List of Princeton University people

Royalty

• Kyril, Prince of Preslav
• Prince Ali bin Hussein of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan
• Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad
• Prince Moulay Hicham of Morocco
• Queen Noor of Jordan
• Prince Turki bin Faisal Al Saud

Military

• James Millikin Bevans – U.S. Air Force Major General
• Alexander Bonnyman Jr., 1932 – World War II Medal of Honor recipient killed in the Battle of Tarawa
• William L. Brandon, 1819 – Confederate Army general
• James Caldwell, A.B. 1759 – American Revolutionary soldier and chaplain
• Christopher G. Cavoli, A.B. 1987 – commander, United States European Command
• James Robb Church, 1888 – Medal of Honor recipient, Spanish–American War
• Kenneth F. Cramer, B.Litt. 1916, M.A. 1917 – United States Army Major General and Chief of the National Guard Bureau
• William J. Crowe, Ph.D. 1965 – U.S. Navy Admiral, Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff and American Ambassador to Great Britain
• Philip Dalton M.S. 1925 – American Naval aviator and engineer, creator of E6B analog flight computer
• Glen Edwards, M.S. 1947 – U.S. Air Force test pilot
• Joseph C. Fegan Jr., B.A. 1943 – United States Marine Corps Lieutenant general; World War II, Korea and Vietnam
• Andrew Goodpaster, A.M. 1949, M.S.E. 1949, Ph.D. 1950 – Supreme Allied Commander, Europe for NATO
• Henry "Lighthorse Harry" Lee, A.B. 1773 – American Revolutionary cavalry officer, father of Robert E. Lee
• Gordon Johnston, A.B. 1896 – Medal of Honor recipient, Philippine–American War
• Fumitaka Konoe – son of Japanese Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe and lieutenant in the Imperial Japanese Army in World War II
• Mark A. Milley, A.B. 1980 – U.S. Army General, 20th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
• David Petraeus, M.P.A. 1985 Ph.D. 1987 – former commander of International Security Assistance Force and United States Forces Afghanistan, USCENTCOM, and Multi-National Force – Iraq; former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency
• Nathaniel Scudder – physician and patriot leader during the Revolutionary War
• Blake Wayne Van Leer, M.S. 1959 – commander and captain in the U.S. Navy. Lead SeaBee program and lead the nuclear research and power unit at McMurdo Station during Operation Deep Freeze.
• Elliott White Springs, A.B. 1917 – World War I flying ace and memoirist
• Tamon Yamaguchi, 1921–1923 – Japanese Admiral

Academia

Alumni and students

• Nicholas Allard, dean and president of Brooklyn Law School
• E. Spencer Miller, dean of the University of Pennsylvania Law School
• Mark Steiner, professor of philosophy of mathematics and physics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Faculty and staff

Architecture

• Stan Allen – former dean of the Princeton University School of Architecture; author of Points and Lines
• Elizabeth Diller – architect, professor of architecture, winner of MacArthur Foundation Fellowship 1999–2004
• Michael Graves – professor emeritus
• Vincent Lee – architect, writer, mountaineer, and member of the Institute of Andean Studies
• Paul Lewis – professor; associate dean; principal of LTL Architects
• Sergey Padyukov – architect, engineer and human rights activist
• Monica Ponce de Leon – dean of the School of Architecture; Winner National Design Award
• Kazuyo Sejima – principal of Tokyo-based architecture firm SANAA
• Sarah Whiting – assistant professor and M.Arch thesis director; editor of Assemblage and Log; principal of WW Architecture

Economics and business

• Orley Ashenfelter – professor of economics, winner of the Frisch Medal
• Ben Bernanke – professor of economics and public affairs; Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board
• William G. Bowen – professor emeritus of economics; president of Princeton University, 1972–1988; president of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, 1988–2006
• Angus Deaton – professor of economics; president of the American Economic Association; Nobel Prize in economics
• Avinash Dixit – professor of economics; co-author of Games of Strategy; former president of the Econometric Society; 2008 president of the American Economic Association
• Aly Kassam−Remtulla – anthropologist, Vice Provost
• Gene Grossman – professor of economics
• Daniel Kahneman – professor of economics and psychology, Nobel Prize in economics
• Nobuhiro Kiyotaki – professor of economics; winner of the 1997 Nakahara Prize of the Japan Economics Association and the 1999 Yrjö Jahnsson Award of the European Economic Association
• Alan Krueger – professor of economics
• Paul Krugman – professor of economics, [The New York (magazine)|New York Times|New York Times] columnist, winner of the John Bates Clark Medal, Nobel Prize in economics
• Arthur Lewis – former professor; Nobel laureate
• Burton Malkiel Ph.D. – professor of economics; former dean of the Yale School of Management; author of A Random Walk Down Wall Street
• Eric Maskin – professor of economics; Nobel Prize in economics
• Albert Rees – former Provost, professor of economics and advisor to President Gerald Ford
• Harvey S. Rosen – professor of economics, former chairman of Council of Economic Advisers
• Harold Tafler Shapiro – professor emeritus of economics, former president of Princeton University and of the University of Michigan
• Christopher Sims – professor of economics; Nobel Prize in economics
• Lars E. O. Svensson – professor of economics; deputy governor of the central bank of Sweden; one of the ten best economists in the world according to IDEAS/RePEc

Government, law, and public policy

• Samuel Alito – associate justice, U.S. Supreme Court
• Bruce Alger – former U.S. Representative for Texas's 5th congressional district, based in Dallas
• Charles Beitz – professor of politics
• Jeremy Ben-Ami – executive director of J Street and JStreetPac
• Cyril Edwin Black – professor of history and international affairs 1939–1986, director of the Center of International Studies 1968–1985
• Willie Blount – Governor of Tennessee from 1809 to 1815
• Barbara Bodine – diplomat in residence
• Ken Buck – representative, Eastern Colorado, U.S. House of Representatives
• Thomas J. Christensen – William P. Boswell Professor of World Politics of Peace
• John E. Colhoun – U.S. Senator and lawyer from South Carolina
• Ted Cruz – U.S. Senator for Texas, 2013–present; candidate for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination
• Angus Deaton – Dwight D. Eisenhower Professor of International Affairs, and professor of economics and international affairs, Woodrow Wilson School and department of economics
• Alexandra Davis DiPentima, chief judge of the Connecticut Appellate Court
• Robert Ehrlich – governor, Maryland, 2003–2007
• Richard Falk – Albert G. Milbank Professor of International Law and Practice, emeritus
• Aaron Friedberg – professor of international relations
• Edgar S. Furniss Jr. – professor of political science
• Robert P. George – professor of jurisprudence, constitutional law scholar
• Robert Gilpin – Eisenhower Professor of Public and International Affairs, emeritus
• Bob Giuffra – partner, Sullivan & Cromwell
• Jan Gross – professor of history
• Dale Ho – U.S. district judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York
• Thad Hutcheson – lawyer and Republican politician from Houston, Texas
• Robert Hutchings – diplomat-in-residence
• G. John Ikenberry – Albert G. Milbank Professor of Politics and International Affairs
• Harold James – professor of History and International Affairs
• Elena Kagan, associate justice, U.S. Supreme Court
• Thomas Kean 48th governor of New Jersey and chairman of 9/11 Commission
• Nannerl O. Keohane – Laurance S. Rockefeller Distinguished Visiting professor of Public Affairs
• Robert Keohane – university professor of international relations
• George Kern, 1947 – lawyer, partner at Sullivan & Cromwell
• Daniel Kurtzer – diplomat-in-residence
• Nolan McCarty – Susan Dod Brown Professor of Politics and Public Affairs
• Helen Milner – B.C. Forbes Professor of Politics and International Affairs
• Hassan Ali Mire – first Minister of Education of the Somali Democratic Republic
• Robert Morrow – former Republican county chairman in Travis County, Texas
• Philip Pettit – professor of politics and philosophy
• Jay Powell – 16th chair of the Federal Reserve
• Uwe Reinhardt – James Madison professor of political economy
• Paul Sarbanes – former US Senator from Maryland
• Stephen Schulhofer – professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and NYU Law School
• Reed Shuldiner – Alvin L. Snowiss Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School
• Anne-Marie Slaughter – dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs
• Sonia Sotomayor, associate justice, U.S. Supreme Court
• John Thomas Steen Jr. – lawyer in San Antonio and currently the 108th Secretary of State of Texas
• Isaac Tichenor, 1775 – Governor of Vermont, U.S. Senator
• Robert C. Tucker – IBM Professor of International Studies, emeritus
• John Waterbury – William Stewart Tod Professor of Politics and International Affairs, emeritus
• Joel Westheimer – professor of citizenship education at the University of Ottawa
• Thomas Woodrow Wilson, A.B. 1879 – author of Congressional Government 1885; president of Princeton University, 1902–10; Governor of New Jersey, 1911–13; 28th president of the US, 1913–21; recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, 1919, for promoting the establishment of the League of Nations
• Sheldon Wolin – professor of politics

Art, literature, and humanities

• Kwame Anthony Appiah – professor of philosophy
• Edward J. Balleisen – professor of history at Duke University
• Peter Brown – professor of history
• Anthony Burgess – visiting professor, 1970–71; novelist and critic; author of The Long Day Wanes, A Clockwork Orange and Earthly Powers
• Américo Castro – professor of Hispanic literature
• Lisa R. Cohen – Ferris professor of journalism; Emmy Award-winning TV news magazine producer, author
• Robert Darnton – emeritus professor of history
• Donald Davidson – professor of philosophy
• Jeff Dolven, professor of English at Princeton University.
• Selden Edwards – best-selling novelist, headmaster, teacher
• Jeffrey Eugenides – novelist, professor of creative writing and Pulitzer Prize Winner
• Robert Fagles – emeritus professor of English and comparative literature
• Denis Feeney – professor of classics, Giger Professor of Latin
• John V. Fleming – emeritus professor of English and comparative literature
• Hal Foster – art critic professor in the department of art and archeology
• Arthur Frothingham – professor of Art and Archaeology
• Emmet Gowin – professor of photography
• Anthony Grafton – professor of history
• Gilbert Harman – professor of philosophy, winner of the Jean Nicod Prize
• Winnie Holzman – dramatist, screenwriter, and poet
• William Howarth – professor of English and environmental studies
• Frank Cameron Jackson – professor of philosophy
• Walter Kaufmann – professor of philosophy
• Yusef Komunyakaa – poet, professor in the Creative Writing Program
• Saul Kripke – professor emeritus of Philosophy at Princeton University; winner of the 2001 Schock Prize in Logic and Philosophy
• Mirjam Kuenkler – assistant professor of Near Eastern Studies
• Victor Lange – professor of modern languages
• Paul Lansky – composer, professor of music
• Chang-Rae Lee – professor of writing, New York Times bestselling author
• David K. Lewis – professor of philosophy
• Perry Link – professor of East Asian Studies
• Toni Morrison – professor in the Creative Writing Program, Nobel laureate
• Paul Muldoon – professor of poetry, Pulitzer Prize winner
• Haruki Murakami – visiting professor, literature, creative writing
• Paul Needham – senior librarian at the Scheide Library
• Alexander Nehamas – professor of philosophy
• Philip Nord – professor of history
• Joyce Carol Oates – Roger S. Berlind Distinguished Professor of the Humanities; professor in the Creative Writing Program; author; Pulitzer Prize nominee
• Elaine Pagels – professor of religion
• Francis Landey Patton – professor of theology; president of the university, 1888–1902
• Ricardo Piglia – professor of Latin-American literature
• Thomas J. Preston Jr. – professor of archeology
• Albert J. Raboteau – Henry W. Putnam Professor of Religion, Princeton University, former dean of the graduate school
• Noliwe Rooks – associate director of the African-American program at Princeton University, author
• Richard Rorty – professor of philosophy
• Carl Emil Schorske – emeritus professor of history, winner of the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction for his book Fin-de-Siècle Vienna: Politics and Culture
• Ruth Simmons – vice provost, 1992–95 – first female and first black president of any Ivy League school
• Peter Singer – professor of human values, expert on practical ethics
• P. Adams Sitney – film historian, professor of visual arts
• Michael A. Smith – professor of philosophy
• Nigel Smith – professor of English
• Walter Terence Stace – professor of philosophy
• Donald Steven – Canadian composer, winner of the JUNO Award for Best Classical Composition and the Jules-Léger Prize
• Gregory Vlastos – professor of philosophy
• Andrew Fleming West – Giger Professor of Latin, 1883–1928; dean of the graduate school, 1900–1928
• Cornel West – professor of religion and Africa American studies
• C. K. Williams – professor of poetry, Pulitzer Prize winner
• Michael Wood – professor in the English department

Math and science

• Forman S. Acton – professor of computer science
• Philip Warren Anderson – Joseph Henry Professor of Physics and recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics
• Manjul Bhargava – Brandon Fradd, Class of 1983, professor of mathematics, 2014 Fields Medalist
• Shane Campbell-Staton, professor of biology, principal investigator, Campbell-Staton Group
• John H. Conway – professor of mathematics, best known for the Game of Life
• Ingrid Daubechies – professor of mathematics; namesake of Daubechies wavelet
• Henry Eyring – professor of chemistry, known for the Eyring equation; recipient of the National Medal of Science in 1966
• Charles Fefferman – professor of mathematics, Fields Medalist
• Val Fitch – professor emeritus of physics, Nobel laureate
• J. Richard Gott – professor of astrophysics, winner of the President's Award for Distinguished Teaching
• James E. Gunn – Eugene Higgins Professor of Astronomy, leader of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and predicted the eponymous Gunn–Peterson trough
• Joseph Henry – professor of natural philosophy
• Thomas H. Jordan – former professor of earth sciences; current director of the Southern California Earthquake Center
• Mustapha Ishak Boushaki – professor of physics
• Karl Jöreskog – professor of statistics
• Celeste Rohlfing – Deputy Assistant Director at the National Science Foundation and Chief Operating Officer at the American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Daniel Kahneman – Eugene Higgins Professor of Psychology, winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economics
• Nicholas Katz – professor of mathematics
• Brian Kernighan – co-author of AWK and AMPL, author of The C Programming Language
• Elon Lindenstrauss – professor of mathematics, Fields Medalist
• Juan Martin Maldacena – professor emeritus of physics, 2012 Fundamental Physics Prize
• Fernando Codá Marques – professor of mathematics
• George A. Miller – professor emeritus of psychology, seminal contributions in cognitive psychology and cognitive science
• Gananath Obeyesekere – professor of anthropology
• Andrei Okounkov – professor of mathematics, Fields Medalist
• Gerard K. O'Neill – professor of physics, leader in field of space colonization, author of The High Frontier: Human Colonies in Space
• Jeremiah Ostriker – professor of astrophysics and recipient of the National Medal of Science
• Philip James Edwin Peebles – professor emeritus of physics, one of the first to predict the nature of the cosmic microwave background radiation
• Peter Sarnak – professor of mathematics
• Nathan Seiberg – professor emeritus of physics, 2012 Fundamental Physics Prize
• Paul Seymour – professor of mathematics
• Yigong Shi – professor of molecular biology, leader in the field of apoptosis
• Osamu Shimomura – researcher honored with the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on GFP
• Goro Shimura – professor emeritus of mathematics, fundamental contributions to number theory and automorphic forms, especially in Langlands program
• Yakov G. Sinai – professor of mathematics
• David Spergel – professor of astrophysics, leading astrophysicist
• Elias M. Stein – professor of mathematics, recipient of the Steele Prize, the Schock Prize in Mathematics, the Wolf Prize in Mathematics, the National Medal of Science, and Stefan Bergman Prize
• Paul Steinhardt – Albert Einstein professor of physics; recipient of the Dirac Medal
• Robert Tarjan – professor of computer science, inventor of many algorithms related to graph theory, winner of the 1986 Turing Award, recipient of the 1982 Nevanlinna Prize
• Joseph Hooton Taylor – professor of physics, 1993 Nobel Prize in Physics
• Daniel C. Tsui – professor of applied physics and electrical engineering, 1998 Nobel Prize in Physics
• John Archibald Wheeler – professor emeritus of physics, later collaborator of Albert Einstein, advisor to Richard Feynman and Kip Thorne
• Eric Wieschaus – professor of molecular biology, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• Andrew Wiles – professor of mathematics, proved Fermat's Last Theorem, winner of the Schock Prize, Royal Medal, Cole Prize, Wolf Prize, King Faisal Prize and Shaw Prize
• Edward Witten – professor emeritus of physics, Fields Medalist, 2012 Fundamental Physics Prize
• Andrew Yao – computer scientist, winner of the 2000 Turing award

Engineering

• Amir Ali Ahmadi – professor of operations research and financial engineering
• Robert Calderbank – professor of electrical engineering, mathematics, and applied mathematics
• Matias D. Cattaneo - professor of operations research and financial engineering
• Erhan Çınlar – professor of operations research and financial engineering
• Ahmed Cemal Eringen – professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, leading expert in elasticity theory, continuum mechanics, and plasticity
• Jianqing Fan – professor of operations research and financial engineering
• Jason W. Fleischer – associate professor of electrical engineering
• Claire F. Gmachl – professor of electrical engineering
• Brian Kernighan – professor of computer science and co-author of The C Programming Language
• William A. Massey – professor of operations research and financial engineering
• Robert Sedgewick – professor of computer science
• Alexander Smits – professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, leading expert on turbulence and fluid dynamics
• Howard Stone – professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and chemical engineering, leading expert in fluid dynamics
• Robert J. Vanderbei – professor of operations research and financial engineering, mathematics, astrophysics, computer science

Business

• Gerhard Andlinger, A.B. 1952 – founder of Andlinger & Company
• James T. Aubrey, A.B. 1941 – president of CBS and MGM
• Norman Augustine, B.S.E. 1957– former CEO of Lockheed Martin
• Ben Baldanza, M.P.A./U.R.P. 1986 – former CEO of Spirit Airlines
• Alexander Bannwart, L.L.B 1906
• Jeff Bezos, B.S.E. 1986 – founder of Amazon.com
• Frank Biondi, A.B. 1966 – former chairman of Viacom
• John C. Bogle, A.B. 1951 – former founder and CEO of The Vanguard Group, which pioneered the index fund
• Charles W. Coker, A.B. 1955 – former CEO and chairman of Sonoco Products
• Archibald Crossley, B. 1950 – pollster and pioneer in the field of public opinion research
• Franklin D'Olier, A.B. 1898 – former president and chairman of Prudential Insurance Company; first National Commander of the American Legion
• Steve Feinberg, A.B. 1982 – billionaire financier and a top economic adviser to President Donald Trump
• David Siegel (computer scientist), B.S.E. 1983 – co-founder and co-chairman of Two Sigma
• George M. Ferris Jr. – investment banker and philanthropist
• Joseph Fichera, B. 1976 – founder and CEO of Saber Partners; auction rate securities expert
• Harvey S. Firestone Jr., class of 1920 – former CEO of Firestone Tire and Rubber Company
• Malcolm Forbes, A.B. 1941 – businessman and publisher
• Steve Forbes, A.B. 1970 – son of Malcolm Forbes; businessman and publisher of Forbes magazine
• William Clay Ford Jr., 1979 – executive chairman of the board of directors Ford Motor Company
• Thomas F. Frist, III, 1991 – investor
• William Fung, B.S.E. 1970 – managing director of Li & Fung Ltd.
• Phil Goldman, B.S.E. 1986 – founder of WebTV
• Bob Hugin, A.B. 1976 – former chairman of Celgene, and Republican nominee for New Jersey 2018 senate race.
• Jaquelin H. Hume, B. 1928 – founder of Basic American Foods, conservative philanthropist
• Nathan Hubbard, B.A. – business and music executive, former CEO of Ticketmaster
• Lee Iacocca, M.S. 1946 – automobile executive and former chairman and chief executive officer, Chrysler
• Carl Icahn, A.B. 1957 – corporate raider
• Andrea Jung, A.B. 1979 – CEO of Avon Products
• John Katzman, A.B. Architecture 1981 – founder of The Princeton Review
• F. Thomson Leighton, B.S.E. 1978 – cofounder of Akamai Technologies
• Arthur D. Levinson, Ph.D. 1977 – chairman of Apple Inc. ; chairman of Genentech, CEO Calico
• Peter B. Lewis, A.B. 1955 – chairman of Progressive
• Joseph Wharton Lippincott Jr. – head of Philadelphia publisher J. B. Lippincott & Co.
• Donold Lourie, A.B. 1922 – president and CEO of Quaker Oats Company
• Aaron Marcus, B.A. 1965 – founded Aaron Marcus and Associates, Inc. in 1982
• Ginna Marston, B.A. 1980 – public service advertising
• James S. McDonnell, M.S. 1921 – founded McDonnell Aircraft Corporation in 1939
• Nick Morgan, A.B. English literature 1976 – speaking coach and author
• Robert S. Murley, B.A. 1972 – chairman of the Investment Banking of Credit Suisse Securities and chairman of the Educational Testing Service.
• Ellen Pao – CEO of Reddit
• Sandi Peterson, M.P.A. – worldwide chairman, Johnson & Johnson
• Louis Rukeyser, A.B. 1954 – former host of Wall $treet Week and business commentator
• Eric Schmidt, B.S.E. 1976 – former CEO of Google; 136th wealthiest person in the world in 2011
• Jeffery A. Smisek, A.B. Economics 1976 – CEO of United Continental Holdings
• Tad Smith – CEO, Sotheby's
• Jon Steinberg, B.A. 1999 – president and COO of BuzzFeed
• Rawleigh Warner Jr., A.B. 1944 – former president, CEO and chairman of Mobil
• John Weinberg, A.B. 1948 – head of Goldman Sachs from 1976 to 1990
• Meg Whitman, A.B. 1977 – CEO of eBay and Hewlett-Packard
• Sir Gordon Wu, B.S.E. Civil Engineering 1958 – founder and chairman of Hopewell Holdings Ltd
• Stockton Rush, BS 1984 – CEO of OceanGate

Science and technology

Astronauts

• James C. Adamson, M.S.E. 1977
• Daniel T. Barry, M.A. 1977, M.S.E. 1977, Ph.D. 1980
• Brian Binnie, M.S.E. 1978
• Pete Conrad Jr., B.S.E. 1953, M.A. 1966, only Princeton graduate to walk on the Moon.
• Gerald Carr, M.S.E. 1962
• Gregory T. Linteris, B.S.E. 1979, Ph.D. 1990

Biology

• Emily Blumberg, A.B. 1977 – infectious disease physician
• Gerhard Fankhauser embryologist, professor from 1931 to 1969.
• Donna M. Fernandes M.Sc. 1984, Ph.D. 1988, president and CEO Buffalo Zoo 2000 – 2017.

Engineering and other natural sciences

• Sridhar Vembu, Ph.D. 1994 – founder and CEO of zoho corporation
• Hal Abelson, A.B. 1969 – directed implementation of the Logo programming language for the Apple II; professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT
• Yitzhak Apeloig – Israeli computational chemistry professor and president of the Technion
• Daniel Barringer, A.B. 1879 – geologist
• David R. Boggs, B.S.E. 1972 – co-inventor of Ethernet
• Henry Crew, A.B. 1882 – physicist; president of the American Physical Society in 1909
• Thomas C. Hanks, 1966 – seismologist, introduced Moment magnitude scale to measure earthquakes
• William Heidbrink, Ph.D. 1984 – plasma physicist
• John D. Hunter, A.B. 1990 – neurobiology
• Lee Iacocca, M.S. 1946 – automobile executive and former chairman and chief executive officer, Chrysler
• Ernest Lester Jones, A.B. 1898 – head of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey from 1914 until his death in 1929
• Susan Landau, A.B. 1976 – mathematician and cybersecurity policy expert
• Yueh-Lin Loo, Ph.D. 2001 – chemical engineer
• William C. Martin, Ph.D. 1956 – atomic spectroscopist
• Andreas Mandelis, Ph.D. 1980 – expert on photonics
• Wilder Penfield, 1913 – Canadian neurosurgeon
• John Warner, Ph.D. 1988 – chemist, one of the founders of the field of green chemistry
• Stephen A. Fulling, M.S. in 1969 and Ph.D. in 1972 – theoretical physicist known for preliminary work that led to the discovery of the Unruh effect.

Literature

Pulitzer Prize winners

• A. Scott Berg, A.B. 1971 – Pulitzer Prize winner for biography of Charles Lindbergh, winner of the National Book Award for biography of Max Perkins
• Robert Caro, A.B. 1957 – two-time Pulitzer Prize Winner for The Power Broker and Master of the Senate
• George F. Kennan, A.B. 1925 – two-time Pulitzer Prize winner for history in 1957 and biography in 1968; Cold War diplomat; architect of "containment" strategy
• Galway Kinnell, A.B. 1948 – Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning poet
• Arthur Krock, A.B. 1908 – two-time Pulitzer Prize winner while writing for The New York Times in the 1930s
• John Matteson, A.B. 1983 – Pulitzer Prize winner for Biography in 2008 for Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father
• Charles McIlwain, A.B.1894 – Pulitzer Prize for history in 1924; professor at Princeton
• John McPhee, A.B. 1953 – Humanities Council professor, 1999 Pulitzer Prize recipient
• James M. McPherson – Professor of History; Pulitzer Prize winner in 1989 for Battle Cry of Freedom
• W. S. Merwin, A.B. 1948 – Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and translator
• Steven Naifeh, A.B. 1974 – Pulitzer Prize for biography or autobiography in 1991 for Jackson Pollock: An American Saga
• Eugene O'Neill, class of 1910 – Nobel laureate, four-time Pulitzer Prize winner
• Ralph Barton Perry, A.B. 1896 – Pulitzer Prize for biography in 1936, professor at Harvard University
• Ernest Poole, A.B. 1902 – Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1918
• David Remnick, A.B. 1981 – Pulitzer Prize Winner for general nonfiction in 1994 for Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire; general editor of The New Yorker magazine since 1998
• Booth Tarkington, A.B. 1893 – two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist for The Magnificent Ambersons and Alice Adams
• William W. Warner, 1943 – science writer, Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction in 1977 for Beautiful Swimmers: Watermen, Crabs, and the Chesapeake Bay
• Thornton Wilder M.A. 1925 – three-time Pulitzer Prize-winner, once for fiction and twice for drama; National Book Award winner; Our Town premiered at Princeton
• George F. Will, Ph.D. 1968 – Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1977
• Jesse Lynch Williams, A.B. 1892 – Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1918

Journalism

• Joel Achenbach, A.B. 1982 – writer for The Washington Post and author of the Post's Achenblog
• R. W. Apple Jr., A.B. 1957 – writer for The New York Times
• Hamilton Fish Armstrong, A.B. 1914 – editor of Foreign Policy
• William Attwood, A.B. 1941 – U.S. Ambassador and publisher of Newsday
• Kate Betts, A.B. 1986 – editor-in-chief of Harper's Bazaar
• John Brooks, A.B. 1942 – author and staff member, The New Yorker
• Robert Caro, A.B. 1957 – Pulitzer Prize-winning nonfiction writer
• Patrick Chovanec, A.B. 1993 – commentator on the economy of China in Western media
• Lisa R. Cohen – Ferris professor of journalism, Emmy-winning television producer, author
• Burton Crane, 1922 – The New York Times foreign correspondent and financial author
• Bosley Crowther, A.B. 1928 – film critic at The New York Times
• Frank Deford, A.B. 1962 – writer for Sports Illustrated; broadcaster on U.S. radio and television
• James D. Ewing, 1938 – newspaper publisher, government reform advocate and philanthropist
• Edward Felsenthal, A.B. 1988 - Executive Chairman, Time
• Marc Fisher – writer for The Washington Post
• F. Scott Fitzgerald, A.B. 1917 – novelist and short story author
• Justin Fox – financial journalist, commentator, and writer
• Barton Gellman, A.B. 1982 – editor at The Washington Post and Pulitzer Prize winner
• Charlie Gibson, A.B. 1965 – journalist, former Good Morning America host, anchor of ABC World News Tonight
• Robert Hilferty, A.B. 1982 – writer for Bloomberg News, New York, The New York Times, Opera News, and The Village Voice
• Julia Ioffe – Russian-born American journalist
• Olivier Kamanda, B.S.E 2003 – editor, Foreign Policy Digest
• Donald Kirk, A.B. 1959 – national correspondent, Chicago Tribune
• Rick Klein, A.B. 1998 – Vice President and Washington Bureau Chief, ABC News
• Richard Kluger, A.B. 1956 – Pulitzer Prize-winning author, journalist and book publisher
• John B. Oakes, A.B. 1934 – editorial page editor, The New York Times
• Don Oberdorfer, A.B. 1952 – writer for The Washington Post, current professor at Johns Hopkins University
• Alexis Okeowo, 2006 – staff writer at The New Yorker
• Norimitsu Onishi, A.B. 1992 – reporter for The New York Times
• Ramesh Ponnuru, A.B. 1995 – editor of National Review
• Paul Raushenbush, F. 2003–2011 – Editor of Huffington Post Religion
• T.R. Reid, A.B. 1966 – former correspondent, The Washington Post; bestselling nonfiction author
• Maria Ressa, A.B. 1986 – 2021 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Rappler CEO, included in the Times Person of the Year 2018
• James Ridgeway, A.B. 1959 – editor and writer, New Republic and The Village Voice
• Rick Stengel, A.B. 1977 – managing editor of Time
• John Stossel, A.B. 1969 – ABC News anchor/correspondent
• Annalyn Swan, A.B. 1973 – co-author of 2005 Pulitzer Prize-winning De Kooning: An American Master
• Katrina vanden Heuvel, A.B. 1981 – editor of The Nation
• Grant Wahl, A.B. 1996 — sports journalist for Sports Illustrated
• Christine Whelan, A.B. 1999 – contributor to The Wall Street Journal and others, author of Why Smart Men Marry Smart Women
• Alexander Wolff, A.B. 1979 – writer for Sports Illustrated
• Robert Sterling Yard, B.A. 1883 – journalist for the New York Sun and New York Herald; editor-in-chief of The Century Magazine; founder and first president of The Wilderness Society

Sports

• Kwesi Adofo-Mensah – General Manager for the Minnesota Vikings
• Bella Alarie, A.B. 2020 – starting professional basketball career in 2020 with the WNBA's Dallas Wings
• Hobey Baker, A.B. 1914 – ice hockey player; college hockey's top individual award is named in his memory
• Carl Barisich – former professional football player, Cleveland Browns and Miami Dolphins
• Danny Barnes – professional baseball pitcher
• Amir Bell – basketball player in the Israel Basketball Premier League
• Moe Berg, A.B. 1923 – professional baseball player and spy
• David Blatt, A.B. 1981 – Israeli-American basketball player and coach
• Arthur Bluethenthal, 1913 – All-American football player; decorated World War I pilot
• Bill Bradley, A.B. 1965 – former basketball star; member of the Basketball Hall of Fame; former U.S. Senator
• Bob Bradley, A.B. 1980 – US National Soccer Coach and MLS Cup-winning coach
• Andrew Calof – ice hockey player
• Devin Cannady – professional basketball player with the South Bay Lakers
• Karl Chandler – former professional football player, New York Giants and Detroit Lions
• Mike Chernoff – Cleveland Indians general manager
• Geep Chryst – quarterbacks coach, San Francisco 49ers
• Mike Condon – professional hockey goaltender with the Ottawa Senators
• Jon Dekker – professional football player, Pittsburgh Steelers
• Emerson Dickman – baseball coach ; his teams won two Eastern League championships and tied one, as the 1951 team reached the College World Series
• Pablo Eisenberg – scholar, social justice advocate, and tennis player
• Keith Elias, A.B. 1993 – former professional football player in the National Football League
• Jonathan Erlichman, A.B. 2012 — Process and Analytics Coach, Tampa Bay Rays; first analytics coach in the history of Major League Baseball
• Paul Fentress, 1936 – Olympic field hockey player
• John Fisher, A.B. 1983 – owner, Oakland Athletics
• Jason Garrett – former professional football player, offensive coordinator, interim head coach, head coach for the Dallas Cowboys
• Charlie Gogolak – former professional football player, Washington Redskins and New England Patriots
• Wycliffe Grousbeck, A.B. 1983 – CEO, governor, and co-owner, Boston Celtics
• Jeff Halpern, A.B. 1999 – current NHL player; plays for the NHL team Los Angeles Kings
• Tora Harris, 2002 – Olympic high jumper
• Sara Hendershot, A.B. 2010 – rower at the 2012 Summer Olympics
• Armond Hill – assistant coach, Los Angeles Clippers; former NBA basketball player, 1976–84
• Red Howard – football player
• Ariel Hsing – Olympic table tennis player
• Lynn Jennings, A.B. 1983 – Olympic runner, three-time world cross country champion, member of National Distance Running Hall of Fame
• Dick Kazmaier, A.B. 1952 – Heisman Trophy winner 1952
• Zak Keasey – former professional football player, San Francisco 49ers
• Chloe Kim – Olympic snowboarder
• Andrea Leand – tennis player
• Donold Lourie, A.B. 1922 – College Football Hall of Fame inductee
• Larry Lucchino, A.B. 1967 – president and CEO of the Boston Red Sox
• Tyler Lussi, A.B. 2017 – professional soccer player, winner of the 2017 NWSL championship with Portland Thorns FC
• Jesse Marsch, A.B. 1995 – professional soccer player, winner of three MLS championships with D.C. United and the Chicago Fire
• Matt McDonald, B.S. 2015 – distance runner
• Rich McKay, A.B. 1981 – president and general manager, Atlanta Falcons
• Frank McPhee – football player
• Steve Mills (sports executive) – president of the New York Knicks
• Steve Meister – tennis player
• John Messuri – former professional hockey player, Princeton Tigers all-time leading scorer
• Abby Meyers – basketball player for the Dallas Wings of the Women's National Basketball Association
• Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum – American-born German showjumper
• Edwin Mortimer Hopkins – first ever full-time head football coach at the University of Kansas, also a long-time English professor at the school
• Cook Neilson, A.B. 1967 – motorcycle racer, member of American Motorcycle Association Hall of Fame
• Dennis Norman, 2001 – former professional football player, San Diego Chargers
• Ross Ohlendorf – former MLB pitcher for the Washington Nationals
• George Parros – professional ice hockey player, for the 2007 Stanley Cup champion Anaheim Ducks
• Geoff Petrie, A.B. 1970 – former NBA player; current president of basketball operations for the Sacramento Kings
• Crista Samaras, A.B. 1999 – former lacrosse player and coach
• Mark Shapiro – Toronto Blue Jays general manager; two-time MLB Executive of the Year
• Brian Taylor – former ABA and NBA basketball player, 1972–82
• John Thompson III, 1988 – basketball coach at Georgetown
• Soren Thompson, 2005 – fencer, NCAA épée champion, Junior Olympic champion, Maccabiah Games silver medalist, 2x Olympic fencer, team world champion.
• Ross Tucker, 2000 – former professional football player, sports columnist
• Bob Tufts – Major League Baseball pitcher
• Terdema Ussery, A.B. 1981 – president and CEO of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks basketball team
• Will Venable – outfielder for the Texas Rangers
• Maia Weintraub – NCAA foil champion, national champion, and Olympic fencer
• Spencer Weisz – American-Israeli basketball player for Hapoel Haifa of the Israeli Premier League
• Kevin Westgarth – NHL player; plays for the NHL team Los Angeles Kings
• Lauren Wilkinson (rower) – 2012 Summer Olympics silver medalist
• Erica Wu – Olympic table tennis player
• Chris Young – starting pitcher for the Kansas City Royals
• Ben Zinn – international soccer player and academic at Georgia Tech

Art and architecture

• Stan Allen M.Arch. – dean of School of Architecture, Princeton University
• Leslie Ayres – architect, 1926 winner of Princeton Prize in Architecture
• Merritt Bucholz – partner of Irish-based Bucholz | McEvoy Architects, and Professor of Architecture at University of Limerick
• Thomas S. Buechner – founding director of the Corning Museum of Glass; director of the Brooklyn Museum
• Johanna Burton, Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
• Donald Drew Egbert, A.B. 1924, M.Arch. 1927 – art historian and Princeton professor
• Michael Graves – architect, designer and Princeton professor
• Jodi Hauptman, A.B. 1986 – art historian and curator
• Indrani Pal-Chaudhuri, A.B. Anthropology – photographer, director and digital artist, star of Bravo's 2010 docu-series Double Exposure about her photography
• Jim Lee, A.B. Psychology 1986 – comic book artist, known for work on X-Men, Batman; a founder of Image Comics
• Bill Pierce, A.B. 1957 – freelance photographer for Time
• Demetri Porphyrios, M.Arch. 1974, Ph.D. 1980 – architect and architectural theorist
• Frank Stella – artist
• William Turnbull Jr. – architect and Fellow of the American Institute of Architects
• Margaret Rose Vendryes Ph.D. 1997 – visual artist, curator, and art historian
• Robert Venturi, A.B. 1947, M.F.A. 1950 – architect, Pritzker Prize laureate 1991
• Marion Sims Wyeth – architect of Mar-a-Lago and other mansions

Other

• Thomas B. Craighead – Presbyterian minister, president of Davidson Academy and Cumberland College in Nashville, Tennessee
• Collins Denny Jr., 1921 – pro-segregationist lawyer
• David W. Doyle, '49 – Central Intelligence Agency officer; author
• Cate Edwards, '04 – daughter of two-time presidential candidate and 2004 Democratic Vice Presidential nominee John Edwards
• John Frame, '61 – Reformed theologian
• Donald B. Fullerton, 1913 – missionary and founder of the Princeton Christian Fellowship
• Zelda Harris, '07 – former child actress, known for her starring role in the Spike Lee dramedy Crooklyn
• James Hogue – attended Princeton under the fraudulent persona of "Alexi Indris Santana", 1989–1991
• Dario Hunter, '04 – the first Muslim-born person to be ordained a rabbi
• Jeffrey R. MacDonald, '65 – subject of Joe McGinnis' best seller "Fatal Vision"; Green Beret physician convicted of murdering his wife and two children at Fort Bragg
• Joseph (Lyle) Menendez – convicted murderer, left Princeton in 1988 following plagiarism charges
• Michelle Obama, '85 – First Lady of the United States, wife of United States President Barack Obama
• Zhuo Qun Song, '19 – currently the most highly decorated International Mathematical Olympiad contestant, with five gold medals and one bronze medal
• Richard Aaker Trythall, '63 – composer and pianist, winner of the 1964 Rome Prize in Musical Composition, fellow and music liaison of the American Academy in Rome
• Peter Aaron Van Dorn – lawyer, judge and planter from Mississippi
• John C. Whitcomb, '48 – young earth creationist

In fiction

• Never Have I Ever—the main character, Devi Vishwakumar, is accepted into Princeton University.
• No Hard Feelings – The film is set the summer before Percy's freshman year at Princeton.Numb3rs – the characters of Charlie Eppes and Larry Fleinhardt are Princeton Alumni The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement – Anne Hathaway's character has graduated from PrincetonThe Reluctant Fundamentalist, novel – the characters Changez and Erica are Princeton gradsRisky Business – Tom Cruise's character gets into Princeton after an unconventional interview at his own homeRubber – one of the spectators appears wearing an orange-embroidered black baseball cap reading "PRINCETO"The Rule of Four, mystery novel – the protagonists are Princeton students and the Art Museum and its collections play a central role in the plotSalt – Angelina Jolie's character Evelyn Salt went to Princeton
• Scandal (TV series)—Olivia Pope graduated from Princeton.The Simpsons – Cecil Terwilliger, the brother of Sideshow Bob, is an alumnus ; Snake also attended, but took a year off, presumably never to returnSouth Pacific – Lt. Joe Cable attended PrincetonSouth Park – Mayor McDanielsThe Sun Also Rises – Robert Cohn is a Princeton graduateThe Talented Mr. Ripley – Dickie Greenleaf has attended Princeton, and the title character Tom Ripley pretends he is a Princeton alumnus.There's Something About Mary – Mary attended Princeton University, as did her ex-boyfriend "Woogie" who was also holder of a scholarship from PrincetonThirtysomething – Hope Murdoch Steadman, portrayed by Mel Harris, graduated from Princeton and Mel's real-life father was a football coach at Princeton in the 1970sThis Side of Paradise, semi-autobiographical novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald – a Princeton alumnus himself, the protagonist Amory Blaine attends PrincetonThe War of the Worlds, 1938 radio adaptation Professor Richard Pierson of the Princeton Observatory, portrayed by Orson WellesWatchmen, a graphic novel created by writer Alan Moore, artist Dave Gibbons, and colorist John Higgins – Dr. Jon Osterman/Doctor Manhattan, born 1929, attended Princeton University in 1948–1958 and graduated with a Ph.D. in atomic physicsWeeds – the character Megan gets accepted into PrincetonThe West Wing – former Deputy Communications Director Sam Seaborn is a magna cum laude Princeton graduate