List of University of Texas at Austin alumni
The list of University of Texas at Austin people includes notable alumni, non-graduates, faculty and staff, chief executives, and affiliates of the University of Texas at Austin.
Alumni
Arts and entertainment
- Wes Anderson — filmmaker
- Steve Barton — actor
- Berkeley Breathed — cartoonist, creator of Bloom County
- Burnie Burns — creator of Red vs. Blue and Rooster Teeth Productions
- J. M. Coetzee — Nobel Laureate for Literature
- Troy Coleman — country music artist better known as "Cowboy Troy"
- Madison Cooper — novelist
- Roy Crane — cartoonist, creator of Wash Tubbs and Buz Sawyer
- Mary Dunleavy — soprano, Metropolitan Opera
- Farrah Fawcett — actress
- Rebecca Frasier — voice actress, notably Sister on Red vs. Blue
- Kinky Friedman — author, musician, candidate for Governor of Texas
- Richard Garriott — creator of the video game series, Ultima
- Peri Gilpin — actress, most notably on Frasier
- Marc Gunn — musician, podcaster, publisher
- Marcia Gay Harden — Oscar-winning actress
- Ethan Hawke — actor
- Joel Heyman — actor, notably Caboose (Red vs. Blue)
- John Hillerman — actor
- H.L. (Harvey) Hix — award-winning poet and director of the master of fine arts program at the University of Wyoming
- Matt Hullum — co-founder of Rooster Teeth Productions
- Abhijat Joshi — screenwriter
- L. Q. Jones — actor in Westerns
- Janis Joplin — musician
- Julie Kenner — author and former lawyer
- Richard Linklater — filmmaker
- Tim McCanlies — filmmaker
- Matthew McConaughey — actor
- Jayne Mansfield — actress and sex symbol
- Sterling Morrison — musician, founding member of The Velvet Underground
- Fess Parker — actor, portrayed Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone
- Sharon Kay Penman — American author of fiction
- Lawrence Person — science fiction author
- Pamela Ribon — novelist, television writer, actor
- Chris Rich — actor, Brock Hart on Reba
- Tex Ritter — actor in Westerns
- Robert Rodríguez — Mexican American filmmaker
- Jason Saldaña — voice actor, most notably Tucker (Red vs. Blue)
- Thomas Schlamme — television producer
- Harvey Schmidt — writer of musical theatre
- Michelle Shocked — musician
- Olen Steinhauer — novelist
- Amelia Maciszewski — sitar player
- Bruce Sterling — science fiction author
- Rip Torn — actor
- Tommy Tune — Broadway choreographer and performer
- Martin Wagner — artist, cartoonist, and filmmaker
- Eli Wallach — method actor, the "Ugly" from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
- Chris Ware — cartoonist
- Mack White — cartoonist
- Owen Wilson (never graduated) — actor
- Gary Winick — director, producer
- Janice Woods Windle — author
- Renée Zellweger — Oscar-winning actress
Athletics
- LaMarcus Aldridge — second pick in the 2006 NBA Draft
- Major Applewhite — college football coach
- Cedric Benson — NFL running back
- Jim Bertelsen — NFL defensive back
- Bill Bradley — NFL defensive back
- Earl Campbell — NFL Hall of Fame running back
- Jamie Carey — WNBA point guard
- Kwame Cavil — CFL wide receiver
- Roger Clemens — MLB pitcher
- Dennis Cook — former MLB pitcher
- J. Brent Cox — MLB pitcher
- Ben Crenshaw — professional golfer
- Ian Crocker — Olympic swimmer
- Leonard Davis — NFL offensive tackle
- Phil Dawson — NFL placekicker
- Kirk Dressendorfer — former Major League Baseball pitcher
- Adam Dunn — MLB outfielder
- Nate Dusing — Olympic swimmer
- Bob Estes — professional golfer
- Maurice Evans — NBA player
- Bibb Falk — MLB left fielder and former University of Texas baseball coach
- T. J. Ford — NBA point guard
- Ron Gardenhire — Minnesota Twins manager
- Lance Gunn — former NFL defensive back
- Jerry Gray – former NFL cornerback
- Casey Hampton — NFL nose tackle
- Brendan Hansen — Olympic swimmer
- Priest Holmes — NFL running back
- J.P. Howell — MLB pitcher
- Michael Huff — NFL defensive back
- Royal Ivey — NBA player
- Quentin Jammer — NFL cornerback
- Derrick Johnson — NFL linebacker
- Shaun Jordan — Olympic gold medal swimmer
- Tom Kite — professional golfer
- Tom Landry — former NFL head coach
- D.D. Lewis — NFL linebacker
- Colt McCoy — college football quarterback
- Eric Metcalf — NFL running back and wide receiver
- Chris Mihm — NBA center
- Johnny Moore — NBA point guard
- Cat Osterman — softball player
- Spike Owen — former MLB shortstop
- Aaron Peirsol — Olympic Swimmer
- Harvey Penick — professional golfer
- Terrence Rencher — NBA player
- Mary Lou Retton — Olympic Gymnast
- Shaun Rogers — NFL defensive tackle
- Bo Scaife — NFL tight end
- Calvin Schiraldi — MLB pitcher
- Chris Simms — NFL quarterback
- Sherri Steinhauer — professional golfer
- Huston Street — MLB pitcher
- James Street— National Championship quarterback, father of Huston Street
- Greg Swindell — MLB pitcher
- Carl Grady Thomas — NFL player
- James Thomas — NBA forward
- Kalen Thornton — NFL linebacker
- Marcus Tubbs — NFL defensive tackle
- B.J. Tyler — former NBA point guard
- Olen Underwood — NFL linebacker
- Nathan Vasher — NFL cornerback
- Mike Williams — NFL tackle
- Ricky Williams — NFL running back
- Roy Williams — NFL Wide Receiver
- Joscelin Yeo — Olympic swimmer and Rhodes Scholar
- Vince Young — college football National Championship quarterback, NFL quarterback
Business
- William Frank Buckley, Sr. — oilman and father of conservative William F. Buckley, Jr.
- Thomas Cruikshank — former chairman and CEO of Halliburton Company
- Michael Dell — founder of the computer company Dell, Inc.
- David Geffen — record executive
- Jared Heyman — founder and president of Infosurv.
- Tom Hicks — owner of the Dallas Stars and the Texas Rangers
- William R. Johnson — president, CEO and chairman of H. J. Heinz
- John T. Jones — former publisher and chairman of the Houston Chronicle
- Gary C. Kelly — CEO of Southwest Airlines
- Red McCombs — co-founder of Clear Channel Communications
- Robert McGehee — CEO of Progress Energy, a Fortune 1000 company
- William C. Nowlin — co-founder of National Instruments
- Thomas Ryan — CEO of Service Corporation International, a Fortune 1000 company
- Tex Schramm — former Dallas Cowboys general manager and Pro Football Hall of Fame member
- Roy Spence — co-founder of the nationally famous advertising agency GSD&M
- Rex Tillerson — Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of ExxonMobil, the largest Fortune 500 company
- James Truchard — electrical engineer, co-founder, president, and chairman of the board of National Instruments
- John Wilder — CEO of TXU, a Fortune 1000 company
- Angus G. Wynne, Jr. — founder of Six Flags
- William A. Shopoff — founder, president and CEO of The Shopoff Group
- Bedford Wynne — co-founder of the Dallas Cowboys
- Enrique Gonzalez-Colombari (RIP 2000) — founder of the UTEXES Chapter in Costa Rica, founder of CENPRO now known as PROCOMER (Costa Rica's Export Promotion Center)
Education
- Rene J. Bienvenu — scientist and president of Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana
- Robert A. Brown — chemical engineer, Provost of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Henry C. Dethloff — historian, author, professor emeritus at Texas A&M University
- John R. Hubbard — historian, former president of the University of Southern California
- Alan Lomax — musicologist and folklorist, son of John Avery Lomax
- John Avery Lomax — pioneering musicologist and folklorist
- James Moeser — organist, Chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Américo Paredes — folklorist
- Walter Prescott Webb — historian and author of the Handbook of Texas
- W. Page Keeton — 1931 graduate and dean of The Law School from 1949 to 1974; expert Tort law
- Leon A. Green — 1915 UT law graduate & long-time dean at Northwestern University; also taught at Yale and UT Law; pioneering scholar of Tort law, particularly in areas of causation and injuries to relations.
- Charles T. McCormick — (B.A. 1909), law dean at University of North Carolina and UT; also taught at Northwestern; penned classic works on Evidence and Damages.
- Gene R. Nichol — President of the College of William and Mary; formerly dean of the law schools at both the University of North Carolina and the University of Colorado at Boulder.
- Maria Cristina Damasco-Padolina — (Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry), President and Chief Academic Officer, Centro Escolar University, Manila, Philippines
Journalism and publishing
- Paul Begala — Crossfire co-host and former advisor for Bill Clinton
- Drew Berry — Vice President and General Manager WMAR-TV
- Gail Caldwell — Pulitzer Prize winner and chief book critic at The Boston Globe
- Liz Carpenter — writer, feminist, reporter, media advisor, speech writer, political humorist, and public relations expert.
- Michael Chorost — writer and teacher
- Catherine Crier — television news anchor
- Walter Cronkite — WWII war correspondent and CBS News anchor
- Jane Hall — Fox News Channel pundit
- Rolando Hinojosa — writer, professor
- Lady Bird Johnson — First Lady
- Brian Martinez — educator, writer and journalist
- John Moore — photojournalist, Pulitzer Prize winner for the Associated Press coverage in Iraq and currently working for Getty Images
- Willie Morris — former Harper's Magazine editor and noted author
- Bill Moyers — author, journalist, and press secretary for Lyndon B. Johnson
- Betty Nguyen — CNN anchor
- Thomas D. Rowley — editor of Rural Health News
- Ben Sargent — Pulitzer Prize winner and editorial cartoonist at Austin American-Statesman
- Liz Smith — gossip columnist
- Stephanie Trong — journalist, Jane Executive Editor
- Karen Tumulty — journalist, Time National Political Correspondent
Law and government
- James Baker, White House Chief of Staff Under Ronald Reagan and Secretary of State under George H.W. Bush
- Ben Barnes — former Texas Speaker of the House (1965-1969) and Lieutenant Governor (1969-1973)
- Dan Bartlett — White House communications director for George W. Bush
- William J. Bennett — President Reagan's chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities (1981-1985), Secretary of Education (1985-1988), and President Bush's "drug czar" (1989-1990)
- Lloyd Bentsen — U.S. Representative (1948-1955), U.S. Senator (1970-1992) and Secretary of the Treasury during the Clinton Administration
- Steven Best — professor of philosophy and spokesperson for the Animal Liberation Front.
- Brad Blanton — author and candidate for the U.S. House
- Beau Boulter — former member of the U.S. House
- Dolph Briscoe — former Governor of Texas
- Elliot Ross Buckley — lawyer in U.S. Justice Department and chairman of Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission; candidate for Congress and New Orleans mayor in 1960 and 1962, respectively
- George P. Bush — son of Governor Jeb Bush of Florida
- Jeb Bush — Governor (1999-present) of Florida
- Jenna Bush — daughter of President George W. Bush
- Laura Bush — First Lady
- Liz Carpenter — press secretary for Lady Bird Johnson
- Mostafa Chamran — Iranian Minister of Defense
- Ramsey Clark — former U.S. Attorney General
- Tom C. Clark — former U.S. Attorney General and U.S. Supreme Court Justice
- Henry Cuellar — member of the U.S. House
- Vivien S. Crea — Vice Admiral of the U.S. Coast Guard
- Maria de Lourdes Dieck-Assad — Mexican Ambassador to the European Union
- Lloyd Doggett — member of the U.S. House
- Donald Evans — former U.S. Secretary of Commerce under George W. Bush
- Tommy Franks — former Commander-in-Chief of U.S. Central Command
- Mike Godwin — first staff lawyer for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, now legal director of Public Knowledge
- Charlie Gonzalez — member of the U.S. House
- Lloyd Hand — former Chief of Protocol under Lyndon B. Johnson
- Jeb Hensarling — member of the U.S. House
- Rubén E. Hinojosa — member of the U.S. House
- Jefferson D. Howell — director of the Johnson Space Center in Houston
- Kay Bailey Hutchison — current U.S. Senator from Texas
- Admiral Bobby Inman — former director of the National Security Agency
- Joe Jamail — trial lawyer
- Lady Bird Johnson — former First Lady
- John Marvin Jones — former member of the U.S. House
- V.O. Key, Jr. — political scientist, studied elections and voting behavior
- Tom Loeffler — Republican U.S. Representative from the Texas Hill Country, 1979-1987
- Scott McClellan — former White House Press Secretary for George W. Bush
- Dan Moody — lawyer, former Governor of Texas, and opponent of the Ku Klux Klan
- Bill Owens — former Governor of Colorado
- J.J. "Jake" Pickle — former member of the U.S. House, for whom UT's J.J. Pickle Research Campus in northwest Austin is named
- Gary M. Polland — Houston attorney, talk-show host, former Harris County Republican Party chairman
- Sam Rayburn — former Speaker of the House
- Ann Richards — former Governor of Texas
- Woodall Rodgers — former mayor of Dallas
- Ezequiel D. Salinas, former state court judge from Laredo, Texas, and advocate for civil rights of the Hispanic community
- Sheik Abdullah Tariki — co-founder of OPEC
- Fernando Belaúnde Terry — former president of Peru
- Lt. Gen. Ernest O. Thompson — longest-serving member of the Texas Railroad Commission
- Jim Turner — member of the U.S. House
- Joseph M. Watt — Chief Justice, Oklahoma Supreme Court
- Sarah Weddington — attorney and lecturer, represented "Jane Roe" in the landmark Roe v. Wade U.S. Supreme Court case
- Harry Whittington — Texas attorney who is well known concerning the incident with Vice-President Dick Cheney
- Bill White — mayor of Houston
- Pamela Willeford — U.S. ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein
- Ralph Yarborough — U.S. Senator from Texas (1957-1971)
- Juan B. Mckay A.; Panama's General Consul in Bogota, Colombia
Newsmakers
- Jeb Bush, Jr. — youngest son of Jeb Bush
- Pierce Bush — nephew of George W. Bush
- Lynda Bird Johnson Robb — elder of two daughters of Lyndon Baines Johnson
- Charles Whitman — Main Building of The University of Texas at Austin tower sniper
Science and technology
- James P. Allison — immunological researcher and member of the National Academy of Science
- J. Michael Bailey — psychologist specialized in sexual orientation
- Alan Bean — astronaut, lunar module pilot on Apollo 12
- Robert S. Boyer — computer scientist, co-inventor of the Boyer-Moore string search algorithm
- William H. Cade— Animal behaviorist, discovered cricket/fly predatory relationship
- Ken Castleman — authority in the field of image processing and pattern recognition
- Robert L. Crippen — pilot of STS-1, inaugural space shuttle Columbia
- R.H. Bing — mathematician
- Leonard Eugene Dickson — mathematician
- Edsger Dijkstra — computer scientist
- F. Burton Jones — mathematician
- Steve Madere — computer scientist, founded Deja News
- Robert Lee Moore — mathematician
- Mary Ellen Rudin — mathematician
- Beatrice Tinsley — astronomer
- Neil deGrasse Tyson — astrophysicist
- Stephen S. Vogt — astronomer, developed the technique of "Doppler imaging"
- Spencer Wells — geneticist and anthropologist
- Stephanie Wilson — astronaut, mission specialist on Space Shuttle mission STS-121
Faculty and staff
Architecture
- Charles Willard Moore — architect
- David Heymann — architect
- Lawrence Speck — architect
Arts and entertainment
- Chad Oliver — science fiction and Western writer
Athletics
- Fred Akers — former head football coach
- Rick Barnes — head basketball coach
- Mack Brown — current head football coach
- Jody Conradt — former women's basketball coach
- Gary Darnell — former football defensive coordinator
- Greg Davis — current football offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach
- DeLoss Dodds — current athletic director
- Augie Garrido — current baseball coach
- John Mackovic — former head football coach
- Greg Robinson — former football co-defensive coordinator
Business
- Frank W. McBee — mechanical engineer, co-founder of Tracor, Inc.
Education
- Robert Lee Mills — educator and former president of Georgetown College
- Marye Anne Fox — chemist, Chancellor of University of California, San Diego and formerly North Carolina State University
Journalism and publishing
- J. Frank Dobie — American folklorist, writer, and columnist
- Marvin Olasky — Journalist and conservative pundit
Law and government
- James K. Galbraith — head of the University of Texas Inequality Project at the LBJ School of Public Affairs
- Barbara Jordan — the first black woman from a Southern state to serve in the U.S. House
- Oran M. Roberts — Governor of Texas from January 21, 1879 to January 16, 1883
- John Dzienkowski- professor of law and legal ethics scholar
Philosophy
- Louis Mackey — professor of philosophy
- Robert S. Boyer — professor of philosophy, computer science, and math
- Jonathan Dancy — professor of philosophy
- Robert Kane — professor of philosophy
- Brian Leiter — professor of philosophy and law
- Mark Sainsbury — professor of philosophy
- Tara Smith — professor of philosophy
- Robert C. Solomon — professor of philosophy
- Paul Woodruff — professor of philosophy
Science and technology
- Willis Adcock — chemist, professor of electrical engineering, grew silicon boules for construction of the first silicon transistor at Texas Instruments
- Mark A. Anderlik — electrical engineer, designed the world's first billion transistor integrated circuit
- Edith Clarke — power engineer, developed the method of symmetrical components, first female professor of electrical engineering at The University of Texas at Austin
- Franklin C. Crow — computer scientist
- Bryce DeWitt — physicist, co-developed Wheeler-DeWitt equation ("wave function of the Universe")
- John B. Goodenough — materials scientist whose research led to the first lithium ion battery
- G.B. Halsted — mathematician
- Robert B. Heath — Well know electrical engineer. Developed the theory of finite state machines
- William H. Jefferys — astronomer
- Chris Mack — photolithographist
- Hans Mark — aerospace engineer, former Deputy Administrator at NASA and Secretary of the Air Force
- J Strother Moore — computer scientist, co-inventor of the Boyer-Moore string search algorithm
- Hermann Joseph Muller — geneticist, Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine
- Yale Patt, inventor of the WOS module, the first complex logic gate implemented on a single piece of silicon
- Ilya Prigogine — physicist and chemist, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry
- Jonathan Sessler — chemist, pioneering work on expanded porphyrins
- Bill Schelter — mathematician, Lisp developer
- Roy Schwitters — physicist, former director of the now-defunct Superconducting Super Collider
- Elliott See — astronaut
- John Tate — mathematician, Wolf Prize in Mathematics
- Karen Uhlenbeck — mathematician, National Medal of Science
- Harry Vandiver — mathematician
- Steven Weinberg — Nobel Laureate in Physics, author
- John A. Wheeler — physicist, Wolf Prize in Physics, coined the term 'black hole'
Social sciences
- Walter Dean Burnham — political scientist
- Scott Freeman — economist
- James K. Galbraith — economist
- Ian Hancock — linguist and Romani scholar
- David M. Oshinsky — historian and winner of the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for History for Polio: An American Story.
- Linda Schele — expert in the field of Maya epigraphy and iconography
- David Buss — evolutionary psychology
Administration
- William C. Powers — lawyer, President of The University of Texas at Austin
- Steven Leslie — Executive Vice President and Provost
- Kevin Hegarty — Chief Financial Officer
- Juan Sanchez — Vice President for Research
- Gregory J. Vincent — Vice President for Diversity and Community Engagement
- Juan Gonzalez — Vice President for Student Affairs
- Patricia Ohlendorf — Vice President for Institutional Research and Legal Affairs
- George W. Littlefield — former Confederate officer, banker, cattleman, and regent of The University of Texas at Austin
Others
- Herb Kelleher — founder of Southwest Airlines, former chairman of the McCombs School of Business advisory committee
- Jeff Kodosky — co-founder of National Instruments, serves on the University of Texas College of Science Advisory Council, developed UTeach
- Walter Matthews — Executive Director of the National Service Committee for Catholic Charismatic Renewal; former member of the Pontifical Council for the Laity
