The University of Virginia can boast of a long and proud history of distinguished people associated with the institution. Some of them are listed here.
Rectors, Board of Visitors
Alumni
Space, Land and Sea
- Richard E. Byrd (attended) - Polar Explorer, first to fly over South Pole
- Patrick G. Forrester, Grad 1989 - NASA Astronaut
- Karl G. Henize, Grad 1948 - NASA Astronaut
- Kathryn C. Thornton, Grad 1977, Grad 1979 - NASA Astronaut
Supreme Court
- Howell Edmunds Jackson, Grad 1854 - Justice, United States Supreme Court
- James Clark McReynolds, Law 1884 - Justice, United States Supreme Court
- Stanley Forman Reed, Law 1908 - Justice, United States Supreme Court
Politics
- Yasushi Akashi, Grad 1956 - Undersecretary of the United Nations
- George Allen, Col 1974, Law 1977 - Governor and U.S. Senator, Virginia
- Hanan Ashrawi, Grad 1982 - Palestinian spokeswoman and peace activist
- Nathan L. Bachman, Law 1903 - U.S. Senator, Tennessee
- Alben W. Barkley, Law 1900 - U.S. Senator, Kentucky; Vice-President of the United States
- Evan Bayh, Law 1981 - U.S. Senator, Indiana
- Rupert Blue, Col 1890 - Surgeon General of the United States
- Kit Bond, Law 1963 - U.S. Senator, Missouri
- Alan Stephenson Boyd, Law 1948 - First United States Secretary of Transportation
- Harry F. Byrd, Jr., Law 1936 - U.S. Senator, Virginia
- James Laurence Cabell, Clas 1833 - President of National Board of Health
- Millard F. Caldwell, Law 1924 - Governor, U.S. Congressman, and State Supreme Court Justice, Florida
- James Paul Clarke, Law 1878 - Governor and U.S. Senator, Arkansas
- John Cornyn, Law 1995 - U.S. Senator, Texas
- Hugh S. Cumming, Med 1893 - Surgeon General of the United States
- Henry Winter Davis, Law 1841 - Outspoken Radical Republican; U.S. Congressman, Maryland
- William Meade Fishback, Law 1855 - Governor and U.S. Senator-Elect, Arkansas
- Thomas Watt Gregory, Law 1884 - Attorney General of the United States
- Hilary A. Herbert, Law 1855 - Secretary of the Navy
- Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter, Col 1828 - Speaker of the United States House of Representatives and U.S. Senator, Virginia
- Eppa Hunton, Law 1843 - CSA Brigadier General; U.S. Congressman and U.S. Senator, Virginia
- Louis Arthur Johnson, Law 1913 - Second United States Secretary of Defense
- Robert F. Kennedy, Law 1951 - U.S. Senator, New York; 1968 U.S. Presidential candidate
- Edward M. Kennedy, Law 1959 - U.S. Senator, Massachusetts
- William Preston Lane, Jr., Law 1915 - Governor, Maryland
- J. Hamilton Lewis - U.S. Senator, Illinois and first Whip
- Thurgood Marshall Jr., Col 1978, Law 1981 - Cabinet secretary, Clinton administration
- Samuel D. McEnery, Col 1857, Governor and U.S. Senator for Louisiana
- John S. Mosby (attended) - The "Gray Ghost", CSA guerilla fighter
- Janet Napolitano, Law 1983 - Governor of Arizona
- Bill Nelson, Law 1968 - U.S. Senator, Florida
- Longin Pastusiak, Grad 1959 - Marshall of the Senate, Poland
- George W. Randolph, Law 1842 - CSA Secretary of War
- Chuck Robb, Law 1973 - Governor and U.S. Senator, Virginia
- Joseph Taylor Robinson, Law 1895 - Governor and United States Senate Majority Leader, Arkansas
- Mark Sanford, Darden 1988 - Governor of South Carolina
- John William Snow, Grad 1965 - United States Secretary of the Treasury
- Javier Solana, Grad 1968 - Spanish former Secretary General of NATO and current EU foreign policy chief
- William B. Spong, Jr., Law 1947 - U.S. Senator, Virginia
- John C. Stennis, Law 1928 - U.S. Senator, Mississippi
- Edward Stettinius, Jr., Col 1924 - United States Secretary of State
- Charles L. Terry, Jr., Col 1922 - Governor, Delaware
- Robert Toombs, Law 1830 - U.S. Senator, Georgia
- John V. Tunney, Law 1959 - U.S. Congressman and U.S. Senator, California
- Thomas B. Turley, Law 1867 - U.S. Senator, Tennessee
- John Warner, Law 1953 - U.S. Senator, Virginia
- Lowell P. Weicker, Jr., Law 1957 - Governor, U.S. Congressman, and U.S. Senator, Connecticut
- John Sharp Williams, Law 1876 - Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives
- Woodrow Wilson (attended) - 28th President of the United States
- Walter Wyatt, Law 1917 - General Counsel, Federal Reserve System
Business
- Alfred Berkeley, Col 1966 - President, NASDAQ Stock Exchange
- Shelby Bonnie, Com 1986 - CEO, co-founder, CNET Inc.
- Charles L. Brown, Engr 1943 - Chairman and CEO, AT&T Corporation
- Algernon S. Buford, Law 1850 - President, Richmond and Danville Railroad
- W. Graham Claytor Jr., Col 1933 - President, Southern Railway and Amtrak; and U.S. Secretary of the Navy
- George David, Darden 1967 - Chairman & CEO, United Technologies Corporation
- Russell Herron, Engr 1979 - Author, co-founder of GeoQuest Systems
- Tim Koogle, Engr 1973 - Vice Chairman and former CEO, Yahoo! Inc.
- Halsey Minor, Col 1987 - Co-founder and former CEO, CNET Inc.
- William N. Page (attended) - Civil Engineer, co-founder of the Virginian Railway
- Charles T. Pepper, Med 1855 - The original "Dr. Pepper" according to the Dr Pepper Company
- Steven Reinemund, Darden 1978 - Chairman & CEO, PepsiCo Inc.
- Rebecca W. Rimel, Nurs 1973 - President, Pew Charitable Trusts
- Sheridan G. Snyder, OBE, Col 1958 - Founder, Genzyme Corp., Instapak (Sealed Air Corp), Upstate Inc., Biocatalyst International
- Robert R. Young (attended) - Chairman of the Board, C&O Railroad
Athletics
- Val Ackerman, Col 1981 - Founder and former president of WNBA
- Jeff Agoos, Com 1991 - Soccer player with San Jose Earthquakes and U.S. national team
- Ronde Barber, Com 1996 - Cornerback, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- Tiki Barber, Com 1997 - Tailback, New York Giants
- Heather and Heidi Burge, both Col 1993 - Former WNBA players
- Rick Carlisle, Col 1984 - Former NBA player; current head coach, Indiana Pacers
- Bill Dudley, Educ 1942 - NFL Hall of Fame player.
- Alecko Eskandarian, Col 2003 - MLS #1 overall draft pick, Player with D.C. United and U.S. national team
- Paul Ereng, Col 1993 - Gold medalist in 800 meters at 1988 Summer Olympics
- Al Groh, Comm 1967 - former Head Coach of New York Jets, current UVa Head Coach
- Darryl Hammond, Col 1988 - Arena Football League career tackles leader
- Herman Moore, Col 1991 - NFL record-holder for catches in a season
- Claudio Reyna (attended) - Soccer player with Manchester City in English Premiership; captain of U.S. national team
- Eppa Rixey, Col 1912 - Hall of Fame baseball pitcher
- Ralph Sampson, Col 1983 - NBA #1 overall draft pick, All-Star center with Houston Rockets
- Dawn Staley, Col 1992 - Olympic gold medalist, carried U.S. flag at opening ceremonies of 2004 Summer Olympics
- DeMya Walker, Col 1999 - WNBA player
- Ralph C. Wilson Jr. - Founding owner of the Buffalo Bills, namesake of Ralph Wilson Stadium
Science and Technology
- John Backus (attended) - Inventor of first high-level programming language, FORTRAN
- Daniel Barringer, Grad 1888 - Proved the existence of meteorites on Earth (Barringer Meteorite Crater)
- Jesse Beams, Grad 1926 - One of 5 primary physicists selected for Manhattan Project, pioneer of ultracentrifuge
- Francis Collins, Col 1970 - Director, Human Genome Project
- Vivian Pinn, Med 1967 - Director, Office of Research on Women’s Health, National Institutes of Health
- Walter Reed, Med 1869 - Discovered vaccine for yellow fever
- Hugh Young, Clas 1889, Med 1891 - Inventor, author, pioneering surgeon
- William Wulf, Grad 1966 - Designer of BLISS programming language
Writers and Academics
- Charles Augustus Briggs, Col 1860 - Hebrew Scholar and Theologian
- Edward P. Jones, Grad 1981 - Author, winner of 2004 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, MacArthur Fellow.
- Edgar Allan Poe (attended) - Poet, author of The Raven
- Larry Sabato, Col 1974 - Called the "Most Quoted College Professor in the Land" by the Wall Street Journal
- William Force Stead, Col 1905 - American diplomat and poet
- Henry S. Taylor, Col 1965 - 1986 Pulitzer Prize winner for poetry
- Edgar Odell Lovett, Grad 1895 - Mathematician, First and longest-tenured President of Rice University
Media
- Robert Aldrich (attended) - Film director, writer, and producer of The Dirty Dozen
- Fred Barnes, col 1961 - Editor, The Weekly Standard
- Katie Couric, Col 1979 - Host, NBC's The Today Show
- Deidre Downs, Col 2002 - Miss America 2005
- Thomas Frank, Col 1987 - Founder and editor, The Baffler
- Brit Hume, Col 1965 - Managing editor, Fox News
- Laura Ingraham, Law 1991 - Conservative talk-show host
- Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Law 1969 - Co-host, Ring of Fire
- Melissa Stark, Col 1995 - Reporter, ESPN and ABC's Monday Night Football
Actors, Musicians, Artists
- Tina Fey, Col 1992 - Head writer, actress, Saturday Night Live
- Jason George, Col 1994 - Actor
- Stephen Malkmus, Col 1988 - Lead singer of indie-rock band Pavement
- Benjamin McKenzie, Col 2001 - Actor, Fox's The O.C.
- Georgia O'Keefe (attended) - Painter
- Sean Patrick Thomas, Col 1993 - Actor
- Skipp Sudduth, Grad 1983 - Actor
- Stan Winston, Col - special effects