This page lists notable alumni and students of the University of California, Berkeley. Alumni who also served as faculty are listed in bold font, with degree and year.
Notable faculty members are in the article List of UC Berkeley faculty.
Astronauts
Leroy Chiao, B.S. 1983 – astronaut, first Asian-American and ethnic Chinese person to perform a spacewalk F. Drew Gaffney, B.A. 1968 – astronaut Tamara E. Jernigan, M.S. 1985 – astronaut Don L. Lind, Ph.D. 1964 – astronaut Brian T. O'Leary, Ph.D. 1967 – astronaut Margaret Rhea Seddon, B.A. 1970 – astronaut Charles Simonyi, B.S. 1972 – fifth space tourist (also listed in section Business founders and co-founders) James van Hoften, B.S. 1966 – astronaut Rex Walheim, B.S. 1984 – astronaut, member of the "Final Four" astronauts who flew on the very last Space Shuttle flight of STS-135 Mary Weber, Ph.D. 1988 – astronaut
Astronomers and space explorers
William F. Ballhaus, Jr., B.S. 1967, M.S. 1968, Ph.D. 1971 – former director of NASA's Ames Research Center, president and CEO of Aerospace Corporation (also listed in "Business and entrepreneurship" section) Michael C. Malin, B.A. (physics) 1967 – astronomer, principal investigator for the camera on Mars Global Surveyor, MacArthur Fellow, founder and CEO of Malin Space Science Systems, recipient of a NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal in 2002, recipient of the 2005 Carl Sagan Memorial Award Gerry Nelson, Ph.D 1972 – inventor of the segmented mirror telescope, for which he was awarded the Kavli Prize, leading to the building of the Keck telescopes Roger J. Phillips, Ph.D. 1968 – team leader of Apollo 17 Lunar Sounder Experiment, former director of Lunar and Planetary Institute and recipient of the G K Gilbert Award and the Whipple Award. H. Paul Shuch, Ph.D. 1990 – SETI scientist Peter Smith, B.S. 1969 – principal investigator and project leader for the $420 million NASA robotic explorer Phoenix, which physically confirmed the presence of water on the planet Mars for the first time David J. Schlegel, Ph.D. 1995 – pioneered the largest dust maps of the Universe, used to map the expansion rate of the Universe to more than 10 billion light years, recipient of the Lawrence Award Joel Stebbins, Ph.D. Physics 1903 – pioneered photoelectric photometry in astronomy, Royal Astronomical Society Gold Medal (1950), Henry Draper Medal (1915), Rumford Prize (1913), namesake of asteroid 2300 Stebbins and the Moon crater Stebbins Charles Bruce Stephenson, Ph.D. 1958 – astronomer Jean L. Turner, Ph.D. – professor of Astronomy and Physics at UCLA Theodore Van Zelst, B.S. 1944 – co-founder of Soiltest (testing company for soil, rock, concrete, and asphalt), recipient of the 1988 ASCE's "Chicago Engineer of the Year" award, developed the swing-wing design that allows supersonic aircraft to exceed the sound barrier, developed the first mobile baggage inspection unit, and developed lunar construction and soil testing for humankind's first steps on the moon Martha Stahr Carpenter, Ph.D. 1945 – Astronomer, three term president of AAVSO, and first women faculty member in the Cornell University College of Arts and Sciences.
Biologists
David E. Garfin, Ph.D. – biophysicist who has made significant contributions to electrophoresis in both the engineering and biology communities and to the AES Electrophoresis Society Kathy Hudson, Ph.D. – Microbiologist specializing in science policy Edmund C. Jaeger – graduate student in 1918, became a renowned naturalist Lidia Mannuzzu, Ph.D. 1990 – biologist and physiologist, inventor of the biomolecular optical sensors with Ehud Y. Isacoff and Mario Moronne Constance Tom Noguchi, biophysicist, Chief of the Molecular Cell Biology Section at National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) Donald W. Roberts, Ph.D. 1964 Research Professor Emeritus at Utah State University, early contributor to the idea of biological pest control Howard Schachman, professor of biochem and molecular biology Gopalan Shyamala, conducted cancer and zoology research; mother of California U.S. Senator and American Vice President-elect, Kamala Harris