List of Brown University people

The following is a partial list of notable Brown people, known as Brunonians.^[1] It includes alumni, professors, and others associated with Brown University and Pembroke College (Brown University), the former women's college of Brown. For alumni of the Rhode Island School of Design, see List of Rhode Island School of Design people.

Notable alumni and leaders of Brown

Note: "Class of" is used to denote the graduation class of individuals who attended Brown, but did not or have not graduated. When just the graduation year is noted, it is because it has not yet been determined which degree the individual earned.

Academia

• Jasper Adams (A.B. 1815) – President of the College of Charleston, and Hobart College^[2]
• Anthony Aguirre (Sc.B. 1995) – theoretical physicist; winner of the inaugural Buchalter Cosmology Prize^[3]
• Linda Martín Alcoff (PhD 1987) – Professor of Philosophy, Hunter College
• Vernon Alden (A.B. 1945) – President, Ohio University^[4]
• Margaret L. Anderson (Ph.D. 1971) – Professor Emerita of History, UC Berkeley^[5]
• James Burrill Angell (A.B. 1849) – longest-serving President of the University of Michigan (1871–1909)
• Thomas Angell (1862) – Free Will Baptist preacher, professor at Bates College
• Clarence Edwin Ayres (A.B. 1912; M.A. 1914) – economist; leading proponent of Institutional economics^[6]
• Rufus Babcock (1821) – 2nd President of Colby College, 1833–1836
• Jacques Bailly (A.B. 1988) – classicist at the University of Vermont; National Spelling Bee Official Pronouncer
• Malcolm Baker (A.B. 1992) – Robert G. Kirby Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School^[7]
• Martha Banks (Sc.B. 1973) – Founder of Society for the Psychological Study of Ethnic Minority Issues (American Psychological Association, Division 45)
• Mark Bear (Ph.D., 1984) – Picower Professor of Neuroscience, Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, MIT^[8]
• Peter Bearman (A.B. 1978) – Jonathan R. Cole Professor of the Social Sciences, Columbia University^[9]
• 

  Aaron Beck (1942)
  Aaron T. Beck (1942) – "father of cognitive behavioral therapy"; founder, Beck Institute for Cognitive Behavior Therapy at the University of Pennsylvania; winner of the Lasker Award
• J. Gayle Beck (A.B. 1979) – Lillian and Morrie Moss Chair of Excellence in the Department of Psychology at the University of Memphis, clinical psychologist
• Samuel Belkin (Ph.D. 1935) – President, Yeshiva University
• Ravi V. Bellamkonda (Ph.D. 1994) – Dean, Pratt School of Engineering, Duke University^[10]
• Olivier Berggruen (A.B. 1986) – art historian and curator
• Lee Eliot Berk (A.B 1964) – president and namesake, Berklee College of Music
• Sangeeta N. Bhatia – John J. and Dorothy Wilson Professor of Health Sciences and Technology and of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT^[11]
• Sarah Bolton (Sc.B. 1988) – physicist, president of the College of Wooster, former dean of the college at Williams College
• Edgar S. Brightman – philosopher, Martin Luther King, Jr.'s advisor at Boston University
• Marianne Bronner (Sc.B. 1975) – Albert Billings Ruddock Professor of Biology CalTECH^[12]
• Kathryn Brush (M.A., PhD) – distinguished professor of art history at the University of Western Ontario
• Samuel W. Buell (A.B.) – Bernard M. Fishman Professor of Law, Duke University School of Law^[13]
• Stephen L. Buchwald (Sc.B. 1977) – Camille Dreyfus Professor of Chemistry at Massachusetts Institute of Technology^[14]
• Hermon Carey Bumpus (Ph.B.) – 5th president of Tufts University, 1915–1919
• Walter Burse (1920) – President of Suffolk University in Boston, Massachusetts
• Dame Frances Cairncross (M.A., 1966) – Rector, Exeter College, University of Oxford^[15]
• Andrew Cayton (Ph.D, 1981) – Warner Woodring Chair in Early American History, The Ohio State University; University Distinguished Professor of History, Miami University
• 

  Zechariah Chafee (1907)
  Zechariah Chafee (A.B. 1907) – University Professor of Law, Harvard University^[16]
• Gordon Keith Chalmers (A.B., 1925) – Rhodes Scholar, President of Kenyon College, 1937–1956
• Jeremiah Chaplin (1799) – founder and first President of Colby College, 1817–1833
• Oren B. Cheney (1835–36) – Baptist preacher, abolitionist, founder and president of Bates College
• Herman Chernoff (PhD, 1948) – Professor Emeritus of Applied Mathematics at MIT and of Statistics at Harvard University
• Barbara Chernow (A.B., Economics) – Senior Vice President for Administration at Stony Brook University
• Aram Chobanian – President, Boston University (2003–2005)
• Christopher G. Chute (A.B. English, 1977, M.D. 1982) – Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Health Informatics at Johns Hopkins University
• Richard Cohn – Battell Professor of Music Theory, Yale University
• Jay Coogan – President, Minneapolis College of Art and Design
• William E. Cooper – President, University of Richmond
• Robert A. Corrigan (A.B.) – President, San Francisco State University
• Christina Crosby (Ph.D. 1982) – Professor of English, Wesleyan University
• Douglas W. Diamond (A.B.) – Merton H. Miller Distinguished Service Professor of Finance, University of Chicago Booth School of Business
• Michael Dickinson (Sc. B. 1984) – Zarem Professor of Bioengineering and Biology California Institute of Technology, recipient of the Macarthur fellowship
• Daniel Eisenberg (M.A., 1968; Ph.D., 1971) – Distinguished Research Professor of Spanish at Florida State University
• Kathleen M. Eisenhardt (Sc.B.) Stanford W. Ascherman M.D. Professor, Stanford University
• Romeo Elton (1817–1889) – professor of Latin and Greek Languages and trustee at Brown University; namesake of an endowed chair
• Stanley Falkow – father of microbiology and professor at Stanford Medical School, winner of the Lasker Award, only second to the Nobel Prize
• Heidi Li Feldman (A.B. 1986) – law professor
• Ruth Feldstein (PhD 1996) – Professor of History, Rutgers University^[17]
• Willbur Fisk (A.B. 1815) – Methodist minister; first president of Wesleyan University^[18]
• James Forman Jr. (A.B. 1988) – Professor of Law, Yale Law School;^[19] Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America
  

  James Forman Jr (1988)
• Daniel Fischel – Dean, University of Chicago Law School
• David Shrier – American futurist and author
• Henry Simmons Frieze (1841) – President, University of Michigan
• Ester Fuchs (M.A.) – Professor of International and Public Affairs and Political Science, Columbia University^[20]
• William Fulton (B.A. 1961) – algebraic geometer, former Professor of Mathematics at Brown University, winner of the Leroy P. Steele Prize
• Alexander R. Galloway (A.B., 1996) – Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication, New York University
• Paul Garabedian (A.B. 1946) – Director of the Division of Computational Fluid Dynamics, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, NYU^[21]
• Edwin Gaustad (PhD 1951) – noted historian of American religious history at the University of California, Riverside^[22]
• Gary Gerstle (A.B.) – Paul Mellon Professor of American History at the University of Cambridge^[23]
• Brie Gertler (PhD 1997) – Commonwealth Professor of Philosophy at the University of Virginia
• 

  John Wesley Gilbert (1888)
  John Wesley Gilbert (A.B. 1888, A.M. 1891) – first African American to receive an A.M. from Brown, first African American archaeologist^[24]
• Frederic Poole Gorham (A.M. 1894) – founder of bacteriological studies program, President of the American Society for Microbiology (1911)
• John Greco (Ph.D., 1989) – Leonard and Elizabeth Eslick Chair in Philosophy at Saint Louis University
• Roland Greene (AB 1979) – Mark Pigott KBE Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences and Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Stanford University^[25]
• Kent Greenfield (A.B. 1984) – Professor of Law Boston College Law School^[26]
• Thomas D. Griffith (A.B.) – John B. Milliken Professor of Taxation, USC Gould School of Law^[27]
• Edward Guiliano – New York Institute of Technology President^[28]
• John Guttag (A.B. 1971) – chair of MIT's Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department (1999–2004)
• John Haltiwanger (Sc.B. 1977) – economist, University of Maryland, College Park
• Janice Hammond (Sc.B.) – Jesse Philips Professor of Manufacturing at Harvard Business School^[29]
• Albert Harkness (1842) – founder of the American Philological Association and the American School of Classical Studies at Athens^[30]
• Thomas Hassan – former principal of Phillips Exeter Academy, first gentleman of New Hampshire
• John Hattendorf (A.M. 1971) – Ernest J. King Professor of Maritime History, Naval War College
• Jerry A. Hausman (A.B. 1968) – John and Jennie S. MacDonald Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology^[31]
• Dagmar Herzog (PhD) – Distinguished Professor of History, Graduate Center, CUNY^[32]
• John Brown Francis Herreshoff (1870) – Chemist, winner of the Perkin Medal
• Marianne Hirsch (AB 1970; PhD 1970) – William Peterfield Trent Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University^[25][33]
• 

  John Hope (1894)
  John Hope (1894) – first African American president of Morehouse College and co-founder of the Niagara Movement, which became the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
• Tracey Holloway, professor at University of Wisconsin–Madison
• Maryanne Cline Horowitz (A.B.) – historian, Occidental College^[34]
• Arthur L. Horwich (A.B., 1972 M.D., 1975 summa cum laude) – biologist, Lasker Award (2011) winner, and Eugene Higgins Professor of Genetics and Pediatrics at Yale School of Medicine
• Ayanna Howard (Sc.B. '93) – roboticist; Linda J. and Mark C. Smith Endowed Chair in Bioengineering in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology; MIT Technology Review Top 100 Innovators under 35^[35]
• Charles Ingrao (Ph.D. 1974) – Professor Emeritus of History, Purdue University
• Matthew Frye Jacobson (PhD 1992) – William Robertson Coe Professor of American Studies & History, Yale University^[36]
• Gene Andrew Jarrett (PhD 2002) – Professor of English and Dean, New York University College of Arts and Science^[37]
• Judith Jacobson (1964) – co-founder of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, professor at the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health
• Bruce J. Katz (A.B.) – vice president, Brookings Institution
• Brian Keating (Ph.D 2000) – astrophysicist^[3]
• Michael Keane (Ph.D 1989) – Nuffield Professor of Economics, University of Oxford
• JacSue Kehoe (PhD 1961) – former instructor at Brown University, renowned neuroscience lecturer and researcher at the CNRS
• David Kelley (A.B., A.M.) – former professor of philosophy; founder of The Atlas Society
• Sean Dorrance Kelly (Sc.B., M.S.) – Professor of Philosophy, Harvard University
• David Kennedy (A.B. 1976) – Vice President of International Studies and professor of International Relations at Brown University
• 

  Jim Yong Kim (1981)
  Jim Yong Kim (1981) – President, Dartmouth College, Professor of Medicine and Social Medicine and Chair of the Department of Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Chief of the Division of Social Medicine and Health Inequalities at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Director of the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights, former director of the World Health Organization's HIV/AIDS department, recipient of the Macarthur fellowship
• Michael Kimmel (M.A. 1974) – Distinguished Professor of Sociology, Stony Brook University
• Karen L. King (PhD 1984) – Hollis Professor of Divinity, Harvard University^[38]
• Edward Kleinbard (A.B., M.A. 1973) – Theodore Johnson Professor of Law and Business, USC Gould School of Law^[39]
• Eric Klinenberg (AB 1993) – sociologist, professor at New York University
• Carolyn Korsmeyer (Ph.D. 1972) – philosopher of aesthetics; Research Professor of Philosophy, University at Buffalo^[40]
• Larry Kramer (AB 1980) – president, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation; former Dean of Stanford Law School
• Ka Yee Christina Lee (Sc.B., 1986) – Provost, University of Chicago^[41][42]
• Jennifer Lackey (PhD 2000) – Wayne and Elizabeth Jones Professor of Philosophy, Northwestern University^[43]
• Keith Lehrer (PhD 1960) – Regents' Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus, University of Arizona^[44]
• Joan Leitzel (M.A. 1961) – President Emerita, University of New Hampshire^[45]
• Derrick Henry Lehmer (PhD 1930) – University of California, Berkeley mathematician^[46]
• Jeffrey Lesser (A.B. 1982; M.A. 1984) – Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor and Chair of History, Emory University^[47]
• Walter Liedtke (AM 1969) – curator of European paintings Metropolitan Museum of Art^[48]
• David Lobell (Sc.B. 2000) – Professor of Earth System Science at Stanford University; MacArthur Fellow^[49]
• Julie Beth Lovins (AB 1968) – computational linguist who developed the first stemming algorithm for word matching
• Luther Luedtke (PhD 1971) – former President of California Lutheran University and current President and CEO of Education Development Center
• James A. MacAlister (1856) – first president of Drexel University^[50]
• Bruce H. Mann – (Harvard Law School legal scholar)^[51]
• Sharon Marcus (A.B. 1986) – Orlando Harriman Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University^[52]

Jonathan Maxcy (1787)

• Jonathan Maxcy (A.B. 1787) – 2nd President of Brown University; first president of the University of South Carolina and Baptist minister
• David Maxwell (A.M. 1968) – President, Drake University
• Brendan McConville (PhD 1992) – Professor of History, Boston University^[53]
• Alexander Meiklejohn (1893) – philosopher; free-speech advocate; dean of Brown University (1901–1913); president of Amherst College
• 

  Jessica Meir (1999)
  Jessica Meir (A.B. 1999) – Harvard professor, astronaut
• Craig C. Mello,(Sc. B. 1982) – Nobel laureate (2006, Physiology or Medicine) – professor University of Massachusetts Medical School
• Anne K. Mellor (A.B. 1963) – Distinguished Research Professor of English UCLA^[54]
• Ruth Milkman (A.B. 1975) – Distinguished Professor, Graduate Center, CUNY; former president, American Sociological Association^[55]
• Kenneth R. Miller (Sc. B. 1970) – Professor of Biology at Brown University
• Lloyd B. Minor (Sc.B. 1979; M.D. 1982) – Carl and Elizabeth Naumann Dean, Stanford University School of Medicine; former provost, Johns Hopkins University^[56]
• Richard L. Morrill (A.B. 1961) – President, University of Richmond (1988–1998), Centre College (1982–1988), Salem College (1979–1982)
• Samuel M. Nabrit (B.A. Morehouse College, Ph.D. 1932) – first African American to receive doctorate degree from Brown University; first African American trustee at Brown University; first African American appointed to the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission
• Srihari S. Naidu (Sc.B. 1993; MD, 1997) – physician, Associate Professor of Medicine, New York Medical College^[57]
• Anna Nagurney (A.B. 1977, Sc. B. 1977, Sc. M. 1980, Ph.D. 1983) – John F. Smith Memorial Professor and Director – Virtual Center for Supernetworks, University of Massachusetts Amherst
• Jay Newman (M.A.) – Professor of Philosophy at York University; Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada
• Peter Norvig (Sc. B. 1978) – director of research at Google Inc.
• Eliphalet Nott (M.A. 1795) – President of Union College, 1805–1866; longest serving college president in American history^[58]
• 

  Inman E. Page (1877)
  Inman E. Page (A.B. 1877, A.M. 1880) – Together with George W. Milford the first African-American student, president of four colleges: the Lincoln Institute, Langston University, Western University, and Roger Williams University
• Lynn Pasquerella (Ph.D. 1985) – President, Mount Holyoke College
• Kathy Peiss (PhD 1982) – Roy F. and Jeannette P. Nichols Professor of American History, University of Pennsylvania^[59]
• Peter Pitegoff (A.B. 1975) – Dean and Professor of Law, University of Maine School of Law
• Imam Prasodjo (Ph.D. 1997) - professor, University of Indonesia^[60]
• Willard Preston (A.B. 1806) – 4th President of the University of Vermont^[61]
• Wendell Pritchett, Chancellor of Rutgers University–Camden, Interim Dean and Presidential Professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and Provost of the University of Pennsylvania
• Guruswami Ravichandran (PhD 1987) – John E. Goode, Jr., Professor of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering; Otis Booth Leadership Chair, Division of Engineering and Applied Science at CalTECH^[62]
• Jehuda Reinharz (Ph.D. 1972) – President, Brandeis University
• Kenneth Alan "Ken" Ribet (A.B. and A.M. 1969) – professor of mathematics at U.C. Berkeley, contributor to the proof of Fermat's last theorem
• Jennifer Richeson (1994) – psychologist, Macarthur fellowship recipient
• Paul Ridker (MD 1981) – cardiologist and medical researcher and the Eugene Braunwald Professor of Medicine at Harvard University; on staff at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts; included in TIME magazine's list of 100 most influential people of 2004; previously named by TIME and CNN as one of "America's Best in Science and Medicine"
• Suzanne M. Rivera (A.B. 1991) – 17th President of Macalester College
• Daniel T. Rodgers (A.B. 1965) – Henry Charles Lea Professor of History, Emeritus, Princeton University^[63]
• Chase F. Robinson (A.B.) – President and Distinguished Professor, The Graduate Center, CUNY
• Lisa Rofel (AB 1975) – Professor Emerita of Anthropology, UC Santa Cruz^[64]
• Gavriel David Rosenfeld (1989) – Professor of History and Director of the Undergraduate Program in Judaic Studies at Fairfield University
• Robert Rynasiewicz (Sc.B. 1974) – Professor of Philosophy, Johns Hopkins University^[65]
• David Schmittlein (A.B. 1977) – Dean, MIT Sloan School of Management
• Daniel R. Schwarz (PhD 1968) – Frederic J. Whiton Professor of English Literature and Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow at Cornell University^[66]
• Patrick Sharkey (A.B. 2000) – Professor of Sociology, NYU^[67]
• Kaja Silverman (PhD 1977) – Keith L. Sachs W'67 and Katherine Stein Sachs CW'69 Professor of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania^[68]
• Michael Silverstein – Charles F. Grey Distinguished Service Professor of Anthropology, of Linguistics, and of Psychology at the University of Chicago, recipient of the Macarthur fellowship
• Steven H. Simon (Sc.B.) – theoretical physicist, University of Oxford^[69]
• Richard Slotkin (PhD) – Olin Professor of English and American Studies, Wesleyan University
• 

  Timothy Snyder (1991)
  Timothy D. Snyder (991 )– Richard C. Levin Professor of History, Yale University
• Jeffrey Stout (A.B. 1972) – Professor of Religion, Princeton University^[70]
• Richard Solomon (A.B. 1940, A.M. 1942, Ph.D. 1947) – psychologist, author of the opponent-process theory of emotion
• David Summers (art historian)
• Arthur Taylor – President, Muhlenberg College (1992–2002), President, CBS (1972–1976)
• Richard Taylor (PhD 1959) – philosopher; subject of David Foster Wallace's prize-winning undergraduate thesis, later reprinted as Fate, Time, and Language: An Essay on Free Will (along with essays by Taylor)^[71][72]
• Rick Trainor (A.B.) – Principal of King's College London
• Francesca Trivellato (PhD 2004) – Barton M. Biggs Professor of History, Yale University; Professor of History, Institute for Advanced Study^[73]
• William Freeman Twaddell – professor during 50s and 60s
• Adam Ulam – Gurney Professor of History and Political Science at Harvard University, one of the world's foremost authorities on Russia and the Soviet Union
• Dell Upton (M.A. 975 ,Ph.D, 1980) — architectural historian, chair of the Department of Art History at University of California, Los Angeles
• Thomas A. Wadden (B.A. 1975) - Albert J. Stunkard Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania
• Ebonya Washington (A.B. 1995) – professor of Economics at Yale University
• Harry L. Watson (A.B. 1971) – Atlanta Distinguished Professor of Southern Culture, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill^[74]
• Francis Wayland III (A.B. 1846) – Dean of Yale Law School, 1873–1903^[75]
• Geoffrey Wawro (A.B. 1983) – military historian
• Yang Wei (Ph.D. 1985) – President, Zhejiang University
• Nils Yngve Wessell (A.M. 1935) – President, Tufts University
• 

  Benjamin Ide Wheeler (1875)
  Benjamin Ide Wheeler (1875) – Greek and comparative philology professor at Cornell University; President of the University of California from 1899 to 1919
• Beniah Longley Whitman – President of Colby College and later President of George Washington University
• 

  Mary Emma Woolley (1894)
  Mary Emma Woolley (A.B. 1894, A.M 1895) – first American woman to serve as delegate to a major international conference; president of Mount Holyoke College
• Dean Zimmerman (PhD 1992) – Professor of Philosophy, Rutgers University^[76]
• Maria Zuber – first female department head at MIT (planetary and geological sciences) and NASA planning advisor
• Steven Zwicker (M.A. 1966, Ph.D. 1969) – Stanley Elkin Professor in the Humanities in Arts and Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis

Science, technology and innovation

• Willis Adcock (Ph.D. 1948) — chemist, professor of electrical engineering, grew silicon boules for construction of the first silicon transistor at Texas Instruments
• Katherine L. Adams (A.B. 1986) – General Counsel and Senior Vice President of Legal and Global Security, Apple Inc.^[77]
• Zachariah Allen (1813) – Inventor of the steam engine automatic cut-off valve^[78]
• Seth Berkley (Sc. B., MD) – President, CEO and founder of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative
• Brian Binnie (Sc. B. 1975, Sc. M. 1976) – test pilot, privately funded experimental spaceplane SpaceShipOne
• John Seely Brown (A.B. 1962) – inventor of spellcheck
• John H. Crawford (1975) – chief architect, Intel386 and Intel486 microprocessors; co-managed the development of the Pentium microprocessor; Intel Fellow, Enterprise Platforms Group
• Bethany Ehlmann (M.S., 2008, PhD, 2010) — President of the The Planetary Society, Rhodes Scholar
• James B. Garvin (Sc. B. 1978, Sc. M. 1981, Ph.D. 1984) – Chief Scientist, NASA Mars and lunar exploration programs
• Lisa Gelobter (1991) - developed visual programs such as Shockwave
• 

  Lillian Moller Gilbreth (1915)
  Lillian Moller Gilbreth (Ph.D. 1915) – one of the first working female engineers; arguably the first true industrial/organizational psychologist; mother of twelve children as described by the book Cheaper by the Dozen
• Morton Gurtin (Ph.D. 1961) – Timoshenko Medal-winning mechanical engineer and mathematical physicist
• Andy Hertzfeld (Sc. B. 1975) – key member of original Apple Macintosh development team; one of the primary software architects of the classic Mac OS
• Alexander Lyman Holley (1853) – American inventor, founding member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers
• Eliot Horowitz – founder and CTO of MongoDB
• Wesley Huntress – president, Planetary Society
• William Williams Keen (1859) – first U.S. brain surgeon
• Dara Khosrowshahi (1991) – CEO of Uber^[79]
• Amy Leventer, marine biologist, micropaleontologist, Antarctic researcher
• David J. Lipman – director, National Center for Biotechnology Information
• 

  Thomas O. Paine (1942)
  Thomas O. Paine (A.B. 1942) – third NASA Administrator, oversaw first seven Apollo manned missions
• Robert G. Parr (1942) – author of Density-Functional Theory of Atoms and Molecules
• Randy Pausch (Sc.B. 1982) – Professor of Computer Science and co-founder of the Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon University; lecturer and best-selling writer, The Last Lecture
• John Peirce (1856) – inventor who participated in the development of the telephone^[80]
• Erin Pettit (Sc.B. 1994) – glaciologist, Antarctic researcher
• Joan Reede (Sc.B. 1976) – physician, Dean for Diversity and Community Partnership, Harvard Medical School^[81]
• Marion Elizabeth Stark (A.B. 1916, A.M. 1979) – one of the first female American mathematics professors
• Frederick Slocum (A.B. 1895, Ph.D. 1898) – astronomer, director of Van Vleck Observatory
• 

  Ellen Stofan (1989)
  Ellen Stofan (Ph.D. 1989) – John and Adrienne Mars Director, National Air and Space Museum^[82][83]
• Gordon Kidd Teal (Ph.D. 1931) – inventor of the silicon transistor
• John Wilder Tukey (Sc. B. 1936, Sc. M. 1937) – co-developed the Cooley–Tukey fast Fourier transform algorithm; coined the terms bit, byte, software and cepstrum
• Winslow Upton (Sc.B. 1875) – astronomer, director of Ladd Observatory
• Bob Wallace – ninth Microsoft employee, inventor of the term shareware
• George Wallerstein (Sc.B. 1951) – astronomer, winner of the Henry Norris Russell Lectureship
• Maia Weinstock – Deputy Editor of MIT News; feminist
• Frank E. Winsor (Sc.B. 1892, A.M. 1896, Sc.D. 1929) – civil engineer; chief engineer for the Quabbin Reservoir and Scituate Reservoir projects; Brown University trustee

Government, law and public policy

Governors

• Philip Allen (A.B. 1803) – U.S. Senator, Rhode Island (1853–1859), Governor of Rhode Island (1851–1853)^[84]
• Henry B. Anthony (A.B. 1833) – U.S. Senator, R-Rhode Island (1859–1884), President pro tempore of the United States Senate, Governor of Rhode Island (1849–1851)^[85]
• Donald Carcieri (A.B. 1965) – Governor of Rhode Island–R (2003–2011); former CEO of Cookson America^[86]
• Lincoln Chafee (1975) – Governor of Rhode Island^[87]
• Samuel Cony (1829) – Governor of Maine (1864–1867)^[88]
• Elisha Dyer – Governor of Rhode Island (1857–1859)^[89]
• Elisha Dyer, Jr. – Governor of Rhode Island (1897–1900)^[90]
• 

  James Fenner
  James Fenner (A.B. 1789) – Governor of Rhode Island (1807–1811; 1824–1831; 1843–1845)^[91]
• Theodore Francis Green (1887) – Governor of Rhode Island (1933–1936); U.S. Senator, D–Rhode Island (1937–1961)^[92]
• Maggie Hassan – Governor of New Hampshire (2013–2017); U.S. Senator, D–New Hampshire (2017–)^[93]
• James H. Higgins (B.A. 1898) – Governor of Rhode Island (1907-1909)
• Charles Evans Hughes (A.B. 1881) – Governor of New York (1907–1910)^[94]
• Charles Jackson – Governor of Rhode Island (1845–46)^[95]
• Piyush "Bobby" Jindal (Sc.B. 1992) – Governor of Louisiana–R (2008–2016)^[96]
• Otto Kerner, Jr. (1930) – Governor of Illinois – (1961–1968)^[97]
• 

  William L. Marcy (1808)
  William L. Marcy (A.B. 1808) – Justice of New York State Supreme Court (1829); Governor of New York (1833–1839); U.S. Secretary of War (1845–1849); U.S. Senator from New York; U.S. Secretary of State (1853–1857)^[98]
• Jack A. Markell (1982) – Governor of Delaware–D (2009–2017)^[99]
• Marcus Morton (A.B. 1804, A.M 1807) – U.S. Congressman, Massachusetts (1817–1821), Governor of Massachusetts (1825, 1840–1844)^[100]
• Pendleton Murrah (1848) – Governor of Texas during the American Civil War (1863–1865)^[101]
• Philip W. Noel (1954) – former Governor of Rhode Island^[102]
• Robert E. Quinn (1915) – Governor of Rhode Island and Judge for the Rhode Island Superior Court^[103]
• Edward C. Stokes (1883) – Governor of New Jersey (1905–1908)^[104]
• John Milton Thayer (1841) – Governor of Wyoming Territory and Governor of Nebraska^[105]
• William D. Williamson (1804) – second Governor of the U.S. state of Maine and one of the first congressmen from Maine in the United States House of Representatives^[106]

Legislators

Framer of the founding documents of the United States of America

• Stephen Hopkins – First Chancellor of Brown University; Continental Congress delegate; signatory to the Declaration of Independence; introduced slavery ban to Rhode Island in 1774

United States senators

• Philip Allen (A.B. 1803) – U.S. Senator, Rhode Island (1853–1859), Governor of Rhode Island (1851–1853)^[84]
• 

  Henry B. Anthony (1833)
  Henry B. Anthony (A.B. 1833) – U.S. Senator, R-Rhode Island (1859–1884), President pro tempore of the United States Senate, Governor of Rhode Island (1849–1851)^[85]
• Samuel G. Arnold (A.B. 1841) – U.S. Senator from Rhode Island^[107]
• James Burrill, Jr. (A.B. 1788) – U.S. Senator from Rhode Island^[108]
• Lincoln Chafee (A.B. 1975) – U.S. Senator, R-Rhode Island; Governor of Rhode Island (2011–2015)^[109]
• John Hopkins Clarke (A.B. 1809) – U.S. Senator from Rhode Island^[110]
• Nathan F. Dixon I (A.B. 1799) – U.S. Senator, Rhode Island^[111]
• Nathan F. Dixon III (A.B. 1869) – U.S. Senator from Rhode Island^[112]
• James Fenner (A.B. 1789) – U.S. Senator from Rhode Island^[113]
• Dwight Foster (A.B. 1774) – United States Senator from Massachusetts^[114]
• 

  Lafayette S. Foster (1828)
  Lafayette S. Foster (A.B. 1828) – U.S. Senator, R-Connecticut (1855–1867), President pro tempore of the Senate (1865–1867)^[115]
• Theodore Foster (A.B. 1770) – United States Senator from Rhode Island^[116]
• John Brown Francis (A.B. 1808) – U.S. Senator from Rhode Island^[117]
• Theodore F. Green (A.B. 1887) – U.S. Senator, D- Rhode Island (1937–1961)^[118]
• Maggie Hassan (A.B. 1980) – U.S. Senator, D-New Hampshire^[119]
• Nathaniel P. Hill (A.B. 1856) – U.S. Senator, R-Colorado (1879–1885)^[120]
• John Holmes (A.B. 1796) – U.S. Congressman from Massachusetts, one of the first two Senators from Maine^[121]

• Jeremiah B. Howell (A.B. 1789) – U.S. Senator from Rhode Island^[122]
• William Hunter (A.B. 1791) – U.S. Senator from Rhode Island^[123]
• Edward L. Leahy (A.B. ???) – U.S. Senator from Rhode Island^[124]
• Henry F. Lippitt (A.B. 1878) – U.S. Senator from Rhode Island^[125]
• William L. Marcy (A.B. 1808) – U.S. Senator from New York^[126]
• Blair Moody (A.B. 1922) – U.S. Senator, Michigan^[127]
• John Ruggles (A.B. 1813) – U.S. Senator from Maine^[128]
• Frederic M. Sackett (1890) – U.S. Senator, R-Kentucky (1924–1930), U.S. ambassador to Germany (1930–1933)^[129]
• John Milton Thayer (1841) – U.S. Senator from Nebraska (1867–1871)
• Jared W. Williams (A.B. 1818) – U.S. Senator and Representative from New Hampshire^[130]

Members of the United States House of Representatives

• Benjamin Adams (A.B. 1788) – U.S. Congressman, Massachusetts (1816-1821)
• Jeremiah Bailey (1795) – U.S. Congressman, Maine (1835-1837)^[131]
• John Bailey (1807) – U.S. Congressman, Massachusetts (1824-1831)
• John Baldwin (A.B. 1797) – U.S. Congressman, Connecticut (1825–1829)^[132]
• Gideon Barstow (1803) – U.S. Congressman, Massachusetts (1821-1823)
• William Baylies (1795) – U.S. Congressman, Massachusetts (1809-1809, 1813-1817, 1833-1835)^[131]
• William H. Bates (1940) – U.S. Congressman, Massachusetts (1950–1969)
• Barnabas Bidwell – U.S. Congressman, Massachusetts (1805 –1807)
• William Daniel Brayton – U.S Congressman, Rhode Island (1857–1861)
• Franklin E. Brooks (1883) – U.S. Congressman, Colorado (1903-1907)
• George H. Browne (1840) – U.S Congressman, Rhode Island (1861–1863)
• Tristam Burges (A.B. 1796) – U.S Congressman, Rhode Island (1825–1835)^[133]
• 

  David Cicilline (1983)
  David Cicilline (A.B. 1983) – first openly gay mayor of state capital, Providence, Rhode Island; U.S. Representative for Rhode Island's 1st congressional district, 2011–present.^[134]
• Gil Cisneros (M.A. 2015) – U.S. Congressman, D-California^[135]
• William Claflin – U.S. Congressman, Massachusetts (1877 –1881)
• Stephen A. Cobb (1858) – U.S. Congressman, Kansas
• Howard A. Coffin (1901) – U.S. Congressman, R-Michigan^[136]
• Samuel S. Cox (1846) – U.S. Congressman, D-Ohio, D-New York, U.S. ambassador to the Ottoman Empire^[137]
• Samuel L. Crocker (1822) – U.S. Congressman, Massachusetts (1853-1855)^[138]
• Robert Lee Davis – U.S. Congressman, Pennsylvania (1932–1933)^[139]
• Nathan F. Dixon II (1833) – U.S Congressman, Rhode Island (1849–1851, 1863–1871)^[131]
• Job Durfee (A.B. 1813) – U.S Congressman, Rhode Island (1821–1825)^[140]
• Samuel Eddy (1787) – U.S Congressman, Rhode Island (1819–1825), Chief Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court (1827–1835)^[141]
• Frederick D. Ely (1859) – U.S. Congressman, Massachusetts (1885-1887)
• James Ervin (1797) U.S. Congressman, R-South Carolina (1817–1821)^[142]
• Horace Everett (A.B. 1797) – U.S. Congressman, Vermont (1829–1843)^[143]
• Thomas Ewing Jr. – U.S. Congressman, Ohio (1877–1881)
• George Fisher (1813) – U.S. Congressman, New York (1829–1830)^[144]
• Dwight Foster (A.B. 1774) – U.S. Congressman, Massachusetts (1793-1800)^[114]
• George B. Francis (1904) – U.S. Congressman, New York (1917–1919)
• Daniel L. D. Granger (1874) – U.S Congressman, Rhode Island (1903-1909)
• Julian Hartridge (1848) – U.S. Congressman, D-Georgia (1875–1879)^[145]
• Nathaniel Hazard (1792) – U.S Congressman, Rhode Island (1819–1820)^[146]
• Aaron Hobart (1805) – U.S. Congressman, Massachusetts (1820–1827)
• Thomas Jenckes (1838) – U.S. Congressman, Massachusetts (1859–1863)
• 

  Bobby Jindal (1992)
  Piyush "Bobby" Jindal (Sc.B. 1992) – U.S. Congressman, R-Louisiana 1st Congressional District (2004–2008)^[147]
• George Gordon King (1825) – U.S Congressman, Rhode Island (1849–1853)
• Oscar Lapham (1864) – U.S. Congressman, D-Rhode Island, 1st Congressional District^[148]
• 

  Dan Maffei (1990)
  Dan Maffei (1990) – U.S. Congressman, D-New York^[149]
• Horace Mann (1819) – U.S. Congressman, Massachusetts (1848–1853)
• James Brown Mason (A.B. 1791) – U.S Congressman, Rhode Island (1815–1819)^[150]
• Charles D. Millard (1897) – U.S Congressman, New York (1931–1937)
• Marcus Morton (A.B. 1804, A.M 1807) – U.S. Congressman, Massachusetts (1817–1821), Governor of Massachusetts (1825, 1840–1844)^[151]
• John J. O'Connor (1906) – U.S. Congressman, D-New York (1923–1939)^[152]
• Richard Olney II (1892) – U.S. Congressman, Massachusetts (1815–1921)
• Dutee Jerauld Pearce (A.B. 1808) – U.S Congressman, Rhode Island (1825–1837)^[153]
• Dean Phillips (A.B. 1991) – U.S. Congressman, D-Minnesota, 3rd Congressional District^[154]
• Henry Kirke Porter (1860) – U.S. Congressman, Pennsylvania (1903–1905)^[155]
• John Reed Jr. (1803) – U.S. Congressman, Massachusetts (1813–1817, 1821–1841)
• Edwin R. Reynolds (1839) – U.S. Congressman, New York (1860–1861)
• Christopher Robinson (1825) – U.S Congressman, Rhode Island (1859–1861)
• Deborah K. Ross (1985) – U.S Congresswoman, D-North Carolina^[156]
• Jonathan Russell (1791) – U.S. Congressman, Massachusetts (1820)^[131]
• Zabdiel Sampson (1803) – U.S. Congressman, Massachusetts (1817–1820)^[157]
• William P. Sheffield, II (1877)– U.S. Congressman, R-Rhode Island (1909–1911)^[158]
• Solomon Sibley (1794) – first United States Attorney for the Michigan Territory; territorial Delegate to Congress^[159]
• Thomas Hale Sill (1804) – U.S. Congressman, Pennsylvania (1826 –1827, 1829 –1831)
• Edward L. Sittler, Jr. (1930) – U.S. Congressman, R-Pennsylvania, 23rd Congressional District^[160]
• Albert Smith (1813) – U.S. Congressman, Maine (1839-1841)^[131]
• Henry J. Spooner (1860) – U.S Congressman, Rhode Island (1881–1891)
• Walter Russell Stiness (1877) – U.S Congressman, Rhode Island (1815–1823)
• Ebenezer Stoddard (1807) – United States Representative from Connecticut.^[161]
• James Tallmadge, Jr. (1798) – U.S. Congressman, New York (1817–1819), President of New York University (1830–1846)
• Eli Thayer (1845) – U.S. Congressman, Massachusetts (1857–1861)
• Benjamin Thomas (1830) – U.S. Congressman, Massachusetts (1861–1863)^[131]
• Charles R. Train (1837) – U.S. Congressman, Massachusetts (1859–1863)
• Daniel Wardwell (1811) – U.S. Congressman, New York (1831–1837)^[162]
• Ezekiel Whitman (1795) – U.S. Congressman, Maine (1835–1837)^[131]
• David Rogerson Williams – U.S. Congressman, South Carolina (1811– 1813), Governor of South Carolina (1814–1816)
• Henry Williams (1826) – U.S. Congressman, Massachusetts (1839 –1831, 1843-1845)^[131]
• William D. Williamson (1804) – U.S. Congressman, Massachusetts (1809–1811) and Maine (1821–1822)
• William Widnall (1926) – U.S. Congressman, R-New Jersey (1950–1975)^[163]
• John W. Wydler (1947) – U.S. Congressman, R-New York (1963–1981)^[164]

State legislators

• Sullivan Ballou – member of Rhode Island House of Representatives; Major in Rhode Island militia; killed at First Battle of Bull Run; writer of the "Dear Sarah" letter featured prominently in the Ken Burns documentary The Civil War
• Antonio F. D. Cabral – member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives (1990–present)
• Dan Greenberg (A.B. 1988) – member of the Arkansas General Assembly (2006–present)
• Elijah Hamlin – member of the Maine Legislature and two-time candidate for Governor of Maine
• Steve Harrison (1990) – member of the West Virginia State Senate (2003–2006) and the West Virginia House of Delegates (1993–2002)
• Wingate Hayes (1844) – Speaker of the Rhode Island House of Representatives from 1859 to 1860
• Ratcliffe Hicks (1864) – member of the Connecticut House of Representatives (1866-1895) and benefactor of the University of Connecticut
• Walter M. D. Kern (born 1937), politician who served in the New Jersey General Assembly from 1978 to 1990, where he represented the 40th Legislative District.^[165]
• 

  Mee Moua (1992)
  Mee Moua (1992) – Minnesota State Senator, first elected Hmong-American politician
• Mark Strama (1990) – member of the Texas House of Representatives
• Austin Volk – member of the New Jersey General Assembly and mayor of Englewood, New Jersey
• J. Aaron Regunberg – member of the Rhode Island House of Representatives and 2018 Democratic candidate for Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island

Mayors

• Kostas Bakoyannis (A.B.) – mayor of Athens, Greece (2019–present)^[166]
• David Cicilline (A.B. 1983) – first openly gay mayor of state capital, Providence, Rhode Island; U.S. Representative for Rhode Island's 1st congressional district, 2011–present^[134]
• Buddy Dyer (B.S. 1980) – mayor of Orlando, Florida since 2003
• 

  Alex Morse (2011)
  Alex Morse (A.B. 2011) – mayor of Holyoke, Massachusetts (2012–present)^[167]

Diplomats

• W. Randolph Burgess (1912) – U.S. Ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) (1957–1961)
• Dr. William H. Courtney (Ph.D. 1972) – U.S. Ambassador to Georgia (1995–1997), and Kazakhstan (1992–1994)
• Samuel S. Cox (1846) – U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire under President Grover Cleveland
• 

  Rosemary DiCarlo (1969)
  Rosemary DiCarlo (A.B. 1969, M.A. 1971, Ph.D. 1979)– U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations (2013)
• Norman L. Eisen (A.B. 1985) – U.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republic (2011–2014)^[168]
• R. P. Eddy (B.Sc. 1994) – Director of Counterterrorism, U.S. National Security Council, The White House; Senior Advisor to the U.S. Department of State for International Organizations; Senior Advisor to U.S. Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson; Senior Advisor to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Chief of Staff to Richard Holbrooke, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations
• Rufus Gifford (A.B. 1996) – U.S. Ambassador to Denmark (2013–2017)^[169]
• John Hay (A.B. 1858) – U.S. Secretary of State (1898–1905)
• 

  Richard Holbrooke (1962)
  Richard Charles Albert Holbrooke (A.B. 1962) – U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations (1999–2001), United States Assistant Secretary of State, U.S. Ambassador to Germany, former Chairman of the Asia Society, member of the Atlantic Council of the United States, Counselor to the Council on Foreign Relations, Founding Chairman of the American Academy in Berlin
• Charles Evans Hughes (A.B. 1881) – U.S. Secretary of State (1921–1925)
• Noble Brandon Judah (1904) — U.S. Ambassador to Cuba (1927-1929)
• Suzan G. LeVine (A.B. 1993) – U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland and Lichtenstein (2014–2017)^[170]
• Frederick Irving (A.B. 1943) – U.S. Ambassador to Iceland (1972–1976)^[171]
• Roberta S. Jacobson (A.B. 1982) – U.S. Ambassador to Mexico (2016–present)^[172]
• William L. Marcy (A.B. 1808) – U.S. Secretary of State (1853–1857)
• Anthony Dryden Marshall – U.S. Consul in Istanbul, 1958–59; U.S. Ambassador to Malagasy Republic, 1969–71; Trinidad and Tobago, 1972–74; Kenya, 1973; Seychelles, 1976–77; theatrical producer; felon
• Victoria Nuland – U.S. Permanent Representative to NATO (2005–2008)
• Richard Olson (A.B. 1981) – U.S. Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates (2008–2011); United States Ambassador to Pakistan
• Richard Olney (A.B. 1856) – U.S. Secretary of State (1895–1897)
• Nit Phibunsongkhram (A.M.) – Foreign Minister of Thailand (2006–2008), Thai Ambassador to the United States (1996–2000)
• Frederic M. Sackett (A.B. 1890) – U.S. Senator, R-Kentucky (1924–1930), United States Ambassador to Germany (1930–1933)
• Thomas J. Watson, Jr. (A.B. 1937) – former U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union (1979–1981)
• Curtin Winsor, Jr. (A.B. 1961) – U.S. Ambassador to Costa Rica (1983–1985)

Advisors

John Hay (1858)

• Charles W. "Chuck" Colson (1953) – chief counsel to Richard Nixon (1969–1973); figured in the Watergate Scandal; founder of Prison Fellowship
• Thomas Corcoran (1922) – member of President Franklin Roosevelt's "brain trust"; guided New Deal legislation; high-powered Washington lobbyist
• David F. Duncan (1995) – domestic policy advisor to Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton; co-originator of the self-medication hypothesis of drug addiction
• Marvin Goodfriend (Ph.D. 1980) – The Friends of Allan H. Meltzer Professor of Economics, Carnegie Mellon University; pending nominee, Governors of the Federal Reserve^[173]
• John Hay (1858) – U.S. Secretary of State (1898–1905)
• Charles Hill (AB 1957) – Senior Lecturer in the Humanities, Brady-Johnson Distinguished Fellow in Grand Strategy, Yale University; former executive aid to former U.S. Secretary of State George P. Shultz; research fellow, Hoover Institution^[174][175]
• E. Howard Hunt (1940) – author, OSS & CIA officer, worked under President Richard Nixon; figured in the Watergate scandal
• Randall Kroszner (A.B. 1984) – member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
• Ira Magaziner (1969) – Clinton advisor, current chairman of Clinton AIDS Initiative; co-instigator of Brown's New Curriculum
• Annette Nazareth (A.B. 1979) – former Securities and Exchange Commissioner, partner at Davis Polk & Wardell
• 

  Richard Olney (1856)
  Richard Olney (1856) – United States Attorney General (1893–1895), United States Secretary of State (1895–1897)
• David Onek (1991) – candidate for District Attorney of San Francisco
• Thomas Perez (A.B. 1983) – Chair of the Democratic National Committee, former U.S. Secretary of Labor
• Tahesha Way (A.B. 1993) – Secretary of State of New Jersey (2018– )^[170]
• 

  Janet Yellen (1967)
  Janet Yellen (A.B. 1967) – United States secretary of the treasury, former Chair of the Federal Reserve, former President of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco; Trefethen Professor of Business Administration and Professor of Economics, University of California, Berkeley

Activists

• Junaid Ahmad (AB) – economist; World Bank Country Director for India^[176]
• Benjamin Boas (B.A. 2007) – Cool Japan Ambassador to the Cabinet Office of Japan and cultural consultant
• John Bonifaz (1987) – founder, National Voting Rights Institute, recipient of the Macarthur fellowship
• Katherine Chon (BS 2002) – co-founder and Board President of anti-human trafficking non-profit Polaris Project
• Derek Ellerman (BS 2002) – co-founder and Board Chairman of anti-human trafficking non-profit Polaris Project, former Ashoka fellow and current Ashoka Ambassador
• Kathryn S. Fuller (A.B. 1968) – Chairman of the Board Ford Foundation former president and CEO of non-governmental organization World Wildlife Fund – U.S. (1989–2005)
• 

  Samuel Gridley Howe (1821)
  Samuel Gridley Howe (1821) – prominent physician, abolitionist, advocate of education for the blind
• Gene Karpinski (1974) – President, League of Conservation Voters
• Kerry Kennedy (A.B. 1981) – activist, writer; President of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights; former wife of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo; daughter of Robert F. Kennedy^[177]
• Maya Keyes – anarchist and gay rights activist
• Nancy Lublin (1993) — founder of Crisis Text Line
• Seth Magaziner (A.B. 2006) – Rhode Island General Treasurer
• 

  Horace Mann (1819)
  Horace Mann (1819) – educationist; father of American public school education
• Nancy Northup (A.B. 1981) – President, Center for Reproductive Rights
• Nawal M. Nour (A.B. 1988) – physician, founder of the first hospital center in the United States devoted to the medical needs of African women who have undergone female circumcision, recipient of the Macarthur fellowship
• 

  Cecile Richards (1980)
  Cecile Richards (1980) – President, Planned Parenthood Federation of America
• George Lincoln Rockwell (Class of 1942) – founder of the American Nazi Party; dropped out after sophomore year to join the Navy
• Kenneth Roth (A.B. 1978) – Executive Director of non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch
• Malika Saada Saar (A.B. 1992) - Director of the Human Rights Project for Girls; co-founder of Rebecca Project for Human Rights^[178]
• Irving Stowe (AB 1936) – founder of Greenpeace^[179]
• Arvin Vohra – vice-chairman of the Libertarian National Committee

Jurists

Peleg Arnold

• Leslie Abrams Gardner (A.B. 1997) – District Judge, United States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia^[180]
• Asa Aldis (A.B. 1796) – Chief Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court^[181]
• Peleg Arnold (A.B.) – Chief Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court from 1795 to 1812; represented Rhode Island as a delegate to the Continental Congress in the 1787–1788 session; incorporator of the Providence Society for the Abolition of Slavery in 1790^[182]
• Haiganush R. Bedrosian (A.B. 1965) – Chief Justice, Rhode Island Family Court^[183]
• Francisco Besosa (A.B. 1971) – District Judge, U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico
• Theodore R. Boehm (A.B. 1960) – Justice, Supreme Court of Indiana^[184]
• Charles S. Bradley (A.B. 1838) – Chief Justice, Rhode Island Supreme Court
• George Moulton Carpenter (B.A. 1864) – Federal Judge for United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island
• Herbert F. DeSimone (B.A. 1910) – Attorney General of Rhode Island and Assistant Secretary of Transportation^[185]
• Job Durfee (A.B. 1813) – Chief Justice, Rhode Island Supreme Court
• Samuel Eddy (1787) – U.S Congressman, Rhode Island (1819–1825), Chief Justice, Rhode Island Supreme Court (1827–1835)
• John Patrick Hartigan (B.A. 1951) – Rhode Island Attorney General, 1933–1939; US District Court, 1940–1951; US Court of Appeals, First Circuit, 1951–1968^[186]
• Richard Hertling, (B.A. 1982) – Judge, United States Court of Federal Claims^[187]
• 

  Charles Evans Hughes (1881)
  Charles Evans Hughes (A.B. 1881) – 11th Chief Justice of the United States (1930–1941); Governor of New York (1907–1910); U.S. Secretary of State (1921–1925)
• Charles Evans Hughes Jr. (A.B. 1909) – 20th United States Solicitor General; son of Charles Evans Hughes^[188]
• Alfred H. Joslin (B.A. 1936) - Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court (1963-1979)
• Patrick C. Lynch – Rhode Island Attorney General (D)
• Lewis Linn McArthur – Associate Justice of the Oregon Supreme Court
• Theron Metcalf (A.B. 1805) – Associate Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court^[189]
• Marcus Morton (1838) – Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (1882–1890)
• Michael Newdow (Sc. B. 1974) – atheist doctor and lawyer who unsuccessfully argued Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow before the U.S. Supreme Court
• Solomon Sibley (A.B. 1794) – Chief Justice, Michigan Supreme Court
• Kenneth Starr (M.A. 1969) – former U.S. Solicitor General; former U.S. appeals court judge; special counsel in Bill Clinton impeachment proceedings; President of Baylor University
• Norman O. Tietjens (Ph.B. 1925; M.A. 1927) – judge of the United States Tax Court^[190][191]
• Ojetta Rogeriee Thompson (A.B. 1973) – federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and former Rhode Island Superior Court judge
• William Tong (A.B. 1995) – Attorney General of Connecticut (2019–)^[192]
• Craig Waters (A.B. 1979) – communications counsel to the Florida Supreme Court

Business

• John Berylson (B.A. 1975) – American investor
• Marvin Bower (Sc. B. 1925) – co-founder of McKinsey & Company
• 

  Aneel Bhusri (1988)
  Aneel Bhusri (Sc. B. 1988) – billionaire, CEO of Workday
• 

  Orlando Bravo (1970)
  Orlando Bravo (1970) - first Puerto Rican billionaire businessman
• Willard C. Butcher (1948) – chairman and CEO, Chase Manhattan Bank
• Arthur L. Carter (1953) – investor, namesake of the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University
• Lisa Caputo – chief marketing officer, Citigroup
• John S. Chen (Sc.B. 1978) – Chairman and CEO of BlackBerry Limited
• Chung Yong-jin (B.A. 1994) – South Korean billionaire^[193]
• Glenn Creamer (A.B. 1984) – billionaire, Senior Managing Director of Providence Equity Partners
• Tanya Dubash (1991) – Indian businesswoman
• David Ebersman (A.B. 1991) – Chief Financial Officer of Facebook Inc.
• Donna M. Fernandes (Sc.B 1981) President and CEO, Buffalo Zoo 2000–2017
• George M. C. Fisher (Sc. M. 1964, Ph.D. 1966) – former CEO of Motorola and Eastman Kodak Company
• Sidney E. Frank (class of 1942) – billionaire founder of Grey Goose and Jägermeister
• Tom Gardner (A.B. 1990) – co-founder and co-chairman of the Motley Fool
• Kenneth Gaw (1992) – Hong Kong businessman
• Jeffrey W. Greenberg (A.B. 1973) – chairman and CEO of Marsh & McLennan Companies
• Theresia Gouw (1990) – investor^[194]
• Ross Greenburg (1977) – president of HBO Sports
• Walter Hoving (1920) – CEO of Tiffany & Co.
• Bradley S. Jacobs (class of 1979) – billionaire founder and CEO of XPO Logistics
• 

  Nina Jacobson (1987)
  Nina Jacobson (A.B. 1987) – former president, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
• Paul Kazarian (M.A. 1980) – billionaire investor^[195]
• Jonathan Klein (A.B. 1980) – former president of CNN U.S. News
• Steph Korey (B.A. 2009) – founder of Away
• Liz Lange (A.B. 1988) – founder of Liz Lange Maternity
• Debra L. Lee (A.B. 1976) – chairman and CEO of Black Entertainment Television
• Gordon Macklin (A.B. 1950) – former president and CEO, NASDAQ
• Nadiem Makarim (2006) – founder of Gojek, current minister of education and culture of Indonesia
• Brian Moynihan (A.B. 1981) – president and CEO, Bank of America
• Jonathan M. Nelson (A.B. 1977) – billionaire, investor
• Steven Price, co-founder of Townsquare Media, and minority owner of the Atlanta Hawks
• Ajit Ranade – Chief Economist with the Aditya Birla Group
• Steven Rattner (A.B. 1974) – deputy chairman and deputy CEO of Lazard Frères & Co.
• William R. Rhodes (1957) – senior vice chairman of Citigroup
• Stephen Robert (A.B. 1962), Chairman and CEO of Oppenheimer & Co. (1983–1997), Chancellor of Brown University (1998–2007)
  

  John D. Rockefeller, Jr. (1897)
• John D. Rockefeller, Jr. (1897) – son of John D. Rockefeller and builder of Rockefeller Center
• Tom Rothman (A.B. 1976) – president, 20th Century Fox Film Group

Ted Turner

• Tom Scott (A.B. 1989) – co-founder of Nantucket Nectars, with Tom First
• John Sculley (A.B. 1961) – president of PepsiCo (1977–1983); CEO of Apple Computer (1983–1993)
• Lawrence M. Small (A.B. 1963) – president of Fannie Mae; secretary of the Smithsonian Institution
• Orin R. Smith – Chairman and CEO, Engelhard (1999–2001)
• Barry Sternlicht (A.B. 1982) – founder of Starwood Capital Group and Starwood
• Ted Turner (Class of 1960 but did not graduate) – billionaire founder of CNN and Turner Broadcasting
• Amelia Warren Tyagi (AB) – businesswoman, author; daughter of Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren^[196]
• Thomas J. Watson, Jr. (1937) – president and CEO of IBM (1956–1971); U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union (1979–1981)
• Melanie Whelan (1999) – CEO of SoulCycle (2015–2019)
• Meredith Whitney (A.B. 1992) – equity research analyst notable for her prediction of the financial crisis of 2007–2009
• 

  Andrew Yang (1996)
  Andrew Yang (B.A. 1996) – founder of Venture for America (VFA), and a U.S. 2020 Democratic presidential candidate.
• Nancy Zimmerman (B.A. 1985) – hedge fund manager, co-founder of Bracebridge Capital

Journalism

• Jim Axelrod (A.M. 1989) – Chief White House correspondent, CBS News
• Rebecca Ballhaus (B.A. 2013) – Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist^[197]
• Chris Berman (A.B. 1977) – ESPN host and anchor
• Martin Bernheimer – Pulitzer Prize–winning music critic
• Duncan B. Black, aka Atrios – blogger
• Elizabeth Bruenig — opinion writer at The New York Times and formerly The Washington Post
• Robert Conley (1953) – founding member and former General Manager of NPR; creator and original host of All Things Considered; former New York Times front-page correspondent; National Geographic writer; reporter and anchor for NBC and the Huntley-Brinkley Report
• Gareth Cook (A.B. 1991) – Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting, Boston Globe, for writing about stem cell research
• Dana Cowin (A.B. 1982) – Editor-in-Chief of Food & Wine
• Lyn Crost (A.B. 1938) – World War II correspondent and author, Honor by Fire:Japanese Americans at War in Europe and the Pacific
• Adrian Dearnell – Franco-American financial journalist, CEO and founder of EuroBusiness Media^[198]
• Larry Elder (A.B. 1974) – columnist; radio personality; TV talk show host, The Larry Elder Show; author, The Ten Things You Can't Say in America
• Chip Giller (A.B.) – environmentalist, founder of Grist
• 

  Ira Glass (1982)
  Ira Glass (A.B. 1982) – host and producer, National Public Radio, This American Life
• Catherine Gund (A.B. 1988) – documentary filmmaker; activist^[199]
• Christopher L. Hayes (A.B. 2001) – Editor of The Nation and host of All In with Chris Hayes on MSNBC
• Taina Hernandez (A.B. 1996) – anchor of World News Now on ABC
• Tony Horwitz – journalist, Wall Street Journal, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting
• A.J. Jacobs – journalist and author, The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World, The Year of Living Biblically
• Edward Davis Jones – co-founder of the The Wall Street Journal, namesake of the Dow Jones Industrial Average
• 

  John F. Kennedy, Jr. (1983)
  John F. Kennedy, Jr. (A.B. 1983) – lawyer; journalist; publisher of George magazine; son of President John F. Kennedy; killed in an airplane crash on July 16, 1999
• Glenn Kessler (A.B. 1981) – diplomatic correspondent for The Washington Post
• Sharon LaFraniere (A.B.) – Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist at The New York Times^[200]
• Irving R. Levine – former NBC News correspondent
• Mara Liasson (1977) – NPR correspondent
• Bill Lichtenstein (1978) – journalist, documentary filmmaker, president of LCMedia, Inc.; recipient of Guggenheim Fellowship, Peabody Award, U.N. Media Award, and 60 broadcast journalism honors.
• Mark Maremont (1980) – senior special writer for the Wall Street Journal; two-time Pulitzer Prize winner
• Josh Marshall (Ph.D. 2003) – Polk Award-winning journalist; founder, Talking Points Memo
• Linda Mason (1964) – producer and retired Vice-President of Standards and Special Projects, CBS News; winner of 13 Emmy Awards
• George Musser (Sc. B. 1988) – author and editor at Scientific American
• Pamela Paul (A.B. 1993) – editor of The New York Times Book Review
• Sasha Polakow-Suransky (2001) – deputy editor at Foreign Policy, Rhodes Scholar
• Scott Poulson-Bryant (A.B. 2008, though originally in Class of 1989) – co-founding editor of VIBE Magazine and author of HUNG: A Meditation on the Measure of Black Men in America
• Andrew C. Revkin (A.B. 1978) – environmental journalist, New York Times; recipient of 2008 Columbia University Journalism School John Chancellor Award
• Quentin Reynolds – one of two journalists in London during The Blitz
• 

  James Risen
  James Risen – journalist for The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times covering national intelligence; author of two books about the Central Intelligence Agency; broke the 2005 story of warrantless NSA wiretapping; 2006 Pulitzer Prize winner
• David S. Rohde (A.B. 1990) – Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist; escaped from 7-month Taliban captivity in 2009
• Margaret Russell – Editor-in-Chief, Elle Decor magazine; design judge, Top Design
• Aaron Schatz (1996) – ESPN NFL analyst, founder of Football Outsiders
• Kathryn Schulz (A.B. 1996) – contributor to the Freakonomics blog and freelance journalist
• Julia Flynn Siler (A.B. 1983) – journalist and nonfiction author^[201]
• Amy Sohn (A.B. 1995) – columnist, New York magazine; novelist, Run Catch Kiss and Sex and the City: Kiss and Tell
• Alison Stewart (A.B. 1988) – host, MSNBC's The Most with Alison Stewart
• Arthur Gregg Sulzberger (A.B. 2005) – publisher, The New York Times
• André Leon Talley (A.M. 1973) – Vogue magazine editor-at-large; author, A.L.T.: A Memoir
• 

  Krista Tippett (1983)
  Krista Tippett (A.B. 1983) – host, NPR's Speaking of Faith, and creator and host of On Being
• Larry Tye (B.A. 1977) – journalist
• Alex Wagner (A.B. 1999) – host, Now with Alex Wagner, MSNBC
• Lady Gabriella Windsor (A.B. 2004) – member of the British royal family^[202]

Literature

• David Allyn (A.B. 1991) – author, Make Love, Not War, I Can't Believe I Just Did That, playwright, Baptizing Adam
• Donald Antrim (A.B. 1981) – author, Elect Mr. Robinson for a Better World, The Verificationist, The Hundred Brothers, recipient of the MacArthur fellowship
• Jacob M. Appel (A.B. 1995) – author, playwright, Arborophilia, Creve Coeur, The Mistress of Wholesome
• Peter Balakian (Ph.D. 1980) – Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, Ozone Journal
• Edward Ball (1982) – National Book Award-winning nonfiction writer, Slaves in the Family, The Genetic Strand
• Josh Bazell, novelist
• Lisa Birnbach (A.B. 1978) – author, The Official Preppy Handbook
• Kate Bornstein (née Albert Bornstein) (A.B. 1969) – transgender activist, performance artist, playwright, gender theorist, and author, Gender Outlaws and My Gender Workbook
• Jeffrey Carver (A.B. 1971) – science fiction author, Nebula Award finalist
• Susan Cheever (1965) – author
• Ted Chiang – Nebula Award, Locus Award, and Hugo Award-winning science fiction writer
• Brian Christian (A.B. 2006) – author, The Most Human Human
• Nicole Cooley (A.B. 1988) – poet, Professor of English, Queens College, City University of New York^[203]
• Nilo Cruz (M.F.A. 1994) – Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright, Anna in the Tropics
• 

  Edwidge Danticat (1993)
  Edwidge Danticat (M.F.A. 1993) – American Book Award-winning author, Breath, Eyes, Memory, The Dew Breaker, recipient of the MacArthur fellowship
• David Ebershoff – Lambda Literary Award-winning author, The Danish Girl, editor-at-large at Random House, professor at Columbia University
• Jeffrey Eugenides (A.B. 1983) – Pulitzer Prize–winning author, Middlesex, The Virgin Suicides, The Marriage Plot^[204][205]
• Percival Everett (A.M. 1982) – novelist, poet; Distinguished Professor of English, University of Southern California^[206]
• Rudolph Fisher (A.B. 1919, A.M. 1920) – author, musician, physician; a leader of the Harlem Renaissance
• Richard Foreman (A.B. 1959) – playwright/avant-garde theater pioneer; founder, Ontological-Hysteric Theater, recipient of the MacArthur fellowship
• Sarah Gambito (M.F.A., 1999) – poet; director of creative writing, Fordham University^[207]
• Deborah Garrison (A.B.) – poet^[208]
• Peter Gizzi (M.F.A. 1991) – poet, professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst's MFA Program for Poets & Writers
• Jaimy Gordon – National Book Award-winning author, Lord of Misrule
• 

  Andrew Sean Greer (1992)
  Andrew Sean Greer (A.B. 1992) – Pulitzer Prize–winning author, Less, The Path of Minor Planets, The Confessions of Max Tivoli^[209]
• Scott Haltzman (1982, M.D. 1985) – psychiatrist, author of The Secrets of Happily Married Men: Eight Ways to Win Your Wife's Heart Forever
• Kika Hotta (jp:堀田季何)(A.B. 1997) – Japanese haiku and tanka poet, critic, translator,^[210][211] author of Arabia and Wakuran (Bewilderment)
• Tony Horwitz (A.B. 1980) – Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist, author of Confederates in the Attic, Blue Latitudes, and Baghdad Without a Map^[212]
• Constance Hunting (A.B. 1947) – poet, founder of Puckerbrush Press
• Shelley Jackson (M.F.A.) – author, Patchwork Girl, Half Life
• Steven Johnson (A.B. 1990) – writer, pop-science, author, Everything Bad is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter
• Winthrop Jordan (PhD 1960) – American Civil War and racial history writer, winner of the National Book Award and the Bancroft Prize
• Gayl Jones – (M.A. 1973) Novelist, poet, and playwright
• Bess Kalb – (B.A. 2010) author
• Jonathan Karp (B.A. 1986) – publisher, CEO of Simon & Schuster^[213]
• Barbara Keiler (A.M. 1976 in creative writing) – romance novelist, specializing in the contemporary subgenre; has written as "Ariel Berk", "Judith Arnold" and "Thea Frederick"
• T. E. D. Klein (A.B. 1969) – horror fiction writer and magazine editor
• Caroline Knapp (A.B.) – essayist and author, Drinking: A Love Story
• Richard Kostelanetz (A.B.1962) – cultural historian, fictioner, poet, experimental writer, critic of avant-garde arts and artists, anthologist
• Geoffrey A. Landis (Ph.D. 1988) – Nebula Award and Hugo Award-winning scientist-writer and science fiction author
• Reif Larsen (A.B 2003) – professor at Columbia University; author, The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet
• Ben Lerner (A.B. 2001, M.F.A. 2003) – poet, author of Angle of Yaw, Leaving the Atocha Station, 10:04 and The Lichtenberg Figures, recipient of the MacArthur fellowship^[214]
• David Levithan (A.B. 1993) – author, Boy Meets Boy, Will Grayson, Will Grayson, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist
• Alan Levy – author
• David Lipsky (A.B. 1987) – author, Three Thousand Dollars, The Art Fair, Absolutely American
• Sam Lipsyte (A.B. 1990) – author, Home Land, Venus Drive, The Fun Parts
• 

  Lois Lowry (1958)
  Lois Lowry (Class of 1958) – Newbery Medal-winning author, The Giver
• Thomas Mallon (A.B.) – author, Henry and Clara, Bandbox, Dewey Defeats Truman, Two Moons
• Ben Marcus (M.F.A. 1991) – author, The Age of Wire and String, Notable American Women
• Alex McAulay (A.B.) – author, Bad Girls, Lost Summer, Oblivion Road, Shelter Me
• Emily Arnold McCully (A.B. 1961) – Caldecott Award-winning children's author, Mirette on the High Wire
• Mark C. McGarrity (A.B. 1966) – wrote crime fiction under the name Bartholomew Gill
• Roland Merullo (A.B., M.A.) – author
• Madeline Miller (A.B. 2000, A.M. 2001) – Women's Prize for Fiction-winning author of The Song of Achilles and Circe^[215]
• Steven Millhauser – Pulitzer Prize–winning author, Martin Dressler
• Rick Moody (A.B. 1983) – author, The Ice Storm, Garden State, Purple America, The Diviners
• Rebecca Morris – nonfiction author, Ted and Ann, If I Can't Have You, A Killing in Amish Country
• Ottessa Moshfegh (M.F.A. 2011) – writer, author of My Year of Rest and Relaxation^[216]
• Emily Nemens (A.B. 2005) – writer, editor, the Paris Review^[217]
• Naomi Novik – fantasy author, His Majesty's Dragon
• 

  Nicanor Parra
  Nicanor Parra – Chilean poet, author of Poemas y Antipoemas^[218]
• S. J. Perelman – humorist, The New Yorker; author; Academy Award-winning screenwriter, Around the World in Eighty Days
• Nathaniel Philbrick – nonfiction writer; National Book Award winner, In the Heart of the Sea, Sea of Glory, Mayflower
• Marilynne Robinson (A.B. 1966) – Pulitzer Prize and Orange Prize-winning author, Gilead, Housekeeping, Home
• Ariel Sabar (A.B. 1993) – author, National Book Critics Circle Award 2009 for My Father's Paradise
• Joanna Scott (M.A. 1985) – author, recipient of the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship and the Lannan Literary Award for Fiction
• David Shenk (A.B. 1988) – filmmaker and author, The End of Patience, Data Smog, whose title has entered the English vocabulary
• David Shields (A.B. 1978) – author, Reality Hunger
• Scott Snyder (B.A. 1998) – author of the story collection Voodoo Heart and writer of Vertigo Comics's ongoing original series American Vampire
• Brian Kim Stefans (M.F.A. 2006) – poet, professor of English at UCLA, author of Viva Miscegenation and Fashionable Noise: On Digital Poetics
• Hyatt Howe Waggoner (1913–1988), scholar of Nathaniel Hawthorne
• Nathanael West (1924) – author, Miss Lonelyhearts, The Day of the Locust
• Meg Wolitzer (A.B. 1981) – author, Belzhar, The Interestings, The Position, The Ten-Year Nap
• 

  Kevin Young (1996)
  Kevin Young (M.F.A. 1996) – poetry editor, New Yorker; director, Schomburg Center^[219]
• Caroline Kepnes (B.A. 1999) – American author and screenwriter, You
• Franny Choi (B.A. 2011), poet
• Dana Schwartz (B.A. 2015) – author
• Adelle Waldman (B.A. 1988) – author, The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P.

Medicine

• Samuel Warren Abbott (A.M. 1858) – first medical examiner and first secretary of Massachusetts's first state board of health from 1886 to 1904
  

  Charles V. Chapin (1876)
• Charles V. Chapin (1876) — Superintendent of health for Providence, 1884–1932. Also served as the President of the American Public Health Association in 1927.^[220]
• Lynda Chin (A.B. 1988) – department chair and professor of genomic medicine at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center; scientific director of the MD Anderson Institute for Applied Cancer Science; in 2012 was elected as a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies^[221]
• George E. Coghill – anatomist
• Solomon Drowne (A.B. 1773) – physician, academic and surgeon during the American Revolution and in the history of the fledgling United States; member of Brown's Board of Fellows
• David C. Lewis (A.B. 1957) – Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Community Health and first Donald G. Millar Distinguished Professor of Alcohol and Addiction Studies at Brown; a leading researcher and activist on drugs policy issues
• Srihari S. Naidu – Trustee Emeritus, Professor of Medicine, New York Medical College
• Neel Shah – Executive Director of Costs of Care, Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School
• Gail G. Shapiro – pediatric allergist

Military

• William C. Chase (A.B. 1916) – Major General during World War II
• G. Edward Buxton (Ph.B. 1902) – commanding officer of Sergeant Alvin C. York; first assistant director of the OSS
• Thomas Ewing Jr. – Union Army general during the American Civil War, first chief justice of Kansas
• 

  James Mitchell Varnum (1769)
  James Mitchell Varnum (A.B. 1769) – General in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War and justice of the Supreme Court of the Northwest Territory

Performing arts

Music

• Sean Altman (A.B. 1983) – founding tenor member of Rockapella, known for the theme song of Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?
• Charles Ansbacher – founder and conductor of the Boston Landmarks Orchestra
• MC Paul Barman (A.B. 1997) – cult rapper^[222]
• Marco Beltrami (Sc. B. 1988) – two-time Academy Award-nominated film score composer, Scream (1996), Resident Evil (2002), Blade II (2002), Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), I, Robot (2004), Hellboy (2004), Red Eye (2005), The Omen (2006), Live Free or Die Hard (2007), 3:10 to Yuma (2007), Max Payne (2008), Mesrine (2008), The Hurt Locker (2009), The Wolverine (2013), Warm Bodies (2013), World War Z (2013)
• Clare Burson – singer-songwriter
• David Buskin (A.B 1965) – singer (Modern Man), songwriter, jingle composer, Clio Award winner (1983)
• Wendy Carlos (A.B. 1962) – composer and electronic musician, Switched-On Bach (1968); film score composer, A Clockwork Orange (1971), Tron (1982)
• Mary Chapin Carpenter (A.B. 1981) – country singer-songwriter
• Chubb Rock – rapper (did not graduate)
• Joel Cohen (A.B. 1963) – Boston Camerata
• Alvin Curran – avant-garde composer
• Catie Curtis (1987) – contemporary folk singer-songwriter
• Dave Dederer – guitarist, singer, and founding member of rock band The Presidents of the United States of America
• Shelby Gaines (1991) – musician and artist
• Tucker Halpern (2013) – musician and DJ, one half of electronic pop group Sofi Tukker
• Dhani Harrison – son of George Harrison, composer, guitarist
• Sophie Hawley-Weld (2014) – musician, one half of electronic pop group Sofi Tukker
• Lili Haydn (1992) – singer-songwriter-violinist
• 

  Jamila Woods (2011)
  Jamila Woods, (B.A. 2011) singer, songwriter and poet signed to Jagajaguwar.
• Nicolas Jaar (A.B. 2012) – avant-garde electronic music producer, owner and founder of record label and art house Clown & Sunset
• Elliott Kerman (Sc.B. 1981) – founding baritone member of Rockapella
• Tad Kinchla (1995) – bassist for jam band Blues Traveler
• Richard Kostelanetz (A.B. 1962) – electro-acoustic composer (New York City Oratorio, America's Game), writer on innovative musics and musicians
• Damian Kulash (A.B. 1998) – lead singer and founding member of indie rock band OK Go
• Erich Kunzel (Brown professor, 1964) – conductor, Cincinnati Pops Orchestra
• Lisa Loeb (A.B. 1990) – Grammy Award-winning alternative singer-songwriter; first unsigned artist to top the American charts (three weeks at #1)
• The Low Anthem – celebrated indie folk band that includes alums Ben Knox Miller, Jeff Prystowsky and Jocie Adams
• Erin McKeown – folk singer-songwriter
• Elizabeth Mitchell (1990) – musician, member of indie folk–pop band Ida; played in a band with Lisa Loeb and Duncan Sheik while at Brown
• Will Oldham (dropped out after one semester) – indie rock/alternative country singer-songwriter who also performs under the names Bonnie 'Prince' Billy and Palace
• Elvis Perkins (1995) – singer-songwriter
• Navah Perlman (A.B. 1992) – concert pianist; daughter of Itzhak Perlman
• Dan Prothero – producer / engineer and owner of Fog City Records
• Sebastian Ruth – violinist, 2010 MacArthur Fellow and faculty member of the Yale School of Music
• Susan Salms-Moss (A.B. 1967) – soprano
• Theodore Shapiro – film score composer, State and Main (2000), Heist (2001), Old School (2003), Along Came Polly (2004), Starsky & Hutch (2004), 13 Going on 30 (2004), The Devil Wears Prada (2006), Blades of Glory (2007), Semi-Pro (2008), Marley & Me (2008), Tropic Thunder (2008), I Love You, Man (2008), We're the Millers (2013), The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013)
• Duncan Sheik (A.B. 1992) – alternative rock singer-songwriter; top 10 hit for the song "Barely Breathing"; Grammy and two-time Tony Award-winning composer, Spring Awakening
• Sasha Spielberg (2012) – musician, Wardell^[223]
• Susie Suh (A.B. 2002) – alternative rock singer-songwriter
• Gwyneth Walker (A.B. 1967) – composer
• ZOX – SideOneDummy recording artist, composed of John Zox '02, Eli Miller '02, Daniel Edinberg '02, and Spencer Swain

Film

• Eva Amurri (2007) – actress, Loving Annabelle (2005), Saved! (2004), The Banger Sisters (2002); daughter of Susan Sarandon
• Scott E. Anderson (Sc.B. 1986) – Academy Award-winning Visual Effects Supervisor, "Babe" (1995), and nominee "Starship Troopers" (1997), "Hollow Man" (2000)
• Bess Armstrong (1975) – actress, The Four Seasons (1981), High Road to China (1983)
• David Bartis (A.B. 1988) – producer, "The Wall (2017 film)", "Edge of Tomorrow" (2014), "Fair Game" (2010)
• Steve Bloom (A.B.) – screenwriter, James and the Giant Peach, The Sure Thing, Tall Tale, Jack Frost
• David Conrad (A.B.) – actor, Wedding Crashers, Ghost Whisperer
• Yaya Da Costa (A.B. 2004) – actress, Take the Lead (2006), Honeydripper (2007), The Kids Are All Right (2010), The Butler (2013); fashion model
• Lucy DeVito (B.F.A.) – actress, Leaves of Grass (2009)
• Tom Dey (A.B. 1987) – director, Shanghai Noon (2000), Showtime (2002), Failure to Launch (2006), Marmaduke (2010)
• Alice Drummond (A.B. 1950) – actress, Awakenings (1990), Nobody's Fool (1994), Doubt (2008)
• Richard Fleischer (A.B. 1939) – director, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), The Narrow Margin (1952), Fantastic Voyage (1966), Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970), The Boston Strangler (1968), Doctor Dolittle (1967), Mandingo (1975), Soylent Green (1973); Academy Award-winning documentary producer, Design for Death (1947)
• Josh Friedman – screenwriter, War of the Worlds, The Black Dahlia; executive producer, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
• 

  Liz Garbus (1992)
  Liz Garbus (A.B. 1992) – Academy Award-nominated documentary filmmaker, The Farm: Angola, USA (1998)
• Davis Guggenheim (1986) – Academy Award-winning documentary film director, An Inconvenient Truth (2006), It Might Get Loud (2009), and Waiting for "Superman" (2010); film director for Gracie (2007), Gossip (2000), and episodes of 24, Alias, The Shield, ER, NYPD Blue
• John Hamburg (A.B.) – director, I Love You, Man (2009), Along Came Polly (2004); screenwriter, Zoolander (2001), Meet the Parents (2000), Meet the Fockers (2004)
• Hill Harper (A.B. 1988) – actor, Constellation (2005), Lackawanna Blues (2005), CSI: NY (2004)
• Todd Haynes (A.B. 1983) – Academy Award-nominated writer/director, Mildred Pierce (2011), I'm Not There (2007), Far from Heaven (2002), Velvet Goldmine (1998), Safe (1995), and Poison (1991)
• Sean Hood – screenwriter, Conan the Barbarian, Halloween: Resurrection, Cursed, Cube 2: Hypercube
• Ruth Hussey (A.B. 1933) – Academy Award-nominated actress, The Philadelphia Story (1940)
• Oren Jacoby – Academy Award-nominated documentarian, Constantine's Sword (2008)
• Rory Kennedy (A.B. 1991) – independent filmmaker, Moxie Firecracker Films, Inc.; Ghosts of Abu Ghraib (2007)
• Simon Kinberg – screenwriter and producer, X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), Sherlock Holmes (2009), Jumper (2008), X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005)
• 

  John Krasinski (2001)
  John Krasinski (A.B. 2001) – playwright, actor, The Office, License to Wed, Leatherheads
• Ellen Kuras – cinematographer, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Blow, He Got Game, Summer of Sam, Be Kind Rewind
• Jonathan Levine (A.B. 2000) – writer/director, Warm Bodies (2013), 50/50 (2011), The Wackness (2008), All The Boys Love Mandy Lane (2006)
• Doug Liman (A.B. 1988) – director and producer, The O.C., Edge of Tomorrow (2014), Fair Game (2010),Jumper (2008), Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005), The Bourne Identity (2002), The Bourne Supremacy (2004), Go (1999), Swingers (1996)
• 

  Laura Linney (1986)
  Laura Linney (A.B. 1986) – three-time Academy Award and two-time Tony Award-nominated actress, The Big C, The Savages (2007), The Nanny Diaries (2007), The Squid and the Whale (2005),The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005), Kinsey (2004), Mystic River (2003), Love Actually (2003), You Can Count on Me (2000), The Truman Show (1998), Absolute Power (1997), Primal Fear (1997)
• Kurt Luedtke (A.B. 1961) – Academy Award-winning screenwriter, Out of Africa (1985)
• Kátia Lund (A.B. 1989) – co-director, Cidade de Deus (City of God) (2002)
• George Macready (A.B., 1921) – actor of film, stage, and television, Tora! Tora! Tora!, Paths of Glory
• Eli Marienthal (Class of 2008) – actor, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (2004), The Iron Giant (1999), Jack Frost (1998)
• Ross McElwee (A.B. 1970) – documentary filmmaker, Sherman's March (1986) and Bright Leaves (2004)
• Leah Meyerhoff (A.B. 2001) – Student Academy Award-nominated writer/director, Twitch (2005)
• Tim Blake Nelson (A.B. 1986) – actor, Lincoln (2012), The Incredible Hulk (2008), Syriana (2005), Minority Report (2002), O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), The Thin Red Line (1998); director, Leaves of Grass (2009), O (2001), The Grey Zone (2001)
• Lorraine Nicholson (2012) – actress, Soul Surfer (2011)
• Angela Robinson (A.B. 1992) – director, Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005), D.E.B.S. (2003), D.E.B.S. (2004)
• Jane Rosenthal – founder of the Tribeca Film Festival^[224]
• Danny Rubin (A.B. 1979) – screenwriter, Groundhog Day
• Michael Showalter (A.B. 1992) – actor/writer/director, Wet Hot American Summer (2001), The Baxter (2005) and the series The State, Stella and Michael & Michael Have Issues
• Leelee Sobieski (attended) – actress, Eyes Wide Shut (1999), Never Been Kissed (1999), Here on Earth (2000), Joy Ride (2001), The Glass House (2001), Wicker Man (2006), 88 Minutes (2007), Public Enemies (2009); nominated for an Emmy for Joan of Arc
• Alison Stewart (A.B. 1988) – radio and television journalist; filmmaker
• Matthew Sussman – actor, documentary filmmaker
• Sara Tanaka (A.B. 2000) – actress, Rushmore (1998), Old School (2003), Imaginary Heroes (2004)
• 

  Christine Vachon (1983)
  Christine Vachon (A.B. 1983) – acclaimed independent film producer, I'm Not There (2007), Infamous (2006), The Notorious Bettie Page (2005), Far From Heaven (2002), Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001), Boys Don't Cry (1999); executive producer, This American Life
• Andrew Wagner (A.B. 1985) – writer, director, Starting Out in the Evening (2007), The Talent Given Us (2004)
• Earl Wallace (A.B. 1955) – Academy Award-winning screenwriter, Witness (1985)
• Julie Warner (A.B. 1987) – actress, Doc Hollywood, Tommy Boy
• 

  Emma Watson (2014)
  Emma Watson (A.B. 2014) – actress, Harry Potter film series (2001–11), The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012), Beauty and the Beast (2017).
• JoBeth Williams (A.B. 1970) – actress, The Big Chill, Poltergeist

Television

• Julie Bowen (A.B. 1991) – actress, Modern Family, Boston Legal, Ed, Happy Gilmore (1996)
• Warren Brown – host, Sugar Rush
• Jessica Capshaw (A.B. 1998) – actress, Grey's Anatomy,The Practice, Minority Report (2002)
• Jordan Carlos (A.B. 2001) – comedian, Stephen Colbert's "black friend"
• Kitty Chen (B.A. 1966) – actress, Law & Order, writer
• Jude Ciccolella (B.A. 1969) – actor, best known for his role as Mike Novick in 24
• Yaya DaCosta (A.B. 2004) – actress and model
• 

  Aunjanue Ellis (1993)
  Aunjanue Ellis (A.B. 1993) – actress, The Mentalist
• Eve Gordon (B.A. 1978) – actress, Recount, Honey We Shrunk Ourselves, Felicity, American Horror Story, Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23, Supernatural
• Robin Green (1967) – Emmy Award-winning writer/producer, The Sopranos, Northern Exposure
• David Groh (1961) – actor, Rhoda
• Marin Hinkle – actress, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Once and Again, Two and a Half Men
• Tina Holmes (1995) – actress, Six Feet Under
• Peter Jacobson (1987) – actor, House M.D.
• Rafe Judkins – contestant on Survivor: Guatemala, television writer
• Rhonda Ross Kendrick (A.B. 1993) – Daytime Emmy-nominated actress, Another World, daughter of Diana Ross
• 

  Rory Kennedy (1990)
  Rory Kennedy (A.B. 1990) – Emmy Award-winning documentary producer, director, and writer, American Hollow (1999), Fire in Our House (1995), Ghosts of Abu Ghraib
• John Krasinski (A.B. 2002) – actor, The Office, Leatherheads, License to Wed; director, A Quiet Place
• Clea Lewis (A.B. 1987) – actress, Ellen, Andy Barker, P.I.
• Florencia Lozano (B.A. 1992) – actress, One Life to Live
• Ian Maxtone-Graham (A.B. 1982.5) – writer, producer, The Simpsons, "Saturday Night Live"
• Masi Oka (Sc. B. 1997) – actor, Heroes, Scrubs, Will and Grace, Gilmore Girls, Get Smart (2008)
• 

  Tracee Ellis Ross (1995)
  Tracee Ellis Ross (A.B. 1995) – actress, Girlfriends, Blackish, daughter of Diana Ross
• Sam Trammell (A.B. 1991) – actor, True Blood
• Bee Vang – actor, Gran Torino^[225]
• Julie Warner (A.B. 1987) – actress, Nip/Tuck, Family Law, The Guiding Light
• Suzanne Whang (Sc. M. 1986) – General Hospital, Las Vegas; host HGTV's House Hunters
• David Walton – actor, About a Boy

Theater

• Ayad Akhtar (1993) – Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright, Disgraced
• Quiara Alegría Hudes (M.F.A. 2004) – Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright, Water by the Spoonful, In the Heights (Tony Award winner for Best Musical), Elliot, a Soldier's Fugue
• Adam Bock (1989) – Obie Award-winning playwright, The Thugs
• Kate Burton (A.B. 1979) – actress; nominated for three Tony Awards; on Grey's Anatomy as Dr. Ellis Grey
• Zoë Chao (B.A. and M.F.A.) — actress in theatre and star of her own television show The God Particles; currently starring as Isobel in Facebook Watch drama Strangers
• 

  Nilo Cruz (1994)
  Nilo Cruz (M.F.A. 1994) – Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright, Anna in the Tropics
• Daveed Diggs (A.B. 2004) – actor, Tony Award-winning originator of the roles of Thomas Jefferson and Marquis de Lafayette in the Pulitzer-Prize winning 2015 musical Hamilton
• Jackie Sibblies Drury (M.F.A.) – Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright, Fairview
• Gina Gionfriddo (M.F.A. 1997) – playwright, two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, Becky Shaw (2009) and Rapture, Blister, Burn (2013); producer, Law and Order]
• Ann Harada (A.B. 1985) – actress in the original Broadway casts of Avenue Q and Cinderella
• Stephen Karam – playwright, Speech & Debate (2006); Tony Award winner, The Humans (2016); two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, Sons of the Prophet (2012) and The Humans
• James Naughton (A.B. 1967) – actor, two-time Tony Award winner for City of Angels (1992) and Chicago (1996); also featured in films such as The Paper Chase (1973), The Glass Menagerie (1987) and The Devil Wears Prada (2006)
• 

  Lynn Nottage (1986)
  Lynn Nottage (A.B. 1986) – First female playwright to win the Pulitzer Prize twice, Macarthur fellowship recipient, Ruined, Sweat
• Sarah Ruhl (A.B. 1997, M.F.A 2001) – playwright and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, recipient of the Macarthur fellowship, The Clean House, Eurydice, Passion Play, In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play)
• Burt Shevelove – Tony Award-winning playwright, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
• Alfred Uhry – playwright; Pulitzer Prize, Academy Award and Tony Award winner, Driving Miss Daisy, The Last Night of Ballyhoo
• David Yazbek (1982) – Tony and Emmy Award-winning writer, musician, composer, and lyricist, The Band's Visit (2017), The Full Monty (2000), Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (2005) and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (2010)
• John Lloyd Young (A.B. 1998) – actor; Tony Award winner for Jersey Boys (2006); lead vocalist, 2007 Grammy-winning Jersey Boys album for Clint Eastwood's 2014 Jersey Boys; member of President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities (appointed by Barack Obama)

Religion

• Alfred W. Anthony (A.B. 1883) – Professor at Bates College and Cobb Divinity School, author, Free Will Baptist minister
• Mark E. Brennan (A.B. 1969) – Catholic auxiliary bishop of Baltimore
• 

  Alexander Viets Griswold (1810)
  Alexander Viets Griswold (A.B. 1810) – Episcopal Bishop of the Eastern Diocese, which included all of New England with the exception of the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut
• Mark Antony DeWolfe Howe (A.B. 1828) – first Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Central Pennsylvania; because the original Diocese of Central Pennsylvania was the predecessor diocese of the current Diocese of Bethlehem, he is counted as first bishop of Bethlehem as well
• William Bullein Johnson (A.M. 1814) – South Carolina Baptist leader; first president of the Southern Baptist Convention; Associate of first president of Columbian College (later The George Washington University) William Staughton and Luther Rice; instrumental in founding Furman University, out of which emerged Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
• Adoniram Judson (A.B. 1807) – Baptist missionary; due to his efforts, Myanmar has the third largest number of Baptists worldwide, behind the United States and India
• Jonathan Maxcy (A.B. 1787) – President of Brown University and Baptist minister
• George Maxwell Randall (A.B. 1835) – Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado and Parts Adjacent
• 

  Joshua Toulmin (1769)
  Joshua Toulmin (A.M. 1769) – English dissenting minister with U.S. sympathies

Royalty

• Leila Pahlavi (A.B. 1992) – Princess of Iran; youngest daughter of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, deposed Shah of Iran
• Prince Faisal bin Al Hussein (Sc.B. 1985) – son of the late King Hussein of Jordan; Commander of the Jordan Royal Air Force
• Prince Nikolaos of Greece and Denmark (A.B. 1993) – member of the titular royal family of Greece
• Prince Rahim Aga Khan (A.B. 1995) – eldest son of Prince Karim Aga Khan IV
• Princess Theodora of Greece and Denmark (A.B. 2006) – member of the titular royal family of Greece
• Lady Gabriella Kingston (BA, 2004) - Freelance writer and member of the royal family of the United Kingdom

Visual arts

• David Aldrich (A.B. 1929) – watercolor painter
• Deborah Aschheim (B.A. 1986) – new media artist
• Marc Erwin Babej (B.A. 1992) – photographic artist, writer
• Éric Baudelaire (B.A. 1994) – artist^[226]
• Michael Bell-Smith (B.A. 1985) – artist
• Bill Bollinger (1961) – sculptor^[227]
• Dawn Clements (A.B. 1986)
• Dave Cole (A.B. 2000) – sculptor, visual artist
• John Connell (Class of 1962) – sculptor, painter
• Devon Dikeou (B.A. 1986) – artist
• Barnaby Evans (1975) – creator of the environmental art installation WaterFire
• Ayana Evans (B.A. 1998) – performance artist^[228]
• Leya Evelyn – painter
• Brian Floca (A.B. 1991) – author and book illustrator
• Coco Fusco (B.A. 1982) – artist
• Susan Freedman (A.B. 1982) – president of the Public Art Fund
• Chitra Ganesh (B.A. 1996) – artist^[229]
• Orly Genger (B.A. 2001) – artist
• 

  Sanford Robinson Gifford (1844)
  Sanford Robinson Gifford (B.A. 1844) – painter
• Isca Greenfield-Sanders (A.B. 2000) – artist
• Karl Haendel (A.B. 1998) – artist
• Ilana Halperin (B.A. 1995) – artist
• George Hitchcock (A.B. 1872) – artist
• Bill Jacobson (B.A. 1977) – photographer
• Clare Johnson (A.B. 2004) – artist and writer
• Ken Johnson (A.B. 1976) – art critic for the New York Times
• Paul Ramirez Jonas (A.B. 1987) – contemporary artist
• Nina Katchadourian (A.B. 1989) – multimedia artist
• Ed Koren (former professor) – writer and illustrator of children's books and political cartoons, notably in The New Yorker
• Richard Kostelanetz (A.B. 1962) – book-art, audio, video, photography, film, holography
• Paul Laffoley (A.B. 1962) – artist and architect
• Candice Lin (A.B 2001) – artist
• Sarah Morris (B.A. 1988) – artist
• Lisa Oppenheim (B.A. 1998) – artist
• Sarah Oppenheimer (A.B. 1995) – visual artist and sculptor
• Maureen Paley (A.B. 1975) – established the first East End gallery in London, represents the work of important contemporary artists
• Jeff Shesol (A.B. 1991) – cartoonist, Thatch; scriptwriter for Bill Clinton^[230]
• Taryn Simon – fine art photographer
• Scott Snibbe (A.B. 1991, M.Sc. 1994) – interactive media artist
• Anne Morgan Spalter (A.B. 1987) – digital mixed media artist and pioneering computer art academic; founder of Brown's and RISD's original digital fine arts courses
• Martha Tedeschi (A.B. 1980) – Elizabeth and John Moors Cabot Director of the Harvard Art Museums^[231]
• Kerry Tribe (A.B. 1997) – installation artist^[232]
• Mark Tribe (A.B. 1990) – artist; chair of the School of Visual Arts' MFA program^[233]
• Marcus Waterman — Orientalist painter
• Virgil Macey Williams (1847–1850) — painter, co-founder of the San Francisco Art Association^[234]
• Saya Woolfalk (A.B. 2001) – multimedia artist

Design

• Jonathan Adler (A.B. 1988) – potter, designer and author
• Julie Carlson (A.B. 1983) – co-founder of Remodelista^[235]
• Tom Geismar — (B.A. 1953) designer of the PBS and Mobil logos^[236]
• Chuck Hoberman (1974-1976) – designer

Architecture

• Stan Allen (B.A.) – architect, dean of the Princeton University School of Architecture
• William Truman Aldrich – architect^[237][238]
• Edwin T. Banning (1885) – architect
• Prescott O. Clarke (1880) – architect
• Henry Atherton Frost – architect
• John G. Haskell – architect of Kansas public buildings, including the Kansas State Capitol
• 

  Raymond Hood (1902)
  Raymond Hood (1902) – architect whose works include Tribune Tower in Chicago and Rockefeller Center in New York
• Charles Evans Hughes III (A.B.) – architect, grandson of Charles Evans Hughes^[239]
• Francis L. V. Hoppin (A.B.) – architect
• Norman Isham (A.B. 1886, M.A. 1890) – Rhode Island historical architect
• Harry Wild Jones – architect
• John Black Lee – mid-century modern architect
• Robert Somol (A.B. 1982) – architectural theorist
• Laurinda Hope Spear (B.F.A. 1972) – architect, co-founder of Arquitectonica
• Thomas Alexander Tefft (1851) – pioneer American architect
  

  Thomas Alexander Tefft (1851)

Athletics

Auto racing

• Mark Donohue (1959) – professional racing car driver; 1972 Indianapolis 500 winner; fatally injured in a crash in practice for the Formula One 1975 Austrian Grand Prix; inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America and the International Motorsports Hall of Fame (1991)^[240]

Baseball

• Bill Almon (1975) – professional baseball player for the San Diego Padres, New York Mets, Chicago White Sox, Oakland Athletics and Pittsburgh Pirates; #1 pick in the 1974 draft^[241]
• Mark Attanasio (A.B. 1979) – financier and owner of the Milwaukee Brewers^[242]
• Charley Bassett – professional baseball player^[243]
• Tommy Dowd – professional baseball player^[244]
• Dave Fultz – professional baseball player^[245]
• Irving "Bump" Hadley (Class of 1928) – professional baseball player, pitcher for the Washington Senators and New York Yankees^[246]
• Mike Lynch – professional baseball player^[247]
• Frank Philbrick – professional baseball player^[248]
• Lee Richmond – professional baseball player, pitched the first perfect game in major league baseball history^[249]
• Fred Tenney – professional baseball player^[250]

Basketball

• Craig Robinson – head basketball coach, 2006–2008; older brother of First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama^[251]
• Stephen Silas (1996) – head coach for the Houston Rockets

Football

• Don Colo (1950) – professional football player, three-time Pro Bowl selection; played for the Cleveland Browns^[252]
• Zak DeOssie (2007) – linebacker and long snapper for the New York Giants, two-time Pro Bowl selection (2008, 2010)^[253]
• James Develin (2010) – fullback for the New England Patriots; 2014 and 2016 Super Bowl Champion; 2017 Pro Bowl selection
• 

  John Heisman (1891)
  John W. Heisman (Class of 1891) – college football player and coach; namesake of the Heisman Trophy^[254]
• Steve Jordan (Sc.B. 1982) – professional football player, six-time All-Pro tight end who played for the Minnesota Vikings^[255]
• Sean Morey – Special Teams Captain of 2005 Super Bowl XL Champion Pittsburgh Steelers^[256]
• Bill O'Brien (A.B. 1992) – Assistant Football Coach and Offensive Coordinator of the New England Patriots, Head Coach of Penn State,^[257] Head Coach of the Houston Texans
• Curly Oden (1921) – National Football League running back and member of 1928 league champion Providence Steam Roller
• Joe Paterno (A.B. 1950) – Head Coach for Penn State (1966–2011), all-time winningest Division I football coach^[258]
• 

  Fritz Pollard (1919)
  Fritz Pollard (A.B. 1919) – first black All-American halfback; first black National Football League head coach; as a player, led the Akron Pros to the NFL's first-ever championship in 1920; inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame^[259]
• Edward North Robinson (1896) – football coach at University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Brown, Tufts, Boston University, and for the Providence Steam Roller; member of the College Football Hall of Fame^[260]
• Wallace Wade (1917) – football coach at the University of Alabama and then Duke, member of the College Football Hall of Fame; namesake of Duke's football stadium^[261]

Olympics

• Lauren Gibbs (2006) American bobsledder, Olympic silver (2018) medalist in women's doubles bobsled.
• Tessa Gobbo (2013) – American rower, Olympic gold (2016) medalist in women's coxed eight rowing
• Helen Johns Carroll (A.B. 1936) – freestyle swimmer, U.S. Olympic gold medalist in the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles
• Kathleen Kauth (2001) – ice hockey player, Olympic bronze medalist
• Katie King (1997) – ice hockey player, Olympic gold, silver, and bronze medalist
• Xeno Müller – Swiss rower, Olympic gold (1996) and silver (2000) medalist in the single scull
• Albina Osipowich Van Aiken (A.B. 1933) – freestyle swimmer, won two gold medals for the U.S. in 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Jimmy Pedro (A.B. 1994) – most decorated American male judo athlete; Judo World Champion (1999); two-time Olympic bronze medalist (1996, 2004); coaches Kayla Harrison, who won Olympic gold medals in 2012 and 2016
• Alicia Sacramone (2010) – 2008 Summer Olympics, Beijing, U.S. Women's Gymnastic Team silver medal
• Norman Taber (1913) – track and field athlete, member of the 1912 Olympic gold medal-winning 3000m relay team
• Evan Weinstock – Olympic bobsledder
• Anna Willard (2006) – 2008 Olympic qualifier in 3000m steeplechase, American record holder in 3000m steeplechase^[262]
• Joanna Zeiger (1992) – fourth in inaugural Olympic Women's Triathlon, 2000 Summer Olympics, Sydney; Olympic trial qualifier in marathon, triathlon and swimming; world champion in triathlon

Other sports

• Curt Bennett (1970) – professional ice hockey player, St. Louis Blues and Atlanta Flames
• Rhett Bernstein (2009) – professional soccer player
• Yann Danis (A.B. 2004) – professional ice hockey goaltender for the New York Islanders
• Brian Eklund (A.B. 2002) – professional ice hockey goaltender for the Tampa Bay Lightning
• Cory Gibbs (2001) – professional soccer player, Charlton Athletic, FA Premier League
• Emrah Gultekin (1995) – captain of the Turkish National Swimming Team
• Fred Hovey (1890) – professional tennis player, US Open Men's Doubles Champion (1893) and Men's Singles Champion (1895)
• Brian Ihnacak – (1985) – professional ice hockey player
• Timothy Kelly (2002) – General Manager of the New York Titans of the National Lacrosse League
• Jeff Larentowicz (2005) – professional soccer player, New England Revolution, Major League Soccer
• Alicia Sacramone (2010) – gymnast, winner of several world championships and Olympic medals
• Bill Wirtz – owner of the Chicago Blackhawks
• Joanna Zeiger (1992) – triathlete; Olympian; 2008 Ironman 70.3 world champion; won 2005 Ironman Brazil and 2006 Ironman Coeur d'Alene

Colonial Era Brown graduates (1769–1783)

• 

  Solomon Drowne
  Solomon Drowne
• Dwight Foster
• Theodore Foster
• Esek Hopkins
• David Howell, A.M.
• Joshua Toulmin, A.M.
• James Mitchell Varnum
• Samuel Ward, Jr.

Unclassified

• Michael V. Bhatia (A.B. 1999) – Medal of Freedom recipient
• Dana Buchman (A.B. 1973) – fashion designer
• Amy Carter (Class of 1989) – daughter of former President Jimmy Carter; political activist
• Alexandra Kerry – daughter of presidential candidate and U.S. Senator John Kerry
• Theodore Morde (attended 1935-1936) - famed explorer and adventurer who claimed to have discovered the "Lost City of the Monkey God" in Honduras
• Cara Mund (Class of 2016) – Miss America 2018
• Kimberly Ovitz (A.B. 2005) – fashion designer
• 

  Andre Leon Talley
  Andre Leon Talley (M.A. 1973) – editor of Vogue Magazine
• Allegra Versace (Class of 2008) – heiress to Gianni Versace's fortune and daughter of Donatella Versace

Notable faculty (current and former)

Fernando Henrique Cardoso

• Chinua Achebe, Nigerian novelist, poet, professor and critic; author of Things Fall Apart, the most widely read book in modern African literature; David and Marianna Fisher University Professor and Professor of Africana Studies
• Amanda Anderson, literary critic; Andrew W. Mellon Professor for the Humanities
• Ama Ata Aidoo, Ghanaian novelist and playwright; Visiting Professor of Africana Studies and Literary Arts
• Susan E. Alcock, archaeologist, MacArthur Award recipient; Professor of Classics, Director of the Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World
• Nancy Armstrong, literary critic and author of Desire and Domestic Fiction: A Political History of the Novel; Nancy Duke Lewis Professor of Comparative Literature, English, Modern Culture & Media, and Gender Studies
• Nomy Arpaly, Assistant Professor of Philosophy specializing in questions of moral agency
• Ariella Azoulay, comparative linguistics professor; Professor of Comparative Literature and Modern Culture and Media
• Thomas Banchoff, mathematician specializing in geometry; known for his research in differential geometry in three and four dimensions; Professor of Mathematics
• David Berson, discovered third photoreceptor in the eye (in addition to rods and cones); Professor of Medical Science, Associate Professor of Neuroscience
• Subra Suresh, current President of Nanyang Technological University, former President of Carnegie Mellon University and former Director of the NSF.
• Sheila Blumstein, cognitive/linguistic scientist; Albert D. Mead Professor of Cognitive, Linguistic and Psychological Sciences
• Eugene Charniak, computer scientist; University Professor of Computer Science
• Forrest Gander, poet; The Adele Kellenberg Seaver Professor and Professor of Literary Arts and Comparative Literature
• Constance Bumgarner Gee, art policy scholar, memoirist, and advocate of the medical use of cannabis; Assistant Professor of Public Policy
• Matthew Pratt Guterl, historian
• Fernando Henrique Cardoso, former president of Brazil; Professor-at-large of International Studies
• James T. Campbell, historian
• Lincoln Chafee (A.B. 1975), former Republican member of the United States Senate; Distinguished Visiting Fellow in International Relations
• Colin Channer, writer; Assistant Professor of Literary Arts
• Roderick Chisholm (~1999), philosopher known for his contributions to epistemology, metaphysics, free will, and the philosophy of perception; influenced a generation of Brown philosophers including Jaegwon Kim and Ernest Sosa
• Leon Neil Cooper, Nobel Prize in Physics 1972, father of superconductivity, and developer of the BCM theory of synaptic plasticity in neuroscience; Thomas J. Watson, Sr. Professor of Physics
• Robert Coover, post-modern writer, Spanking the Maid, The Origin of the Brunists; notable for his metafiction; electronic literature pioneer; T. B. Stowell University Professor, Adjunct Professor of English
• Robert Creeley, poet, For Love; Professor of English
• Constantine Dafermos, mathematician; Alumni/Alumnae University Professor of Applied Mathematics
• Philip J. Davis, applied mathematician and philosopher of mathematics; co-author of The Mathematical Experience; Professor Emeritus of Applied Mathematics
• Daniel C. Drucker(~2001), authority on the theory of plasticity in the field of applied mechanics; recipient of the National Medal of Science, the Timoshenko Medal, the ASME Medal, and the Drucker Medal, of which he is the namesake
• Curt Ducasse(~1966), philosopher noted for philosophy of mind and aesthetics; influenced Roderick Chisholm, former president of the American Philosophical Association Eastern Division
• David F. Duncan, epidemiologist and addictionologist, author of Drugs and the Whole Person; Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine
• Peter D. Eimas, Professor of Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences
• David Estlund, philosopher; Lombardo Family Professor of the Humanities
• 

  Anne Fausto-Sterling
  Anne Fausto-Sterling, major contributor to the fields of sexology, biology of gender, sexual identity, gender identity, and gender roles
• James L. Fitzgerald, indologist
• 

  Carlos Fuentes
  Carlos Fuentes, writer; widely considered the most influential author of the Spanish-speaking world since Jorge Luis Borges
• Oded Galor, economist studying economic growth; developer of the unified growth theory; Herbert H.Goldberger Professor of Economics
• Forrest Gander, poet, author of Eye Against Eye, Torn Awake, Be With; Pulitzer Prize, Whiting Writers' Award and Howard Foundation Award winner; Professor of English and Comparative Literature
• Leela Gandhi, literary critic; John Hawkes Professor of Humanities and English
• Sylvester James Gates, physicist specializing in superstring theory; featured extensively on NOVA PBS programs on physics; Ford Foundation Professor of Physics
• Stuart Geman, mathematician; James Manning Professor of Applied Mathematics
• Mary Louise Gill, philosopher and author of several books on Aristotle and Plato
• Paul Guyer, philosopher; Jonathan Nelson Professor of Humanities and Philosophy
• Ulf Grenander, mathematician, originator of the Pattern Theory in mathematics, which also influenced David Mumford; L. Herbert Ballou University Professor
• Gerald Guralnik, physicist; co-discoverer of the Higgs mechanism, Sakurai Prize winner; Chancellor's Professor of Physics
• Peter Howitt, economist, co-originator of the Schumpeterian Paradigm with Philippe Aghion
• Michael S. Harper, poet; first Poet Laureate of the State of Rhode Island; Professor of English
• John Hawkes, author, The Blood Oranges, Second Skin
• Dwight B. Heath, anthropologist, foremost anthropological researcher and scholar in field of alcohol studies; Research Professor of Anthropology
• Richard Holbrooke (A.B. 1962), broker of the Dayton Accords; former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N.; Professor-at-Large of International Studies
• Stephen Houston, archeologist, expert on Mayan hieroglyphics, recipient of the Macarthur fellowship; Professor of Anthropology

George Lamming

• Evelyn Hu-DeHart, historian of Asian migration in Latin America and the Caribbean and theorist of diasporas and transnationalism; Professor of History and Professor of American Studies
• George Karniadakis, mathematician; James Manning Professor of Applied Mathematics
• Adrienne Keene, Native American academic and activist
• David Kertzer, historian, anthropologist, author of The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara and Prisoner of the Vatican; Provost, Paul Dupee, Jr. University Professor of Social Science, Professor of Anthropology, and Professor of Italian Studies

Sergei Khrushchev

• Sergei Khrushchev, son of Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev; Senior Fellow in International Studies
• Jaegwon Kim, philosopher of mind, action theorist, author of Mind in a Physical World; William Herbert Perry Faunce Professor of Philosophy
• John M. Kosterlitz, of the Kosterlitz-Thouless transition (condensed matter physics); winner of the 1981 Maxwell Medal and Prize, and the 2000 Onsager Prize (one of the APS main awards); Professor of Physics
• Peter D. Kramer, author, Listening to Prozac, Against Depression; Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior
• Charles Kraus, chemist; consultant for the Manhattan Project; won the Priestley Medal and Franklin Medal
• Shriram Krishnamurthi, computer scientist
• Hans Kurath, linguist; known for publishing the first linguistic atlas of the US Linguistic Atlas of New England, winning the Loubat Prize, and for being the first main editor of the Middle English Dictionary
• Ricardo Lagos, former president of Chile; Professor-at-large of International Studies
• George Lamming, Barbadian author, In the Castle of My Skin, Natives of My Person; Visiting Professor of Africana Studies and Literary Arts
• Rafael La Porta – economist; Robert J. and Nancy D. Carney University Professor of Economics
• Ross Levine, advisor to the United States Treasury, Federal Reserve System, and World Bank; highly cited economist, ranked 10th in the world, according to RePEc; James and Merryl Tisch Professor of Economics
• David C. Lewis, addictions specialist and authority on drug policy; Donald G. Miller Distinguished Professor of Alcohol and Addiction
• Michael L. Littman, computer scientist
• Richard M. Locke, is an internationally respected scholar and authority on international labor rights, comparative political economy, employment relations, and corporate responsibility. He is provost of Brown University and Schreiber Family Professor of Political Science and International and Public Affairs. For his ongoing research on fair and safe working conditions in global supply chains, Locke was awarded with an inaugural Progress Medal for Scholarship and Leadership on Fairness and Well-being by the Society for Progress in 2016.
• Glenn Loury, once regarded as "one of the most prominent black conservatives in the nation;" now considered much more "progressive"; Professor of Economics
• Catherine Lutz, anthropologist; :Thomas J. Watson, Jr. Family Professor of Anthropolopgy and International Studies
• Kenneth R. Miller (Sc.B. 1970), supporter of evolution involved in numerous public debates and trials about the teaching of intelligent design in schools; Professor of Biology
• Hyman Minsky (~1996), economist who researched into financial market fragility; his theories are considered the most accurate description of the financial crisis; namesake of the Minsky moment
• Edmund Morgan, historian
• James Morone, political scientist noted for his work on health politics, popular participation, morality in politics, and on political development
• 

  David Mumford
  David Mumford, Fields Medal-winning mathematician, MacArthur Fellow; Professor of Applied Mathematics
• Ron Nelson, composer; Professor of Music (retired)
• Otto Neugebauer, historian of mathematics; Professor of the History of Mathematics
• Felicia Nimue Ackerman, philosopher
• Katsumi Nomizu, co-author of Foundations of Differential Geometry (1963, 1969); Professor of Mathematics (1960–95)
• Martha Nussbaum, philosopher, authored The Fragility of Goodness while teaching at Brown; Professor of Philosophy (1985–95)
• 

  Onsager 1968
  Lars Onsager Norwegian-born physicist who taught at Brown (1928–33); Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1968 awarded for Onsager reciprocal relations, produced while at Brown but was not tenured
• Paul Phillips - conductor, composer, and world's leading scholar on the music of author Anthony Burgess
• David Pingree - Professor of the History of Mathematics and of Classics, MacArthur Fellow (1981)
• Jill Pipher - mathematician, co-founder of NTRU Cryptosystems, Inc., first director of ICERM
• William Poole - President of the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis (1998–present); served on Reagan's White House Council of Economic Advisors^[263]
• Kurt Raaflaub - Professor of Classics and History
• Tricia Rose - historian
• Boris Rozovsky - mathematician
• Björn Sandstede - mathematician
• Robert Scholes - President, Modern Language Association; author, The Rise and Fall of English; co-author, The Nature of Narrative
• Chi-Wang Shu - mathematician
• Robert Sedgewick -author of computer science book Algorithms; board of directors, Adobe Systems
• Meinolf Sellmann - computer scientist, best known for algorithmic research in combinatorial optimization and artificial intelligence
• Vernon L. Smith - Nobel Prize in Economics, for developing empirical and scientific methods into economic research
• George Snell - Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, for discovering the genetic bases of immunological reactions
• Joseph H. Silverman (Sc.B. 1977), number theorist, co-founder of NTRU Cryptosystems, Inc.; Professor of Mathematics
• Ernest Sosa, philosopher, epistemologist
• Galina Starovoitova – visiting professor at the Watson Institute for International Studies 1994–1998; member of Russian Duma; leader of reformist Democratic Russia party; assassinated November 20, 1998
• George Stigler, Nobel Prize in Economics, on the influence of government regulation on the economy; Professor of Economics (1946–47)
• Dom Illtyd Trethowan, philosopher; Visiting Professor in Theology
• 

  Andries van Dam
  Andries "Andy" van Dam, computer graphics and hypertext pioneer, and co-founder of ACM SICGRAPH, precursor to SIGGRAPH; Thomas J. Watson, Jr. University Professor of Technology and Education, Professor of Computer Science, former (and first) Vice President for Research
• John E. Savage, theoretical computer science researcher; An Wang Professor of Computer Science, Jefferson Fellow
• Roberto Tamassia, computer scientist; Plastech Professor of Computer Science
• John L. Thomas, Bancroft Prize winning historian
• Peter van Dommelen, archeologist; Joukowsky Family Professor of Archaeology and Professor of Anthropology
• Paula Vogel, Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright, How I Learned to Drive; Adele Kellenberg Seaver Professor of English
• Lai-Sheng Wang, chemist; Jesse H. and Louisa D. Sharpe Metcalf Professor
• Takeo Watanabe, neuroscientist; Fred M. Seed Professor of Cognitive, Linguistic and Psychological Sciences;
• Peter Wegner, computer scientist; Professor Emeritus of Computer Science
• Arnold Weinstein, literary critic; Edna and Richard Salomon Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature
• Margaret Weir, sociologist, political scientist; Professor of Political Science and International and Public Affairs at the Watson Institute
• Darrell M. West, author of multiple books, including Digital Government and Cross Talk; developer of website www.InsidePolitics.org; vice president and director of governance studies at the Brookings Institution;^[264] John Hazen White Professor of Public Policy and Political Science and director of the A. Alfred Taubman Center for Public Policy
• John Edgar Wideman, writer, two-time PEN/Faulkner Award winner, Philadelphia Fire; Asa Messer Professor and Professor of Africana Studies and Literary Arts
• Edward L. Widmer, historian, Clinton administration speechwriter; Director, John Carter Brown Library
• Gordon S. Wood, Pulitzer Prize for History winner, The Radicalism of the American Revolution; Alva O. Way University Professor and Professor of History
• C. D. Wright, poet, String Light; Macarthur fellowship winner (2004); Israel J. Kapstein Professor of English
• Stan Zdonik, computer scientist

Presidents of Brown University

• James Manning
• Jonathan Maxcy
• Asa Messer
• Francis Wayland
• Barnas Sears
• Alexis Caswell
• Ezekiel Gilman Robinson
• Elisha Benjamin Andrews
• William H. P. Faunce
• Clarence Augustus Barbour
• Henry Merritt Wriston
• Barnaby Conrad Keeney
• Ray L. Heffner
• Donald Frederick Hornig
• Howard Robert Swearer
• Vartan Gregorian
• Gordon Gee
• Sheila Blumstein (interim)
• Ruth Simmons
• Christina Paxson

References