Notable alumni
Nobel laureates
Julius Axelrod 1933 – Nobel laureate in Medicine, 1970
Kenneth Arrow 1940 – Nobel laureate in Economics, 1972
Herbert Hauptman 1937 – Nobel laureate in Chemistry, 1985
Robert Hofstadter 1935 – Nobel laureate in Physics, 1961
Jerome Karle 1937 – Nobel laureate in Chemistry, 1985
Arthur Kornberg 1937 – Nobel laureate in Medicine, 1959
Leon M. Lederman 1943 – Nobel laureate in Physics, 1988
Arno Penzias 1954 – Nobel laureate in Physics, 1978
Robert J. Aumann 1950 – Nobel laureate in Economics, 2005
John O'Keefe, 1963 – Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine, 2014
Rhodes Scholars
James T. Molloy 1939
Chancellors
Matthew Goldstein – former chancellor of the City University of New York (1999-2013).
Politics, government and sociology
Herman Badillo 1951 – former Congressman and Chairman of CUNY's Board of Trustees, an architect of the University's academic rebirth Bernard M. Baruch 1889 – Wall Street financier; adviser to American Presidents for 40 years, from Woodrow Wilson to John F. Kennedy Abraham D. Beame 1928 – mayor of New York City, 1974 to 1977 Daniel Bell – sociologist, professor at Harvard University Stephen Bronner – political theorist, Marxist, professor at Rutgers University Upendra J. Chivukula – first Asian American elected to the New Jersey General Assembly Henry Cohen 1943 – Director of Föhrenwald DP Camp; founding dean of the Milano School for Management and Urban Policy at The New School Suzanne DiMaggio - long-time analyst of U.S. Foreign Policy in Asia and the Middle East Benjamin B. Ferencz 1920 – international jurist Abraham Foxman – National Director of the Anti-Defamation League Felix Frankfurter 1902 – justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, 1939-1962 George Friedman – founder of Stratfor, author, professor of political science, security and defense analyst Nathan Glazer – sociologist and professor at Harvard University Irving Howe – coined the phrase "New York Jewish Intellectual" Robert T. Johnson 1972 – Bronx District Attorney Henry Kissinger – Nobel Peace Prize and Secretary of State, National Security Advisor (did not graduate) Ed Koch 1945 – mayor of New York City, 1978-1989 Irving Kristol 1940 – neoconservative pundit Melvin J. Lasky 1938 – anti-communist; editor of Encounter 1958-1991 Milton Leitenberg 1955 - American arms control expert Guillermo Linares 1975 – first Dominican-American New York City Council member Colin Powell – United States Secretary of State (2001–2005); Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1989–1993) and U.S. Army General; National Security Advisor (1987–1989) Sal Restivo 1965 – pioneer ethnographer of science; one of the founders of the sociology of mathematics; founding member and former president of the Society for Social Studies of Science Julius Rosenberg – infamous convicted spy during the Cold War Robert F. Wagner Sr. – United States Senator from New York, 1927-1949 Michele Wallace 1975 – major figure in African-American studies, feminist studies and cultural studies Stephen Samuel Wise 1891 – Reform rabbi, early Zionist and social justice activist Marilyn Zayas 1965 - Judge, Ohio's First District Court of Appeals