List of University of Pennsylvania people

List of notable colleague, alumni and scholars of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

Notable Staff of the University of Pennsylvania

Notable Administrators of the University of Pennsylvania

• Rev. John Andrews(clergyman) D.D.-Provost (1810–1813)

Notable Faculty of the University of Pennsylvania

• Andrew B. Abel - Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship recipient; Ronald A. Rosenfeld Professor of Finance and Economics
• Roger Allen - Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations
• Rev. John Andrews (clergyman)-Professor of Moral Philosophy and Logic
• Edmund Bacon - Adjunct Professor of Architecture
• E. Digby Baltzell - Emeritus Professor of History and Sociology; scholar and author; creator of the acronym WASP
• Aaron T. Beck - Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry; Father of Cognitive Therapy
• Richard Beeman - John Walsh Centennial Professor of History; Fulbright Scholar
• Jere R. Behrman - Fulbright Award recipient; Professor of Economics
• Janice R. Bellace - Deputy Provost and Director of the Huntsman Program in International Studies and Business
• Jean Bennett - Pioneer in the field of Gene Therapy. Led one of the first successful clinical gene therapy trials in the world.
• Charles Bernstein - Donald T. Regan Professor of English, prominent Language poet
• Mary Frances Berry - Geraldine Segal Professor of Social Thought; former chair U.S. Civil Rights Commission
• Ray Birdwhistell - Professor, Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania
• Matt Blaze - Associate Professor of Computer Science
• Robert F. Boruch - University Trustee Chair Professor, Graduate School of Education
• John Bowker - Theologian
• Rebecca Bushnell - Dean of School of Arts and Sciences and Professor of English
• Eugenio Calabi - Thomas A. Scott Professor Emeritus of Mathematics, best known for his development of the Calabi-Yau manifold
• Arthur Caplan - Emanuel and Robert Hart Professor of Bioethics
• Britton Chance - National Medal of Science recipient; Professor of Biophysics
• Roger Chartier - Professor of History; Chair of History at the Collège de France; leading Cultural Historian
• Pei-yuan Chia - Senior Fellow of the CSI Center for Advanced Studies in Management at the Wharton School; former Vice-Chairman of Citicorp and Citibank, current member of AIG's Board of Directors
• Mildred Cohn - National Medal of Science recipient; Professor of Biophysics and Physical Biochemistry
• Peter Conn - Andrea Mitchell Term Professor of English
• Raymond Davis, Jr. - National Medal of Science recipient; Research Professor of Physics and Astronomy
• George Crumb - Pulitzer Prize winner; composer; Annenberg Professor of Music
• Francis X. Diebold - Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship recipient; W.P. Carey Term Professor in Economics
• John DiIulio - Frederic Fox Leadership Professor of Politics, Religion, and Civil Society
• W. E. B. Du Bois - African-American literary figure, visiting scholar, 1896–1897
• Edward J. Doheny - Professor of Geology - founder and leader of Master of Science in Applied Geosciences (MSAG) program
• Gideon Dreyfuss - is Isaac Norris Professor Biochemistry and Biophysics
• Dwight D. Eisenhower II - Director, Institute for Public Service, Annenberg School
• Charles L. Epstein - Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship Recipient; Francis J. Carey Term Professor of Radiology in Mathematics
• Warren Ewens - Professor of Biology; creator of Ewens's sampling formula
• Peter Fader - Napster Trial expert witness; Frances and Pei-Yuan Chia Professor of Marketing
• Stubbins Ffirth - Investigated yellow fever
• Marshall L. Fisher - UPS Professor of Operations Research at The Wharton School; noted for work in combinatorial optimization
• Peter J. Freyd - Professor of Mathematics
• Stewart D. Friedman - Practice Professor of Management at the Wharton School; Founding Director of the Wharton School's Leadership Program
• Paul Fussell - Emeritus Professor of Literature; National Book Award winner; prominent cultural and literary historian
• George Gerbner - Professor and Dean, Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. Founder of cultivation theory.
• Erving Goffman - Professor of Sociology. Author: The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Asylums.
• Sol Goodgal - Professor of Microbiology - major contributor to the study of genetic transformation in bacteria
• Paul Gyorgy - National Medal of Science recipient; Professor of Pediatrics, School of Medicine
• Steven Hahn - Pulitzer Prize winner; Roy F. and Jeannette P. Nichols Professor of History
• David Harbater - Cole Prize recipient; E. Otis Kendall Professor of Mathematics; best known for solving the Abhyankar conjecture
• Lothar Haselberger - Professor of Architectural History
• Paul Hendrickson - Professor of English; Six time Pulitzer Prize nominee for his work with the Washington Post
• Ralph S. Hirschmann - National Medal of Science recipient; Rao Makineni Professor of Bioorganic Chemistry
• Kathleen Hall Jamieson - Professor of Communications - Annenberg School for Communications; author; media analyst
• Daniel H. Janzen - Professor of Biology
• Shane Jensen - Assistant Professor of Statistics—The Wharton School
• Aravind Joshi - Henry Salvatori Professor of Computer and Cognitive Science
• Louis Kahn - Noted architect; works include the Jatiyo Sangsad Bhaban in Bangladesh and Jonas Salk Institute in California; Professor of Architecture
• Elihu Katz - Distinguished Trustee Professor of Communications
• Donald F. Kettl - Stanley I. Sheerr Endowed Term Professor in the Social Sciences, Professor of Political Science & Director of the Fels Institute of Government
• Alan Kors - National Humanities Medal recipient, free speech advocate; George Walker Professor of History
• Bruce Kuklick - Roy F. and Jeannette P. Nichols Professor of American History
• William Labov - Professor of Linguistics; founder of quantitative sociolinguistics
• Peter D. Linneman - Albert Sussman Professor of Real Estate; Professor of Finance and Business & Public Policy
• Ian Lustick - Bess W. Heyman Professor of Political Science; author of Trapped in the War on Terror
• Jerre Mangione novelist and scholar of the Italian-American experience
• Edward Mansfield novelist and research on the effects of democracy on political stability of foreign nations.
• Mitch Marcus - RCA Professor of Artificial Intelligence - Department of Computer Science
• E. Ann Matter - Associate Dean for Arts & Letters, R. Jean Brownlee Professor of Religious Studies
• Walter McDougall - Pulitzer Prize winner; Alloy-Ansin Professor of History and International Relations
• Olivia S. Mitchell - International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans Professor of Insurance and Risk Management, Executive Director of the Pension Research Council and Boettner Center for Pensions and Retirement Research
• Irv Mondschein, track coach
• Philip Nelson - Professor of Biophysics
• Roy F. Nichols - Pulitzer Prize winner; Professor of History
• James J. O'Donnell - former Vice Provost for Information Systems and Computing
• Brendan O'Leary - Lauder Professor of Political Science and Director of the Solomon Asch Center for the Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict
• Burt Ovrut - Professor of Physics; pioneer of the Heterotic string theory
• Mark Pauly - Discoverer of moral hazards in health care
• Bob Perelman - Professor of English, Prominent L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E Poet
• Samuel H. Preston - Fredrick J. Warren Professor of Demography; best known for his development of the Preston curve
• Hans Rademacher - Scott Chair, Professor of Mathematics; best known for his theory of the reciprocity law for Dedekind sums
• Robert A. Rescorla - Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor in Psychology; Co-creator of the Rescorla-Wagner model
• Russell Burton Reynolds - U.S. Army Major General, Assistant Professor of Military Science and Tactics
• David Rittenhouse - Professor of Astronomy; Vice-Provost, Trustee
• Rafael Robb - Professor of Economics
• George Rochberg - Annenberg Professor of the Humanities and Professor of Music
• C. Brian Rose - James B. Pritchard Professor of Archaeology; President of the Archaeological Institute of America; best known for co-directing the modern excavations at Troy
• Phillip Roth - Pulitzer Prize winner; Professor of Comparative Literature & Literary Theory
• Robert L. Schrieffer - National Medal of Science recipient; Professor of Physics
• Florence B. Seibert - Professor of Biochemistry; winner of the Garvan–Olin Medal and member of the National Women's Hall of Fame
• Martin E. P. Seligman - Robert A. Fox Leadership Professor of Psychology
• Jeremy Siegel - Russell E. Palmer Professor of Finance; Financial News Commentator
• Rogers Smith - Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Political Science
• Peter Stallybrass - Walter H. and Leonore C. Annenberg Professor in the Humanities and Professor of English
• Thomas J. Sugrue - Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Term Professor of History and Sociology
• Peter T. Struck - Associate Professor of Classical Studies
• Babu Suthar - Gujarati Lecturer in South Asia Studies
• Robert Venturi- Pritzker Prize Winner; Professor of Architecture
• Michael Vitez - Pulitzer Prize winner; Professor of Creative Writing
• Donald Voet - Associate professor of chemistry and co-author of several biochemistry textbooks
• Richard Wernick - Pulitzer Prize winner; composer; Professor of Humanities
• James Merton Wilson - Pioneer in the field of Gene Therapy
• Lightner Witmer - Professor of Psychology; Inventor of the term Clinical Psychology
• Tukufu Zuberi - Lasry Family Professor of Race Relations; Professor of Sociology
• Howard Winklevoss - Professor of Actuarial Science

Noted alumni

Academia

Founders and Leaders of Academic Institutions

• Cyrus Adler: Chancellor, Jewish Theological Seminary; President, Dropsie College
• John Milton Bernhisel: Original Trustee of the University of Utah
• William Bingham: Banker and politician who was highly influential in the founding of Dickinson College -- "Bingham's Porch" was long a rallying cry at Dickinson
• James Lloyd Breck, Class of 1838: Founder of the Seabury Divinity School, now part of the Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, a prominent Episcopal seminary; also namesake of the Breck School in Minneapolis, Minnesota
• Gaylen Byker: President of Calvin College (1995- )
• Charles Caldwell: Together with Penn alumni John Esteen Cooke and Charles Wilkins Short, organized the Louisville (KY) Medical Institute (now the University of Louisville School of Medicine); Caldwell served as first dean from 1837 to 1838
• William P. Carey: Namesake and benefactor of the Carey Business School at Johns Hopkins University, the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, and the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law
• Jared Cohon: President of Carnegie Mellon University.
• Al-Hassan Conteh: President of the University of Liberia.
• Lee Copeland: Former Dean of both the University of Washington College of Architecture and Urban Planning and the University of Pennsylvania School of Design
• Robert A. Corrigan: President, San Francisco State University (1988- ); past Chair of the Board of Directors of the Association of American Colleges and Universities
• Mary Cullinan: President, Southern Oregon University (2006- )
• Edward Cutbush: Founder, State University of New York Upstate Medical University, and first dean (1834–1839)
• Robert Davidson (educator), Class of 1771: President, Dickinson College, 1804–09
• Samuel Henry Dickson: Together with alumnus John Edwards Holbrook, founded the Medical College of South Carolina (now the Medical University of South Carolina)
• Howard Dillingham: President of Ithaca College, 1957-70
• Harold Dodds: Fifteenth President of Princeton University, 1933–1957
• James A. Donnellon: President of Villanova University, 1954-59
• Daniel Drake: Organized the Medical College of Ohio and Cincinnati College; both later became the University of Cincinnati
• John W. Draper: Founder and President of New York University Medical School (1850–1873), and founding President of the American Chemical Society
• Thomas Messinger Drown, President, Lehigh University
• Arnold Eisen: Chancellor, Jewish Theological Seminary
• Patrick Ellis, President, The Catholic University of America (1992–98); President, La Salle University (1977–92)
• Joseph Esherick: Co-founder of the UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design
• Drew Gilpin Faust: President, Harvard University
• Sandra Featherman: President, University of New England, 1995–2006
• Richard M. Freeland: President of Northeastern University (1996-2006)
• Vernon F. Gallagher: 8th President of Duquesne University (1950-59)
• Henry D. Gilpin: President, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (1853–58)
• Michael Glick: Dean of the State University of New York at Buffalo School of Dental Medicine
• Israel Goldstein: Co-founder and the first Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Brandeis University
• Neil R. Grabois: President, Colgate University
• Frank Hastings Hamilton: One of the founders of Buffalo Medical College (now the State University of New York at Buffalo)
• Patrick T. Harker: President, University of Delaware
• Peyton R. Helm: President of Muhlenberg College (2003- )
• Joel Henry Hildebrand, Class of 1903: Past Dean of the College of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley; Hildebrand Hall on Berkeley's campus is named for him; also namesake of the Joel Henry Hildebrand Award sponsored by the American Chemical Society
• Avis Hinkson: Dean, Barnard College, Columbia University
• John Henry Hobart: Founder, Geneva College (now Hobart and William Smith Colleges)
• Elizabeth Hoffman: Provost and Executive Vice President, Iowa State University; President, University of Colorado System (2000–2005)
• Jerome H. Holland: President of Delaware State College (1953-59)
• Robert C. Holub: Chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Amherst (2008–present)
• Joseph Hopkinson: President, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts; he also served as successful counsel for Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase in his impeachment trial before the United States Senate in 1804 and 1805
• Thomas Hunt: President of the University of Louisiana (now Tulane University)
• Jon M. Huntsman, Sr.: Namesake and benefactor of the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University
• Ralph Cooper Hutchinson: 7th President of Washington & Jefferson College; and 12th President of Lafayette College
• Jacob Jeanes: Together with fellow alumnus Walter Williamson, established the Homeopathic College of Pennsylvania (now Drexel University College of Medicine)
• Samuel Jones, Class of 1762: worked with James Manning to found the College of Rhode Island (now Brown University). Jones re-drafted the college's charter and raised money for its foundation
• Sir Paul Judge: Namesake and benefactor of the Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge
• Raynard S. Kington: President of Grinnell College (2010- )
• Jared Potter Kirtland: He studied at Penn and ultimately received his degree from Yale University; he was a co-founder of the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and the Cleveland Museum of Natural History
• Pleasant Williams Kittrell: Elected to the Texas Legislature, he introduced the bill that established the University of Texas; he attended Penn, but did not earn a degree
• Richard Kneedler: President Emeritus of Franklin and Marshall College
• Michael Kotlikoff: Dean, Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine (2007- )
• Richard W. Lariviere: President, University of Oregon (2009- )
• Arnold J. Levine: President, Rockefeller University, (1998-2002)
• Peter J. Liacouras: President, Temple University (1982–2000)
• John Berrien Lindsley: Founded the Medical Department at the University of Nashville (now Vanderbilt University School of Medicine)
• Qingyun Ma: Dean of the University of Southern California School of Architecture (2006- )
• Joseph McCann: Dean of the Davis Business School at Jacksonville University
• George McClellan: Founder of Jefferson Medical College, now Thomas Jefferson University
• John McClintock: 1st President of Drew Theological Seminary (now Drew University)
• Richard Patrick McCormick: Chair of the Rutgers College history department (1966–69); and Dean of Rutgers College (1974–1977)
• John McDowell, Class of 1771: 1st Principal of St. John's College, Annapolis, MD 1790-1806
• Samuel McKinney: 1st president of Austin College and West Tennessee College (now Union University)
• Thomas Meredith (Baptist leader): One of the founders of Wake Forest Institute, now Wake Forest University; he was the first president of the institution's Board of Trustees (Also, North Carolina's Meredith College is named for him)
• James D. Moffat: 3rd President of Washington & Jefferson College
• Edward Mott Moore: Former President of the Board of Trustees of the University of Rochester and former President of the American Medical Association; he was also one of the founders of the New York State Board of Health and is considered to be "the father of the Rochester park system"
• John Morgan, Class of 1757 and 1760: Founder of the first medical school in North America and founding member of the American Philosophical Society; he was also the Surgeon General for the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War
• Kenneth Mortimer: President, University of Hawaii, 1993–2001
• Henry Morton: 1st president of Stevens Institute of Technology, 1870–1902
• Franklin David Murphy: Chancellor of the University of Kansas and the University of California, Los Angeles
• Daniel F. Muzyka: Dean of the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia (1999- )
• Josiah Clark Nott: One of the founders of the Medical College of Alabama (now the University of Alabama School of Medicine)
• Merle Middleton Odgers: President, Bucknell University, 1954–64
• B.D. Owens: Past President of the University of Tampa and Northwest Missouri State University
• Austin Phelps: President of Andover Theological Seminary (1869-79)
• John Edwin Pomfret: President, College of William and Mary, 1942–51
• Nathaniel Potter, Class of 1796: Founder of the College of Medicine of Maryland, now the University of Maryland College of Medicine
• Edmund T. Pratt, Jr.: Namesake and benefactor of the Edmund T. Pratt, Jr. School of Engineering at Duke University
• Irvin Reid: 1st African-American President of Wayne State University (1997-2009)
• Judith Rodin: First woman president of an Ivy League university (University of Pennsylvania); and President of the Rockefeller Foundation
• Mordechai Rozanski: President of Rider University (2003- )
• L. Timothy Ryan: President, The Culinary Institute of America, 2001-
• Charles Ashmead Schaeffer, Class of 1861: President of the University of Iowa (1887-1898)
• John Ahlum Schaeffer: President of Franklin and Marshall College (1935-41)
• Morton Owen Schapiro: President, Northwestern University, and past President of Williams College
• Samuel Simon Schmucker: Founder, Gettysburg College
• Phil Schubert: President of Abilene Christian University (2010- )
• John W. Shumaker: Past President of the University of Tennessee, the University of Louisville, and Central Connecticut State University
• Rodney K. Smith: President of Southern Virginia University, (2004- )
• William Bacon Stevens: 1st President of the Board of Trustees of Lehigh University
• Samuel Hollingsworth Stout: 1st Dean of the Baylor College of Medicine (1902-03)
• John Summerskill: 7th President of San Francisco State University
• Joseph W. Taylor: Penn graduate founded Bryn Mawr College through a bequest in his will, 1880
• Zaccheus Test, Class of 1855: One of the founders of Earlham College, he also suggested the name Earlham for the new institution
• Gordon Watkins: 1st Provost of the University of California, Riverside, 1949–56
• Harry Hillel Wellington: Dean of Yale Law School (1975-85) and New York Law School (1992-2000)
• Benjamin West: Founder of the Royal Academy of Arts; he attended Penn but did not earn a degree
• Hugh Williamson: Mathematics professor at Penn, and Original Trustee of the University of North Carolina, he served as Secretary of the Trustees in the 1790s; Signatory to the U.S. Constitution, he also represented North Carolina at the Constitutional Convention
• Theophilus Adam Wylie: President pro tem of Indiana University, 1853 and 1859
• Mark G. Yudof: President, University of California system (2008- ); Charles Alan Wright Chair in Law and Chancellor, University of Texas System; and President, University of Minnesota, 1997–2002
• Larry Zicklin: Namesake and benefactor of the Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College
• James A. Zimble: President, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (1991-2004)

Distinguished Educators and Scholars

• Thomas R. Adams: John Hay Professor of Bibliography and University Bibliographer at Brown University
• Mark G. Allen: Joseph M. Pettit Professor in Microelectronics at the Georgia Institute of Technology
• William Alonso: American economist and Director of the Center for Population Studies at Harvard University
• Anthony Amsterdam: University Professor of law at New York University School of Law
• Ann Arvin: Professor of pediatrics and microbiology/immunology at Stanford University
• Barbara A. Babcock: First woman appointed to the regular faculty, and the first woman to hold an endowed chair and the first emerita, at Stanford Law School
• E. Digby Baltzell: Penn graduate and sociology professor who popularized the term "WASP"
• Eugene C. Barker: Historian at the University of Texas at Austin
• William M. Bass: Prominent forensic anthropologist, and founder of the "Body Farm" at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville
• Paul T. Bateman: Emeritus Professor and past Chair of the mathematics department at the University of Illinois
• Daniel A. Baugh: Naval historian and former professor of history at both Princeton University and Cornell University
• Ray Blanchard: Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto
• Martin J. Blaser: Frederick H. King Professor of Internal Medicine and Chairman of the Department of Medicine at New York University School of Medicine
• Herbert Eugene Bolton: Past Chair of the history department at the University of California, Berkeley
• James Curtis Booth, Class of 1829: Penn professor of Chemistry in the Applied Arts, 1850–55; President, American Chemical Society, 1883–85
• Alexei Borodin: Gordon M. Binder/Amgen Professor of Mathematics at the California Institute of Technology; Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• T. Corey Brennan: Chair of the Classics department at Rutgers University
• Ralph L. Brinster: Award-winning American geneticist and member of the National Academy of Sciences; recipient of the National Medal of Science
• Thomas Brothers: American musicologist and professor at Duke University
• Leonard Carlitz: Prominent mathematician at Duke University
• Henry H. Carter: Professor Emeritus of Romance Languages and Literature at the University of Notre Dame and Legion d'honneur recipient
• Britton Chance: Scientist and Olympic gold medallist who made great contributions to spectrometry and biochemistry/biophysics research; member of the National Academy of Sciences
• Walter Channing (physician): the first Professor of Obstetrics and Medical Jurisprudence at Harvard University
• Martha Chen: Lecturer in Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School
• Michael Chernew: Professor of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School
• Edward Potts Cheyney, Class of 1883: Penn professor of history and author of several college textbooks; also past President of the American Historical Association, the oldest and largest U.S. society for scholars and teachers of history
• Carol Chomsky: Linguist and education specialist at the Harvard Graduate School of Education
• Noam Chomsky: Linguist and activist; MIT professor
• C. West Churchman: Renowned philosopher and systems scientist, and Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of California, Berkeley; past President of the International Society for the Systems Sciences
• Gordon Clark: Philosopher and Christian theologian; past Chair of the philosophy department at Butler University
• Eric H. Cline: Chair of the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at George Washington University, and Director of the GWU Capitol Archaeological Institute
• Jerry Clinton: Ferdowsi scholar and Professor of Persian language and literature at Princeton University
• Thomas C. Cochran (historian): Historian and past President of the American Historical Association
• Stanley Norman Cohen: Professor of genetics at Stanford University, and recipient of the National Medal of Science
• Tobias Colding: Professor of mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• Thomas F. Cooley: Richard R. West Dean and the Paganelli-Bull Professor of Economics at the New York University Stern School of Business
• Stanley Corrsin: Physicist and Theophilus Halley Smoot Professor of Engineering and Chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University; member of the National Academy of Engineering
• Edward Samuel Corwin: McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University and past President of the American Political Science Association
• Harvey Cox: Prominent theologian; Professor, Harvard Divinity School
• Eileen M. Crimmins: Edna M. Jones Professor of Gerontology at the University of Southern California
• Hamid Dabashi: Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University
• Christina Davis (poet): Curator of poetry at the Woodberry Poetry Room at Harvard University
• John DiIulio: Frederick Fox Leadership Professor of Politics, Religion, and Civil Society, University of Pennsylvania; former Director, White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives
• David Dodd: Past professor of finance at Columbia Business School, and co-author of the 1934 book Security Analysis, the longest running investment text ever (and still) published
• Patrick Doyle: Professor of chemical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Solomon Drowne: Prominent American physician, academic and surgeon during the American Revolution and in the history of the fledgling United States, he was also professor of botany at Brown University, and one of the earliest Fellows there
• Louis Adolphus Duhring: Penn professor of dermatology and founding member and President of the American Dermatological Society
• Isidore Dyen: Professor Emeritus of Malayo-Polynesian and Comparative Linguistics at Yale University
• Gerald Early: Merle Kling Professor of Modern letters, of English, African studies, African American studies, American culture studies, and Director, Center for Joint Projects in the Humanities and Social Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis
• G. Roger Edwards: Archaeologist
• Paul R. Ehrlich: Zoologist and Bing Professor of Population Studies in the department of Biological Sciences at Stanford University
• Leon Eisenberg: Maude and Lillian Presley Professor of Social Medicine and Psychiatry Emeritus at Harvard Medical School
• Khaled Abou El Fadl: Professor and Islamic scholar at UCLA School of Law
• Hany Farid: William H. Neukom 1964 Distinguished Professor of Computational Science at Dartmouth College
• Stanley Fish: Oscar M. Ruebhausen Distinguished Senior Fellow and Visiting Professor of Law at Yale Law School
• Albert Fishlow: Professor of International and Public Affairs and Director of the Center for the Study of Brazil at Columbia University
• Joshua Fishman: Linguist on sociology of language, bilingualism, Yiddish
• William Fontaine: Penn alumnus and the first tenured African-American professor at Penn, he was Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences (1944–52); one of his students (at Lincoln University where he previously taught) was Kwame Nkrumah, another future Penn alumnus and the first President of Ghana
• William H. Forwood: Chairman of the departments of Surgery and Surgical Pathology at Georgetown University from 1895 to 1897; also U.S. Civil War general and the Surgeon General of the U.S. Army
• James Alan Fox: Prominent criminologist at Northeastern University
• George Stuart Fullerton: American psychologist and philosopher, he was a professor, dean and vice-provost at Penn, a professor at Columbia University and the University of Vienna; and President of the American Psychological Association
• Robert Gallager: Professor Emeritus of electrical engineering and computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and member of the National Academy of Engineering
• Francis Gavin: Founding Director of Studies for The Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law and the first Tom Slick Professor of International Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin
• J. Arch Getty: John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellow and Professor of History at the University of California, Los Angeles
• Herbert Gintis: Prominent behavioral scientist, external professor at Santa Fe Institute
• Moshe Greenberg: Biblical scholar; recipient of the Israel Prize
• Edith Grossman: Award-winning translator of works including Don Quixote and Love in the Time of Cholera
• Alfred Irving Hallowell: Anthropologist and past President of the American Anthropological Association; Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences
• Diane F. Halpern: American psychologist and Professor at Claremont McKenna College; past-President of the American Psychological Association
• Marci Hamilton: Paul R. Verkuil Chair of Public Law at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law of Yeshiva University
• Alfred Harbage: Influential 20th century Shakespeare scholar and professor at Harvard University; also General Editor of the Pelican Books edition of the works of Shakespeare
• Zellig Harris: Pioneering Linguist
• Charles Custis Harrison: University provost and industrialist, and recipient of honorary LL.D. degrees from Columbia University, Princeton University and Yale University
• Zahi Hawass: Egyptian archaeologist and world-famous Egyptologist featured prominently on the History Channel
• Leonard Hayflick: Past professor of medical microbiology at Stanford University School of Medicine; past President of the Gerontological Society of America
• Eric J. Hill: Professor of architecture at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
• Teck-Hua Ho: William Halford Jr. Family Professor of Marketing at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley
• Urban T. Holmes, Jr.: Kenan Professor of Romance Philology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
• Stephen D. Houston: Professor of anthropology and Dupee Family Professor of Social Science at Brown University
• Sheena Iyengar: S.T. Lee Professor of Business at Columbia Business School
• Sherman Jackson: King Faisal Chair of Islamic Thought and Culture and Professor of Religion and American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California; past Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Near Eastern Studies, Visiting Professor of Law and Professor of Afro-American Studies at the University of Michigan
• Stephen Jaffe: Mary and James H. Semans Professor of Music Composition at Duke University
• Phyllis Kaniss: Past Executive Director of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
• Carl Kaysen: Past economics professor at MIT and former Director, Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey
• Howard Atwood Kelly, Class of 1877 and 1882: One of the first members of Johns Hopkins University medical faculty, he was an internationally renowned surgeon and medical educator, and founder of Kensington Hospital in Philadelphia
• Elaine H. Kim: Award-winning Professor of Asian American Studies at the University of California, Berkeley
• Charles P. Kindleberger: Economist, economic historian; formerly Ford International Professor of Economics at MIT
• Patrick Vinton Kirch: Class of 1954 Professor of Anthropology at the University of California at Berkeley
• Michael Klarman: Kirkland & Ellis Professor of constitutional law at Harvard Law School
• S. Rao Kosaraju: Edward J. Schaefer Professor of Engineering at Johns Hopkins University
• Lawrence Kotlikoff: Professor of economics at Boston University, and Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• Barbara Landau: Dick and Lydia Todd Professor and Chair of the Cognitive Sciences Department at Johns Hopkins University
• Joseph Leidy, Class of 1844: considered to be the Father of American Vertebrate Paleontology, he was Professor of Anatomy and founder of the Dept. of Biology at Penn, and Professor of Natural History at Swarthmore College; he was also the subject of a book entitled The Last Man Who Knew Everything, published by Yale University Press, 1998
• Aaron Lemonick: Past professor of physics at Princeton University, and past Chair of the Physics department at Haverford College
• Lawrence Lessig: Copyright activist, founder and director of Harvard Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Law Professor at Stanford University; also Director of the Edward J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics at Harvard University and a professor of law at Harvard Law School
• Arnold J. Levine: Past Chair of the Molecular Biology department at Princeton University
• Ralph Linton: Sterling Professor of Anthropology at Yale University
• Xinru Liu: Assistant professor of early Indian and World history at The College of New Jersey
• Robert Loewy: Chair of the School of Aerospace Engineering at Georgia Tech and member of the National Academy of Engineering
• Richard Longstreth: Architectural historian and professor at George Washington University, and past President of the Society of Architectural Historians
• Louis Loss: William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law at Harvard Law School (1962–84)
• Fred Lukoff: Linguist and professor at Yonsei University (Seoul) and the University of Washington (Seattle); Specialist in the Korean language
• Ellen Markman: Lewis M. Terman Professor of Psychology at Stanford University
• Daniel Mazia: Former professor of zoology at the University of California, Berkeley and Stanford University, he was also a member of the National Academy of Sciences
• Clark McCauley: Rachel C. Hale Professor of Sciences and Mathematics and co-director of the Solomon Asch Center for Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict at Bryn Mawr College
• Rogers McVaugh: Professor Emeritus of botany at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
• María Rosa Menocal: Sterling Professor of the Humanities at Yale University
• Sidney Milkis: Chair of the politics department at the University of Virginia
• Samuel Miller, Class of 1789: early prominent professor at Princeton Theological Seminary, and namesake of Miller Chapel at PTS; he was also a trustee of both Columbia University and Princeton University, and a co-founder of the New York Historical Society
• Sidney Morgenbesser: John Dewey Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University
• Frank Moulaert, Professor of Spatial Planning at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, 2008-
• Mohammed Rafique Mughal: Professor of Archaeology and Heritage Management and the Director of Undergraduate Studies at Boston University
• Alan Needleman: Florence Pirce Grant University Professor of Mechanics of Solids and Structures at Brown University
• Ei-ichi Negishi: Herbert C. Brown Distinguished Professor of Organic Chemistry at Purdue University
• Elissa L. Newport: Cognitive scientist and Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• Susan Nolen-Hoeksema: Professor of psychology at Yale University
• Maurice Obstfeld: Class of 1958 Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley
• James B. Orlin: Edward Pennell Brooks Professor in Management and Professor of Operations Research at the MIT Sloan School of Management
• Mehmet Oz: Professor of Cardiac Surgery at Columbia University
• Joseph Pancoast, Class of 1828: Chairman of the Departments of Surgery and Anatomy at Jefferson Medical College, now Thomas Jefferson University
• Frederic L. Paxson: Pulitzer Prize-winning historian; past President of the Organization of American Historians
• Martin A. Pomerantz: Physicist and former Director of the Bartol Research Institute at the University of Delaware and namesake of the Martin A. Pomerantz astronomical observatory at the United States Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station; also recipient of the NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal
• Gyan Prakash: Dayton-Stockton Professor of History at Princeton University
• James B. Pritchard: Penn archeologist honored with the Gold Medal of the Archaeological Institute of America
• Hilary Putnam: Walter Beverly Pearson Professor of Modern Mathematics and Mathematical Logic at Harvard University
• John Quelch: Lincoln Filene Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School (2001- )
• Henry Hope Reed: Scholar who assisted the poet William Wordsworth in the preparation of an American edition of his works
• Robert Rescorla: Psychologist and member of the National Academy of Sciences
• Jonathan Evans Rhoads: Renowned cancer researcher, he was President of the American Philosophical Society (1976–84) (and namesake of the Jonathan Rhoads medal), and President of the Board of Managers of Haverford College (1963–78)
• John R. Rickford: J.E. Wallace Sterling Professor of Linguistics and Humanities at Stanford University
• Francesca Rochberg: Catherine and William L. Magistretti Distinguished Professor of Near Eastern Studies at the University of California, Berkeley
• James Francis Ross: Past President of the Society for Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy
• Joseph Rothrock: American environmentalist, recognized as the "Father of Forestry" in Pennsylvania, he served on the faculty of the Pennsylvania State University teaching botany, physiology and anatomy, and he founded the Pennsylvania School of Forestry at Mont Alto in 1903, now Penn State Mont Alto, and served as the first president of the Pennsylvania Forestry Association
• Anne Salmond: Distinguished Professor of Māori Studies and Anthropology at the University of Auckland; she is a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand and a Dame Commander of the British Empire
• Stephen Schiffer: Silver Professor of philosophy at New York University
• Henry Rogers Seager: Past Professor of political economy at Columbia University
• Edward Shils: Distinguished Service Professor in the Committee on Social Thought and in Sociology at the University of Chicago
• Edward Benjamin Shils: Wharton School Professor of Management, Founder of Entrepreneurial Center at Wharton; nephew of Edward Shils above
• Benjamin Silliman: Yale University professor of chemistry and founding faculty member of Yale Medical School; he studied at Penn under Professor James Woodhouse but did not earn a degree (namesake of Silliman College at Yale)
• Linda B. Smith: Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Science at Indiana University, and Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• Robert C. Solomon: Quincy Lee Centennial Professor of Philosophy and Business at the University of Texas at Austin
• Melford Spiro: Anthropologist and member of the National Academy of Sciences
• Alfred Stengel, Class of 1889: Penn professor was President of the American College of Physicians and President of the Wistar Institute
• Susan Stewart: Poet and Princeton University professor, and member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• Nancy Stokey: Frederick Henry Prince Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago, and member of the National Academy of Sciences
• Witmer Stone: American ornithologist, botanist, and mammalogist, he was considered the last of the "great naturalists"; he was President of the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) (1920–23), editor of the AOU's periodical The Auk (1912–1936), and Emeritus Director of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia
• JoAnne Stubbe: Novartis Professor of Chemistry & Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and member of the National Academy of Sciences; recipient of the National Medal of Science
• Robert Suderburg: Past Chair of the Music Department at Williams College
• George W. Taylor (professor): Founder of the academic field known as industrial relations, and recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom
• David Teece: Thomas W. Tusher Chair in Global Business and director of the Institute of Management, Innovation, and Organization at the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley
• Jeff Trinkle: Professor and Chair of Computer Science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
• Barry Trost: Tamaki Professor of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University
• Claude H. Van Tyne: Pulitzer Prize-winning historian at the University of Michigan
• Anthony F. C. Wallace: Anthropologist and member of the National Academy of Sciences
• William Ward Watkin: Past Chair of the architecture department at Rice University
• Russell Weigley: Military historian; Distinguished University Professor of History at Temple University
• E. Roy Weintraub: Professor of economics at Duke University
• Elaine Weyuker: Computer scientist and member of the National Academy of Engineering
• Robin Wilson: Fellow at Keble College of the University of Oxford
• Bernard Wolfman: Fessenden Professor of Law at Harvard Law School
• Ray Wu: Liberty Hyde Bailey Professor of Molecular Genetics and Biology at Cornell University
• Richard Wurtman: Cecil H. Green Distinguished Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Ji-Yeon Yuh: Director of the Program in Asian American Studies at Northwestern University
• Ahmed Zewail: Linus Pauling Chair Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Physics at the California Institute of Technology

Other

• John Andrews: Principal of The Episcopal Academy in Merion, Pennsylvania, outside of Philadelphia (1785–1789); and founder of the Academy that became York College of Pennsylvania
• Robert Bates (mountaineer): English teacher at Phillips Exeter Academy who made the first ascents of Mount Lucania in Canada and the Ulugh Muztagh in China
• Charlie Brady Hauser: Professor of education, Winston-Salem State University
• Stephen G. Kurtz: Historian, principal of Phillips Exeter Academy (1974–1987)
• William White, Class of 1765: Bishop and founder of The Episcopal Academy in Merion, Pennsylvania

Arts, media, and entertainment

• Julian Abele, Class of 1902: Prominent African-American architectural designer; he designed or co-designed such works as the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Central Branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia, Widener Memorial Library at Harvard University, and much of the campus of Duke University, including Duke Chapel
• Charles Addams: Creator, The Addams Family; he is said to have modeled the Addams Family mansion after Penn's College Hall
• Elizabeth Alexander: Poet who recited at the 2009 inauguration of President Barack Obama
• Kevin Allen: Contestant of NBC reality show The Apprentice 2
• Ron Allen: NBC News national correspondent
• Maryanne Amacher: American composer
• Howard Arenstein: CBS news national correspondent
• Michael Ashkin: Noted sculptor
• Ti-Grace Atkinson: Author, feminist
• Hannah August: Press Secretary for the First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama
• Jon Avnet: Film and television director, producer and writer
• Evelyn Margaret Ay: Miss America 1954
• Benjamin Franklin Bache, Class of 1787: Grandson of Benjamin Franklin and an early champion of the First Amendment
• William J. Bain: Noted architect, co-founder of global architecture firm NBBJ.
• Elizabeth Banks - Actress, best known as the lead actress in the 2006 sports movie Invincible, and as Laura Bush in the 2008 film W.
• Leslie Esdaile Banks: Popular African-American author
• Ralph Barbieri: Radio personality
• Albert C. Barnes: Founder of the Barnes Foundation and inventor of Argyrol
• Peter Barnes: Senior Washington correspondent for the Fox Business Network
• Jack Barry: Television producer and host, 1950s-1984
• Vanessa Bayer: Saturday Night Live cast member, 2010-
• Eric Bazilian: Singer, songwriter, guitarist, member of The Hooters
• Willow Bay: Former CNN and ABC anchorwoman, and fashion model
• James Berardinelli: Film critic
• Candice Bergen: Emmy Award-winning and Academy Award-nominated actress, best known as TV's Murphy Brown. (Attended, never graduated).
• Alfred Bester: Recipient of the first Hugo Award for a Science Fiction Novel: The Demolished Man (1953), Science Fiction Grand Master (1988), and author of The Stars My Destination (1956)
• Jeffrey Birnbaum: American journalist and Managing Editor of Digital of the Washington Times
• H.G. Bissinger: Author of Friday Night Lights and Pulitzer Prize winning journalist
• Max Blumenthal: Investigative journalist
• Frank L. Bodine: American architect
• Beverly Bower: operatic soprano
• John Bowker: BBC broadcaster
• Andrea Brody: Co-host of U.S. television's George Michael Sports Machine
• Denise Scott Brown: Prominent architect; principal in Venturi, Scott Brown & Associates, and wife of architect Robert Venturi
• Ron Brown (broadcaster): NBC International Affairs correspondent
• Tory Burch: Fashion designer and socialite
• Alfred Butts: Inventor of the board game Scrabble
• Gregg Carey: Contestant on Survivor: Palau
• Eduardo Catalano: Architect
• Rick Chertoff: Music producer
• J. Michael Cobb: International Urban Planner-Designer, Jubail New City, Saudi Arabia
• Claudia Cohen: Former Page Six gossip columnist for the New York Post
• Nancy Cordes: CBS news national correspondent
• Adrian Cronauer: Radio Personality and subject of biopic Good Morning Vietnam
• Mark Cronin: Television producer and writer
• Whitney Cummings: Comedienne
• Laurence S. Cutler: Co-founder with wife and fellow alum Judy Goffman Cutler of the National Museum of American Illustration
• Frank Miles Day: Prominent architect who made major additions to the campuses of the University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania State University, Princeton University and Wellesley College, among others; he was national president of the American Institute of Architects, 1906–07; and a founding editor of House & Garden (magazine)
• Pamela Day: Businesswoman and contestant of NBC reality show The Apprentice 2
• James DePreist: Permanent conductor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, director of conducting and orchestral studies at the Juilliard School and laureate music director of the Oregon Symphony
• Bruce Dern: Academy Award-nominated Actor
• John S. Detlie: Academy Award-nominated art director/set designer
• Celeste DiNucci: Winner of the Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions in 2007
• Guitarist Jon Gutwillig and ex-drummer Sam Altman of the trance-fusion band the Disco Biscuits. Bassist Marc Brownstein and Keyboardist Aron Magner attended the university, but never graduated.
• Gail Dolgin: Academy Award-nominated documentary filmmaker (Daughter from Danang)
• John Doman: Actor, star of HBO's series The Wire
• Yochi Dreazen: Journalist, The Wall Street Journal, National Journal
• Jennifer Egan: Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist; National Book Award finalist
• Keith Epstein: Investigative journalist for BusinessWeek magazine
• Joseph Esherick: Prominent Bay Area architect; Professor, University of California, Berkeley
• Jabari Evans: rapper known as Naledge, member of hip-hop group Kidz in the Hall
• Ray Evans: Academy Award-winning songwriter
• Jonathan Leo Fairbanks: Founding Curator of the American decorative arts and sculpture department at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
• Jessie Fauset: prominent author and contributor to the Harlem Renaissance.
• Wendy Finerman: Academy Award-winning movie producer, she won the Oscar for the film Forrest Gump in 1994
• Stanley Fish: New York Times Op-ed columnist
• Melissa Fitzgerald: American actress best known for her role on the TV program The West Wing as Carol Fitzpatrick
• Frank Ford: Long-time Philly radio talk show host, and co-founder of the Valley Forge Music Fair and the Westbury Music Fair
• Stephen J. Friedman: Movie producer
• Zenos Frudakis: Sculptor whose works are featured at institutions around the world
• Richard Garfield: Inventor of the popular trading card game Magic: The Gathering.
• Robert Gant: Actor, best known as Ben on Queer as Folk
• Adam Garfinkle: editor of The American Interest, a public policy quarterly magazine
• Nikki Giovanni: Poet and author, she attended Penn but did not earn a degree
• Stephen Glass: Former reporter for The New Republic, author of The Fabulist
• Benjamin Glazer: Academy Award-winning screenwriter, and founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
• Jeffrey Goldberg: Award winning journalist. Writer for the Atlantic and The New Yorker
• Leonard Goldberg: Former Chairman of 20th Century Fox, TV and Movie Producer
• Osvaldo Golijov: Grammy Award-winning composer of classical music
• Bruce Graham: Architect who designed the Sears Tower, the John Hancock Center, and the Inland Steel Building in Chicago
• Archie Green: American folklorist and musicologist
• Zane Grey: Prolific author of Western novels
• Shelly Gross: Broadway producer and co-founder of the Valley Forge Music Fair and the Westbury Music Fair
• Charles Gwathmey, FAIA, famous architect who studied at Penn, and later at Yale
• Joseph Hallman: Philadelphia classical and pop music composer. Student of the LPS Division, in the MLA program.
• George Harold Waldo Haag, FAIA, school architect, class of 1934
• Mark Haines: CNBC business news anchor
• William Stanley Haseltine: Acclaimed 19th century American painter, his works are included in the collections of museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., among others
• George Hedges: Celebrity lawyer, and archeologist who discovered the ancient city of Ubar
• Jennifer Higdon: Grammy Award-winning flutist and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer of classical music
• Doc Holliday: Gunman and gambler in western US in 1870s and 1880s; colleague of the Earp brothers; participated in the OK Corral gunfight. Graduated from Philadelphia College of Dentistry (1872), which merged into Penn in 1909.
• Ariel Horn: Novelist
• Kristin Hunter: African-American novelist
• Tetsugo Hyakutake: Award-winning Japanese photographer
• Rob Hyman: Singer, songwriter, keyboard player, member of The Hooters
• Alberto Ibarguen: Chairman of the Board of the Newseum in Washington, D.C., and former publisher of the Miami Herald
• Moe Jaffe: Songwriter ["Gypsy in My Soul", "I'm My Own Grandpa", etc.]
• George Clarke Jenkins: American Academy Award-winning production designer and three-time Tony Award nominee
• Amandus Johnson: Founding curator of the American Swedish Historical Museum
• Louis Kahn: Noted architect, works include the Yale University Art Gallery and Jatiyo Sangsad Bhaban National Assembly Building, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
• Aaron Karo: Popular college humorist who details Penn life in books and on the CollegeHumor website.
• Andrea Keller: Architect; Contestant on Bravo's Top Design (placed 3rd)
• Duncan Kenworthy: Producer, Four Weddings and a Funeral, and Notting Hill
• Florence Kirk: American operatic soprano
• Joe Klein: Columnist and political analyst for Time magazine
• Evan Kohlmann: NBC terrorism analyst
• Andrea Kremer: ESPN sports correspondent
• Harry Kurnitz: Screenwriter
• Sara Larkin: Visual artist
• Elliot Lawrence: Tony Award-winning jazz pianist, composer and bandleader
• William Harold Lee: Architect
• John Legend: (birth name John Stephens) Multiple Grammy Award-winning Rhythm and blues singer/songwriter
• Michael R. Levy: Founder and Publisher of Texas Monthly magazine
• William Link: Television and film writer and producer who co-created and produced the shows Columbo, Mannix, Ellery Queen and Murder, She Wrote
• Caren Lissner: Novelist, author of "Carrie Pilby"
• Betty Liu: Anchorwoman for Bloomberg Television
• Alan W. Livingston: Record producer who signed the Beatles to their first major U.S. contract; he also created the character Bozo the Clown
• Jay Livingston: Academy Award-winning songwriter
• Sari Locker: Television personality and author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Amazing Sex
• John D. MacDonald: Author, famous for his Travis McGee series
• Aron Magner: keyboardist, The Disco Biscuits
• Patrick Maloney: cast member on MTV's reality show Road Rules
• Mary Ellen Mark: American photographer
• John Masius: Emmy award-winning producer and writer of television series such as Touched By An Angel, St. Elsewhere, and others
• Megan McArdle: Blogger
• James McDaniel: Emmy Award-winning actor
• William McIlvaine, Jr.: American painter whose works are owned by the New York Historical Society and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
• Milton Bennett Medary, Jr.: Prominent architect who designed the Washington Memorial Chapel at Valley Forge National Park and the Bok Singing Tower; and together with fellow alumnus William Charles Hays, he designed Houston Hall, America's first student union
• Toral Mehta: Contestant of The Apprentice 4
• Thor Halvorssen Mendoza: human rights advocate and film producer; Founder, Human Rights Foundation
• Jonah Meyerson: Film and TV actor
• Sia Michel: Pop music editor of The New York Times
• Andrea Mitchell: NBC Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent
• David Naughton: Actor best known for starring in the 1981 horror film An American Werewolf in London
• Barton Myers: Architect
• Becki Newton: Actress, Amanda on Ugly Betty
• Ken Olin: Actor, best known for his lead role on thirtysomething and as director & executive producer of Alias
• Charles Ornstein: Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for the Los Angeles Times
• Christina Park: Fox News Channel anchorwoman
• Rob Pearlstein: Academy Award-nominated writer and director
• Norman Pearlstine: Past Editor-in-chief of Time Inc.
• I.M. Pei: Famous modernist architect (attended for a short time in 1935 before transferring to MIT)
• Jim Perry: (birth name: Jim Dooley) U.S. and Canadian television host
• Gina Philips: actress (attended, never graduated)
• Marc Platt: Film, television and theatre producer
• Chaim Potok: Award-winning author, The Chosen, The Promise, My Name Is Asher Lev, and The Gift of Asher Lev
• Ezra Pound: 20th century Modernist poet and promoter of various writers and schools of literature (attended for two years before transferring to Hamilton College). He returned to Penn and earned a master's degree in romance philology.
• Maury Povich: Talk-show host
• Lionel Pries: Influential American architect
• Harold Prince: Famous Broadway Producer with works including West Side Story and The Phantom of the Opera
• Paul Provenza: Actor, comedian, and director of The Aristocrats
• Alan Rachins: Actor (L.A. Law and Dharma and Greg)
• David Raksin: Composer
• Jonathan Rand: Playwright
• Alan Richman: Journalist and food writer
• Tom Rinaldi: ESPN reporter and winner of three Regional Emmy Awards
• Melissa Rivers (Birth name: Melissa Rosenberg): Actress and daughter of comedian Joan Rivers
• John P. Roberts: Producer who bankrolled the Woodstock Festival
• Mark Rosenthal: Screenwriter, Mona Lisa Smile, Planet of the Apes, Mighty Joe Young, etc.
• Eric J. Savitz: West Coast Editor of Barron's Magazine
• Mary B Schuenemann: Award-winning 20th century American watercolorist
• Lisa Scottoline: Popular American author of many legal thrillers; New York Times best-seller list author
• Matt Selman: Long-time writer for the Award-winning animated series The Simpsons
• Sylvan Shemitz: American lighting designer best known for his work on Grand Central Terminal in New York City and the Thomas Jefferson Memorial in Washington D.C
• Grover Simcox: illustrator, naturalist and polymath
• Linda Simensky (1985): Producer of animated works
• Michael Smerconish: Radio host and political pundit
• Yakov Smirnoff: Comedian and Painter
• Martin Cruz Smith: Author of Gorky Park
• Jerome Socolovsky: Religion reporter for Voice of America
• Jordan Sonnenblick: Author of Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie
• Devo Springsteen: Grammy Award winning music producer and songwriter (born Devon Harris)
• Steve Stecklow: Pulitzer Prize winning journalist.
• Emil Steiner: Author and journalist for the Washington Post
• John and Emlyn Stewardson: Brothers and partners in Cope & Stewardson, a prominent architectural firm that designed the University of Pennsylvania Museum and buildings for Bryn Mawr College, Princeton University, and Washington University, including Brookings Hall
• Meredith Stiehm: Emmy Award-winning television producer and screenwriter
• I.F. Stone: Prominent journalist and commentator from the 40s through the 60s.
• Jennifer Su: (Birth name: Jennifer Tsou), Television anchor and radio presenter, Hong Kong and Thailand
• Stephanie Sy: ABC News anchor and correspondent
• Michael Tearson: Voice of Philadelphia Radio, DJ for WMMR, WXPN and WMGK.
• Tammi Terrell: a Grammy Award-nominated American soul singer, most notable for her association with Motown and her duets with Marvin Gaye, particularly "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" and "You're All I Need."
• Brian Tierney: Publisher of the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News
• Lynn Toler: Judge on the TV series Divorce Court
• Garner Tullis: American artist whose works are included in the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Philadelphia Museum of Art
• Bobby Troup: Actor, Songwriter best known for writing the popular standard "(Get Your Kicks On) Route 66", and for his role as Dr. Joe Early in the 1970s TV series Emergency!
• Ivanka Trump: Fashion model, businesswoman, judge of NBC reality show The Apprentice 6, daughter of real estate mogul and Penn alumnus Donald Trump
• Cenk Uygur: Former MSNBC talk show host; radio talk show host, The Young Turks (talk show), Air America Radio and columnist for Huffington Post
• M.G. Vassanji: Canadian novelist and member of the Order of Canada
• David A. Vise: Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
• Amina Wadud: Disputed Imam and author on various Islamic subjects
• David A. Wallace: Prominent architect whose firm Wallace McHarg Roberts & Todd (WMRT) was largely responsible for the revitalization of Baltimore's Inner Harbor
• Mark Waters (director): Director of Mean Girls and other films
• Ted Weems: Bandleader
• Schatar White, now Schatar Sapphira Taylor: Celebrity, Singer, Actress, Songwriter, Movie "High Roller", Contestant on VH1's Charm School
• John Edgar Wideman: Author, Rhodes Scholar
• Anand Wilder, guitarist, Yeasayer
• C.K. Williams: Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winning poet
• William Carlos Williams: Poet
• Dick Wolf: Emmy Award-winning producer and creator of popular Law & Order series
• Aaron Yoo: American actor who starred in the 2007 films Disturbia and American Pastime
• Rick Yune: Actor
• Chip Zien: Actor
• Sidney Zion: Writer, journalist
• David Zippel: Tony Award-winning theatre lyricist

Athletics

College Football Hall of Famers

• Reds Bagnell: Maxwell Award football halfback at Penn, and member of the College Football Hall of Fame
• George H. Brooke: Member of the College Football Hall of Fame, he played for Penn and Swarthmore College
• Charlie Gelbert (football): Member of the College Football Hall of Fame
• Ed McGinley: Member of the College Football Hall of Fame
• Leroy Mercer: Member of the College Football Hall of Fame and the 1910 College Football All-America Team
• John Minds: Member of the College Football Hall of Fame
• Skip Minisi: Member of the College Football Hall of Fame
• Bob Odell: Member of the College Football Hall of Fame
• Winchester Osgood: Former Penn football player and member of the College Football Hall of Fame
• John H. Outland: The Outland Trophy in college football is named after him
• George Savitsky: Member of the College Football Hall of Fame
• Hunter Scarlett: Member of the College Football Hall of Fame
• Vince Stevenson: Member of the College Football Hall of Fame
• Bob Torrey: Member of the College Football Hall of Fame
• Charles Wharton: Member of the College Football Hall of Fame

Head Coaches

• Jerome Allen: Former NBA player, and member of the Philadelphia Big 5 Hall of Fame and now head coach of Penn's men's basketball team
• E.B. Beaumont: 1st Head Coach in football at the University of Alabama
• Sam Boyle: Head Coach in football at Penn State University, Dickinson College, and Ohio Wesleyan University
• Marty Brill: Head Coach in football at LaSalle University and Loyola Marymount University
• Alfred E. Bull: Head Coach in football at the University of Iowa, Georgetown University, and Lafayette College
• Byron W. Dickson: Head Coach in football at Lehigh University
• Dexter Draper: Head Coach in football at the University of Texas (1909)
• James Dwyer: Former head football coach at Louisiana State University and the University of Toledo
• George Flint: All-American basketball player and Head Coach in men's basketball at the University of Pittsburgh
• Bob Folwell: Head Coach in football at Lafayette College, Washington & Jefferson College, the University of Pennsylvania, and the United States Naval Academy; also the first Head Coach of the New York Giants
• Tom Gilmore (football coach): Head Coach in Football at the College of the Holy Cross
• Edward Green (American football): Head football coach at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1908 and at North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, now North Carolina State University, from 1909 to 1913
• Dick Harter: Head Coach in men's basketball at the University of Oregon
• John Heisman: The Heisman Trophy is named after him; he was also the President of the American Football Coaches Association and served as head football coach at Oberlin College (1892, 1894), Buchtel College, now known as the University of Akron (1893–1894), Auburn University (1895–1899), Clemson University (1900–1903), Georgia Tech (1904–1919), the University of Pennsylvania (1920–1922), Washington & Jefferson College (1923), and Rice University (1924–1927)
• Bill Hollenback: Member of the College Football Hall of Fame and Head Coach in football at Penn State (1909, 1911–14)
• Jack Hollenback: Head Coach in football at Franklin & Marshall College from 1908 to 1909, Pennsylvania State University in 1910, and Pennsylvania Military College, now Widener University in 1911
• Danny Hutchinson: Head Coach in football at Wesleyan University
• Roy Jackson: Head Coach in football at the University of Pittsburgh
• Charles Keinath: Head Coach in basketball at Penn (1909–12)
• A. R. Kennedy: Head Coach in football at Washburn University (1903, 1916–1917) and the University of Kansas (1904–1910)
• Alden Knipe: Head Coach in Football at the University of Iowa from 1898 to 1902
• Otis Lamson: Member of the 1905 College Football All-America Team, and 1907 Head Coach in football at the University of North Carolina
• Matt Langel: Head Coach in men's basketball at Colgate University
• Dan Leibovitz: Head Coach in men's basketball at the University of Hartford
• George Levene: Head Coach in Football at the University of Tennessee (1907–09)
• Lou Little: Head Coach in Football at Columbia University from 1930 to 1956, he was responsible for Columbia's 1934 win over Stanford University in the Rose Bowl; he also served as President of the American Football Coaches Association (born Luigi Piccolo)
• John Lyons (American football): Head Coach in football at Dartmouth College
• Harry Arista Mackey: Head Coach in football at the University of Virginia
• John Macklin: Head Coach in football, basketball, baseball and track and field at Michigan Agricultural College, now Michigan State University (and the winningest head football coach in that school's history)
• Fran McCaffery: Head Coach in Basketball at Lehigh University, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, Siena College and the University of Iowa
• Jack McCloskey: Head Coach in men's basketball at Wake Forest University
• Sol Metzger: Head Coach in Football at the University of Pennsylvania, Oregon State University, West Virginia University, Washington and Jefferson College, and the University of South Carolina
• David Micahnik: Penn graduate and fencing coach and member of the USFA Hall of Fame
• Allie Miller: Head Coach in football at Villanova University
• George Munger: Member of the College Football Hall of Fame (as coach)
• B. Russell Murphy: First Head Coach in basketball at Johns Hopkins University
• Samuel B. Newton: Head Coach in football at Pennsylvania State University (1896–1898), Lafayette College (1899–1901, 1911), Lehigh University (1902–1905), and Williams College (1907–09)
• Harry Parker: Head Coach in varsity rowing at Harvard University
• Simon F. Pauxtis: Head Coach in football at Dickinson College (1911-12), and the Pennsylvania Military Academy, now Widener University, 1916-29 and 1936-46
• Frank Piekarski: Head Coach in football at Washington & Jefferson College, and member of the 1904 College Football All-America Team
• Jack Ramsay: Head Coach, Portland Trail Blazers and member of the Basketball Hall of Fame
• Charles Rogers (American football coach): Head Coach in football at the University of Delaware
• Seth Roland: Head Coach in men's soccer at Fairleigh Dickinson University
• Michael Saxe: Head Coach in Basketball at Villanova University from 1920 to 1926
• Frank Sexton (baseball): Major League Baseball player, and Head Coach in baseball at Brown University, Harvard University and the University of Michigan
• Andy Smith (American football): Penn alumnus and Head Coach in football at the University of California, Berkeley from 1916 to 1925 (and the winningest head football coach in that school's history); and member of the College Football Hall of Fame (as coach)
• Andrew Toole: Head Coach in basketball at Robert Morris University
• Otto Wagonhurst: Head Coach in football at the University of Alabama in 1896 and at the University of Iowa in 1897
• Garfield Weede: Head Coach in football at Washburn University and Pittsburg State University; member of the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame, and dentist
• Doctor Weeks: 1st Head Coach in football at the University of Massachusetts
• Carl Sheldon Williams: College football coach; won national championships for Penn in both 1904 and 1907
• Henry L. Williams: Member of the College Football Hall of Fame (as coach); he coached at the United States Military Academy and the University of Minnesota
• George Washington Woodruff: Member of the College Football Hall of Fame (as coach)
• Wylie G. Woodruff: Head Coach in football at the University of Kansas

NFL Superbowl Champions

• Chuck Bednarik: Philadelphia Eagles linebacker and 1960 NFL champion, member of both the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the College Football Hall of Fame, and namesake of the Chuck Bednarik Award in college football; recipient of the 2010 Walter Camp Distinguished American Award
• Tuffy Conn: 1920 NFL Champion
• Jim Finn: National Football League fullback and New York Giants Super Bowl XLII Champion
• Tex Hamer: 1926 NFL Champion
• Pard Pearce: 1921 NFL Champion playing for the Chicago Staleys (now the Chicago Bears)

Olympic Medalists

• Larry Bader: Winner of a silver medal as part of the U.S. team in ice hockey at the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo, Japan
• Irving Baxter: Winner of two gold and three silver medals at the 1900 Paris Olympics
• Greg Best: Winner of two silver medals at the 1988 Seoul Olympics
• Bill Carr: Winner of two gold medals at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics, and member of the National Track & Field Hall of Fame
• Nathaniel Cartmell: Winner of four Olympic medals: two silver at the 1904 St. Louis Olympics, and a gold and a bronze at the 1908 London Olympics; also the first Head Coach in men's basketball at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Britton Chance: Winner of a gold medal at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics
• Frank Chapot: Winner of two silver medals in equestrian - one at the 1960 Rome Olympics and another at the 1972 Munich Olympics, and member of the United States Show Jumping Hall of Fame
• Gene Clapp: Winner of a silver medal at the 1972 Munich Olympics
• Meredith Colket: Winner of a silver medal in the Pole Vault at the 1900 Paris Olympics
• Ellie Daniel, Class of 1974: Winner of four Olympic medals: a gold, silver and bronze at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, and a bronze at the 1972 Munich Olympics; member of the International Swimming Hall of Fame
• Anita DeFrantz: Winner of a bronze medal at the 1976 Montreal Olympics; Member of both the International Olympic Committee and the U.S. Olympic Committee
• Michalis Dorizas: Winner of a silver medal at the 1908 London Olympics
• Earl Eby: Winner of a silver medal in track and field at the 1920 Antwerp Olympics
• Susan Francia: Winner of a gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics in women's rowing, and two gold medals at the 2009 World Rowing Championships
• Sarah Garner: Winner of a bronze medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and two gold medals at the World Rowing Championships (1997 and 1998)
• James Gentle: Winner of a bronze medal at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics and member of the National Soccer Hall of Fame
• Samuel Gerson: Winner of a silver medal in wrestling at the 1920 Antwerp Olympics
• Truxton Hare: Winner of a silver medal at the 1900 Paris Olympics and a bronze medal at the 1904 St. Louis Olympics; charter member of the College Football Hall of Fame
• Wilson Hobson, Jr.: Winner of a bronze medal in field hockey at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics, and past member of the U.S. Olympic Committee; he also served as Secretary-Treasurer of the organization now known as the United States Soccer Federation
• Sidney Jelinek: Winner of a bronze medal at the 1924 Paris Olympics
• John B. Kelly, Jr.: accomplished oarsman, four-time Olympian, and Olympic medal winner at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, and President of the United States Olympic Committee and member of the United States Olympic Hall of Fame; brother of famous actress Grace Kelly; Kelly Drive in Philadelphia is named for him
• Alvin Kraenzlein: Four-time Olympic gold medal champion at the 1900 Paris Olympics
• Donald Lippincott: Winner of a silver and a bronze medal at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics
• Oliver MacDonald: Winner of a gold medal at the 1924 Paris Olympics
• Hugh Matheson (rower) Winner of a silver medal (for Great Britain) at the 1976 Montreal Olympics
• Josiah McCracken: Winner of a silver and a bronze medal at the 1900 Paris Olympics; later he was Chief Resident Physician at Pennsylvania Hospital, the first hospital in the U.S.
• Jack Medica: Winner of a gold and two silver medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics; he was a graduate student at Penn, but did not earn a degree
• Ted Meredith: Olympic distance runner, won two Gold Medals at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics
• Leslie Milne and Julie Staver: Winners of a bronze medal in women's field hockey at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics
• Ted Nash: Winner of a gold medal at the 1960 Rome Olympics and a bronze medal at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics in rowing
• George Orton: Winner of a gold and a bronze medal at the 1900 Paris Olympics; also the first Canadian to win an Olympic medal; member of both Canada's Sports Hall of Fame and the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame
• John Pescatore: Winner of a bronze medal at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, and Head Coach in men's rowing at Yale University
• Lisa Rohde: Winner of a silver medal in rowing at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics
• Charles Sheaffer: Winner of a bronze medal at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics
• Brandon Slay: Winner of a gold medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics in freestyle wrestling
• Phillip Stekl: Winner of a silver medal in rowing at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics
• Michael Storm: Winner of a silver medal in the Modern Pentathalon at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics
• John Baxter Taylor, Jr.: First African-American to win an Olympic Gold Medal - 1908 London Olympics
• Walter Tewksbury: Winner of five medals at the 1900 Paris Olympics: two gold, two silver and a bronze

Sports Executives and Owners

• Steve Baumann: President of the National Soccer Hall of Fame
• Bert Bell: Former National Football League Commissioner from 1946 to 1959, who took the league to unprecedented heights; also co-founder of the Philadelphia Eagles, and past co-owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers
• Mel Bridgman: Former National Hockey League player and General Manager of the Ottawa Senators
• Joseph Dey: Past Executive Director of the United States Golf Association, first Commissioner of the PGA Tour and namesake of the Joe Dey Award sponsored by the USGA, and member of the World Golf Hall of Fame
• Eddie Einhorn: Vice Chairman of the Chicago White Sox
• Austin Gunsel: Commissioner of the National Football League, 1959-60
• Ron Hines: Co-founder of the Black American Racers Association
• Red Kellett: Former President of the Baltimore Colts
• Craig Littlepage: Director of athletics at the University of Virginia
• Jack McCloskey: General Manager of the NBA champion Detroit Pistons
• David Montgomery: Part-owner, President, and CEO of the Philadelphia Phillies
• Walter O'Malley: Owner and chief executive of the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers; and member of the Baseball Hall of Fame
• Joanne Pasternack: Director of the 49ers Foundation and Community Relations executive with the San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League
• Carroll Rosenbloom: Penn football player and past owner of the Baltimore Colts (now the Indianapolis Colts) and the Los Angeles Rams (now the St. Louis Rams)
• Ed Stefanski: President and General Manager of the Philadelphia 76ers
• Vernon Stouffer: Former owner of the Cleveland Indians
• Lud Wray: Founder of the Philadelphia Eagles together with fellow Penn alumnus Bert Bell; also the first Head Coach of the Boston Braves (now the Washington Redskins)

Other Accomplished Athletes

• Josh Appell: Pitcher with the New York Mets farm team the Brooklyn Cyclones
• Cliff Bayer: Foil fencer, 2-time Olympian, 4-time U.S. champion, NCAA champion, Pan Am silver medalist
• Eddie Bell: the 1st black All American in football, then NFL
• Joe Burk: Award-winning Ivy League oarsman and coach
• Sam Burley: Track and field record holder
• Doc Bushong: Major League Baseball catcher with a 15-year career
• Corky Calhoun: Storied Penn basketball player who helped the team go 28-0 during the 1970-71 season; he subsequently had an 8-year professional career with such teams as the Phoenix Suns, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Portland Trail Blazers
• Danny Cepero: First Major League Soccer goalkeeper to score a goal from open play
• Mark DeRosa: San Francisco Giants Infielder/Outfielder
• Frank B. Ellis, Class of 1893: Co-founder of the Penn Relays, the oldest and largest track and field competition in the United States
• Doc Farrell: Penn graduate had a 10-year Major League Baseball career, with teams such as the New York Giants (now the San Francisco Giants), New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox
• Charlie Ferguson (1880s pitcher): Earned 728 strikeouts from 1884 to 1888 as a pitcher for the Philadelphia Quakers, now the Philadelphia Phillies
• Doug Glanville: Major League Baseball Outfielder and New York Times Op-ed columnist
• Scott Graham: Long-time Philadelphia Phillies sportscaster
• Alexander Grant (athlete): Early 20th century U.S. and world champion and record holder in several track and field events
• Nelson Graves: Philadelphian cricketer and businessman
• Jeff Hatch: Former New York Giants player
• Wallace F. Johnson: Early 20th century U.S. tennis champion
• Matt Maloney: 1994-95 Ivy League Player of the Year in Basketball; then NBA player
• Rob Milanese: Arena Football League wide receiver; school's all-time leading receiver
• Syed Mohammed Hadi: Olympic athlete
• Bob Morse: Basketball player is the holder of 3 Euroleague titles, and was chosen as one of the 50 Greatest Euroleague Contributors since the founding in 1958 of the European Champions Cup
• Pete Overfield: All-American and professional football player, federal judge in Alaska and rancher
• Jim Peterson (baseball): Major League Baseball player from 1931 to 1937, and winner of the 1931 World Series playing for the Philadelphia Athletics (now the Oakland Athletics)
• Frank Reagan: Former professional football player for the New York Giants and the Philadelphia Eagles from 1941 to 1951; he led the NFL in interceptions in 1947
• Stan Startzell: Three-time soccer All-American
• John Thayer: First-class cricketer
• Roy Thomas (outfielder): Philadelphia Phillies player and National League leader in runs scored, base on balls, and on base percentage
• Bill Tilden: Tennis player who won 10 Grand Slam titles, including 7 U.S. Opens and 3 Wimbledons. (Dropped out in sophomore year)
• Joe Valerio: NFL pro who spent five seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs
• Steve Yerkes: Wharton dropout played Major League Baseball from 1909 to 1916 with such teams as the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago Cubs, and scored the Series-winning run in the tenth inning of Game Eight of the 1912 World Series for the Red Sox
• Blondy Wallace: College All-American, NFL, and bootlegger

Business

For a more comprehensive list of notable alumni in the business world, see *Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. (Note: Not all of the following individuals attended the Wharton School, but may be alumni of other schools within the University of Pennsylvania).

• Anil Ambani: billionaire, Chairman, Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group
• Walter Annenberg: billionaire publisher, philanthropist, former U.S Ambassador to the United Kingdom, awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, He was given the rank of Knight Commander (the second-highest rank in the Order of the British Empire) by Queen Elizabeth II
• Susan Arnold: Past Vice Chairman of Procter & Gamble
• Morton J. Baum, president of Hickey Freeman
• Alfred Berkeley: Former President and Vice-Chairman of the NASDAQ Stock Market, Inc.
• Nicholas Biddle: President of the Second Bank of the United States
• William Bingham, Class of 1768: One of the Founders and a Director of the Bank of North America, the first modern United States bank
• Matt Blank: Chairman and CEO of Showtime
• Richard Bloch: Co-founder, H&R Block
• Mitchell Blutt: Executive Partner, J.P. Morgan Chase
• John Bogle: Founder and retired CEO of The Vanguard Group
• Beauveau Borie, Class of 1865: President, Philadelphia Stock Exchange, the oldest stock exchange in the U.S.
• Len Bosack: Co-founder, Cisco Systems (Internet routers company)
• David Bowes, NIMBUS (National Inst. Materials Science- Japan), founder Seattle Biodiesel Initiative
• Dimitri Boylan (Entrepreneur): Former CEO of Hotjobs.com, now part of Yahoo!
• Geralyn Breig: former President, Godiva International
• David Brown: Co-founder of Silicon Graphics
• Christopher Browne: Past Managing Director of Tweedy, Browne Co.
• Warren Buffett: CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, investor, the 2nd richest man in the world (attended for two years before transferring to the University of Nebraska)
• Charles Butt: Billionaire Founder, CEO and Chairman, H-E-B Grocery Company
• William P. Carey: Founder of W. P. Carey & Co. LLC, a corporate real estate financing firm headquartered in New York City
• Robert Castellini: CEO and part-owner of the Cincinnati Reds baseball team
• Robert F. Cavanaugh: Board Member, Hershey Foods
• Steven A. Cohen: Founder and Manager, SAC Capital Partners
• Arthur D. Collins, Jr.: Chairman and CEO, Medtronic
• Stephen Cooper (businessman): CEO of Warner Music Group
• Robert Crandall: Chairman and CEO, American Airlines, Inc
• Donny Deutsch: Chairman, Deutsch, Inc.
• Michael DiCandilo: Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President of AmerisourceBergen corporation
• Eugene du Pont: the first head of modern day DuPont
• Mike Eskew: Chairman and CEO, UPS
• Jerome Fisher: Founder and Chairman, Nine West, Inc.
• Richard Fisher: Fisher Brothers Construction, New York
• Jay S. Fishman: Chairman and CEO of The Travelers Companies
• Catherine Austin Fitts: CEO and Founder of Solari Inc.
• James W. Fordyce, President of the Lasker Foundation
• Russell P. Fradin: Chairman and CEO of Hewitt Associates
• Robert Edward Glendinning, Class of 1888: Governor of the New York Stock Exchange, and the first person from outside New York to hold that position
• Robert B. Goergen: Chairman and CEO of Blyth, Inc.
• Steven Goldstone: Former Chairman and CEO of RJR Nabisco
• Joel Greenblatt: hedge fund manager and author
• Sam Hamadeh: Founder, Vault Inc. and film producer
• Gilbert W. Harrison, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Financo, Inc.
• George H. Heilmeier: Former President and CEO of Bellcore (now Telcordia)
• Charles A. Heimbold, Jr.: U.S. Ambassador to Sweden, former Chairman and CEO of Bristol-Myers Squibb Company
• C. Robert Henrikson: Chairman, President and CEO, MetLife
• William H. Hernandez: Board member, Eastman Kodak Company
• Vernon Hill: Founder, Chairman, and CEO, Commerce Bancorp
• Philip B. Hofmann: Past Chairman and CEO of Johnson & Johnson
• Jirair Hovnanian: Home builder
• Donald D. Humphreys: COO, Exxon Mobil
• Jon Huntsman, Sr.: Billionaire, founder of the Huntsman Corporation
• Reginald H. Jones: Former Chairman and CEO of General Electric
• Soo-Ryong Kim: Chairman and CCO, Deutsche Bank AG, Korea
• Yotaro Kobayashi: Chairman and Co-CEO, Fuji Xerox
• Josh Kopelman: Founder, Half.com
• Michael J. Kowalski: Chairman and CEO, Tiffany & Co.
• Leonard Lauder: Co-founder of Estée Lauder; billionaire investor
• Geraldine Laybourne: Founder of Oxygen Media
• Terry Leahy: CEO, Tesco
• Douglas Lenat: Founder of artificial intelligence company Cycorp
• Gerald Levin: former CEO of AOL Time Warner
• Edward J. Lewis: former Chairman of the Board of the Oxford Development Company, one of the largest Pennsylvania-based real estate firms
• George Lindemann: Billionaire industrialist
• Joseph Wharton Lippincott: Past President and Chairman of the Board of J.B. Lippincott Company, and grandson of industrialist Joseph Wharton, founder of the Wharton School of Business
• John A. Luke, Jr.: Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of MeadWestvaco Corporation
• Peter Lynch: Investor, Vice-Chairman of Fidelity Investments
• Mian Raza Mansha: Multi-millionaire and Chief Executive D.G. Khan Cement Company Ltd. Director, Nishat Mills Ltd, BSJS Balanced Fund Limited, National Investment Trust Limited and Nishat Shuaiba Paper Products Company Limited.
• John A. Mayer: Former Chairman and CEO of Mellon Financial Corporation, and the first non-Mellon to head the company
• Harold McGraw III: President and CEO of McGraw-Hill Companies and chairman of the Business Roundtable
• Michael Milken: Trader, financier, ex-felon
• Bill Miller: Chairman and Chief Investment Officer, Legg Mason Capital Management
• Jordan Mintz: Enron whistleblower
• Aditya Mittal: President and CFO, Mittal Steel Company
• Ken Moelis: Founder of Moelis & Company
• Michael Moritz: Venture capitalist, Sequoia Capital
• Robert Morrison: CEO of Quaker Oats Company; former CEO, Kraft Foods
• Michael H. Moskow: 8th President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
• Elon Musk: Technology entrepreneur; Founder, CEO and CTO of SpaceX; Co-founder of PayPal; Board Member of Planetary Society; investor and Chairman of the Board of Tesla Motors
• Peter Nicholas: Billionaire co-founder of the medical device firm Boston Scientific
• William Novelli: CEO of AARP, and founder and past President of Porter Novelli, one of the world's largest lobbying and public relations firms, now part of the Omnicom Group
• Shaun F. O'Malley: Former Chairman and CEO of Price Waterhouse, predecessor company to PricewaterhouseCoopers; and member of the Accounting Hall of Fame
• William S. Paley: Founder, CBS Corporation
• Bruce Pasternack: President and CEO of the Special Olympics International; formerly Senior Vice President of Booz-Allen & Hamilton Inc.
• Ronald O. Perelman: Billionaire investor
• Benjamin W. Perkins, Jr.: Prominent thoroughbred racehorse trainer
• Lionel Pincus: Past Chairman of Warburg Pincus
• Lewis E. Platt: President, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Hewlett-Packard
• J.D. Power: Founder of marketing research firm J.D. Power & Associates
• Edmund T. Pratt, Jr.: Former Chairman and CEO of Pfizer, Inc.
• Frank Quattrone: Prominent investment banker, formerly with Credit Suisse First Boston
• Robert Rabinovitch: Former President and CEO of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
• Raj Rajaratnam: Billionaire founder of the hedge fund Galleon Group
• Shailesh Rao: Managing Director of Google India
• Josh Resnick: Founder and President, Pandemic Studios
• Sylvia Rhone: Former President and CEO of Eastwest Records, Elektra Records, and Motown Records, and the first African-American woman to head a major record company
• Rich Riley: Senior Vice President and Managing Director of Yahoo! Europe, Middle East & Africa
• Brian L. Roberts: Chairman and CEO, Comcast Corporation
• Lucille Roberts: Namesake and successful proprietar of women's fitness clubs
• Ralph J. Roberts: Co-founder, Comcast Corporation
• Eileen Clarkin Rominger: Goldman Sachs partner
• Frank Rooney: Past CEO of Melville Corporation
• Harold Rosen: Executive Director of the Grassroots Business Fund
• Arthur Ross: American businessman and philanthropist
• Perry Rotella: Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer of Verisk Analytics
• J. Brendan Ryan: Chairman of Foote, Cone, and Belding
• Henry Salvatori: Founder, Western Geophysical; founding stockholder of the National Review magazine
• Charles S. Sanford, Jr.: Chief Executive Officer of Bankers Trust
• Harry Scherman: Co-founder of the Book of the Month Club
• John Sculley: former President of PepsiCo; former CEO of Apple Computer
• Paul V. Scura: Former Executive Vice President and Head of the Investment Bank of Prudential Securities
• Tanya Seaman: Co-founder of PhillyCarShare
• Joseph Segel: Founder, QVC; Founder, Franklin Mint
• Henry Silverman: COO of the Apollo Group, formerly head of Cendant Corporation
• Gregg Spiridellis: Founder, JibJab Media, Inc.
• Richard Stearns: President of World Vision
• Michael Steinhardt: Co-founder of prominent hedge fund Steinhardt, Fine, Berkowitz & Co. and philanthropist.
• Michael Tiemann: Co-founder of Cygnus Solutions (a GNU software company), now CTO of Red Hat
• James S. Tisch: CEO, Loews Corporation
• Laurence Tisch: Former CEO of CBS
• Donald Trump: Billionaire real estate mogul, investor, and financier; President & CEO of Trump Organization
• Roy Vagelos: Former CEO of Merck
• James L. Vincent: Past President and CEO of Biogen Idec
• George Herbert Walker IV: CEO of Neuberger Berman; former Managing Director of Lehman Brothers; formerly a Partner with Goldman Sachs & Co; Co-President, Commodities Corporation
• Jacob Wallenberg: Chairman, Investor
• Joseph P. Williams: Creator of the first all-purpose bank credit card, BankAmericard, now known as the Visa, Inc. card
• Gary L. Wilson: CEO and Chairman, Northwest Airlines
• William Wrigley, Jr. II: Chairman and former CEO of the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company, famous makers of chewing gum and confectionery products
• Steve Wynn: Chairman and CEO Wynn Resorts, Limited. Former Chairman and CEO Mirage Resorts, Inc.; responsible for the renaissance of Las Vegas
• Morrie Yohai: Co-inventor of Cheez Doodles snack food
• Mortimer Zuckerman: Real estate billionaire and publisher/owner of the New York Daily News and Editor-in-Chief of U.S. News & World Report
• Martin Zweig: Stock investor and author

Exploration

• Robert Adams, Jr.: Penn graduate served as a botanist with Penn professor Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden while exploring the northwest corner of Wyoming—their efforts led directly to the founding of Yellowstone National Park, the first national park in the United States
• Peter Custis, Class of 1807: One of the leaders of the Red River Expedition in 1806, the first civilian scientific expedition to explore the American West
• Michael L. Gernhardt: NASA astronaut
• Charles Guillou: Member of the prominent 19th century United States Exploring Expedition
• Isaac Israel Hayes: 19th century Arctic explorer - Heiss Island in Franz Josef Land (Russia) was named in his honor
• Elisha Kane: Famed Arctic explorer who received medals from the United States Congress, the Royal Geographical Society, and the Société de Géographie for his work; also the destroyer USS Kane was named for him
• Garrett Reisman: NASA space shuttle astronaut
• B. Clark Wheeler: Founder of Aspen, Colorado

Government/Politics/Law

Colonial America Delegates

Members of the Continental Congress

• Andrew Allen: Pennsylvania delegate to the Continental Congress, 1775–76
• William Bingham: Pennsylvania delegate to the Continental Congress, 1786–88
• Elias Boudinot: New Jersey delegate to the Continental Congress, 1778 and 1781–83, and President of the Continental Congress in 1782-83; he attended the Academy of Philadelphia, but did not earn a degree
• Lambert Cadwalader: New Jersey delegate to the Continental Congress, 1784–87
• Tench Coxe: Pennsylvania delegate to the Continental Congress, 1788–89
• Philemon Dickinson: Delaware delegate to the Continental Congress, 1782–83
• Jonathan Elmer: New Jersey delegate to the Continental Congress, 1777–1778, 1781–1783, 1787–1788
• Robert Goldsborough: Maryland delegate to the Continental Congress, 1774–76
• William Grayson: Virginia delegate to the Continental Congress, 1785–87
• Whitmell Hill: North Carolina delegate to the Continental Congress, 1778–80
• William Hindman: Maryland delegate to the Continental Congress, 1785–86
• Francis Hopkinson: New Jersey delegate to the Continental Congress, 1776
• David Jackson: Pennsylvania delegate to the Continental Congress, 1785
• Henry Latimer: Delaware delegate to the Continental Congress, 1784
• Thomas Mifflin: Pennsylvania delegate to the Continental Congress, 1774–75 and 1782–84, and President of the Continental Congress, 1783–84
• Cadwalader Morris: Pennsylvania delegate to the Continental Congress, 1783–84
• William Paca: Maryland delegate to the Continental Congress, 1774–79
• Richard Peters, Jr.: Pennsylvania delegate to the Continental Congress, 1782–83
• David Ramsay: South Carolina delegate to the Continental Congress, 1782–83 and 1785–86, and acting President of the Continental Congress in 1785-86
• Joshua Seney: Maryland delegate to the Continental Congress, 1778
• Jonathan Sergeant: New Jersey delegate to the Continental Congress, 1776–77
• James Tilton: Delaware delegate to the Continental Congress, 1783–84
• Hugh Williamson: North Carolina delegate to the Continental Congress, 1782–85
• James Wilson: Pennsylvania delegate to the Continental Congress, 1775–77, 1783, 1785–86

U.S. Government

Presidents and Vice Presidents of the United States

• William Henry Harrison (Class of 1791): 9th President of the United States

Members of the United States Cabinet

• Branch Tanner Archer: Secretary of War for the Republic of Texas, 1840–41
• Neil Barofsky: Special Treasury Department Inspector General to oversee the Troubled Assets Relief Program
• Richard E. Besser: Acting Director of the Centers for Disease Control
• Adolph E. Borie: United States Secretary of the Navy under President Ulysses S. Grant
• William Bradford: United States Attorney General under President George Washington
• David Brailer: National Resource Center for Health Information Technology Coordinator—the "health information czar" under President George W. Bush
• Marshall Jordan Breger: Past Chairman of the Administrative Conference of the United States
• William H. Brown, III: Past Chairman of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
• Shirley S. Chater: Commissioner of the Social Security Administration, 1993–97
• Richard A. Clarke: Author, National Counter-Terrorism Director under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush
• William T. Coleman, Jr.: United States Secretary of Transportation, 1975–77, and recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom
• John Howard Dalton: United States Secretary of the Navy, 1993–98
• John DiIulio: 1st Director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives under President George W. Bush
• George Hall Dixon: Deputy Secretary of the Treasury under President Gerald Ford
• George Nicholas Eckert: Director of the United States Mint, 1851–53
• James B. Edwards: United States Secretary of Energy under President Ronald Reagan
• William R. Ferris: Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, 1997–2000
• Thomas K. Finletter: United States Secretary of the Air Force, 1950–53
• Lindley M. Garrison: Secretary of War under President Woodrow Wilson
• Thomas S. Gates: United States Secretary of Defense, 1959–1961, U.S. Secretary of the Navy, 1957–59
• Henry Dilworth Gilpin: United States Attorney General under President Martin VanBuren
• Earl G. Harrison: Commissioner of the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1942–44
• Francis J. Harvey: United States Secretary of the Army, 2004–07
• Henry Hoyt: United States Solicitor General, 1903–09
• George A. Jenks, Class of 1850 and 1853: United States Solicitor General, 1886–89
• Neel Kashkari: Head of the Office of Financial Stability in the U.S. Department of the Treasury
• Virginia Knauer: Director of the U.S. Office of Consumer Affairs, and Special Assistant to the President for Consumer Affairs under President Richard M. Nixon
• C. Everett Koop (internship): Surgeon General of the United States, 1981-89
• John F. Lehman: United States Secretary of the Navy under President Ronald Reagan
• William Flynn Martin: Executive Secretary of the National Security Council, Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Secretary of Energy during the Ronald Reagan administration.
• Ann Dore McLaughlin: United States Secretary of Labor
• William M. Meredith: United States Secretary of the Treasury 1849-1850.
• Samuel Moore: Director, United States Mint, 1824–35
• David W. Ogden: Deputy Attorney General under President Barack Obama
• William Tod Otto: United States Deputy Secretary of the Interior under President Abraham Lincoln, 1863–71
• Thomas M. Pettit: Director of the United States Mint, 1853
• Caesar Augustus Rodney, U.S. Attorney General; U.S. Senator (Delaware)
• Rajiv Shah: Under Secretary of Agriculture for Research, Education, and Economics and Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under President Barack Obama
• Gene Sperling: Director of the National Economic Council under President Barack Obama
• Clifford L. Stanley: Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness under President Barack Obama
• Benjamin Stoddert: First United States Secretary of the Navy (attended but did not earn a degree)
• Rexford Tugwell: Head of the Resettlement Administration and part of Franklin D. Roosevelt's "Brain Trust"
• Michael G. Vickers: United States Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict - Central Intelligence Agency's principal strategist in paramilitary operation to drive the Soviets out of Afghanistan.
• Robert John Walker: United States Secretary of the Treasury, 1845–1849
• George W. Wickersham: United States Attorney General, 1909–1913
• George Washington Woodruff: Acting United States Secretary of the Interior under Theodore Roosevelt
• Hubert Work: United States Postmaster General (1922–1923) under President Warren G. Harding, and United States Secretary of the Interior (1923–1928) under Harding and President Calvin Coolidge

U.S. Senators

• Lewis Heisler Ball: U.S. Senator from Delaware, 1903–05, 1919–25; Delaware representative to the U.S. Congress, 1901–03
• Ephraim Bateman: U.S. Senator and Congressman from New Jersey
• William Wyatt Bibb: U.S. Senator and U.S. Representative from Georgia; Governor of Alabama
• William Bingham, Class of 1768: Namesake of Binghamton, New York and Bingham, Maine; U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania (1795–1801) and President pro tem of the Senate; Pennsylvania delegate to the Continental Congress (1786–88)
• Clayton Douglass Buck: U.S. Senator from Delaware, 1943–49; Governor of Delaware, 1929–37. Attended Towne School of Engineering but did not earn a degree.
• Joseph Maull Carey: U.S. Senator from Wyoming, 1890–95; Governor of Wyoming, 1911–15; Wyoming delegate to the U.S. Congress, 1885–90
• Henry H. Chambers: U.S. Senator from Alabama, 1825–26
• Joseph Sill Clark: U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania, 1957–69
• Simon Barclay Conover: U.S. Senator from Florida, 1873–79. Attended School of Medicine and graduated from the University of Nashville.
• George Robertson Dennis: U.S. Senator from Maryland, 1873–79
• Philemon Dickinson: U.S. Senator from New Jersey, 1790–93.
• James Henderson Duff: U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania, 1951–57, attended Law School but did not earn a degree.
• Henry A. Du Pont: U.S. Senator from Delaware, 1906–17, attended Penn and graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point
• Jonathan Elmer: U.S. Senator from New Jersey, 1789–91
• William Grayson: U.S. Senator from Virginia, 1789-90. Attended College of Philadelphia but did not earn a degree.
• William Henry Harrison: U.S. Senator from Ohio, 1825-28.
• William Hindman: U.S. Senator from Maryland, 1800-01. Attended College of Philadelphia but did not earn a degree.
• Ted Kaufman: U.S. Senator from Delaware, 2009–2011
• Henry Latimer: U.S. Senator from Delaware, 1795–1801; Delaware representative to the U.S. Congress, 1794–95
• Lewis Fields Linn: U.S. Senator from Missouri, 1833-43. Attended School of Medicine but did not earn a degree.
• James Murray Mason: Influential U.S. Senator from Virginia in the early 19th century.
• Gouverneur Morris: New York delegate to the Continental Congress, 1778–79; U.S. Senator from New York, 1800-1803. Attended Academy of Philadelphia but did not graduate.
• John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg: U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania, 1801; Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1789–91, 1793–95, 1799–1801. Attended College of Philadelphia but did not earn a degree.
• Arnold Naudain: U.S. Senator from Delaware, 1830-36.
• George Wharton Pepper: U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania, chronicler of the Senate
• Caesar Augustus Rodney: U.S. Senator from Delaware, 1822–23
• Arlen Specter: Former U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania, former Philadelphia District Attorney
• John Selby Spence: U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania 1836-40. Attended School of Medicine but did not earn a degree.
• Robert John Walker, Class of 1819: U.S. Senator from Mississippi, 1836–45, he introduced the bill that established the U.S. Department of the Interior
• Joseph Rodman West: U.S. Senator from Louisiana, 1871-77. Attended the College but did not earn a degree.
• Jenkin Whiteside: U.S. Senator from Tennessee, 1809–11

Members of the U.S. House of Representatives

• Ephraim Leister Acker M.D., 1852 LL.B., 1886: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1871–1873
• Robert Adams, Jr.: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1889–1906
• Wilbur L. Adams: Delaware representative to the U.S. Congress, 1933–1935
• John Archer: Maryland representative to the U.S. Congress, 1801–1807
• James Armstrong: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1793–1795
• L. Heisler Ball: Delaware representative to the U.S. Congress, 1901–03
• Ephraim Bateman: New Jersey representative to the U.S. Congress, 1826–29
• John Milton Bernhisel: Utah delegate to the U.S. Congress, 1851–1859, 1861–1863
• George A. Bicknell: Indiana representative to the U.S. Congress, 1877–1881
• Richard Biddle, Class of 1811: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1837–40
• Andrew Biemiller: Wisconsin representative to the U.S. Congress, 1945-1947 (attended Graduate School but did not earn a degree)
• Elias Boudinot: New Jersey representative to the U.S. Congress, 1789–1795; New Jersey delegate to the Continental Congress, 1778; Attended Academy of Philadelphia but did not graduate.
• Benjamin Markley Boyer: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1865–1869
• Samuel Carey Bradshaw: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1855–1857
• Charles Browne 1900: represented New Jersey's 4th congressional district from 1923 to 1925.
• George Franklin Brumm: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1923–1927, 1929–1934
• Hiram R. Burton: Delaware representative to the U.S. Congress, 1905–1909
• John Cadwalader: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1855–1857
• Lambert Cadwalader: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1789–1791, 1793–1795; Pennsylvania delegate to the Continental Congress, 1784–1787; entered College of Philadelphia in 1757 but did not earn a degree
• Greene Washington Caldwell: North Carolina representative to the U.S. Congress, 1841–1843
• E. Wallace Chadwick: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1947–1949
• Earl Chudoff: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress 1949-1958
• George Bosworth Churchill: Massachusetts representative to the U.S. Congress, 1925; Attended Graduate School, 1892–1894, but did not earn a degree
• John Claiborne: Virginia representative to the U.S. Congress, 1805–1808
• John Daniel Clardy: Kentucky representative to the U.S. Congress, 1895–1899
• Isaiah Dunn Clawson: New Jersey representative to the U.S. Congress, 1855–1859
• John Clopton: Virginia representative to the U.S. Congress, 1795–1799, 1801–1816
• William Wilfred Cobey, Jr.: North Carolina representative to the U.S. Congress, 1985–1987
• Lewis Condict: New Jersey representative to the U.S. Congress, 1811–1817
• Joel Cook: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress 1907-1911
• Thomas Buchecker Cooper: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1861–1862
• James Harry Covington: Maryland representative to the U.S. Congress, 1909–1914
• William Radford Coyle: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1925–1927, 1929-1933. Attended law school but did not earn a degree.
• George William Crump: Virginia representative to the U.S. Congress, 1826-1827. Attended School of Medicine but did not earn a degree.
• Willard S. Curtin: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1957–1967
• J. Burrwood Daly: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1935–39 (Attended law school but did not earn a degree)
• William Darlington: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1815–17 and 1819–23
• Philemon Dickerson: New Jersey representative to the U.S. Congress, 1833–36 and 1839–41
• Charles Djou: Hawaii representative to the U.S. Congress, 2010
• Frank Joseph Gerard Dorsey Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1935–39
• Charles F. Dougherty: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1979–83
• George Eckert: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1847–49
• Norman Eddy: Indiana representative to the U.S. Congress, 1853–55
• Joshua Eilberg: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1967–1979
• Lucius Elmer: New Jersey representative to the U.S. Congress, 1843–45
• Phillip Sheridan English: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1995–2009
• Thomas Dunn English: New Jersey representative to the U.S. Congress, 1891–95
• Chaka Fattah: U.S. Congressman representing 2nd Congressional district of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia region)
• Clare G. Fenerty: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1935–37
• John Floyd: Virginia representative to the U.S. Congress, 1817–29
• Harold E. Ford, Jr.: U.S. Representative from Tennessee, candidate for House Minority Leader, 2002, candidate for United States Senate from Tennessee.
• Vito John Fossella, Jr.: New York representative to the U.S. Congress, 1997–2009
• Oliver W. Frey: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1933-39
• Benjamin Gilman: New York representative to the U.S. Congress, 1973–2003
• Benjamin Golder: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1925–33
• George Scott Graham: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1913–31
• John Hahn: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1815–17
• William Henry Harrison: Ohio representative to the U.S. Congress, 1816–19
• Charles Eaton Haynes: Georgia representative to the U.S. Congress, 1825–31 and 1835–39
• James C. Healey: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1956–65
• William Hindman: Maryland representative to the U.S. Congress, 1793–99
• George Holcombe: New Jersey representative to the U.S. Congress, 1821–28
• Joseph Hopkinson, Class of 1786: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1815–19
• Charles R. Howell attended in 1936 and 1937, did not graduate - represented New Jersey's 4th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1949 to 1955.
• John William Jones: Georgia representative to the U.S. Congress, 1847–49
• Owen Jones: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1857–59
• Albert Walter Johnson: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1947–63
• Joseph Jorgensen: Virginia representative to the U.S. Congress, 1877–83
• James Kelly: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1805–09
• William Kennedy: North Carolina representative to the U.S. Congress, 1803–1805, 1809–1811, 1813–1815
• Everett Kent: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1923–25 and 1927–29
• Karl C. King: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1951–57
• William Huntington Kirkpatrick: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1921–23
• Thomas Kittera: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1826–27
• John A. Lafore, Jr.: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1957–61
• Henry Latimer: Delaware representative to the U.S. Congress, 1794–95
• Caleb Layton: Delaware representative to the U.S. Congress, 1919–23
• James Leech: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1927–32
• William Eckart Lehman: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1861–63
• George Leiper: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1829–31
• John Thomas Lenahan: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1907–09
• Samuel Lilly: New Jersey representative to the U.S. Congress, 1853–55
• Lloyd Lowndes, Jr.: Maryland representative to the U.S. Congress, 1873–75
• James McDevitt Magee: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1923–27
• Levi Maish: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1875–79 and 1887–91
• Francis Mallory: Virginia representative to the U.S. Congress, 1837–43
• John Hartwell Marable: Tennessee representative the U.S. Congress, 1825–29
• Robert Marion: South Carolina representative to the U.S. Congress, 1805–10
• Alexander Keith Marshall: Kentucky representative to the U.S. Congress, 1855–57
• James Murray Mason: Virginia representative to the U.S. Congress, 1837–39
• Samuel McConnell, Jr.: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1944–57
• George Deardorff McCreary: Pennsylvania representative the U.S. Congress, 1903–13
• Joseph McDade: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1963–99
• Robert C. McEwen: New York representative the U.S. Congress, 1965–81
• Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1993–95
• John Miller: New York representative to the U.S. Congress, 1825–27
• James Milnor: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1811–13
• George Mitchell: Maryland representative to the U.S. Congress, 1823–27 and 1829–32
• John Moffet: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1869
• Samuel Moore: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1818–22
• Edward Joy Morris: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1843–45 and 1857–61
• Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1947–49
• Frederick Augustus Conrad Muhlenberg: Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, 1789–1791, 1793–1795. Pennsylvania delegate to the Continental Congress, 1779–1780; Pennsylvania representative to the US Congress, 1789–1797
• Edward de Veaux Morrell: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1900–07
• John Murphy: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1943–46
• Leonard Myers: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1863–75
• William Augustus Newell, Class of 1839: New Jersey Representative to the U.S. Congress, 1847–1851, 1865–1867
• Robert N.C. Nix, Sr.: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1958–79
• Edson Olds: Ohio representative to the U.S. Congress, 1849–55
• Archibald Olpp: New Jersey representative to the U.S. Congress, 1921–23
• Cyrus Maffet Palmer: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1927–29
• John Patton: Virginia representative to the U.S. Congress, 1830–38
• Levi Pawling: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1817–19
• John H. Pugh: New Jersey representative to the U.S. Congress, 1877–79
• Robert R. Reed: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1849–51
• Jacob Richards: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1803–09
• Lewis Riggs: New York representative to the U.S. Congress, 1841–43
• Caesar Augustus Rodney: Delaware representative to the U.S. Congress, 1803–05
• Albert Rutherford: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1937–41
• Leon Sacks: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1937–41
• Benjamin Say: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1808–09
• Pius Schwert: New York representative to the U.S. Congress, 1939–41
• David Scott: Georgia representative to the U.S. Congress, 2003-
• Hardie Scott: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1947–53
• John Roger Kirkpatrick Scott: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1915–19
• Joshua Seney: Maryland representative to the U.S. Congress, 1789–92
• John Sergeant: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1815–23, 1827–29 and 1837–41
• Adam Seybert: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1809–15 and 1817–19
• Henry Marchmore Shaw: North Carolina representative to the U.S. Congress, 1853–55 and 1857–59
• William B. Shepard: North Carolina representative to the U.S. Congress, 1829–37
• John E. Sheridan: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1939–47
• William Simonton: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1839–43
• Edward J. Stack: Florida representative to the U.S. Congress, 1979–81
• James Strawbridge: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1873–75
• Joel Sutherland: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1827–37
• John Swope: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1884–87
• William Terrell: Georgia representative to the U.S. Congress, 1817–21
• Martin Thayer: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1863–65
• John Chew Thomas: Maryland representative to the U.S. Congress, 1799–1801
• John Parnell Thomas: New Jersey representative to the U.S. Congress, 1937–50
• Hedge Thompson: New Jersey representative to the U.S. Congress, 1827–28
• Philip A. Traynor: Delaware representative to the U.S. Congress, 1941–43 and 1945–47
• William Troutman: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1943–45
• Charles Turpin: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1929–37
• Jonathan Updegraff: Ohio representative to the U.S. Congress, 1879–82
• Joseph Vigorito: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1965–77
• Percy Walker: Alabama representative to the U.S. Congress, 1855–57
• George Wallhauser: New Jersey representative to the U.S. Congress, 1959–65
• John H. Ware, III: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1970–75
• John Goddard Watmough: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1831–35
• Anthony Wayne: Georgia representative to the U.S. Congress, 1791–92
• James D. Weaver: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1963–65
• Hugh Williamson: North Carolina representative to the U.S. Congress, 1790–93
• William H. Wilson: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, 1935–37
• Charles A. Wolverton: New Jersey representative to the U.S. Congress, 1927–59

U.S. Supreme Court Justices

• William J. Brennan: U.S. Supreme Court Justice; recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom
• Owen J. Roberts: U.S. Supreme Court Justice
• James Wilson: U.S. Supreme Court Justice

U.S. Ambassadors

• Robert Adams, Jr.: U.S. Minister to Brazil.
• Walter Annenberg: U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom
• Wilson Beale: U.S. Ambassador to Jamaica
• Robert Beecroft: U.S. Chief of Mission and Special Envoy to the Bosnian Federation
• George C. Bruno: U.S. Ambassador to Belize.
• Peter Burleigh: U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, the Philippines, Palau, the Maldives, and Sri Lanka. Attended graduate school but did not earn a degree.
• Patricia A. Butenis: U.S. Ambassador to Bangladesh.
• William R. Crawford: U.S. Ambassador to Cyprus.
• George William Crump: U.S. Ambassador to Chile
• Thomas K. Finletter: U.S. Ambassador to NATO.
• Lloyd Carpenter Griscom: U.S. Ambassador to Persia (now Iran), Japan, and Italy
• John E. Hamm: U.S. Ambassador to Chile
• Charles A. Heimbold, Jr.: U.S. Ambassador to Sweden
• Jerome Holland: U.S. Ambassador to Sweden
• Jon M. Huntsman, Jr.: U.S. Ambassador to Singapore and the People's Republic of China
• David Jordan: U.S. Ambassador to Peru
• Sung Kim: U.S. Amabassador to the Republic of Korea and U.S. Special Envoy to the Six-Party Talks
• Robert E. Lamb: U.S. Ambassador to Cyprus
• Ronald Lauder: U.S. Ambassador to Austria
• Franklin L. Lavin: U.S. Ambassador to Singapore.
• Jefferey Lunstead: U.S. Ambassador to the Maldives and Sri Lanka
• James Murray Mason: CSA Ambassador to the United Kingdom and France
• Marilyn McAfee: U.S. Ambassador to Guatemala
• Edward Joy Morris: U.S. Ambassador to Sicily, 1850–53
• John H. Morrow: U.S. Ambassador to Guinea
• Philip D. Murphy: U.S. Ambassador to Germany
• Wanda L. Nesbitt: U.S. Ambassador to Namibia
• Condy Raguet: the first Chargé d'Affaires from the United States to Brazil
• William Bradford Reed: U.S. Minister to China
• Caesar Augustus Rodney: U.S. Ambassador to Argentina
• Charles S. Shapiro: U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela
• Thomas Shoesmith: U.S. Ambassador to Malaysia
• Martin J. Silverstein: U.S. Ambassador to Uruguay
• Robert Strausz-Hupé: U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Belgium, Sweden, NATO, and Turkey. Founder of the Foreign Policy Research Institute, prolific scholar of international relations and geopolitics.
• Marilyn Ware: U.S. Ambassador to Finland
• Faith Ryan Whittlesey: U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland.

State Government

Governors

• Gunning Bedford, Sr.: Governor of Delaware, 1796–97
• John C. Bell, Jr.: Governor of Pennsylvania, 1947
• William Wyatt Bibb: 1st Governor of the state of Alabama, 1819–1820; he also served as Governor of the Alabama Territory from 1817 to 1819
• Martin G. Brumbaugh: Governor of Pennsylvania, 1911–15
• C. Douglass Buck: Governor of Delaware, 1929–37
• William Burton: Governor of Delaware, 1859–63
• Joseph M. Carey: Governor of Wyoming, 1911–1915
• Joshua Clayton: Governor of Delaware 1793-1798, attended Academy of Philadelphia but did not graduate.
• Philemon Dickerson: Governor of New Jersey, 1836–37
• James H. Duff: Governor of Pennsylvania, he studied law at Penn before graduating from the University of Pittsburgh
• James B. Edwards: Governor of South Carolina, 1975-79 (Post-graduate student at Penn)
• John Floyd (Virginia politician): Governor of Virginia, 1830–34
• George F. Fort: Governor of New Jersey, 1851–54
• William Gilpin, Class of 1833: 1st Governor of the Territory of Colorado, 1861–1862
• Charles Goldsborough: Governor of Maryland, 1819
• William Henry Harrison: 1st Governor of Indiana Territory, 1800–12
• John Hubbard (Maine politician): Governor of Maine, 1850-1853
• Jon M. Huntsman, Jr., Governor of Utah, 2005–2009
• George Izard, Class of 1792: Governor of Arkansas Territory, 1825-1828
• Lawrence M. Judd: Governor of Hawaii (1929–34), and American Samoa (1954)
• William Carr Lane: Governor of New Mexico Territory, 1852–53
• George M. Leader: Governor of Pennsylvania, 1955–1959
• Lloyd Lowndes, Jr.: Governor of Maryland, 1895–1899
• George B. McClellan: U.S. Civil War General; unsuccessful Democrat candidate for President 1864; later Governor of New Jersey; attended law school for two years before transferring to the U.S. Military Academy, from which he graduated
• John G. McCullough: Governor of Vermont, 1902-04.
• Alexander McNair: First Governor of Missouri
• Thomas Mifflin, Class of 1760: 1st Governor of Pennsylvania, 1790–1799, Signatory to the U.S. Constitution, and Brigadier General in the Continental Army during the American Revolution
• Charles R. Miller: Governor of Delaware, 1913–17
• Wayne Mixson: Governor of Florida, 1987
• William Augustus Newell: 18th Governor of New Jersey, 1857–1860; and Governor of the Washington Territory, 1880–1884
• William Paca: Governor of Maryland, 1782–1785; Signatory to the Declaration of Independence, and appointed to the Continental Congress in 1774 and re-elected in 1779
• John M. Patton: Acting Governor of Virginia, 1841 (Great-grandfather of famous World War II General George S. Patton, Jr.)
• Samuel W. Pennypacker: Governor of Pennsylvania, 1903–07
• Jesús T. Piñero: Governor of Puerto Rico, 1946–49
• Ed Rendell: Governor of Pennsylvania, former Mayor of Philadelphia and former Democratic National Committee Chairman
• Gove Saulsbury: Governor of Delaware, 1865–71
• Hulett C. Smith: Governor of West Virginia
• Rexford Tugwell: Governor of Puerto Rico
• Robert J. Walker: Governor of Kansas Territory, 1857
• Matthew E. Welsh: Governor of Indiana
• James Wilkinson: 1st Governor of the Louisiana Territory

City Government

Mayors

• Bob Anspach: Mayor of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, 2002–2008
• Ralph Becker, Jr.: Mayor of Salt Lake City, 2008-
• John S. Brenner: Mayor of York, Pennsylvania, 2002–2010
• Charles Browne: Mayor of Princeton, New Jersey, 1914–23
• Joseph M. Carey: Mayor of Cheyenne, Wyoming, 1881–85
• Joseph S. Clark: Mayor of Philadelphia, 1952–1956
• Elisha C. Dick: Mayor of Alexandria, Virginia 1804-05
• Walter Drumheller: 1st Mayor of Sunbury, Pennsylvania
• Shirley Franklin: Mayor of Atlanta, 2002-10
• Wilson Goode: 1st African-American Mayor of Philadelphia, 1984–92
• Oscar Goodman: Mayor of Las Vegas, Nevada, 1999-2011
• Joseph J. Grillo: Mayor of Gloucester, Massachusetts, 1952–53
• John E. Hamm: Mayor of Zanesville, Ohio, 1815
• George Hewston: Mayor of San Francisco, 1875
• William Kerr: Mayor of Pittsburgh, 1845–47
• William Carr Lane: 1st Mayor of St. Louis, Missouri, 1823–29
• Harry Arista Mackey: Mayor of Philadelphia, 1928–31
• Marc Morial, Mayor of New Orleans, 1994-2002
• Magnus Miller Murray: Mayor of Pittsburgh
• Michael Nutter, Mayor of Philadelphia
• Thomas R. Potts: 1st Mayor of St. Paul, Minnesota, 1850–51
• Samuel Powel, Class of 1759: Mayor of Philadelphia and Speaker of the Pennsylvania Senate
• Ed Rendell: Mayor of Philadelphia, 1992–99
• Alan Schlesinger: Mayor of Derby, Connecticut, 1994–97
• Edward J. Stack: Mayor of Pompano Beach, Florida, 1965–69
• Walton Danforth Stowell: Mayor of Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, 1995–2001
• Nao Takasugi: Mayor of Oxnard, California, 1982–92
• J. Parnell Thomas: Mayor of Allendale, New Jersey 1926-30

Other U.S. state and local officials

• Andrew Allen, Class of 1759: Attorney General of Pennsylvania, and member of the Continental Congress; later attained of treason for his Tory sympathies
• Harvey Bartle III: Chief Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (1909–27)
• Michael M. Baylson: Judge on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
• Jennifer Beck: Republican member of the New Jersey Senate (2008- )
• Edward Roy Becker: Former Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
• John C. Bell, Jr.: Former Chief Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court (1961–1972), and Justice of the Pa. Supreme Court (1950–1972)
• Edwin North Benson, Class of 1859: President, United States Electoral College
• William Bingham: 1st Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives
• Marshall Jordan Breger: Member of the first board of the Legal Services Corporation, appointed by President Gerald Ford (1975–78)
• William J. Brennan: Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court (1951–56)
• Beau Biden: Attorney General of Delaware (2007- )
• Karen Boback: Republican member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives (2007- )
• William Bradford: Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court (1791–94), and Attorney General of Pennsylvania (1780–91); he attended Penn for three years before graduating from Princeton University
• Raymond Broderick: Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania, 1967–71
• Peter Brown: At-Large Houston City Council Member
• Robert Butkin: State Treasurer of Oklahoma (1995–2005)
• David Byerman: Secretary of the Nevada Senate (2010- )
• James C. Cacheris: Judge on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia
• James Cannon, Class of 1767: Scottish-born American mathematician was one of the principal draftsmen of the State of Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776, often described as the most democratic in America
• Joseph M. Carey: Attorney General of Wyoming (1869–71); and Justice, Wyoming Supreme Court (1871–1876)
• Mary Pat Clarke: 1st woman President of the Baltimore City Council
• Bill Cobey: Chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party (1999–2003)
• Herbert B. Cohen: Former Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court
• Mark B. Cohen: Democratic member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives
• James Harry Covington: Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia (1914–18)
• Jean B. Cryor: former Maryland Delegate
• Glenn Cummings: Democratic member of the Maine House of Representatives, including one term as Speaker of the House (2000–2008)
• Margaret E. Curran: United States Attorney for Rhode Island (1998–2003)
• Andre Davis: Judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (2009- )
• John Morgan Davis: Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania, 1959–63
• John Warren Davis: Former member of the New Jersey State Senate, and United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey, and Judge for both the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey and the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
• Dan Debicella: Member of the Connecticut Senate
• William K. Dickey: Speaker of the New Jersey General Assembly and Chairman of the Delaware River Port Authority
• Stephen Dilts: Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Transportation
• Charles Djou: Member of the Honolulu City Council
• Susan J. Dlott: Judge for the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio (1995- )
• Marie Donigan: Democratic member of the Michigan State House of Representatives (2004- )
• Paula Dow: New Jersey Attorney General, 2010-
• Josiah E. DuBois, Jr: U.S. State Department official highly instrumental in Holocaust rescue
• Norman Eddy: Secretary of State for Indiana (1870–72)
• Thomas J. Ellis: County Commissioner of Montgomery County, PA
• Lucius Elmer: Former Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court and Attorney General of New Jersey
• Jack Evans: Member of the Council of the District of Columbia representing Ward 2 (1991- )
• Mark Farrell: Member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors representing District 2 (2011- )
• James A. Finnegan: President of the Philadelphia City Council (1951–55)
• F. Emmett Fitzpatrick: Attorney General of Philadelphia (1974-78)
• Ed Flanagan: Member of the Vermont Senate (2005–2011)
• Daniel Garodnick: New York City Council member (2006- )
• Gerald Garson: New York Supreme Court Justice (1998–2003); convicted in 2007 of accepting bribes
• Gary Gensler: Chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (2009- )
• Michael F. Gerber: Democratic member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives
• Michael U. Gisriel: former member of the Maryland House of Delegates
• Robert A. Gleason Jr.: Chairman of the Republican State Committee of Pennsylvania
• Jonathan L. Goldstein: United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey (1974–77)
• W. Wilson Goode, Jr.: City Councilman At-Large in Philadelphia (1999- )
• Robert M. Gordon: Democratic member of the New Jersey Senate (2008- )
• Ronald M. Gould: Judge for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
• George Scott Graham: District Attorney for Philadelphia County (1880–1899)
• Stewart Greenleaf: Republican member of the Pennsylvania State Senate (1978- )
• David A. Gross: U.S. Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs.
• John J. Hafer: Former Maryland State Senator.
• James S. Halpern: Judge, United States Tax Court (1990- )
• Charlie Brady Hauser: Member of the North Carolina General Assembly
• Jon Hinck: Member of the Maine House of Representatives (2006- )
• Randy J. Holland: Justice of the Delaware Supreme Court (1986- )
• James Hutchinson, Class of 1774: Surgeon General of Pennsylvania, 1778–84
• Scott Hutchinson: Republican member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives
• William F. Hyland: Attorney General of New Jersey
• Eric Johnson: Democratic member of the Texas House of Representatives (2010- )
• Tony Jordan: Member of the New York State Assembly (2009- )
• Abdul Kallon: Judge for the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama
• Harry Ellis Kalodner: Chief Judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (1946–77)
• Mike Kaplowitz: Vice-Chairman of the Westchester County Board of Legislators in New York
• Virginia Knauer: First woman elected to the Philadelphia City Council
• John C. Knox: Chief Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (1948–55)
• Peter B. Krauser: Chief Judge on the Court of Special Appeals for the state of Maryland, and past Chair of the Maryland Democratic Party
• Phyllis A. Kravitch: Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
• Stephen P. Lamb: Judge and Vice-chancellor of the Delaware Court of Chancery
• Tulio Larrinaga: Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico (1904–11)
• Daniel J. Layton: Chief Justice of the Delaware Supreme Court (1933–45), and Attorney General of Delaware (1932–33)
• Paul Conway Leahy: Chief Judge for the United States District Court for the District of Delaware (1948–57)
• James Russell Leech: Judge, United States Tax Court (1932–52)
• Joseph Simon Lord III: Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (1971–82)
• Alan David Lourie: Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
• Alfred Leopold Luongo: Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (1982–86)
• John Manners (New Jersey politician): President of the New Jersey Senate (1852)
• John Hartwell Marable: Member of the Tennessee Senate (1817–18)
• Frederica Massiah-Jackson: President Judge on the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas (2000–06)
• Robert Marion: Justice of the Peace for Charleston, SC
• Robert McCord: Treasurer of Pennsylvania (2009- )
• John G. McCullough: Attorney General of California during the American Civil War
• William M. Meredith: Attorney General of Pennsylvania (1861–67); and President of the Philadelphia City Council (1834–49)
• Charles B. Moores: Speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives (1895–96)
• Sybil Moses (c. 1939-2009): Prosecutor of the "Dr. X" Mario Jascalevich murder case and New Jersey Superior Court judge.
• Eva Moskowitz: New York City Council member (1999–2005)
• Raj Mukherji: Commissioner and Chairman of the Jersey City Housing Authority
• Howard G. Munson: Chief Judge for the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York (1980–88)
• John W. Murphy: Judge and Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania (1946–62)
• Robert Nelson Cornelius Nix, Jr.: Former Chief Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court (1984–1996), he was the first African-American Chief Justice of any state's highest court; Justice of the Pa. Supreme Court (1971–1984)
• David Norcross: Past Chairman of the New Jersey Republican State Committee
• Rai Okamoto: Architect and Director of Planning for the City and County of San Francisco (1975-80)
• William Paca: Chief Justice of Maryland (1788–90)
• Richard Peters, Jr., Class of 1761: Pennsylvania delegate to the Continental Congress in 1782-83, and Commissioner for the Board of War for the Continental Army; he also served as the Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and served in the Pennsylvania Senate, and was appointed by George Washington to serve as judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania from 1815 to 1828
• Deborah T. Poritz: Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court (1996–2006)
• Gene E. K. Pratter: Judge on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
• John Robert Procter: President of the United States Civil Service Commission (1893–1903)
• Pedro Ramos: Managing Director for the City of Philadelphia, former City Solicitor for the City of Philadelphia, former Vice President of The University of Pennsylvania
• Arthur Raymond Randolph: Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
• Walter N. Read: Chairman of the New Jersey Casino Control Commission (1982–89)
• William Bradford Reed: Attorney General of Pennsylvania (1838)
• Marjorie Rendell: Judge for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (1994–97), and for the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (1997- )
• Grover C. Richman, Jr.: New Jersey Attorney General (1954–58)
• Joseph J. Roberts: Speaker of the New Jersey General Assembly
• Laurie O. Robinson: Assistant Attorney General; US DOJ, 1994–2000, 2009–present
• Paul Hitch Roney: Chief Judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit (1986–89)
• Albert Rosenblatt: Judge on the New York Court of Appeals, the highest court in New York state (1998–2006)
• Rod J. Rosenstein: United States Attorney for the United States District Court for the District of Maryland (2005- )
• David Samson (New Jersey): Former Attorney General of New Jersey
• David M. Satz, Jr.: U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey (1961–69)
• Michelle Schimel: Democratic member of the New York State Assembly (2007- )
• Bradley Schlozman: Former head of the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice
• William A. Schnader: Attorney General of Pennsylvania (1930–34)
• Murray Merle Schwartz: Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Delaware (1985–89)
• Jonathan Sergeant, Class of 1763: Attorney General of Pennsylvania, he was also a member of the Continental Congress and the Framer of the New Jersey Constitution
• George Sharswood: Former Chief Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, and Dean of the University of Pennsylvania School of Law
• William E. Simkin: Past Director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, appointed by John F. Kennedy
• Edward Skyler: Deputy Mayor for Operations for New York City
• Dolores Sloviter: Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
• Horace Stern: Chief Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court (1952–56)
• Leo E. Strine, Jr.: Judge and Vice-chancellor of the Delaware Court of Chancery
• David W. Sweet: Democratic member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives (1978–88)
• Chris Taylor (legislator): Democratic member of the Wisconsin State Assembly (2011- )
• Richard B. Teitelman: Chief Justice of the Missouri Supreme Court (2011- )
• Martin Russell Thayer: President Judge on the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas (1874–96)
• Barbara Thomas: Former member, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and current Chair of the UK Atomic Energy Authority
• Joseph Whitaker Thompson: Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (1931–46)
• William Tilghman: Chief Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court (1805–27), he attended Penn but did not earn a degree
• Walter Tsou: Former Health Commissioner of Philadelphia, Former President of the American Public Health Association
• Eric Turkington: Democratic member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives
• Alex Wan: Member of the Atlanta City Council (2010- )
• Henry Galbraith Ward: Judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (1907–24)
• Charles R. Weiner: Democratic Leader of the Pennsylvania Senate
• Joseph R. West: President of the Board of Commissioners of Washington, D.C. (1882–83)
• Constance H. Williams: Democratic member of the Pennsylvania State Senate
• Scott Wilson: Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit (1929–43)
• Robert C. Wonderling: Republican member of the Pennsylvania State Senate
• George Washington Woodruff: Former Attorney General of Pennsylvania
• Hubert Work: Chairman of the Republican National Committee (1928–29)
• Bob Ziegelbauer: Democratic Party member of the Wisconsin State Assembly

Foreign Prime Ministers, Presidents, Vice Presidents and other heads of state

• Nnamdi Azikiwe: First President of Nigeria, 1963-66 [2]
• Ernesto P. Balladares: President of Panama, 1994–99
• Boediono: Vice President of Indonesia 2009-
• Toomas Hendrik Ilves: President of Estonia
• Kwame Nkrumah: First President of Ghana, and previously first Prime Minister of Ghana
• Emilio Núñez: Vice President of Cuba, 1917–22
• Alassane D. Ouattara: President of Côte d'Ivoire 2011-, Prime Minister of Côte d'Ivoire, 1990–93
• Cesar Virata: Prime Minister of the Philippines, 1981–86
• William Walker: President of the Republic of Nicaragua

Other foreign officials

• Yoginder K Alagh: Past Union Minister of the Government of India
• Zeti Akhtar Aziz: Governor of the Central Bank of Malaysia
• Douglas Alexander: British Member of Parliament, and Secretary of State for International Development
• Luis Donaldo Colosio: Mexican politician and PRI presidential candidate assassinated while on the campaign trail.
• Raymond Ch'ien Kuo Fung: Member of the Executive Council of Hong Kong, 1992–2002; Non-Executive Chairman, MTR Corporation Limited, 2003–present; Chairman, Hang Seng Bank, 2007–present
• Pridiyathorn Devakula: Governor, Bank of Thailand, and former Minister of Finance
• Aziz Dweik: Speaker of the Palestinian National Authority
• John Wallace de Beque Farris: Canadian politician and member of the Senate of Canada, 1937–70 and Attorney General of Vancouver, 1917–20
• Farouk El Okdah: Governor of the Central Bank of Egypt (2003- )
• Roy Ferguson: New Zealand Ambassador to the United States
• Eduardo Sojo Garza-Aldape: Mexican Secretary of Economy under President Felipe Calderón
• Alfonso Prat Gay: President of the Central Bank of Argentina
• Irving Gerstein: Conservative member of the Canadian Senate (2009- )
• Umar Ahmad Ghuman: Pakistan's x-Minister of State for Privatization & Investment
• Hamid Yar Hiraj: Pakistan's x-Minister of State for Commerce
• George Hollingbery: British Member of Parliament (MP) (2010- )
• Ron Huldai: Mayor of Tel Aviv (1998-)
• Ahsan Iqbal: Past Federal Minister for Education for Pakistan
• Philip Jaisohn: Prominent figure in Korean independence movement and first Korean to become a naturalized U.S. citizen
• Edward Jenkins (MP): Liberal Party Member of Parliament in Great Britain and Agent-General of Canada
• Cardozo M. Luna: 35th Vice Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines
• Yvonne Mokgoro: Judge for the Constitutional Court of South Africa
• Simón Gaviria Muñoz: President of the Chamber of Representatives of Colombia (2011- )
• Lindsay Northover, Baroness Northover: British politician in the House of Lords
• Philip Norton, Baron Norton of Louth: British member of the House of Lords (1998- )
• Emilio Núñez: Vice President of Cuba (1917–1921), former Cuban Minister of Agriculture, Commerce and Labor, General in Cuban Liberation Army and Civil Governor of the Province of Havana from 1899 to 1902.
• Paulo T.A. Paiva: Former Minister of Labor and Economic Planning of Brazil, 1994–1999; and Former Vice President of the Inter-American Development Bank
• Douglas Peters: Member of the Canadian Parliament (1993-97)
• Sachin Pilot: Member of Parliament of India (2004- ) from the Indian National Congress party
• Ayala Procaccia: Justice of the Israel Supreme Court
• C. Rangarajan: Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (1992–1997), Governor of Andhra Pradesh (1997–2003), additional Governor of Orissa (1998–1999), additional Governor of Tamil Nadu (2001–2002)
• Taleb Rifai: Secretary-General of the World Tourism Organization; past Minister of Information and Planning of Jordan; and past Minister of Tourism and Antiquities of Jordan
• Raul Roco: Former presidential candidate and Secretary of Education in the Philippines
• Mar Roxas: Senator of the Philippines (2004- )
• Nabil Shaath: Wharton alumnus, former deputy prime minister and information minister of the Palestinian National Authority- Current Foreign Minister
• Sicelo Shiceka: Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs under President Jacob Zuma in South Africa (2009- )
• Alfredo Toro Hardy: Former Ambassador of Venezuela to the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain, Brazil, Chile and Ireland and Current Ambassador to Singapore.
• Nona Tsotsoria: Judge at the European Court of Human Rights
• Ignazio Visco: Governor of the Bank of Italy (2011- )
• Sir Ronald Wilson: Former Justice of the High Court of Australia, the highest court in the nation

Lawyers, advisors and civil rights leaders

• Sadie Tanner Alexander, first African-American woman to receive a Ph.D in the United States; first African-American woman to graduate from Penn Law; first black woman to be admitted to the Pennsylvania Bar; civil rights activist; appointed to the Civil Rights Commission by President Harry S. Truman
• Gloria Allred, lawyer, feminist
• Jasper Yeates Brinton, former U.S. Legal Advisor to Egypt, architect of the Egyptian court system and Justice of the Egyptian Supreme Court
• E. Wallace Chadwick, Chief Counsel to the United States Senate committee which investigated Senator Joseph R. McCarthy
• James Harry Covington, co-founder of Covington & Burling, a U.S. law firm with more than 600 lawyers
• Stephen Cozen, co-founder of Cozen O'Connor, a U.S. law firm with more than 530 lawyers
• Henry Drinker, original name partner in Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP, a U.S. law firm with more than 650 lawyers
• Russell Duane, co-founder of Duane Morris LLP, a U.S. law firm with more than 650 lawyers
• Howard Gittis: Ron Perelman's corporate attorney
• Keith Gottfried: General Counsel for the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) (2005–2006)
• Charlie Brady Hauser: African-American who was arrested and jailed for refusing to move to back of a Greyhound bus in 1947; case against him was thrown out of court
• Carrie Burnham Kilgore, first woman to graduate from Penn with a law degree (LL.B.) and the first woman to practice law in both Philadelphia and Pennsylvania; one of the first women to be admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court and argued for a woman's right to vote before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court; first woman in New York to earn a medical degree
• Martin Luther King, Jr. (1950-1951), primary figure in the civil rights movement of the 1960s (took graduate courses, no degree)
• E. Grey Lewis: General Counsel of the Navy, 1973–77
• William Draper Lewis, founder and first Director of the American Law Institute
• Martin Lipton, founder of U.S. law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen, & Katz
• Frank Luntz: Preeminent Republican pollster and political strategist
• Paul Steven Miller, disability rights expert; EEOC Commissioner; professor at the University of Washington School of Law; Special Assistant to the President
• Charles Eldridge Morgan, Class of 1864, co-founder of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, one of the world's largest law firms with over 1300 lawyers
• John W. Nields Jr.: Chief counsel for the House Committee which investigated the Iran-Contra scandal
• Sheldon Oliensis, Past President of the Legal Aid Society, and the New York City Bar Association
• Alice Paul, women's suffrage leader who led a successful campaign that resulted in granting the right to vote to women in the U.S. federal election in 1920
• George Wharton Pepper, founder of Pepper Hamilton LLP, a U.S. law firm with more than 500 lawyers
• Steven P. Perskie, judge and politician
• Irving Picard, Trustee of assets seized by the court from Bernard Madoff
• Benjamin Powell, General Counsel of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence
• Eli Kirk Price II: Founder, Philadelphia Museum of Art
• Edward Rawle, judge; founder of the New Orleans Public Schools and the first president of its board
• Paul Rosenberg, Partner at U.S Law firm Rosenberg & Rosenberg
• Cliff Schecter, political commentator
• Bernard Segal, former president of the American Bar Association
• David Shrager, former president of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America
• Marietta Peabody Tree, U.S. representative to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights under President John F. Kennedy
• George W. Wickersham, name partner in Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, the oldest continuously operated law firm in the U.S.; president of the Council on Foreign Relations (1933–36)
• Maggie Williams: Campaign manager for Hillary Rodham Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign

Medicine

• David Hayes Agnew: Attended as operating surgeon when President James A. Garfield was fatally wounded by an assassin's bullet in 1881
• William Wallace Anderson: Medical doctor, and architect whose works in South Carolina attained National Historic Landmarks status; he was also the father of Confederate General Richard H. Anderson
• John Light Atlee: One of the organizers of, and past President of the American Medical Association
• John Milton Bernhisel: Personal family physician to Joseph Smith, Jr., the founder of Mormonism, and a close friend of Brigham Young
• Michael S. Brown: Nobel laureate and the 1985 recipient of the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research
• Nathaniel Chapman: First President of the American Medical Association
• William Holmes Crosby, Jr. Considered by many to be one of the founding fathers of modern hematology
• Samuel Gibson Dixon: Leading expert in the prevention and treatment of tubercolosis
• Pliny Earle (physician), Class of 1837: American physician, psychiatrist, and poet, and a founder of the American Medical Association, the New York Academy of Medicine, the Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane, and the New England Psychological Society
• Gerald Edelman: Nobel laureate and founder and director of The Neurosciences Institute
• Archibald Magill Fauntleroy: Surgeon in the Confederate Army
• Walter Freeman (neurologist): Lobotomist who performed nearly 3500 lobotomies in 23 states
• A.Y.P. Garnett: President of the American Medical Association who served Jefferson Davis (as personal physician) and Robert E. Lee during the American Civil War
• Isaac Hays: Opthamologist and 1st treasurer of the American Medical Association
• Albert Kligman: Dermatologist who invented Retin-A, a popular acne medication
• David E. Kuhl: Pioneering developer of positron emission tomography, also known as PET scanning, a nuclear medicine imaging technique
• Crawford Long: Namesake of Emory University-operated Crawford Long Hospital in downtown Atlanta
• Charles Delucena Meigs: Pioneering leader in obstetrics
• John Peter Mettauer: the 1st plastic surgeon in the U.S.
• Reuben D. Mussey: In 1835 he wrote the first definitive history of tobacco documenting its dangers, and later served as President of the American Medical Association
• Mehmet Oz: Surgeon, author and TV host
• Sidney Pestka: American biochemist and geneticist sometimes referred to as the "father of interferon"
• Philip Syng Physick, Class of 1785: One of the foremost surgeons in post-colonial America, his patients included John Adams's daughter, Dolley Madison, Chief Justice John Marshall and President Andrew Jackson
• Stanley B. Prusiner: Nobel laureate and the 1994 recipient of the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research
• Isaac Starr: Cardiovascular researcher and the 1957 recipient of the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research
• Alfred Stillé: the 1st Secretary, and later President of the American Medical Association
• Bert Vogelstein: Cancer researcher at Johns Hopkins University

Military

• Joseph Barnes: Surgeon General of the United States Army during and after the American Civil War
• Alexander Biddle: Union army officer during the American Civil War who fought at the Battle of Fredericksburg, the Battle of Chancellorsville, the Battle of Gettysburg (under Abner Doubleday) and the Battle of Bristoe Station; later he served as a director of the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Philadelphia Savings Fund Society
• James Biddle: American commodore and explorer whose flagship was the USS Columbus and whose brother was fellow Penn alumnus and financier Nicholas Biddle
• William P. Biddle: Major General and the 11th Commandant of the United States Marine Corps
• Charles C. Byrne: United States Army Brigadier General
• George R. Christmas: Retired United States Marine Corps Lieutenant General, and President and CEO of the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation
• Samuel W. Crawford: American Civil War Major General and one of only two officers to attain the rank of general and serve at both Fort Sumter and Appomattox.
• Stephen Decatur: American commodore noted for his heroism during the Barbary Wars and the War of 1812, he was the youngest man ever to attain the rank of captain in the United States Navy; namesake of many communities and counties in the U.S.
• Rolv Enge: Decorated Norwegian resistance movement member from World War II
• Archibald Magill Fauntleroy: Surgeon in the Confederate Army
• Clement Finley: 10th Surgeon General of the United States Army
• Harris Hull: Decorated Brigadier General of the United States Air Force during World War II
• George Izard: General in the United States Army during the War of 1812
• David Jackson, Class of 1768: Surgeon in the Continental Army and delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1785
• George G. Lundberg: Brigadier General of the United States Air Force during World War II, and 1917 Economics graduate
• George B. McClellan: Major General during the American Civil War
• Montgomery C. Meigs: Quartermaster General of the United States Army with the rank of Brigadier General during the American Civil War, he attended Penn and then graduated from the United States Military Academy
• Thomas Mifflin: Major General in the Continental Army in the American Revolution; later he was President of the Continental Congress and the 1st Governor of Pennsylvania
• James St. Clair Morton: Union Army Brigadier General who built the Civil War's largest fort, Fortress Rosencrans in Tennessee
• William Augustus Newell, Class of 1839: One of the Fathers of the modern day Coast Guard, he created the United States Life-Saving Service through the Newell Act, which merged with the Revenue Cutter Service to form the United States Coast Guard in 1915
• Samuel Nicholas: the Founder and 1st Commandant of the United States Marine Corps, commissioned in 1775
• Robert Maitland O'Reilly: 20th Surgeon General of the United States Army
• William Ruschenberger: Surgeon for the United States Navy and president of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 1870-1882, and president of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia 1879-1883
• Richard Somers: Naval officer and namesake of Somers, New York and Somers Point, New Jersey
• Tench Tilghman, Class of 1761: Lieutenant Colonel and longest serving Aide-de-camp to General George Washington of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War; Washington wrote about him: "..none could have felt his death with more regard than I did, because no one entertained a higher opinion of his worth".
• James Tilton: the first titled Surgeon General of the United States Army, he served in that capacity during the War of 1812
• Anthony Wayne: Famous United States Army general during the American Revolutionary War and namesake of many towns, cities and counties across the United States; he attended Penn but did not earn a degree
• Ted Weems: Bandleader for the U.S. Merchant Marine during World War II
• William H. Winder: Inspector General of the U.S. Army during the War of 1812, later court-martialed and then acquitted
• David G. Young III: United States Air Force Brigadier General
• Dick Zeiner-Henriksen: Highly decorated Norwegian resistance movement member from World War II
• James A. Zimble: 30th Surgeon General of the United States Navy

Medal of Honor Recipients

• William Blackwood, Class of 1862: Medal of Honor recipient from the U.S. Civil War
• Cecil Clay: Medal of Honor recipient and Brevet Brigadier General from the U.S. Civil War
• Joseph Kirby Corson, Class of 1863: Medal of Honor recipient from the U.S. Civil War
• Henry A. du Pont: Medal of Honor recipient and Lieutenant Colonel from the American Civil War
• Frederick C. Murphy: Medal of Honor recipient from World War II who attended Penn before enlisting in the United States Army

Philosophy/Theology/Religion

• Clive Orminston Abdulah: The Episcopal Bishop of Trinidad and Tobago
• David Werner Amram: Early American Zionist
• Reverend John Andrews(clergyman)D.D.-minister, professor and provost of the University of Pennsylvania.
• Kirbyjon Caldwell: Pastor of the Windsor Village United Methodist Church, a 14,000-member megachurch in Houston, Texas; he delivered the official benediction at the 2001 and 2005 inaugurations of President George W. Bush, and officiated at the wedding of the President's daughter Jenna Bush
• John Nicholson Campbell: Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives (1820–21)
• Thomas Clinton: Religious leader instrumental in the formation of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
• Jacob Duché, Class of 1757: the first Chaplain to the Continental Congress
• George Duffield (Presbyterian): Early Presbyterian minister and member of the Board of Regents of the University of Michigan
• James A. Flaherty: Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus (1909–27)
• Jeannine Gramick: Roman Catholic nun, and a co-founder of the activist organization New Ways Ministry
• Dmitry Grigorieff: Dean emeritus of the Saint Nicholas Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Washington D.C
• Elwood Lindsay Haines: Episcopal Bishop of the Diocese of Iowa (1944–49)
• William Hobart Hare: American Bishop of the Episcopal Church, elected in 1872
• John Henry Hobart: the third Episcopal Bishop of New York (1816–1830)
• Malcolm Hoenlein: Executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations
• Oliver Huckel, Class of 1887 and 1890: University Chaplain of Johns Hopkins University, Cornell University, and the University of Virginia
• Naamah Kelman: 1st woman in Israel to become a rabbi
• Samuel Magaw, Class of 1757 and 1760: Anglican priest and missionary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel
• James J. Martin: Jesuit priest, writer and Culture Editor of the Jesuit magazine America
• William Augustus Muhlenberg, Class of 1815 and 1818: Prominent clergyman founded the infirmary which became St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center in New York City; he later became Superintendent and Chaplain of the institution
• Ellis T. Rasmussen: Mormon scholar, missionary and Dean of Religious Instruction at Brigham Young University
• Robert Knight Rudolph: Professor of Systematic Theology and Christian Ethics at the Reformed Episcopal Seminary in Philadelphia
• Theodore Emanuel Schmauk, Class of 1883: Lutheran minister, educator, author and Church theologian; and President of the General Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in North America (1903–20)
• John George Schmucker: Co-founder of the General Synod of the Lutheran Church in the United States.
• Francis B. Schulte: American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who served as Bishop of Wheeling-Charleston, West Virginia from 1985 to 1988, and Archbishop of New Orleans from 1989 to 2001
• William Bacon Stevens: Fourth Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania (1865–87)
• Jacob Joseph Taubenhaus: Founder of Hillel at Texas A & M University
• Edward Thomson: American Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church (the United Methodist Church), elected in 1864
• Philip Lindel Tsen: Anglican Bishop in China in the 19th century
• William White: the first and fourth Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the USA (1789; 1795–1836), the first Bishop of the Diocese of Pennsylvania (1787–1836), and the second United States Senate Chaplain (appointed December 9, 1790)

Science and technology

• Charles Conrad Abbott, Class of 1865: American archaeologist and naturalist, he served as assistant curator of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to which he presented more than 20,000 archaeological specimens
• William Louis Abbott: American ornithologist and namesake of numerous animal species
• Robert Adams, Jr.: Penn graduate served as a botanist with Penn professor Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden while exploring the northwest corner of Wyoming -- their efforts led directly to the founding of Yellowstone National Park, the first national park in the United States
• Christian Anfinsen: Nobel laureate, chemist, and past Guggenheim Fellow
• William Baldwin (botanist), Class of 1807: Prominent scientist whose personal papers are included in the collection of the Harvard University Herbarium
• Daniel Barringer: First person to prove the existence of a meteorite crater on Earth, and namesake of the Barringer Meteor Crater in Arizona, which is nearly a mile wide and 570 feet deep
• William Bartram: Prominent 18th-19th century American naturalist, he attended Penn but did not earn a degree
• Alfred P. Boller: Famous bridge designer and structural engineer, he was the Chief Engineer of Manhattan's elevated railroad track system, the first of its kind in the world
• William Channing (inventor)|William Channing, Class of 1844: Co-inventor of the world's first electric municipal fire alarm system, whose principles remain essentially unchanged today and form the basis of most public fire alarm systems
• Edward Drinker Cope: 19th century American paleontologist who made known as many as 1,000 new species of extinct vertebrata in his lifetime. Among these were some of the oldest known mammals, obtained in New Mexico, and 56 species of dinosaur, including Camarasaurus, Amphicoelias, and Coelophysis. Most of his fossil collection is now with the American Museum of Natural History, and his home in Philadelphia is designated a National Historic Landmark
• J. Presper Eckert: Inventor of the first general-purpose electronic digital computer (ENIAC), he also designed the first commercial computer in the U.S., the UNIVAC; National Medal of Science recipient
• William Gambel: 19th century American naturalist who discovered several new species of flora and fauna, including Gambel's Quail (Callipepla gambelii), Mountain Chickadee (Parus gambeli) and Nuttall's Woodpecker (Picoides nuttallii)
• Emil Grosswald: mathematician
• Edward Guinan: Co-discoverer of the planet Neptune's ring structure
• Morton Heilig: Cinematographer and inventor of the "Sensorama" device, he is considered by many to be the "Father of Virtual Reality"
• George H. Heilmeier: American engineer and National Medal of Science laureate and inductee of the National Inventor's Hall of Fame
• George Henry Horn: Entomologist who was president of the Entomological Society of Philadelphia and of its successor, the American Entomological Society, and whose collections of insects are now in the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University
• Horace Jayne: American zoologist and educator who served as the dean of the college faculty of the Wistar Institute and a trustee of Drexel University
• J. Clarence Karcher: Award-winning geophysicist and businessman who invented and commercialized the reflection seismograph, the means by which most of the world's oil reserves have been discovered
• William H. Keating: 19th century geologist, explorer, and Penn professor; co-founder of the popular Franklin Institute in Philadelphia
• Christian J. Lambertsen: Inventor of the US Navy frogmen's rebreathers for underwater breathing—the first device to be called "SCUBA"
• Robert Lanza: Chief Scientific Officer of Advanced Cell Technology
• Henry Carvill Lewis: Geologist
• John Peter Lesley: American geologist who, together with fellow alumni John Fries Frazer and James C. Booth, participated in the first geological survey of Pennsylvania
• John C. Lilly: Researcher of consciousness, counterculture figure
• Henry Chapman Mercer: American archeologist whose work and museum, the Mercer Museum, inspired Henry Ford to open his own museum, The Henry Ford, in Dearborn, Michigan
• Robert Thomas Moore: Namesake and benefactor of the Moore Laboratory of Zoology at Occidental College; also past Chair of the Galápagos Commission of Ecuador and Fellow of the American Ornithologists' Union
• Ei-ichi Negishi: Nobel laureate and Herbert C. Brown Distinguished Professor of Organic Chemistry at Purdue University
• Mary Engle Pennington: Pioneering bacteriologist, chemist and authority on refrigeration as a food preservative, she was Chief of the United States Department of Agriculture Food Research Laboratory, and the recipient of the Garvan-Olin Medal, the highest award given to women in the American Chemical Society; she is also an inductee of both the National Women's Hall of Fame and the ASHRAE Hall of Fame
• Frank Piasecki: Inventor of one of the first helicopters, and the first to develop a tandem-rotor helicopter, he received the country's highest technical honor, the National Medal of Technology, and the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Lifetime Achievement award
• Fairman Rogers: American civil engineer and charter member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences
• George E. Smith, Class of 1955: Nobel laureate and co-inventor of the charge-coupled device-- the electronic eye of a digital camera
• James Mourilyan Tanner: Child development expert
• Ralph Teetor: Blind inventor of cruise control and member of the Automotive Hall of Fame
• James Thomson (cell biologist): American developmental biologist best known for deriving the first human embryonic stem cell line in 1998; member of the National Academy of Sciences
• Ernest S. Tierkel: Epidemiologist known as "Dr. Rabies" for his extensive work with the disease
• Benjamin Chew Tilghman: Inventor of the patented process known as sandblasting
• James W. VanStone: Anthropologist and past Chair of the Anthropology Department at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago
• Caspar Wistar, Class of 1782: Professor of Chemistry, Anatomy and Surgery at Penn and University Trustee (and namesake of the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia); he was also President of the American Philosophical Society and President of the Society for the Abolition of Slavery, also known as the Pennsylvania Abolition Society
• Lightner Witmer: Regarded as the founder of Clinical Psychology, he was the co-founder of the world's first psychological clinic in 1896 at the University of Pennsylvania
• Jack Keil Wolf: Prominent computer scientist; member of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering, and Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• Horatio Wood, Jr.: Physician, professor, and member of the National Academy of Sciences
• Samuel Washington Woodhouse: 19th century American explorer and naturalist
• Nathaniel Wyeth (inventor): Mechanical engineer best known for creating the recyclable polyethylene terephthalate ("PET") semi-rigid beverage containers widely used for water and carbonated beverages today; he was a member of the Society of the Plastics Industry Hall of Fame, and a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers
• H.C. Yarrow: 19th/20th century American ornithologist, naturalist and surgeon, and Trustee of George Washington University
• Roger Arliner Young: First African American woman to receive a doctorate degree in zoology
• Ahmed H. Zewail: Nobel laureate and the 1993 recipient of the Wolf Prize in chemistry, and the 1996 recipient of the NAS Award in Chemical Sciences

Other

• Wharton Barker: Class of 1866: Banker and publicist who was a financial advisor to the Russian government, and the Populist Party presidential candidate of 1900 (receiving more than 50,000 votes)
• Jean Chatzky: Award-winning journalist, financial expert, best-selling author and motivational speaker on NBC's Today Show
• John Croghan: Past owner of the world's longest cave, now dedicated as the Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky
• Alan Curtis: President and CEO of the Eisenhower Foundation
• Edwin Feulner: President of the Heritage Foundation
• Barbara Thomas Judge: Chairman of the Pension Protection Fund, Chairman Emeritus of the UK Atomic Energy Authority, and Business Ambassador for UK Trade and Investment.
• Helene Gayle: CEO of CARE USA
• Joel Henry Hildebrand: Past President of the Sierra Club
• Edward Hirsch: President of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
• John Henry "Doc" Holliday, Western gambler and gunfighter. Dental School, class of 1872.
• Francis Hopkinson, Class of 1757: Signatory to the Declaration of Independence; judge of the Admiralty Court of Pennsylvania in 1779 and reappointed in 1780 and 1787; judge in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, 1789–1791; he is also considered by many to have played a key role in the design of the first American flag, and is credited with writing the first secular American song.
• Jotham Johnson: Past President of the Archaeological Institute of America
• John A. Lafore, Jr.: Past President of the American Kennel Club
• Francis Julius LeMoyne: Creator of the first crematory in the United States, he was also an abolitionist, founder of Washington, Pennsylvania.'s first public library (known as Citizen's Library), and an instrumental benefactor to LeMoyne-Owen College in Tennessee; his family house was utilized as part of the Underground Railroad and still stands today as a museum near the campus of Washington & Jefferson College in Pennsylvania
• Patrick Murphy Malin: Past Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union
• Thomas McKean: Trustee and Signer of the Declaration of Independence, Pennsylvania delegate to the Continental Congress
• Nathan Francis Mossell: Founder of Frederick Douglass Memorial Hospital and the Philadelphia branch of the NAACP
• Scott Nearing: 20th century American conservationist, peace activist, educator, writer and economist
• John Nolen, Class of 1893: Major urban planner who designed and developed large-scale projects for dozens of American cities, including San Diego, Charlotte, North Carolina and Madison, Wisconsin
• William Pepper: Founder, Free Library of Philadelphia (the public library system of Philadelphia)
• Clyde V. Prestowitz Jr., Reagan administration official; President, Economic Strategy Institute
• Robert Empie Rogers: President of the Franklin Institute (1875–79)
• Francis Alexander Shields, American aristocrat and father of actress Brooke Shields
• Andy Stern: President, Service Employees International Union
• Jack Thayer: Penn graduate was a 17-year-old first-class passenger on the RMS Titanic who provided several first-hand accounts of the disaster
• Sir Henry Worth Thornton: President, Canadian National Railway; Winning Vanderbilt University football coach 1894; knighted by King George V
• Joseph M. Torsella: President and CEO of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia; Rhodes Scholar
• Henry R. Towne: Developer of the famous YALE lock, and former President of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers
• Lynda Tran, Class of 2000: Communications Director of Virginia Governor Tim Kaine
• Judy Vredenburgh: President and CEO, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America
• Charles Wall: Resident Director of George Washington's estate at Mount Vernon on the banks of the Potomac River (1937–1976)

Notorious

• Bob Asher: Chairman of the Republican State Committee of Pennsylvania who was convicted of perjury, racketeering, conspiracy and bribery in 1987 in connection with a state contract award
• George William Crump: the world's first recorded streaker
• Ira Einhorn: Murderer nicknamed the "Unicorn Killer"
• Vince Fumo: Pennsylvania State Senator convicted of 137 federal corruption charges in 2009
• Gerald Garson: former New York State Supreme Court Justice, convicted of bribery
• Carl Gugasian: Bank robber
• Adam C. Hochfelder: Co-founder of NYC real estate firm, Max Capital, convicted of fraud and grand larceny
• Norman Hsu: Convicted pyramid scheme investment broker
• Michael Milken: Billionaire who pled guilty to six counts of securities and tax violations
• Raj Rajaratnam: Billiionaire hedge fund manager convicted of insider trading
• J. Parnell Thomas: Convicted fraudster
• Norman Tweed Whitaker: International Master of chess who served time in prison for his role in the Lindbergh kidnapping

Nobel Laureates

Physics

• George E. Smith - 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics
  • "for the invention of an imaging semiconductor circuit - the CCD sensor"
• Raymond Davis - 2002 Nobel Prize in Physics
  • for "pioneering contributions to astrophysics, in particular for the detection of cosmic neutrinos."
• John Robert Schrieffer - 1972 Nobel Prize in Physics (first Penn faculty member to win)
  • for the "theory of superconductivity, usually called the BCS-theory."
• Robert Hofstadter - 1961 Nobel Prize in Physics
  • "for his pioneering studies of electron scattering in atomic nuclei and for his thereby achieved discoveries concerning the structure of the nucleons."

Chemistry

• Ei-ichi Negishi - 2010 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
  • for "palladium-catalyzed cross couplings in organic synthesis"
• Irwin Rose - 2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
  • "for the discovery of ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation."
• Alan MacDiarmid - 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
  • "for the discovery and development of conductive polymers."
• Hideki Shirakawa - 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
  • "for the discovery and development of conductive polymers."
• Alan J. Heeger - 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
  • "for the discovery and development of conductive polymers."
• Ahmed H. Zewail - 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
  • "for his studies of the transition states of chemical reactions using femtosecond spectroscopy."
• Christian B. Anfinsen - 1972 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
  • "for his work on ribonuclease, especially concerning the connection between the amino acid sequence and the biologically active conformation"
• Vincent du Vigneaud - 1955 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
  • "for his work on biochemically important sulphur compounds, especially for the first synthesis of a polypeptide hormone."

Medicine

• Harald zur Hausen - 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
  • "for his discovery of human papilloma viruses causing cervical cancer"
• Stanley B. Prusiner - 1997 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
  • "for his discovery of Prions - a new biological principle of infection."
• Michael S. Brown - 1985 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
  • for his discovery "concerning the regulation of cholesterol metabolism"
• Baruch Samuel Blumberg - 1976 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
  • "for their discoveries concerning new mechanisms for the origin and dissemination of infectious diseases."
• Gerald Edelman - 1972 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
  • for the discovery "concerning the chemical structure of antibodies."
• Haldan Keffer Hartline - 1967 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
  • for the discovery "concerning the primary physiological and chemical visual processes in the eye."
• Ragnar Granit - 1967 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
  • "for describing the different types of light-sensitive cells in the eye and how light interacts with them."
• Richard Kuhn - 1938 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
  • "for his work on carotenoids and vitamins."
• Otto Fritz Meyerhof - 1922 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
  • "for his discovery of the fixed relationship between the consumption of oxygen and the metabolism of lactic acid in the muscle."

Economics

• Thomas J. Sargent - 2011 Nobel Prize in Economics
  • "for their empirical research on cause and effect in the macroeconomy"
• Oliver E. Williamson - 2009 Nobel Prize in Economics
  • "for his analysis of economic governance, especially the boundaries of the firm"
• Edmund S. Phelps - 2006 Nobel Prize in Economics
  • "for his analysis of intertemporal tradeoffs in macroeconomic policy."
• Edward C. Prescott - 2004 Nobel Prize in Economics
  • "for his part in contributing to dynamic macroeconomics: the time consistency of economic policy and the driving forces behind business cycles."
• Lawrence Robert Klein - 1980 Nobel Prize in Economics
  • "for the creation of economic models and their application to the analysis of economic fluctuations and economic policies."
• Simon Smith Kuznets - 1971 Nobel Prize in Economics
  • "for his empirically founded interpretation of economic growth which has led to new and deepened insight into the economic and social structure and process of development."