant professor at Cornell (1899), full professor (1920) * Derrill M. Daniel (assistant professor of entomology) — US Army major general * Thomas Eisner (Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of Chemical Ecology) — pioneer of chemical ecology; member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(1969), recipient of the
National Medal of Science The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral science, behavior ...
(1994) * Rollins A. Emerson (Professor 1914-1942) — member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(1927) * Barton Warren Evermann (Lecturer, 1900–03) — ichthyologist * Claudia Fischbach (Professor) James M. and Marsha McCormick Director of Biomedical Engineering and the Stanley Bryer 1946 Professor of Biomedical Engineering * Martin Gibbs (Professor 1956-1964) — member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(1974) * Jane Goodall (A.D. White Professor-at-Large, 1996-2002) — naturalist * Everett Peter Greenberg (Faculty 1978-1988) — American microbiologist who received the Shaw Prize in 2015; member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
and fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...
* Donald Griffin (Professor) — zoologist, member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(1960) *Ann Hajek (Professor) — entomologist *Maria Harrison (William H. Crocker Research Chair) — plant biologist, member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(2019) * Franz-Ulrich Hartl (Professor 1991-1997) — director of the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried, Germany (1997-); recipient of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz-Prize (2002), Gairdner Foundation International Award (2004),
Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research The Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research is one of the Lasker Award, prizes awarded by the Lasker Foundation for a fundamental discovery that opens up a new area of biomedical science. The award frequently precedes a Nobel Prize in Phys ...
(2011), Shaw Prize (2012), etc., member of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...
(2000) and the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(2011) * Charles Frederick Hartt (Professor, 1868-?) — Canadian-American geologist, palaeontologist and naturalist who specialized in the geology of Brazil * Robert W. Howarth (Professor), American biogeochemist * Maria Jasin (Professor, Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences) — member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(2015) and of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...
(2017); recipient of the Shaw Prize in Life Sciences (2019) * William Tinsley Keeton (Professor) — expert in animal navigation, namesake of William Keeton House * Graham Kerr (Professor, 1973) — chef, "The Galloping Gourmet" * Simon A. Levin (Professor 1965-1992) — Recipient of the
National Medal of Science The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral science, behavior ...
(2015), Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement (2014), Kyoto Prize (2005) * Gene Likens (Professor of Ecology, 1969-1983; Adjunct Professor 1983-) — ecologist; member of
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...
,
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences; recipient of National Medal of Science (2001), Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement (1993), BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award (2016) * John T. Lis (Faculty 1978 -) — Guggenheim Fellowship, Guggenheim Fellow (2000), member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(2015) * Thomas Lyttleton Lyon − Emeritus Professor of Soils Science for the Department of Agriculture; co-winner of the Howard N. Potts Medal (1913) * Jerrold Meinwald (Professor Emeritus of Chemistry) — chemical ecologist; member of the National Academy of Sciences (1969) and the American Philosophical Society (1987); fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1970); recipient of the National Medal of Science (2014) * Gero Miesenböck (Assistant Professor of Cell Biology and Genetics; Assistant Professor of Neuroscience 1999 — 2004) — recipient of Grete Lundbeck European Brain Research Prize, The Brain Prize (2013) and BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award (2015) * John Keith Moffat — Guggenheim Fellowship, Guggenheim Fellow, former associate professor in Biochemistry, Molecular, and Cell Biology at Cornell, later deputy provost at
University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...
, noted for Advanced Photon Source and Time resolved crystallography * Corrie Moreau (Professor 2019-) — Myrmecology, myrmecologist / ant researcher; Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Entomological Society of America Fellow, Royal Entomological Society Fellow *
Rebecca J. Nelson Rebecca J. Nelson (born 1961) is an American biologist and a professor at Cornell University and a MacArthur Foundation Fellow. Her work focuses on natural genetic diversity for disease resistance in maize. Biography Nelson's parents were rese ...
(Associate Professor of Plant Pathology, Plant Breeding and International Agriculture) — MacArthur Fellow (1998); researcher in crop disease resistance * Karl J. Niklas (Liberty Hyde Bailey Professor in the Department of Plant Biology) * Katharine Payne (Researcher at Bio-acoustics Research Program, Lab of Ornithology) — whale and elephant researcher * David Peakall (1968-1975 Laboratory of Ornithology, senior research associate in the Section of Ecology and Systematics in the Biological Sciences Division) * Per Pinstrup-Andersen, Pinstrup-Andersen Per (Professor of Food Economics 1987-1992, H.E. Babcock Professor of Food, Nutrition and Public Policy 2003-2013, Professor Emeritus and Graduate School Professor 2013-) — recipient of the
World Food Prize The World Food Prize is an international award recognizing the achievements of individuals who have advanced human development by improving the quality, quantity, or availability of food in the world. Conceived by Nobel Peace Prize laureate No ...
(2001) * Donald W. Roberts former adjunct professor, Department of Entomology and Department of Plant Pathology * Wendell L. Roelofs (Professor) — recipient of Humboldt Award, Alexander von Humboldt Award (1977), Wolf Prize in Agriculture (1982), National Medal of Science (1983) * Benoît Roux (Professor) — molecular biologist; winner of the Rutherford Memorial Medal in Chemistry, 1998) from the Royal Society of Canada * W. Mark Saltzman (BP Amoco/H. Laurance Fuller Chair 1996-2002) — member of the National Academy of Medicine (2014) and of the
National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...
(2018) * John C. Sanford (Professor, 1980–98) — inventor of the gene gun * Harold Hill Smith (Professor) — geneticist * Steven D. Tanksley (Liberty Hyde Bailey Professor of Plant Breeding, 1985-) — plant breeding and agronomy researcher; recipient of Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Award, Martin Gibbs Medal of the American Society of Plant Biologists, the Wolf Prize in Agriculture and the Japan Prize, member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
* Stanley Temple (1975-1976 Research Associate) — avian ecologist * Helen Turley — winemaker * Herbert John Webber (Professor, 1907–12) — plant physiologist, developed the citrange * Robert Whittaker (ecologist), Robert Whittaker (Professor) — vegetation ecologist; member of the National Academy of Sciences (1975) * Burt Green Wilder (Professor of Neurology and Vertebrate Zoology, 1867-1910) — comparative anatomist * Charles Edward Stevens (Chairman of Physiology, Biology and Pharmacology, 1961-1979) — Fulbright Scholar and internationally recognized expert in the field of comparative physiology and digestive systems. * Bruce Wallace (geneticist), Bruce Wallace (professor of genetics 1958-1981) — member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(1970) * Hao Wu (biochemist), Hao Wu (Faculty 1997-2012 Weill Cornell Medical College) — member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(2015) * Donald Zilversmit (Professor 1966-1990) — nutritional biochemist; member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(1989)


Chemistry

* Héctor D. Abruña (Emile M. Chamot Professor of Chemistry) — member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(2018) * Geoffrey W. Coates (Tisch University Professor in Chemistry) — member of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...
and of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(2017) * Wilder Dwight Bancroft (Professor, 1895-1937) — physical chemist * Thomas Bruice (Professor of Chemistry 1960-1964) — member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(1974) * James Crafts (Professor of Chemistry, 1868–97) — President of MIT, 1897-1900 * Jean Fréchet (Professor 1987-1998) — Japan Prize (2013); fellow of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...
, the American Chemical Society, and the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...
, member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
and the
National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...
* Gordon Hammes (Biochemist 1965-1988) — member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(1973) * James L. Hoard (Chemistry Professor 1936-1971) —
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(1972) * John R. Johnson (Professor 1927-1965) — chemist; member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(1948) * John Gamble Kirkwood (Professor) — chemist * Stephen Lee (Professor of Solid State Chemistry) — MacArthur Award and Sloan Fellow * Franklin A. Long (Professor and Chairman of Chemistry) — member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(1962) * Jerrold Meinwald (Professor of Chemistry 1960s -) — Member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
and the American Philosophical Society, Fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...
and the
American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...
, recipient of the
National Medal of Science The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral science, behavior ...
(2014) and Chemical Pioneer Award of the American Institute of Chemists (1997) * Earl Muetterties (Professor 1973-1978) — member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(1971) * Gregory Petsko (Arthur J. Mahon Professor of Neurology and Neuroscience at Weill Cornell Medical College 2012-) — member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(1995) * Efraim Racker (Professor of Biochemistry) — founder of the biochemistry department at
Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...
; member of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...
and the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
; recipient of Warren Triennial Prize (1974),
National Medal of Science The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral science, behavior ...
(1976), Gairdner Award (1980) * Frank Spedding (George Fisher Baker assistant professor 1935-1937) — member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(1952) * Benjamin Widom (Professor of Chemistry 1955-)


Geology and geography

* Heinrich Ries (Professor, 1898-?) — economic geologist * Ralph Stockman Tarr (Professor, 1897-?) — geographer


Mathematics

* Kenneth Brown (mathematician), Kenneth Brown (Professor of Mathematics, 1971–2014, Emeritus–) — algebra, topology, group theory; fellow of the
American Mathematical Society The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its publications, meetings, ...
(2012) * William J. Cook (Assistant Professor 1985-1987) — University Professor of the University of Waterloo, member of the
National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...
,
American Mathematical Society The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its publications, meetings, ...
Fellow, INFORMS Fellow and Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, SIAM Fellow, recipient of the
Frederick W. Lanchester Prize The Frederick W. Lanchester Prize is an Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences prize (U.S. $5,000 cash prize and medallion) given for the best contribution to operations research and the management sciences published in Engli ...
of INFORMS (2007) * Eugene Dynkin (Professor) — mathematician * Walter Feit (Professor, 1952–64) — mathematician, co-author of the Feit–Thompson theorem * William Feller (Professor 1945-1950) — mathematician, known in probability theory; recipient of the
National Medal of Science The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral science, behavior ...
(1969), member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(1960) * Richard S. Hamilton — mathematician who laid groundwork for the Poincaré conjecture proof * Allen Hatcher (Professor, 1985-) — mathematician, proved the Smale conjecture (1983) * Kiyosi Itô (Professor 1969-1975) — Wolf Prize in Mathematics (1987) and Kyoto Prize (1998); member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(1998) * John Irwin Hutchinson (Professor of Mathematics, 1894-?) — mathematician * Mark Kac (Faculty 1939-1961) — member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(1965) * Jack Kiefer (statistician), Jack Kiefer (Professor of Mathematics 1952-1979) — Fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...
and member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
; president of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (1969-1970) * Anthony W. Knapp (Professor of Mathematics, 1967–1990) — representation theory; fellow of the
American Mathematical Society The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its publications, meetings, ...
(2012) * Saunders Mac Lane (Professor) — developer of algebra's category theory; recipient of the National Medal of Science (1989) * Greg Lawler (Professor 2001-2006) — Wolf Prize in Mathematics recipient (2019) * Kathryn Mann (Assistant Professor 2019-) — mathematician * Amy McCune (Professor) — evolutionary biologist and Senior Associate Dean of the Cornell College of Agriculture and Life Sciences * Justin T. Moore (Professor 2007-) — a set theorist and logician, known for his solution to the problem of constructing an L-space.; recipient of the "Young Scholar's Competition" award in 2006, in Vienna, Austria. * Marston Morse (Instructor 1920-1922, Assistant Professor 1922-1925) — mathematician, known for Morse theory in differential topology; recipient of Bôcher Memorial Prize (1933); National Medal of Science (1964) * George Nemhauser (Leon C. Welch endowed chair 1970-1983) — president of the Operations Research Society of America; member of the
National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...
(1986) and recipient of John von Neumann Theory Prize (2012) * Anil Nerode (Goldwin Smith Professor of Mathematics) — mathematical logic; fellow of the
American Mathematical Society The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its publications, meetings, ...
(2012); longest tenure as active faculty member at Cornell in any discipline * Piergiorgio Odifreddi (Professor) — mathematician * Paul Olum (Professor) — mathematician, president of the
University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a Public university, public research university in Eugene, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1876, the university is organized into nine colleges and schools and offers 420 undergraduate and gra ...
1980-89 * Joseph Slepian (Instructor) — mathematician * Frank Spitzer (Professor 1961-1992) — member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(1981) * Robert Strichartz (Professor of Mathematics, 1969–2021) — mathematical analysis, fractals; fellow of the
American Mathematical Society The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its publications, meetings, ...
(2017) * Steven Strogatz (Professor of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, 1994-) — mathematician *
Éva Tardos Éva Tardos (born 1 October 1957) is a Hungarian mathematician and the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of Computer Science at Cornell University. Tardos's research interest is algorithms. Her work focuses on the design and analysis of efficient ...
(Professor of Computer Science) — mathematician, Guggeinheim fellow, winner of the
Fulkerson Prize The Fulkerson Prize for outstanding papers in the area of discrete mathematics is sponsored jointly by the Mathematical Optimization Society (MOS) and the American Mathematical Society (AMS). Up to three awards of $1,500 each are presented at e ...
, 1988; member of the
National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...
(2007) * William Thurston (Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science, 2003-) — mathematician; Fields Medal winner * Charles F. Van Loan (Chair of the Department of Computer Science) — mathematician * Harry Vandiver (instructor of mathematics 1919-1924) — Cole Prize recipient (1931); member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(1934) * Karen Vogtmann (Professor, 1994-) — mathematician,
American Mathematical Society The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its publications, meetings, ...
Fellow, Noether Lecturer (2007), known for Outer space (mathematics), Culler–Vogtmann Outer space * William C. Waterhouse (Assistant Professor of Mathematics, 1969–75) — modern algebra, exposition, history of mathematics * Jacob Wolfowitz (Professor of Mathematics 1951-1970) — member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(1974)


Medicine

* Alexander Gordon Bearn (professor and chairman of the Department of Medicine 1966-1979) — member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(1972) and the Institute of Medicine * Edward Boyse (professor of biology 1969-1989) — member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(1979) and the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...
, and fellow of the Royal Society * Eugene Floyd DuBois (Faculty at Cornell Medical College) — member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(1933) * James Ewing (pathologist), James Ewing (Professor of Clinical Pathology, 1899-1939) — pathologist; discovery of a form of malignant bone tumor that later became known as Ewing sarcoma * Don W. Fawcett (chair of the Department of Anatomy 1955-1959) — member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(1972) * Duane Gish (professor of biomedical science) — prominent for his advocacy of creationism, creationist theory * Elvin A. Kabat (Instructor of pathology 1938-1941) — immunologist, member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(1966) and fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...
; president of the American Association of Immunologists (1965-1966); recipient of the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize (1977) and the
National Medal of Science The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral science, behavior ...
(1991) * Robert Foster Kennedy (Professor of Neurology) — one of the first to use electroconvulsive treatment to treat psychosis; first to link shell shock and hysteria * Bruce Lerman (the Hilda Altschul Master Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College) — cardiologist, Chief of the Division of Cardiology and Director of the Cardiac Electrophysiology Laboratory at Weill Cornell Medicine and the New York Presbyterian Hospital * C. Walton Lillehei (Lewis Atterbury Stimson professor and chairman of the surgery department 1967-1975) — American surgeon who pioneered open-heart surgery; recipient of the
Harvey Prize The Harvey Prize is an annual Israeli award for breakthroughs in science and technology, as well as contributions to peace in the Middle East granted by the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Technion in Haifa. The prize has become a ...
(1996), Gairdner Foundation International Award (1963), Lasker Award (1955) * Walsh McDermott (professor of public health and medicine) — member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(1967) and the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...
* Agnes Claypole Moody — first female appointed a position in the Medical Department * Georgios Papanikolaou (Researcher at Department of Anatomy, Medical College, 1913-?) — inventor of the Pap smear test for cervical cancer *Stephen J. Roberts — Chairman of the Department of Large Animal Medicine, Obstetrics and Surgery, 1965-1966 and 1969-1972 * Juan Rosai (James Ewing Alumni Professor of Pathology (1991-1999, later Adjunct Professor of Pathology at the Weill Cornell Medical College) — author and editor of a main textbook in surgical pathology; discoverer of several entities such as Rosai-Dorfman disease and desmoplastic small round cell tumor * Alexander Rudensky (Tri-Institutional Professor, Microbiology and Immunology, Weill Cornell Medical College 2008-) — recipient of the
Crafoord Prize The Crafoord Prize () is an annual science prize established in 1980 by Holger Crafoord, a Swedish industrialist, and his wife Anna-Greta Crafoord following a donation to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. It is awarded jointly by the Acade ...
in Polyarthritis (2017); member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(2012) and the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...
(2015) * Tom Shires (Chair of Surgery, 1975–91) — trauma surgeon; use of saline solution in shock (circulatory), shock * Daniel Stern (psychologist), Daniel Stern (Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry at the Weill Cornell Medical College) — studied early child development * Ashutosh Tewari (Professor of Urology and Public health, Public Health) *Theodore H. Schwartz (Professor of Neurosurgery) *Madelon Lubin Finkel, Professor of Clinical Healthcare policy, Healthcare Policy and Research * Carl J. Wiggers (assistant professor 1911-1918) — recipient of
Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research The Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research is one of the Lasker Award, prizes awarded by the Lasker Foundation for a fundamental discovery that opens up a new area of biomedical science. The award frequently precedes a Nobel Prize in Phys ...
; member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(1951)


Physics

* Neil Ashcroft (Professor, 1966-2006) — solid-state physicist and member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(1997) * Robert Bacher (Professor, 1935-1949) — Manhattan Project leader and member of United States Atomic Energy Commission, Atomic Energy Commission; member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(1947) * Robert Brout (Professor, 1953-1961) — recipient of the
Wolf Prize in Physics The Wolf Prize in Physics is awarded once a year by the Wolf Foundation in Israel. It is one of the six Wolf Prizes established by the Foundation and awarded since 1978; the others are in Agriculture, Chemistry, Mathematics, Medicine and Arts. The ...
(2004) and Sakurai Prize (2010) for his significant contributions in elementary particle physics * Dale R. Corson (Professor, 1947-1969, President 1969-1977, Chancellor, 1977-1980) — as President, defused riots and armed stand-off in 1969 * Harold Craighead (Charles W. Lake Professor of Engineering, 1989-) — applied physicist * Persis Drell (Professor, 1988-2002) — particle physicist; director of the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (2007-2012), dean of the Stanford University School of Engineering (2014-2017) and provost of Stanford University (2017-) * Gene Dresselhaus (Professor) — Condensed matter physicist, 2022 Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize, Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Physics Prize Recipient * Freeman Dyson (Professor, 1951–53) — physicist, mathematician; recipient of the
Wolf Prize in Physics The Wolf Prize in Physics is awarded once a year by the Wolf Foundation in Israel. It is one of the six Wolf Prizes established by the Foundation and awarded since 1978; the others are in Agriculture, Chemistry, Mathematics, Medicine and Arts. The ...
(1981), Templeton Prize (2000) etc. * Mitchell Feigenbaum (Professor) — physicist whose pioneering studies in chaos theory led to the discovery of the Feigenbaum constant * Craig Fennie (Professor) — applied physicist; MacArthur Fellows Program, MacArthur Fellow (2013) * Michael Fisher (Horace White Professor of Chemistry, Physics, and Mathematics, 1966-1987) — Irving Langmuir Award (1971),
Wolf Prize in Physics The Wolf Prize in Physics is awarded once a year by the Wolf Foundation in Israel. It is one of the six Wolf Prizes established by the Foundation and awarded since 1978; the others are in Agriculture, Chemistry, Mathematics, Medicine and Arts. The ...
(1980), Boltzmann Medal (1983), Lars Onsager Prize (1995), Royal Medal (2005), BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award (2009); Fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...
and Member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
* Peter Goldreich (Thomas Gold Lecturer, 1987) — astrophysicist * Kurt Gottfried (Professor of Physics, 1964–1998, Emeritus –2022) — particle physics; co-founder of the Union of Concerned Scientists * Brian Greene (Professor, 1990–95) — theoretical physicist and author, specializing in string theory * Alan Guth (1977-1979) — recipient of Fundamental Physics Prize (2012) and Kavli Prize (2014) * Arthur Kantrowitz (Professor, 1946–56) — physicist and engineer * Toichiro Kinoshita (Professor, 1955-1995) — Japanese-American theoretical physicist; member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(1991) and recipient of the Sakurai prize (1990) * Raphael M. Littauer (Professor of Physics and Nuclear Studies, later Emeritus, 1955–2009) — fellow of the American Physical Society (1991), Robert R. Wilson Prize for Achievement in the Physics of Particle Accelerators (1995); introduction of pioneering classroom response system * M. Stanley Livingston (Faculty 1934-1938) — member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(1970) *Richard V. E. Lovelace (Professor 1984-); Fellow of the American Physical Society (2000) * Boyce McDaniel (Professor, 1946-1985) — Manhattan Project physicist and synchrotron designer; member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
* Paul McEuen (Professor, 2001-) — physicist, specializes in carbon nanotubes and graphene * David Mermin (Professor) — physicist; member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(1991) and of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...
(1988) * Philip Morrison (Professor 1946-1964) — member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(1971) * David A Muller (Professor) – applied physicist * Yuri Feodorovich Orlov, Yuri Orlov (Researcher of Physics, 1986-) — nuclear physicist; former Soviet dissident; human rights activist * Edward Ott (Faculty of the Department of Electrical Engineering, 1968-1979) — American physicist known for his contributions to the development of chaos theory * Albert Overhauser (Faculty, 1953-1958) — physicist, known for Nuclear Overhauser effect, Overhauser effect; member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
and fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...
; recipient of
National Medal of Science The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral science, behavior ...
(1994) and Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize (1975) * Robert Otto Pohl (Goldwin Smith Professor of Physics, 1960–2000, Emeritus –2024) — condensed matter physics; Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize (1985), member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(1999) * John Reppy (Faculty, 1966-2005) — member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(1988) * Bruno Rossi (Associate Professor 1940-1943) — National Medal of Science (1983),
Wolf Prize in Physics The Wolf Prize in Physics is awarded once a year by the Wolf Foundation in Israel. It is one of the six Wolf Prizes established by the Foundation and awarded since 1978; the others are in Agriculture, Chemistry, Mathematics, Medicine and Arts. The ...
(1987) * Dennis William Sciama (Professor) — physicist * Harold Scheraga (Faculty 1947-1992) — member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(1966) *
George Paget Thomson Sir George Paget Thomson (; 3 May 1892 – 10 September 1975) was an English physicist who shared the 1937 Nobel Prize in Physics with Clinton Davisson “for their experimental discovery of the diffraction of electrons by crystals”. Educa ...
(Non-resident Lecturer, 1929–30) — Nobel Prize, Physics 1937 *
Kip Thorne Kip Stephen Thorne (born June 1, 1940) is an American theoretical physicist and writer known for his contributions in gravitational physics and astrophysics. Along with Rainer Weiss and Barry C. Barish, he was awarded the 2017 Nobel Pri ...
(A.D. White Professor-at-Large, 1986–92) — astrophysicist * Watt W. Webb (Engineering Physics Faculty 1961-) — member of the
National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...
, the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
, and the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...
* Robert R. Wilson (Professor) — youngest group leader on the Manhattan Project; first director of Fermilab;
National Medal of Science The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral science, behavior ...
(1973)


Social sciences and policy management


Anthropology, sociology, other social sciences

*Yutaka Tsujinaka (visiting fellow, 1989-1991) — professor of political science * John Adair (anthropologist), John Adair (Professor, 1948-1960) — anthropologist * Benedict Anderson (Professor Emeritus of International Studies) — author of ''Imagined Communities'' * Walter Berns (Professor, 1959-1969) — Constitutional law and political philosophy professor; recipient of
National Humanities Medal The National Humanities Medal is an American award that annually recognizes several individuals, groups, or institutions for work that has "deepened the nation's understanding of the humanities, broadened our citizens' engagement with the humani ...
in 2005 * Fred Buttel (Professor of Rural Sociology) — sociologist * John Collier (anthropologist), John Collier — visual anthropologist * Dian Fossey (Visiting Research Associate, 1980) — anthropologist whose murder was recreated in the film ''Gorillas in the Mist'' * Betty Friedan (Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations, ILR School's Institute for Women and Work, 1998-2006) — feminist, author of ''The Feminine Mystique'' * Rose Goldsen — pioneer in studying the effects of television and popular culture * Charles F. Hockett (Professor 1946-1982) — linguist; member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(1974) * Jay Jasanoff (Professor, 1978-1998) — Indo-European linguistics specialist * Bronisław Malinowski (Lecturer, 1933) — founder of social anthropology * George McGovern (Visiting Lecturer, 1990) — Democratic Nominee for U.S. President (1972) and Senator from South Dakota (1963–81). Taught on US Foreign Policy. * John V. Murra (1968–82) — professor of anthropology, with a focus on the Inca Empire * Alan Nussbaum (Professor of Linguistics, 1997-) — Indo-European linguistics, Indo-European linguist and Classics, classical philologist * Meredith Small (Professor, 1998-) — anthropologist and primatologist, author of several books on child development, including ''Our Babies, Ourselves'' * Adam T. Smith (Professor, 2011-) — anthropologist researching the history and societies of the South Caucasus * Richard Swedberg (Professor of Sociology, 2002-) — Swedish economic sociologist * Mark P. Talbert — senior lecturer of hotel management, and subject of a viral YouTube video publicly criticizing an unknown student who was yawning loudly in one of his classes * Sidney Tarrow (Maxwell Upson Professor of Government and Sociology) — researcher of comparative politics, social movements, and political sociology * James D. Thompson (Professor) — sociologist * Bassam Tibi (A.D. White Professor-at-Large, 2004-) — political scientist of Islamic countries * James E. Turner (Professor Emeritus of African and African American Politics and Social Policy — Africana studies; Director of Africana Studies and Research Center, 1969–1986, 1996–2001 * Barbara Wertheimer (Associate Professor, 1977-1983) — co-founder and director of the Institute for Women and Work at the New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Industrial and Labor Relations School.


Economics

* Francine D. Blau (
Frances Perkins Frances Perkins (born Fannie Coralie Perkins; April 10, 1880 – May 14, 1965) was an American workers-rights advocate who served as the fourth United States Secretary of Labor from 1933 to 1945, the longest serving in that position. A member o ...
Professor of Industrial and Labor Relations and Labor Economics since 1995) — received her Bachelor of Science, B.S. in industrial and labor relations in 1966 from Cornell * Kaushik Basu (Carl Marks Professor of Economics) — Indian economist; chief economist of the World Bank; fellow of the Econometric Society * Marco Battaglini (Edward H. Meyer Professor of Economics) — Fellow of the Econometric Society * Lawrence Blume (Goldwin Smith Professor of Economics) — Fellow of the Econometric Society * Morris Copeland (Professor of Economics) — President of the American Economic Association * David Easley (Professor of Economics) — Fellow of the Econometric Society and recipient of the
Frederick W. Lanchester Prize The Frederick W. Lanchester Prize is an Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences prize (U.S. $5,000 cash prize and medallion) given for the best contribution to operations research and the management sciences published in Engli ...
(2011) * George M. von Furstenberg (Assistant Professor of Economics) — economist best known for monetary policy, free trade policy and international finance * George H. Hildebrand (Maxwell M. Upson Professor of Economics and Industrial and Labor Relations, 1960–69, 1971–80) — president of the Industrial Relations Research Association (1971) * Charles Henry Hull (1864-1936) (Professor of American History) — economist and historian. Edited ''The Economic Writings of Sir William Petty'' (1899). * Louis Hyman Economic historian * Jeremiah Jenks (Professor of Economics, 1891-1912) — President of the American Economic Association (1906). * John D. Kasarda — earned a bachelor of science degree in applied economics from Cornell in 1967 and masters of business administration degree in Organizational Theory from Cornell in 1968; developer of the aerotropolis concept, which defines the role of airports and aviation-driven economic development in shaping 21st-century urban growth and form; directs the Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Kenan-Flagler Business School * James Laurence Laughlin (Professor, 1890–92) — founded the Federal Reserve System * John Williams Mellor (Professor of Agricultural Economics, Economics, and Asian Studies; Director of the Comparative Economics Program and the Center for International Studies) * Emmett J. Rice (Professor, 1954–60) — former Governor of the Federal Reserve System * Thomas Sowell (Professor, 1965-1969) — economist;
National Humanities Medal The National Humanities Medal is an American award that annually recognizes several individuals, groups, or institutions for work that has "deepened the nation's understanding of the humanities, broadened our citizens' engagement with the humani ...
(2002) * Holbrook Working (Professor) — economic theorist in the financial field *Brian Wansink (Professor and John S. Dyson Endowed Chair in the Applied Economics and Management Department) -- famously discredited food scientist who was discovered to have repeatedly falsified scientific journal articles * Allyn Young (Professor, 1913-1920) President of the American Economic Association


Psychology

*Samuel B. Bacharach (McKelvey-Grant Professor Emeritus), Director of the Smithers Institute * Daryl Bem (Professor of Psychology) — social psychologist, creator of self-perception theory * Sandra Bem (Professor) — psychologist; created the Bem Sex-Role Inventory; studies gender roles * Stephen J. Ceci (Professor) — researcher of children's courtroom testimony * Michael J. Freeman (visiting assistant professor) — behavior sciences * Thomas Gilovich (Professor of Psychology) — researcher of decision making and behavioral economics * Paulina Kernberg (Professor of Psychiatry, 1978-2006) — child psychiatrist and authority on personality disorders * Lee C. Lee (Professor of Human Development) — researcher in developmental psychology and Asian-American identity and history * Kurt Lewin (Professor) — founder of modern social psychology * James Maas (Professor of Psychology, c. 1963–2011) — sleep studies; longtime teacher of Cornell's most popular class, Psychology 101 * Neal E. Miller — American experimental psychologist and a recipient of the
National Medal of Science The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral science, behavior ...
(1964) * Ulrich Neisser (Professor) — studied intelligence and memory * Robert Morris Ogden (1877-1959) — Cornell University graduate, Professor of Psychology, and Cornell's Dean of Arts and Sciences, 1923-1945 * David A. Pizarro (Professor of Psychology) * Ritch Savin-Williams (Professor) — sexual orientation researcher * Edward B. Titchener (Professor) — psychologist; inventor of structuralism * Eleanor J. Gibson (Professor of Psychology) — perception and developmental psychology; fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...
; member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
; recipient of the
National Medal of Science The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral science, behavior ...
(1992) * James J. Gibson (Professor of Psychology) — perception, member of the National Academy of Sciences * Robert Sternberg (Professor of Human Development) — President of the American Psychological Association; Professor of Psychology and Provost at Oklahoma State University, Dean of Arts and Sciences at Tufts University; IBM Professor of Psychology and Education at Yale University; known for Triarchic theory of intelligence, Triangular theory of love and The Three-Process View; Fellow of the Society of Experimental Psychologists, the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...
and of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...


See also

* List of Cornell University alumni


References


Further reading


List of faculty holding named professorships




{{DEFAULTSORT:Cornell University Faculty, List Of Cornell University faculty, Lists of people by university or college in New York (state)