List of University of Manchester people

Many famous or notable people have worked or studied at the Victoria University of Manchester and the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, institutions which combined in 2004 to form the University of Manchester. The following list includes the names of all 25 Nobel prize laureates among them (in bold print).

Fine and applied arts

Architecture

Norman Foster, Baron Foster of Thames Bank is one of the most famous architects

• Norman Foster, Baron Foster of Thames Bank, British architect, (Pritzker Prize 1999, Stirling Prize 1998, 2004), designed among others the Swiss Re Building, Millenium Bridge, HSBC Hong Kong headquarters building, Commerzbank Tower, Millau Viaduct, Reichstag dome and the (proposed) Tower 2 of the World Trade Center
• Stephen Hodder (Stirling Prize 1996)
• Edward Hubbard, English architectural historian
• Leslie Martin, leading advocate of the International Style
• Dalibor Vesely, architect (RIBA Annie Spink Award for Excellence in Architectural Education 2006)
• Alfred Waterhouse, English architect associated with the Victorian Gothic revival and probably best known for his design for the Natural History Museum in London and the Town Hall in Manchester
• Paul Waterhouse, son of Alfred Waterhouse. He designed Girton College at Cambridge University as well as the Manchester Museum, Refuge Assurance Building, the Christie Library and the Whitworth Hall in Manchester.

Literature

George Gissing

• Martin Amis, British novelist and author of some of Britain's best-known modern literature, particularly Money (1986) and London Fields (1989). Professor of Creative Writing
• Louis de Bernières, born 1954. Writer whose novels include The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts (1990), Señor Vivo and the Coca Lord (1991), The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman (1992), Captain Corelli's Mandolin (1994) (winner of the Commonwealth Writers Prize for best book) and Red Dog (2001).
• Anthony Burgess, BA, English Literature, 1937–40. Writer and critic whose novels include the Malayan trilogy, the Enderby cycle, A Clockwork Orange, Nothing Like the Sun, Earthly Powers and The Kingdom of the Wicked. He produced acclaimed critical works on Joyce, Lawrence, Hemingway and Shakespeare, and studies of language and of pornography.
• Brian Cox (C. B. Cox) (1928–2008), professor of English literature, founder of the Poetry Centre
• Patricia Duncker, distinguished British novelist and Professor of Contemporary Writing at the University of Manchester
• Terry Eagleton, literary theorist, academic teacher
• Daniel Ford, American author and journalist
• Alex Garland, born 1970, BA, History of Art. Novelist and script-writer. Author of The Beach (1996), The Tesseract (1998), The Coma (2004) and Sunshine (2007).
• George Gissing, novelist
• Sophie Hannah, award-winning poet and novelist

Francis Thompson

• M. J. Hyland, novelist of Irish descent and winner of both the Encore Award and the Hawthornden Prize in 2007. She teaches at the Manchester Centre for New Writing.
• Grevel Lindop, poet, academic and literary critic
• Ruth Manning-Sanders, Welsh poet and author
• Michael Schmidt, poet and publisher
• W. G. Sebald, German author
• Francis Thompson, English poet
• Barry Unsworth, British novelist who is known for novels with historical themes, Booker Prize winner with Sacred Hunger.
• Alison Uttley, children's writer
• Eugène Vinaver, French literary scholar specialising in the Arthurian cycle
• A. W. Ward, literary scholar

Music

• Martin Butler, composer
• John Casken, composer and professor of composition
• Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, composer, Master of the Queen's Music
• Paul McCreesh, conductor
• Ed O'Brien, musician in Radiohead
• Mark Radcliffe, DJ on Radio 1 and Radio 2 and musician: Shirehorses and The Family Mahone
• Ed Simmons and Tom Rowlands, musicians, The Chemical Brothers
• Louise Wener, musician in the 1990s Britpop band, Sleeper

Theatre, cinema and broadcasting

• Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain, television scriptwriting duo
• Shona Auerbach, award-winning director/cinematographer of Dear Frankie
• Robert Bolt, two times Academy Award winner and three times Golden Globe winner, screenwriter of Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, A Man for All Seasons, and The Mission
• Philip Bretherton, actor
• Jessie Cave, actress (did not graduate)
• Benedict Cumberbatch, actor
• Adrian Edmondson, comedian and actor
• Ben Elton, comedian and writer
• Peter Flannery, playwright and scriptwriter
• Anna Ford, broadcaster, former Chancellor of the University
• Pam Gems, playwright and feminist
• Olivia Hallinan, actress
• William Hanson, broadcaster and manners coach
• Tony Hawks, comedian and writer
• Mathew Horne, comedian and actor
• Waldemar Januszczak, art critic and broadcaster
• Charlotte Keatley, dramatist
• Mark Kermode, broadcaster and film critic
• C. A. Lejeune, film critic
• Rik Mayall, comedian and actor
• Olivia Poulet, actress
• Meera Syal, actress and writer
• Tom Watt, actor and sports broadcaster
• Jack Whitehall, comedian (did not graduate)

Others

• Johnny Rozsa, photographer

Natural and applied sciences

• William Boyd Dawkins, geologist
• Patricia Lewis, nuclear physicist and arms control expert, who is currently Director of the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR).
• James Lovelock, independent scientist and prominent environmentalist. Proposed the Gaia hypothesis. Graduated with a degree in chemistry in 1941.
• Sir John Maddox, Editor of Nature for 22 years
• Gordon Manley, climatologist
• Michael Polanyi, chemist, influential philosopher and noted polymath (father of Nobel laureate John Charles Polanyi). Chair of Physical Chemistry (1933–1948) and Chair of Social Studies (1948–1959).

Biology and chemistry

• Sir James Baddiley FRS FRSE Biochemist
• Peter Philips (P. P.) Bedson, assistant lecturer and demonstrator at Owens College - later 1st Professor of Chemistry at Armstrong College, Newcastle (now Newcastle University). The School of Chemistry's building at Newcastle is named after him.^{[citation needed]}
• Melvin Calvin (awarded Nobel prize in 1961), for his research on the carbon dioxide assimilation in plants.

John Dalton, founder of modern chemistry and atomic theory

• John Dalton, the founder of modern chemistry and atomic theory; one of the founders of UMIST.
• Sir Edward Frankland, analytical chemist; pioneer in organometallic chemistry
• Arthur Harden (awarded Nobel prize in 1929), for investigations on the fermentation of sugar and fermentative enzymes.
• Walter Haworth (awarded Nobel prize in 1937), for his investigations on carbohydrates and vitamin C.
• Frederic Jevons, Professor of Liberal Studies in Science, awarded inaugural UNESCO Prize for Science and Technology Policy, 1992
• William Henry Perkin, Jr., planned the new chemical laboratory building at Owens College in 1895.
• John Charles Polanyi (awarded Nobel prize in 1986), for his contributions concerning the dynamics of chemical elementary processes.
• Robert Robinson (awarded Nobel prize in 1947), for his investigations on plant products of biological importance, especially the alkaloids.
• Sir Henry Roscoe, chemist who considered the foundations of comparative photochemistry, later Member of Parliament and vice-chancellor of the University of London.
• Carl Schorlemmer, organic chemist and Socialist
• Michael Smith (awarded Nobel prize in 1993), for his fundamental contributions to the establishment of oligonucleotide-based, site-directed mutagenesis and its development for protein studies.
• Edwin Southern inventor of the Southern blot which is a method routinely used in molecular biology for detection of a specific DNA sequence in DNA samples. (BSc Hons., 1958)
• Marie Stopes, botanist and birth control campaigner
• Sir Thomas Thorpe, investigated the relationship between substances molecular weights and their specific gravities, and his work on phosphorus compounds led to a better understanding of phosphorus trioxide.
• Alexander Todd (awarded Nobel prize in 1957), for his work on nucleotides and nucleotide co-enzymes.
• Chaim Weizmann, discovered how to use bacterial fermentation to produce large quantities of desired substances and is considered to be the father of industrial fermentation.
• William Crawford Williamson, natural historian and paleobotanist
• Derek Yalden, zoologist, president of The Mammal Society

Computer science

Main article: School of Computer Science, University of Manchester

Statue of Turing by Stephen Kettle at Bletchley Park, commissioned by the American philanthropist Sidney E. Frank

• Steve Furber best known for his work at Acorn where he was one of the designers of the BBC Micro and the ARM 32-bit RISC microprocessor.
• Tom Kilburn and Freddie Williams invented the Williams-Kilburn Tube, the device that enabled them to create the first ever computer that could store and execute its own program electronically, a fundamental feature of all modern computers. (See Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine, Manchester Mark 1).
• T. William Olle, involved in the development of numerous data and process modelling programmes, including the extensive work for Manchester Mark 1 and Ferranti Mercury.
• Alan Turing, one of the founders of Computer Science and AI, was a reader in the Mathematics Department. The ACM Turing award is named after him, as is the University of Manchester's Alan Turing Building and Alan Turing Institute. Also a pioneer of Mathematical Biology.
• Freddie Williams, see above Tom Kilburn

Engineering

Osborne Reynolds

• Roy Chadwick designer of the Lancaster bomber
• George E. Davis founded the discipline of Chemical Engineering with an influential series of lectures at UMIST in 1888, and a textbook on the subject.
• William Fairbairn a Scottish engineer associated with water wheels and the Britannia tubular bridge but above all with a scientific approach to engineering. He was elected first Secretary of the Mechanics' Institute (precursor to UMIST).
• Eric Laithwaite, principally known for his development of the linear induction motor and Maglev rail system.
• Osborne Reynolds is famous for his work in fluid mechanics. In 1886 he formulated a theory of lubrication (thus the Reynolds equation is named after him) and three years later he developed the standard mathematical framework used in the study of turbulence (Reynolds stress and Reynolds averaging are two of the many terms bearing his name). The Reynolds number used in modelling fluid flow is named after him. His students include J. J. Thomson, who discovered the electron.

Mathematics

Main article: School of Mathematics, University of Manchester

Paul Erdős

Sir Horace Lamb

• Frank Adams was a leading figure in algebraic topology and homotopy theory. He developed methods which led to important advances in calculating the homotopy groups of spheres (a problem which is still unsolved), including the invention of the Adams operations.
• M. S. Bartlett, professor of mathematical statistics from 1947 to 1960, made important contributions to the analysis of data with spatial and temporal patterns. He is also known for his work in the theory of statistical inference and in multivariate analysis.
• Robin Bullough, professor of Mathematical Physics famous for his work on optical solitons.
• Sydney Chapman developed important theory on thermal diffusion in highly ionized gases, magnetic storms, instability along magnetic neutral lines, noctilucent clouds and the fundamentals of gas dynamics. He held the post of Beyer Prof of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy.
• John Crank, mathematical physicist, best known for his work on the heat equation, which resulted in the Crank–Nicolson method.
• Harold Davenport, number theorist and worked in Manchester as a contemporary of Erdős and Mordell.
• Paul Erdős was one of the most prolific mathematicians of the 20th century. The Euler of his time, he posed and solved many problems in number theory and other areas. He was a founder of the field of extremal combinatorics, of major importance in theoretical computer science. He wrote 1,500 papers. In his early career, he held a post-doctoral fellowship at Manchester University and subsequently became an itinerant mathematician. Awarded the Cole Prize of the American Mathematical Society.
• Sydney Goldstein was one of the most influential theoretical fluid mechanicians in this century. He is best known for his work in boundary layer theory where the Goldstein singularity is named after him. He held the Beyer Chair.
• Brian Hartley is best known for his work in group theory. His book Rings, Modules and Linear Algebra (written with T. O. Hawkes) is a widely used undergraduate text.
• Douglas Hartree, Beyer professor, constructed a differential analyser at Manchester in 1933. Known for his development of numerical analysis and its application to atomic physics.
• Ke Zhao, Chinese mathematician with major contributions in quadratic forms, the Erdős-Ko-Rado theorem and his breakthrough on Catalan's conjecture
• Sir Horace Lamb was one of the six professors appointed when Manchester University received its Royal Charter (his chair was the Beyer Chair of Applied Mathematics, and Osborne Reynolds was given the Chair in Engineering). He made many important contributions to applied mathematics, including the areas of acoustics and fluid dynamics. His book Hydrodynamics (first published in 1895) was for many years the standard text on the subject and is still essential reading for researchers. Lamb's main field of research was solid mechanics, and he made careful studies of the vibrations of spherical bodies which aided understanding in seismology. Research on waves in layered media led to the discovery of Lamb waves.
• James Lighthill was one of the most influential applied mathematicians of the 20th century. He made important contributions to the modern developments in theoretical aerodynamics and aeroacoustics (Lighthill's eighth power law) and was one of the founding fathers of the field of biofluiddynamics. He is also founder of IMA and held the Beyer Chair.
• John Littlewood is famous for his work on the theory of series, the Riemann zeta function, inequalities and the theory of functions. He held a lectureship at the University of Manchester from 1907 to 1910.
• Kurt Mahler spent several periods of his academic life at Manchester. Major themes of his work were p-adic numbers, p-adic diophantine approximation, geometry of numbers and Mahler measures.
• James Mercer, proved Mercer's theorem, which states that positive definite kernels can be expressed as a dot product in a high-dimensional space.
• Edward Milne was a leading figure in the study of radiative equilibrium, the structure of stellar atmospheres, theory of relativity and the interior structure of stars. He held the Beyer Chair and was President of the London Mathematical Society.
• Louis Mordell was a pure mathematician who made important contributions in number theory, and played an important role in the development of mathematics in Manchester. He was the first Fielden Professor.
• Bernhard Neumann spent more than a decade in Manchester. He is one of the leading figures in group theory.
• Hanna Neumann, group theorist, later first female Professor of Mathematics in Australia.
• Max Newman made important contributions to combinatorial topology, Boolean algebras and mathematical logic. He directed the now-famous Colossus cryptanalysis program in WWII.
• Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw, mathematician and politician
• Narahari Umanath Prabhu, Indian-American mathematician, known for his contributions to operation research, in particular queueing theory
• Lewis Fry Richardson was a scientist who was the first to apply mathematics, in particular the method of finite differences, to predicting the weather (the father of CFD). He made contributions to calculus and to the theory of diffusion, in particular eddy-diffusion in the atmosphere. The Richardson number, a fundamental quantity involving gradients of temperature and wind velocity, is named after him.
• Geoff Smith, noted for his contributions to group theory
• Alan Turing became famous for his WWII decoding work at Bletchley Park, and for his theoretical and practical work in the early history of the stored-program computer. He is also remembered in artificial intelligence for his Turing Test, and in biology for his innovative work on the mathematics of morphogenesis. He was a Reader in the Department of Mathematics, see also the entry in Computer Science.
• Peter Whittle, statistician who was working in the fields of stochastic nets, optimal control, time series analysis, stochastic optimization and stochastic dynamics
• Ludwig Wittgenstein who is best known for his work in philosophy undertook aeronautical research in Manchester. Needing to understand more mathematics for his research, he began a study which soon involved him in the foundations of mathematics.

Physics

See also School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manchester

Sir Bernard Lovell, radio-astronomer

Andre Geim, awarded 2010 Nobel Prize in physics for pioneering work on graphene

• Hans Bethe (awarded Nobel prize in 1967), for his contributions to the theory of nuclear reactions, especially his discoveries concerning the energy production in stars. Research staff and Temporary Lecturer 1932.
• Patrick M. Blackett (awarded Nobel prize in 1948), for developing cloud chamber and confirming/discovering positron. Director and Langworthy Professor of Physics (1937–1953).
• Niels Bohr (awarded Nobel prize in 1922). Research Staff and Schuster Reader 1911–1916. Worked on structure of atom and first theory of quantum mechanics.
• William Lawrence Bragg (awarded Nobel prize in 1915, along with his father, William Henry Bragg), for X-ray crystallography (their work led to the first discoveries of DNA and protein structures). Director and Langworthy Professor of Physics (1919–1937).
• Clifford Charles Butler. Co-discovered strange particles in 1947 with George Rochester. Went on to be head of physics department at Imperial College and then vice-chancellor at Loughborough University.
• James Chadwick (awarded Nobel prize in 1935). Student (BSc & MSc) and Researcher 1908–1913 (under Rutherford). Discovered the neutron.
• Sir John Douglas Cockcroft (awarded Nobel prize in 1951), for his pioneering work with Rutherford and Walton, on the transmutation of atomic nuclei by artificially accelerated atomic particles. Born in Todmorden, he studied mathematics under Horace Lamb in 1914–1915 and received BSc and MSc in Electrical Engineering. Later he became Chancellor of UMIST and Director of BAERE (Manhattan Project Hall of Fame).
• Brian Cox, physicist working at CERN and popularizer of science. Most notable for his physics documentaries on the BBC and as a member of a few popular rock bands.
• George de Hevesy (awarded Nobel prize in 1943), for his work on the use of isotopes as tracers in the study of chemical processes. Research Staff 1910–1913.
• Sir Arthur Eddington. Graduated in 1902 and became a lecturer in 1905. Founder of modern Astronomy. He made important contributions to the general theory of relativity and led an expedition team to validate it.
• Victor Emery, British specialist on superconductors and superfluidity. His model for the electronic structure of the copper-oxide planes is the starting point for many analyses of high-temperature superconductors and is commonly known as the Emery model.
• Hans Geiger, Researcher 1906–1914, invented the Geiger counter and did the original "Rutherford scattering" experiment with Marsden (also the Geiger-Marsden experiment). Devised the famous Geiger ionization counter.
• Andre Geim (awarded Nobel Prize in 2010), for the discovery of graphene
• Edward Lee, built Britain's first infrared spectrometer and later served as Director of the Admiralty Research Laboratory.
• Sir John Lennard-Jones, entered Manchester University where he changed his subject to mathematics in 1912. After First World War service in the Royal Flying Corps, he returned to Manchester as Lecturer in Mathematics, 1919–1922. Founder of modern theoretical chemistry. Lennard-Jones potential and LJ fluid are named after him.
• Henry Lipson CBE, FRS, known for x-ray diffraction and its application to crystallography, professor at UMIST 1954–1977.
• Sir Bernard Lovell, Professor (1951–1990) and creator of the giant radio-telescope (the first large radio-telescope in the world with a diameter of 218 feet) at Jodrell Bank: pioneered the field of radio astronomy.
• Sir Ernest Marsden was born in Lancashire in 1888. He won scholarships to attend grammar school and gain entry to Manchester University. It was here he met Rutherford in his honours year. Rutherford suggested a project to investigate the backwards scattering of alpha particles from a metal foil. He did this in conjunction with Hans Geiger (of Geiger counter fame), and it proved to be the key experiment in the demise of the Plum pudding model of the atom leading directly to Rutherford's nuclear atom. Rutherford also recommended Marsden for the position of physics professor at what is now Victoria University of Wellington.
• Henry Moseley, who identified atomic number as the nuclear charges. He studied under Rutherford and brilliantly developed the application of X-ray spectra to study atomic structure; his discoveries resulted in a more accurate positioning of elements in the Periodic Table by closer determination of atomic numbers . Moseley was nominated for the 1915 Nobel Prize but was killed in action in August 1915 and could not receive the prize.
• Nevill Francis Mott (awarded Nobel prize in 1977), for his fundamental theoretical investigations of the electronic structure of magnetic and disordered systems.
• Konstantin Novoselov (awarded Nobel prize 2010), for his work on Graphene
• Henry Plummer, astronomer who developed a gravitational potential function that can be used to model globular clusters and spherically-symmetric galaxies, known as the Plummer potential; Fellow of the Royal Society.
• John Henry Poynting. Student 1867–1872; Lecturer 1876–1879. Left to become Professor at Mason College (which became Birmingham University). He wrote on electrical phenomena and radiation and is best known for Poynting's vector. In 1891 he determined the mean density of the Earth and made a determination of the gravitational constant in 1893. The Poynting-Robertson effect was related to the theory of relativity.
• George Rochester discovered strange particles in 1947 with Clifford C Butler. Went on to become Chair of the Department at Durham University.

Ernest Rutherford, "the Father of Nuclear Physics" discovered the structure of the atom at the University of Manchester

• Ernest Rutherford (awarded Nobel prize in 1908), for his investigations into the disintegration of the elements and the chemistry of radioactive substances (he was the first to probe the atom). Langworthy Professor of Physics (1907–1919).
• Sir Arthur Schuster, Langworthy Professor of Physics (1888–1907), who made many contributions to optics and astronomy. Schuster's interests were wide-ranging: terrestrial magnetism, optics, solar physics, and the mathematical theory of periodicities. He introduced meteorology as a subject studied in British universities.
• Balfour Stewart, Scottish physicist, who devoted himself to meteorology and terrestrial magnetism.
• Joseph John (J. J.) Thomson (awarded Nobel prize in 1906). Studied and researched 1871–1876 (entered at age 14). Discovered the electron.
• Charles Thomson Rees (C. T. R.) Wilson (awarded Nobel prize in 1927). Student 1884–1887. Invented the expansion cloud chamber.
• Sir Arnold Wolfendale, BSc 1948 and PhD 1954 in cosmic rays. Lecturer 1953–1956. 14th Astronomer Royal.

Physiology and medicine

The University of Manchester currently has 28 Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences. Present and historical University of Manchester people notable for their contributions to medicine and physiology include

• John Charnley, orthopaedic surgeon, pioneer in hip replacement
• Julius Dreschfeld, leading British physician and pathologist at the end of the 19th century
• Archibald Vivian Hill (awarded Nobel prize in 1922), for his discovery relating to the production of heat in the muscle. One of the founders of the diverse disciplines of biophysics and operations research
• Sir Harry Platt, 1st Baronet, orthopaedic surgeon
• Sir John Randall, developer of the cavity magnetron
• Herchel Smith, a researcher at the University of Manchester, developed an inexpensive way of producing chemicals that stop women ovulating during their monthly menstrual cycle in 1961
• John Stopford, Baron Stopford of Fallowfield, anatomist; vice-chancellor
• Sir John Sulston (awarded Nobel prize in 2002), for his discoveries concerning 'genetic regulation of organ development and programmed cell death'. In 2007, Sulston was announced as Chair of the newly-founded Institute for Science, Ethics and Innovation (iSEI) at the University of Manchester. iSEI is a research institute focusing on the role and moral responsibilities of science, technology and innovation in the contemporary world.
• Raymond Tallis, gerontologist

Social sciences and education

Business

• Tom Bloxham, founder of influential regeneration firm Urban Splash
• David Bryer, former Director of Oxfam
• Terence Burns, Baron Burns, Chairman of Abbey National plc and of Marks & Spencer
• Jeremy Coller, CEO of Coller Capital, a British private equity firm.
• Andy Cosslett, CEO of InterContinental Hotels Group.
• Don Cruickshank, Chairman of SMG plc and former chairman of London Stock Exchange
• Andy Duncan, Chief Executive of Channel 4 television
• Keith Edelman, Managing Director of Arsenal Football Club
• Rijkman Groenink, Chairman of the Managing Board, ABN AMRO
• Robert H. Herz, Chairman, US Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB)
• Sir Terry Leahy, Chief Executive Officer of Tesco, the largest British supermarket chain. UMIST management graduate and later Chancellor of UMIST, co-chancellor of University of Manchester.
• Michael D. Parker, Chief Executive Officer, BNFL
• Brian Quinn, Former Deputy Governor of the Bank of England and Chairman of Celtic F.C board
• James Ross, Former Chairman, The Littlewoods Organisation
• Benjamin Seebohm Rowntree, industrialist, sociologist and social reformer
• Paul Skinner, Chairman, Rio Tinto
• Brenda Smith, Group Managing Director of Ascent Media Group and Former Managing Director of Granada Television
• Vijit Supinit, Chairman, Stock Exchange of Thailand
• David Varney, Executive Chairman, HM Revenue and Customs
• Andreas Vranas, Vice-Governor, National Bank of Greece
• Alan Wood, Chief Executive, Siemens plc and President of EEF the manufacturers organisation
• Neil Kadisha

Economics

William Stanley Jevons

• Anthony Stafford Beer, British theorist
• Terence Burns, Baron Burns, British economist and President of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research
• John Hicks (awarded Nobel prize in 1972), for his pioneering contributions to general economic equilibrium theory and welfare theory.
• William Stanley Jevons, father of neoclassical economics, was appointed in 1854 to establish a Chair in Political Economy making Manchester one of the oldest centres for the study of economics in the United Kingdom.
• Jack Johnston, founded and established the first Department of Econometrics in the 1960s.
• Sir Arthur Lewis (awarded Nobel prize in 1979), for his pioneering research into economic development research with particular consideration of the problems of developing countries.
• Joseph E. Stiglitz (awarded Nobel prize in 2001), for his analyses of markets with asymmetric information. Former Senior Vice President and Chief Economist of the World Bank, he is famous for his critical view of globalization and international institutions like the International Monetary Fund or the World Bank. Currently, Professor Joseph E. Stiglitz teaches at Columbia University and heads the Brooks World Poverty Institute (BWPI) at the University of Manchester.

Education

• Dame Alexandra Burslem, former Vice-Chancellor of Manchester Metropolitan University
• Susan Sutherland Isaacs, (née Fairhurst) (1885–1948) was an English educational psychologist and psychoanalyst.

Law, public administration and social welfare

• Samuel Finer, political scientist
• Brenda Hale, Baroness Hale of Richmond, first woman to become a judge in the House of Lords
• Admiral Sir John Kerr, admiral and Commander-in-Chief Naval Home Command in the Royal Navy and Pro-Chancellor of the University.
• Irene Khan, current Secretary General of Amnesty International
• Sir Maurice Oldfield, Director-General of MI6
• Rona Robinson, suffragette and first woman to gain a first-class chemistry degree in the UK.
• The Hon. Mr Justice Peter Smith, Judge of the High Court of Justice.

Politics

• Michael D Higgins, Ninth President of Ireland
• Robert Noton Barclay former MP for Manchester Exchange and Lord Mayor of Manchester

The Rt Hon Margaret Beckett, former Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs

• Margaret Beckett, Member of Parliament and former Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
• Joe Borg, Maltese politician and current European Commissioner for Fisheries and Maritime Affairs
• Nick Brown, Member of Parliament
• Liam Byrne, Member of Parliament and Minister of State, attended Harvard as a Fulbright Scholar
• John Cameron, Liberal Democrat Councillor
• David Clark, Baron Clark of Windermere, Labour politician and author
• Ann Coffey, Member of Parliament
• Den Dover, Member of the European Parliament
• Miranda Grell, Labour Councillor and first person found guilty of making false statements under the Representation of the People Act 1983
• Teo Chee Hean, current Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore
• Mark Hendrick, Member of Parliament
• Beverley Hughes, Member of Parliament and Minister of State
• Jamaluddin Jarjis, current Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation of Malaysia
• Peter Levene, Baron Levene of Portsoken, chairman of Lloyd's of London and former Lord Mayor of London
• Harold Lever, Labour cabinet minister
• Tony Lloyd, Member of Parliament
• Kevin G. Lynch, Deputy Minister of Finance in Canada, Canada's most senior civil servant
• John Mann, Member of Parliament
• Arlene McCarthy, Member of the European Parliament
• Austin Mitchell, Member of Parliament
• Maxwell Mkwezalamba, Malawian politician and Commissioner for Economic Affairs for the African Union Commission
• Julie Morgan, Member of the National Assembly for Wales
• Alfred Morris, Labour Co-operative politician and disability campaigner
• Said Musa, current Prime Minister of Belize
• Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, current President of Iceland
• Christian Ouellet, Canadian Member of Parliament
• Christabel Pankhurst, suffragette
• George Maxwell Richards, current President of Trinidad and Tobago
• Paul Rose, former Labour Party politician
• Councillor David Sandiford, Lord Mayor of Manchester
• Sir Lloyd Erskine Sandiford, former Prime Minister of Barbados
• Ahmed M. Mahamoud Silanyo, The current President of the Republic Somaliland
• Robert Spink, Member of Parliament
• Andrew Stunell, Member of Parliament
• Chaim Weizmann, first President of Israel
• Dafydd Wigley, Former MP, AM and Leader of Plaid Cymru
• Ellen Wilkinson, Labour Cabinet Minister
• Kirsty Williams, Member of the National Assembly for Wales
• Phil Woolas, Member of Parliament

Social anthropology

• Richard T. Antoun, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at Binghamton University, stabbed to death by student in 2009
• Max Gluckman, Rhodes Scholar who became Manchester's first professor of social anthropology in 1949

Others

• Arthur Whitten Brown, pioneer of flight. He was the navigator of the first successful non-stop transatlantic flight.

History

• Max Beloff, Baron Beloff, international historian and polemicist.
• Stefan Berger, professor of Modern German and Comparative European History
• M. R. D. Foot, historian of the SOE.
• Sir Ian Kershaw, historian of Nazi Germany and biographer of Hitler, taught in the History department from 1968 to 1987.
• Sir Colin Renshaw Lucas, historian of the French Revolution and Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University.
• Lewis Bernstein Namier, Professor of Modern History 1931–1952.
• J. E. Neale, historian of the Elizabethan period and of Parliament
• Maurice Oldfield, head of SIS
• John Pickstone, historian of science and medicine
• A. J. P. Taylor, 1931–1938, was a renowned English historian of the 20th century. He was one of the best-known British historians of the century and one of the most controversial.
• Thomas Frederick Tout, professor of medieval history.

Religion and philosophy

• Samuel Alexander, philosopher
• F. F. Bruce, Biblical scholar
• Donald Coggan, Archbishop of Canterbury 1974–1980, spiritual leader of the Church of England
• Reverend Professor Hubert Cunliffe-Jones, Chairman of the Congregational Union of England and Wales
• Colin McGinn, philosopher

Sport

• John Besford, European champion in swimming
• Tony Brooks, 6 times Formula One Grand Prix winner
• Sir Philip Craven, Paralympic athlete for Great Britain in wheelchair basketball and swimming; current president of the International Paralympic Committee
• Alan Gowling, footballer for Manchester United
• James Hickman, 5 times world champion in swimming
• Conall Murtagh, footballer for Wrexham F.C.
• Michael Rock, swimmer, British champion 100 m and 200 m butterfly and Olympian
• Graeme Smith, bronze medallist in swimming, 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games
• Chrissie Wellington, double Ironman Triathlon world champion

Terrorism victim

• Linda Norgrove, Ph.D. (2002), kidnapped by the Taliban in Afghanistan, and killed in rescue effort

See also

• Category:People associated with the University of Manchester
• Natives of Manchester