List of Duke University people
This list of Duke University people includes alumni, faculty, presidents, and major philanthropists of Duke University, which includes three undergraduate and ten graduate schools. The undergraduate schools include Trinity College of Arts and Sciences, Pratt School of Engineering, and Sanford School of Public Policy. The university's graduate and professional schools include the Graduate School, the Pratt School of Engineering, the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, the School of Medicine, the School of Nursing, the Fuqua School of Business, the School of Law, the Divinity School, and the Sanford School of Public Policy.
Famous alumni include U.S. President Richard Nixon; Chilean President Ricardo Lagos; former cabinet member and former Senator Elizabeth Dole; philanthropist Melinda French Gates; the chief executive officers of Apple (Tim Cook), Morgan Stanley (John J. Mack), and Pfizer (Edmund T. Pratt, Jr.); former General Motors Corporation CEO (Rick Wagoner); and the first United States Chief Performance Officer Jeffrey Zients. Notable alumni media personalities include Dan Abrams, the former General Manager of MSNBC; Jay Bilas, a commentator on ESPN; Sean McManus, the President of CBS News and CBS Sports; Charlie Rose, the host of Charlie Rose and a 60 Minutes contributor; and Judy Woodruff, an anchor at CNN. William DeVries (GME 1971–79) was the first doctor to perform a successful permanent artificial heart implantation, and appeared on the cover of Time in 1984.
Current notable faculty include Manny Azenberg, a Broadway producer whose productions have won 40 Tony Awards; Adrian Bejan, inventor of the constructal theory and namesake of the Bejan number; and David Brooks, a columnist for the New York Times. Walter E. Dellinger III, formerly the United States Solicitor General, Assistant Attorney General, and head of the Office of Legal Counsel under Bill Clinton, serves as a law professor. Novelist and playwright Ariel Dorfman won the 1992 Laurence Olivier Award, while Peter Feaver was a member of the National Security Council under Clinton and George W. Bush. David Gergen served as an advisor to Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton. John Hope Franklin was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Bill Clinton, while William Raspberry, a syndicated columnist for The Washington Post, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1994. 10 Nobel Prize winners have been associated with the university.
International academic prizes
Nobel laureates
As of 2015, 10 Nobel laureates have been affiliated with Duke University. This list includes only those who have graduated from Duke or spent at least one year as a postdoctoral researcher or two years as a faculty member at Duke.
- Charles Townes (A.M. in Physics, 1937), 1964 Nobel Laureate in Physics and winner of the 2005 Templeton Prize,[1] National Medal of Science (1982)
- Gertrude B. Elion (Adjunct Professor of Pharmacology and of Experimental Medicine from 1971 to 1983 and Research Professor from 1983 to 1999), 1988 Nobel Laureate in physiology or medicine[2]
- George H. Hitchings (Adjunct Professor of Pharmacology and of Experimental Medicine from 1970 to 1985), 1988 Nobel Laureate in physiology or medicine[3]
- Hans Dehmelt (Post-Doc. 1952–55), 1989 Nobel Laureate in physics,[4] recipient of the National Medal of Science (1995)
- Martin Rodbell (Adjunct Professor of Cell Biology from 1991 to 1998), 1994 Nobel Laureate in physiology or medicine[5][6][7]
- Robert Coleman Richardson (Ph.D in Physics, 1966), 1996 Nobel Laureate in Physics[8]
- Peter Agre (Vice Chancellor for Science and Technology at Duke University Medicine Center from 2005 to December 2007), 2003 Nobel Laureate in chemistry[9][10]
- Robert Lefkowitz (James B. Duke Professor of Medicine and Professor of Biochemistry and Chemistry, joined Duke in 1973), 2012 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry.[11] National Medal of Science (2007)
- Brian Kobilka (Post-Doc. 1984–1989), 2012 Nobel Laureate in chemistry[12]
- Paul L. Modrich (James B. Duke Professor of Biochemistry at Duke University, joined Duke in 1976), 2015 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry[13]
Turing Award laureates
In the absence of a Nobel Prize in Computer science, the Turing Award generally is recognized as the highest honor in the subject and the "Nobel Prize of computing". As of 2015, 3 Turing Award laureates have been affiliated with Duke University.
- Frederick P. Brooks (A.B. 1953), software engineer and computer scientist, known for managing the development of IBM's System/360 family of computers; National Medal of Technology and Innovation laureate in 1985, IEEE John von Neumann Medal laureate in 1993 and Turing Award laureate in 1999[14]
- Edmund M. Clarke (M.A. 1968; faculty, 1976 to 1978), computer scientist; academic; developed model checking; Turing Award laureate in 2007[15]
- John Cocke (B.S. 1945, Ph.D. 1956), considered the father of the RISC computer architecture, Turing Award laureate in 1987, National Medal of Technology and Innovation laureate in 1991 and National Medal of Science in 1994[16]
Alumni
Government, law, and public policy
- Note: individuals who belong in multiple sections appear in the most relevant section.
Heads of State
- Ricardo Lagos (Ph.D. 1966), former President of Chile
- Richard Nixon (J.D. 1937), 37th President of the United States
Cabinet members and White House staff
- David Addington (J.D. 1981), chief of staff to former Vice President Dick Cheney
- Claude Allen (J.D. 1990), White House domestic policy advisor
- Josephus Daniels, Secretary of the Navy during World War I
- Elizabeth Dole (A.B. 1958), former United States Senator for North Carolina; former Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission; former United States Secretary of Transportation; former United States Secretary of Labor; former President of the American Red Cross
- W. Neil Eggleston (A.B. 1975), White House Counsel under President Barack Obama
- Danielle C. Gray (A.B. 2000), Cabinet Secretary, Senior Advisor to President Barack Obama
- John P. Hannah (A.B. 1984), Assistant for National Security to former Vice President Dick Cheney
- John Hillen (A.B. 1988), former Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs
- John Koskinen (A.B. 1961), Commissioner of Internal Revenue (2013–present), former Deputy Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget
- Juanita M. Kreps (A.M. 1944, Ph.D. 1948), United States Secretary of Commerce, 1977–79
- Reggie Love (A.B. 2005), Personal Aide to President Barack Obama
- Macon Phillips (A.B. 2000), White House Director of New Media with oversight responsibility for Whitehouse.gov
- Daniel Calhoun Roper (A.B. 1888), United States Secretary of Commerce under Franklin Delano Roosevelt
- Sonal Shah (M.A. 1994), Director of the White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation, former Head of the Global Development Initiative at Google.org
- Eric Shinseki (A.M. 1976), retired four-star general, 7th United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs (2009–2014), 34th Chief of Staff of the Army (1999–2003)
- Doug Sosnik (A.B. 1979), senior advisor and political director to former President Bill Clinton
- Tommy Sowers (A.B. 1998), Assistant Secretary for Public and Intergovernmental Affairs
- Kenneth Starr (J.D. 1973), former United States Solicitor General, Independent Counsel during the Whitewater Affair
- James Young (physician) (M.D. 1955), MC USN, Attending White House Physician to Kennedy and Johnson, 1963-1966
- Jared Weinstein (A.B. 2002), Personal Assistant to former President George W. Bush
- Jeffrey Zients (B.S. 1988), United States Chief Performance Officer
Members of Congress
U.S. Senators
- Mo Cowan (A.B. 1991), United States Senator from Massachusetts
- Shelley Moore Capito (A.B. 1975), United States Senator from West Virginia, former U.S. Representative for West Virginia's 2nd congressional district
- Edward Gurney (LL.M. 1948), former United States Senator from Florida
- Rand Paul (M.D. 1988), United States Senator from Kentucky
- Everett Jordan (A.B.), former U.S. Senator from North Carolina
- Ted Kaufman (B.S.E. 1960), United States Senator of Delaware
- Bob Krueger (A.M. 1959), former U.S. Representative and Senator from Texas
- Lee Slater Overman (A.B. 1874), former United States Senator from North Carolina
- James B. Pearson (A.B. 1942), United States Senator from Kansas
U.S. Representatives
- Hugh Quincy Alexander (1932), former U.S. Representative from North Carolina (1953–1963)
- Robert Franklin Armfield, former Congressman from North Carolina, Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina
- Morris Brooks (A.B. 1975), U.S. Representative-elect for Alabama's 5th congressional district
- Maurice G. Burnside (PhD, 1937), former Congressman from West Virginia
- Bradley Byrne (A.B. 1977), U.S. Representative for Alabama's 1st congressional district
- Jim Courter (J.D. 1966), former Congressman from New Jersey
- Nick Galifianakis (A.B. 1951, J.D. 1953), U.S. Representative from North Carolina
- Lisa Gladden (A.B. 1986), Maryland State Representative, Annapolis, Maryland.
- Hannibal Lafayette Godwin (A.B. 1897), Democratic US Representative from North Carolina
- Tom Grady (J.D., 1982), Republican US Representative from Florida
- Robin Hayes (A.B. 1967), Congressman of North Carolina's 8th district (1998–present)
- Paul B. Henry (A.M., Ph.D. 1968), US Representative from Michigan and Michigan State Senator
- Henry Hyde (X. 1947), former U.S. Representative of Illinois
- Robert D. Inglis (A.B. 1981), U.S. Representative of South Carolina
- Dan Lipinski (Ph.D. 1998), Congressman for Illinois' 3rd district (2005–present)
- Stan Lundine (A.B. 1961), Congressman from New York (1976–1987)
- Denise Majette (J.D. 1979), former Georgia state judge, former United States Representative of Georgia
- Ron Paul (M.D. 1961), United States Representative from Texas (1997-2013); 2008 Republican Presidential candidate
- Scott Peters (A.B. 1980), U.S. Representative for California's 52nd congressional district
- Ben Quayle (A.B, 1998), U.S. Representative from Arizona; son of former US Vice President Dan Quayle
- Nick Rahall (A.B. 1971), Congressman for West Virginia
- Dave Trott (J.D. 1985), U.S. Representative from Michigan (2015–present)
- Basil Lee Whitener (J.D. 1937), U.S. Representative from North Carolina, 1957-1968
Diplomats
- George Venable Allen (A.B. 1920), U.S. Ambassador to Iran, 1946–1948; Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs, 1948–1949; U.S. Ambassador to Yugoslavia, 1949–1953.
- Robert Sherwood Dillon (A.B. 1951), U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon (1981–1983)
- William Eacho (A.B. 1976), U.S. Ambassador to Austria (2009–2013)
- Cynthia G. Efird (A.M.), U.S. Ambassador to Angola (2004-2007)
- Robert C. Frasure (Ph.D 1971), U.S. Ambassador to Estonia (1992-1994)
- Gordon D. Giffin (A.B. 1971), U.S. Ambassador to Canada (1997–2001)
- Jack Gosnell (A.B. 1966), former US Consul General to St. Petersburg, Russia
- Richard Graber (A.B. 1978), former United States Ambassador to the Czech Republic
- Jaime Aleman Healy (J.D. 1978), Panamanian Ambassador to the USA (2009–2011)
- Stuart E. Jones (A.B. 1982), United States Ambassador to Jordan (2011-2014); United States Ambassador to Iraq (2014–present)
- Robert Jordan (A.B. 1967), former United States Ambassador to Saudi Arabia
- Bob Krueger (M.A. 1959), U.S. Ambassador to Burundi during administration of Bill Clinton
- Philip Lader (A.B. 1966), Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Chairman of the WPP Group
- Steven Lett (B.S.E. 1980), diplomat; head of the International Cospas-Sarsat Programme
- Jack F. Matlock, Jr. (A.B. 1950), United States Ambassador to Czechoslovakia and to the Soviet Union under Ronald Reagan
- Walter P. McConaughy (A.B. 1930), former United States Ambassador to Burma, South Korea, Pakistan, and Taiwan
- David McKean (J.D. 1986), U.S. Ambassador to Luxembourg, former Director of Policy Planning
- Geeta Pasi (A.B. 1984), U.S. Ambassador to Djibouti
- Manuel Sager (LL.M. 1985), ambassador of Switzerland to the United States
- Elizabeth Verville (A.B. 1961), Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Political and Military Affairs
Military
- William Atwater (MA, PhD 1982), retired Captain in the US Marines; author, historian, and director of the US Army Ordnance Museum
- Walter E. Boomer (B.S. 1960), retired General, former assistant commandant, US Marine Corps, Desert Storm Commander; business executive
- Frank Bowman (B.S. 1966), retired Admiral, former Chief of Naval Personnel, former Director of Naval Nuclear Propulsion, US Navy; Honorary Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE)
- Winston Choo (MA, History), retired Lieutenant-General, former Chief of Defence Force (1974-1992) in the Singapore Armed Forces[17][18]
- Edward H. Deets (1979), Rear Admiral in the United States Navy
- Martin E. Dempsey (M.A. 1984), Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
- Charles S. Hamilton (B.S. 1974), Rear Admiral in the United States Navy
- John L. Helgerson (MS, PhD), former CIA Inspector General
- James W. Holsinger (M.D. 1964), retired Major General in the United States Army Reserve, physician, nominated to become the 18th Surgeon General of the United States
- Gilmary M. Hostage III (B.S.E. 1977), United States Air Force four-star general, currently serving as the commander of Air Combat Command
- Vergel L. Lattimore, Brigadier General in the Air National Guard
- Ng Jui Ping (MA, History), retired Lieutenant-General; former Chief of Defence Force (1992-1995) in the Singapore Armed Forces[19]
- Eric Schoomaker (residency and fellowship), Surgeon General of the United States Army
- Eric Shinseki (A.M. 1976), retired four-star general, the 7th United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs; former 34th Chief of Staff of the Army
- Brett Velicovich (MBA), drone intelligence specialist during the Iraqi and Afghan War.
Law
Judges
- Scott Brister (A.B.), Chief Justice, Texas Supreme Court
- Patricia E. Campbell-Smith (B.S. 1987), nominated to serve as chief judge on the United States Court of Federal Claims by President Barack Obama
- Robert L. Clifford (LL. B. 1950), Associate Justice, New Jersey Supreme Court
- Ann Covington (A.B. 1963), former Chief Justice, Missouri Supreme Court
- Allyson Duncan (J.D. 1975), Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit
- Christine M. Durham (J.D. 1971), Chief Justice of the Utah Supreme Court
- Orinda Evans (A.B. 1965), US District Court Judge
- Richard Mark Gergel (A.B. 1975, J.D. 1979), federal judge on the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina
- Karen L. Henderson (A.B. 1966), US Court of Appeals
- Todd M. Hughes (A.M. 1992, J.D. 1992), U.S. attorney nominated by President Barack Obama to serve as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
- Susan Illston (A.B. 1970), Federal Judge
- Barbara Jackson (LL.M. 2014), Associate Justice, North Carolina Supreme Court
- Jeffrey W. Johnson (B.A.), Associate Justice of the California Court of Appeal
- Jane Kelly (A.B. 1987), United States Circuit Judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
- Denise Majette (J.D. 1979), former Georgia state judge, former United States Representative of Georgia
- David Nahmias (A.B. 1986), Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia; former US Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia
- Paul Martin Newby (A.B. 1977), Associate Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court
- Susan Owens (A.B. 1971), Associate Justice of the Washington State Supreme Court
- William H. Pauley III (A.B. 1974, J.D. 1977), United States federal judge
- Cary Douglas Pugh (A.B. 1987), U.S. attorney nominated by President Obama to serve as a judge on the US Tax Court
- Robin L. Rosenberg (J.D. 1989), United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida
- Gary Stein (A.B. 1954, J.D. 1956), Associate Justice, New Jersey Supreme Court
- John J. Tharp, Jr. (A.B. 1982), United States District Judge for the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
- Michael B. Thornton (J.D. 1982), judge on the United States Tax Court
- Patricia Timmons-Goodson (LL.M. 2014), former Associate Justice, North Carolina Supreme Court
- Gerald B. Tjoflat (LL.B. 1957), Chief Judge Emeritus, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit
- John M. Tyson (M.B.A. 1988), judge on the North Carolina Court of Appeals
- Peter Verniero (J.D. 1984), Associate Justice, Supreme Court of New Jersey; Attorney General of New Jersey
- Charles K. Wiggins (J.D. 1976), member of the Washington Supreme Court
- Don Willett (A.M. 1992, J.D. 1992), Associate Justice, Texas Supreme Court
Attorneys
- Ward Armstrong (B.A. 1977), lawyer and politician
- Laurence Brahm (A.B. 1983), lawyer; pioneering global activist
- Charlie Condon (J.D. 1978), former Attorney General of South Carolina
- Jack Conway (A.B. 1991), Attorney General of Kentucky
- Jeffrey L. Fisher (A.B. 1992), professor at Stanford Law School
- John Harmon (J.D. 1969), former United States Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel
- Stanley Hilton (J.D. 1975), lawyer and activist
- Larry Klayman (A.B. 1973), public interest lawyer
- Jeffrey Lichtman (J.D. 1990), defense attorney for John Gotti, Fat Joe, and The Game
- Dan McCarthy (J.D. 1983), chief prosecutor of the Judge Advocate General's Corps of the United States Navy
- C. Allen Parker, Presiding Partner at Cravath, Swaine & Moore
- Wilhelmina Reuben-Cooke (A.B. 1967), professor of law at the University of the District of Columbia, one of the first five African American undergraduates admitted to Duke in 1963
- Russell M. Robinson, II (LL.B. 1956), founding partner of Robinson, Bradshaw & Hinson, P.A.
- Eric Rothschild (A.B. 1989), lead attorney for Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District
- Rodney A. Smolla (J.D. 1978), author; first amendment scholar; 11th president of Furman University
- Ellen Stiefler (A.B. 1980), intellectual property attorney
- Zephyr Teachout (A.M. 1999, J.D. 1999), Associate Professor of Law at Fordham University, candidate for the Democratic Party nomination for Governor of New York
Public policy
- John H. Adams (J.D. 1962), co-founder of the Natural Resources Defense Council
- Maya Ajmera (M.P.P. 1993), founder and President of The Global Fund for Children
- William Barber II (M.Div. 1989), member of the NAACP National Board of Directors
- Mary Duke Biddle (A.B. 1907), daughter of Benjamin Newton Duke and Sarah Pearson Angier Duke, founder of the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation
- Lisa Borders (A.B. 1979), Chair of The Coca-Cola Foundation; Vice President of Global Community Affairs at The Coca-Cola Company
- Charlotte Bunch (A.B. 1966), author and human rights activist
- Susan Bysiewicz (J.D. 1986), Secretary of the State of Connecticut, 1999-2011
- Benjamin Chavis, Jr. (MDiv 1980), civil rights activist, executive director of the NAACP
- Eugene A. Conti, Jr. (MA Public Policy, PhD Anthropology 1978), Asst. Secretary USDOT, Secretary of Transportation, NCDOT
- Peter Cook (A.B. 1989), Pentagon press secretary for Defense Secretary Ash Carter
- Pete Crossland (Ph.D. 1966), former member of the Ohio House of Representatives
- Chris Daly, former member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors
- Chris Dorworth (M.B.A. 2006), Member of the Florida House of Representatives
- Allan Fels (Ph.D.), Chairperson of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission
- Nelson M. Ford (B.A.), former United States Under Secretary of the Army
- Eric Greitens (A.B. 1996), former Rhodes Scholar and Navy SEAL; CEO of The Mission Continues; named one of the "The World's 100 Most Influential People" by TIME magazine in 2013
- John Hanger (A.B. 1979), Pennsylvania Secretary of Environmental Protection, candidate for Governor of Pennsylvania
- Deborah Lee James (A.B.), President Obama's nominee for United States Secretary of the Air Force
- Shavar Jeffries (A.B. 1996), civil rights attorney, candidate for Mayor of Newark, New Jersey
- B.J. Lawson (B.S.E 1996, M.D. 2000), Republican politician
- Jerry Meek (A.B. 1993, J.D. 1997), Chairman of the North Carolina Democratic Party
- Kimeli Wilson Naiyomah (M.I.D.P,), Kenyan author
- Neil Newhouse (A.B. 1974), Republican pollster
- Brendan Nyhan (Ph.D. 2009), author and political columnist
- Jesse Panuccio (A.B. 2003), Director of the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity
- Muhammad Ali Pate (M.B.A. 2006), former Minister of State for Health in Nigeria
- Art Pope (J.D. 1981), Budget Director for North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory
- Robert Satloff (A.B. 1983), Executive Director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy
- Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans (A.B. 1939), philanthropist
- Eleanor Smeal (A.B. 1961, LL.D 1991), political activist; president of the Feminist Majority Foundation; former president of the National Organization for Women
- Margaret Taylor Smith (A.B. 1947), Chair, Board of Trustees, Kresge Foundation
- Damon Wilson (A.B. 1995), executive vice president at the Atlantic Council of the United States, former Senior Director for European Affairs at the National Security Council
- Howard Wolfson (M.A. 1991), Democratic political strategist, Deputy Mayor of New York City for governmental affairs
Governors
- R. Gregg Cherry (A.B. 1913), Governor of North Carolina (1945-1949)
- Claude R. Kirk, Jr. (B.S.), former Governor of Florida (1967-1971)
- William B. Umstead (J.D 1921), Governor of North Carolina (1953-1954)
- Bob Wise (A.B. 1970), Governor of West Virginia (2001-2005)
Mayors
- Ed Austin (A.B. 1948), Mayor of Jacksonville (1991–1995)
- Bill Campbell (J.D. 1977), Mayor of Atlanta (1994–2002)
- J. Kane Ditto (A.B.), former Mayor of Jackson, Mississippi
- Stan Lundine (A.B. 1961), former Mayor of Jameston, former Congressman and Lieutenant Governor of New York
- Enrique Peñalosa (A.B. 1978), Mayor of Bogotá, Colombia (2016–present)
State officials
- Austin M. Allran (A.B. 1974), member of the North Carolina General Assembly
- Daniel T. Blue, Jr. (J.D.), former member of the North Carolina House of Representatives, 1981–2002
- Bob Blumenfield (B.A. 1989), current Los Angeles City Council member, former California State Assembly member, 2009-2013,
- Samuel Bogley (A.B), former Lieutenant Governor of Maryland
- F. Vernon Boozer (A.B 1958), former member of Maryland Senate, 1981–1999
- Jason Carter (A.B. 1997), Democratic Party nominee for Governor of Georgia; member of the Georgia State Senate; grandson of President Jimmy Carter
- J.B. Fuqua (G.Hon 1973), Chairman of the Georgia Democratic Party
- Raj Goyle (A.B. 1997), member of the Kansas House of Representatives
- Ember Reichgott Junge (J.D. 1977), former State Senator from Minnesota
- Herb Kirsh, former member of the South Carolina House of Representatives
- Bill Kramer (J.D. 1994), former Majority Leader, Wisconsin State Assembly
- Evelyn Murphy (A.B. 1965, Ph. D 1981), former Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts
- Robert Sheheen (A.B. 1965), former Speaker, South Carolina House of Representatives
- John H. Shields (A.B.), former member of the Texas House of Representatives from San Antonio
- Lura S. Tally (A.B. 1942), Member of the North Carolina House of Representatives, 1973–1983, and the North Carolina Senate, 1983–1995
- Mike Turzai (J.D. 1987), nominee for Speaker of the Pennsylvania House Representatives, former Republican Caucus (Majority) Leader
- Floyd McKissick, Jr. (J.D. 1983), member of the North Carolina Senate
- Kelli Ward (B.S. 1991), former State Senator from Arizona
Foreign officials
- Lekso Aleksishvili (M.A. 2004), former Georgian Minister of Finance
- Michael Bassett (Ph.D. 1961), former Cabinet Minister and Member of the Parliament of New Zealand
- Arkady Dvorkovich (M.S. 1997), Russian Deputy Prime Minister for industry and energy, former chief economic advisor to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev
- Amit Mitra (Ph.D. 1978), Finance Minister of the Indian State of West Bengal; economist; member of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly
- David Usupashvili (M.A. 1999), Chairperson of the Parliament of Georgia
Other
- Paul Auerbach (B.S. 1973, M.D. 1977), physician; a leading voice in the area of wilderness medicine; founder and past president of the Wilderness Medical Society
- Hashim bin Al Hussein (X), Prince of Jordan
- Al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani (B.A. 2005), 14th child of Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the current Emir of Qatar
- Bernard Chan Pak-li (Ph.D. 2003), Ping Shek representative in the Kwun Tong District Council of Hong Kong, 2007–2013
- Kevin J. Martin (M.P.P. 1993), Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission
- Charlie Soong (X. 1881), Duke's first international student and patriarch of the Soong Dynasty
- Daniel Tarullo (M.A. 1974), member of the Board of Governors of the United States Federal Reserve
- Paul Teller (B.A. 1993), Executive Director of the United States House of Representatives Republican Study Committee[20][21]
- Frederic Whitehurst (Ph.D. 1980), former Supervisory Special Agent in the FBI Laboratory
- Mike Woodard (A.B. 1981), Durham, North Carolina City Council member
Business
- Jeff Williams (M.B.A 1991), COO of Apple
- Rex Adams (A.B. 1962), chairman of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), former VP of Mobil Corporation
- Howard Lerman (A.B. 2002), Founder and CEO of Yext
- Chad Dickerson (A.B. 1993), CEO of Etsy
- Aaron Patzer (B.S.E 2002), Founder and CEO of Mint
- Harsha Agadi (M.B.A. 1987), President and CEO, Church's Chicken
- Shaikha Al-Bahar, CEO of the National Bank of Kuwait, ranked as the 85th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes
- John A. Allison IV (M.B.A. 1974), Chairman (and former CEO), BB&T
- John Angelos, Executive Vice President of the Baltimore Orioles
- Donna Arduin (A.B. 1985), founder of Arduin, Laffer & Moore Econometrics
- Carter Beard (M.B.A. 1996), CEO of Annin & Co.
- Steven Black (A.B. 1974), Vice-Chairman, JPMorgan Chase & Co.
- Roy J. Bostock (A.B. 1962), former Chairman of B|Com3 Group, Inc.; on the board of directors for Morgan Stanley, Yahoo, and Northwest Airlines; namesake of Bostock Library
- Wallace E. Boston, Jr. (A.B. 1974), President and Chief Executive Officer, American Public University System
- Jack O. Bovender, Jr. (A.B. 1967, MHA 1969), Chairman and CEO of HCA
- Jonathan Browning (M.B.A.), CEO of Volkswagen Group of America
- Lewis B. Campbell (B.S.E. 1968), CEO of Textron
- John Canning, Jr., founder of private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners; co-owner of the Milwaukee Brewers
- John Chambers (attended 1967-1968; X. 1968), CEO of Cisco Systems
- Mickey Conlon (A.B., 1998), Celebrity real estate broker and star of HGTV's reality television series Selling New York
- Timothy D. Cook (M.B.A. 1988), CEO of Apple Inc.
- Eddy Cue (B.S.), Apple's Senior Vice President of Internet Software and Services
- Tom Davin (B.A. 1979), former COO of Taco Bell Corporation and CEO of Panda Restaurant Group
- Grant DePorter (M.B.A.), restaurateur
- Gary Dickinson (B.S. 1960), automotive industry executive
- Clay Felker (A.B. 1951), Founding Editor of New York Magazine
- Michael J. Fitzpatrick, Chairman and CEO, E-TEK Dynamics; namesake of Duke's Fitzpatrick Center for Interdisciplinary Engineering, Medicine and Applied Sciences
- Jeffrey Fox (B.S. 1984), President and CEO of Convergys
- J. B. Fuqua (G.Hon 1973), Chairman of the Board of The Fuqua Companies, founder of the J.B. Fuqua Foundation, namesake of Duke's Fuqua School of Business
- Melinda Gates (A.B. 1986, M.B.A. 1987), co-founder of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; wife of Bill Gates
- Andrew K. Golden (A.B. 1981), President of the Princeton University Investment Company, which manages the university's financial endowment
- David R. Goode (A.B. 1962), Chairman, President, and CEO of Norfolk Southern
- William H. Gross (B.S. 1966), founder and Chief Investment Officer, PIMCO, the world's largest bond fund
- Jonathan Harmsworth, 4th Viscount Rothermere (A.B. 1991), British Viscount; Chairman of the Evening Standard and the Daily Mail; one of the wealthiest men in Britain
- Gerald Hassell (B.A. 1973), Chairman and CEO, Bank of New York Mellon
- William A. Hawkins (B.S. 1976), CEO of Medtronic
- Sally Hogshead (B.A. 1991), CEO of Fascinate, Inc.
- Betsy Holden (A.B.), CEO of Kraft Foods, 2001–2003
- Amy Hood (A.B. 1994), first female CFO of Microsoft
- Lisa Hook (B.A.), President and CEO of NeuStar
- John Idzik, Jr. (A.M. 1993), consultant for the Jacksonville Jaguars of the NFL; former general manager of the NFL's New York Jets[22]
- David B. Ingram (A.B. 1985), Chairman of Ingram Entertainment
- W. Bruce Johnson (B.A., J.D., M.B.A.), Interim Chief Executive Officer and President, Sears Holdings Corporation
- William D. Johnson (B.A), Chairman, President and CEO of Progress Energy
- Tom Kain (A.B. 1986), Nike's Director of Global Marketing (Soccer)
- Bruce Karsh (A.B 1977), co-founder and President of Oaktree Capital Management
- Lesa Kennedy (B.A. 1983), chief executive officer of International Speedway Corporation; member of the board of directors of NASCAR
- John A. Koskinen (A.B. 1961), President of US Soccer Foundation, former Deputy Director, Office of Management and Budget
- Michael Lamach (M.B.A.), President and COO, Ingersoll Rand
- David Lauren (B.A), Senior Vice President at Polo Ralph Lauren
- Dylan Lauren (A.B. 1996), President and founder of Dylan's Candy Bar
- Dan Levitan (1979), co-founder and Managing Partner, Maveron
- Gérard Louis-Dreyfus (A.B., J.D.), French billionaire businessman
- Gary Lynch (J.D. 1975), former chief legal officer and vice chairman of Morgan Stanley
- John J. Mack (A.B. 1968), CEO of Morgan Stanley; former CEO of Credit Suisse First Boston
- Aslaug Magnusdottir (LL.M. 1998), co-founder and former CEO of Moda Operandi
- Steven Marks (A.B. 1989, J.D. 1992), General Counsel for the Recording Industry Association of America
- Christopher Martenson (PhD 1994), biochemist, former vice president of Pfizer
- Aubrey McClendon (A.B. 1981), CEO, chairman, and co-founder of Chesapeake Energy
- Bart McDade (A.B. 1981), former President and COO of Lehman Brothers, tasked with saving the firm towards the end of its existence
- Joey McMahon (A.B. 2009, M.B.A. 2013), founder and CEO of The Monday Life
- Lalit Modi (A.B. 1986), Modi Enterprises Scion, Chairman and founder of Indian Premier League
- Carter Murray (A.B. 1997), CEO of DraftFCB
- Raymond Nasher (1943), real estate developer, philanthropist, namesake of Duke's Nasher Museum of Art
- Peter Nicholas (A.B. 1964), founder and Chairman of Boston Scientific Corporation
- Edward Nixon (B.S. 1952), entrepreneur and last surviving brother of former US President Richard Nixon
- Stephen Pagliuca (1977), part owner of the Boston Celtics, Managing Director of Bain Capital
- Robert A. Pascal (A.B. 1957), entrepreneur and politician
- J. Michael Pearson (B.S. 1981), Chairman and CEO of Valeant Pharmaceuticals
- Gopa Periyadan (M.B.A. 2012), entrepreneur
- Poman Lo (A.B. 1999), founder of Bodhi and Friends
- Edmund T. Pratt, Jr. (B.S.E. 1947), former CEO of Pfizer, philanthropist, namesake of Duke's Edmund T. Pratt School of Engineering
- Robert M. Price (B.S. 1952), CEO of the Control Data Corporation
- J.B. Pritzker (A.B.), managing partner and co-founder of The Pritzker Group, principal owner of Hyatt Hotels Corporation and TransUnion Corporation, one of the 400 richest Americans
- Joanna Rees (B.S.), venture capitalist
- Jeffrey Reich (A.B. 1979), former Senior Managing Director of Bear Sterns
- Mark Reuss (M.B.A. 1990), Head of Global Product Development at General Motors; former President of GM North America
- Allard Roen, businessman from Las Vegas, Nevada and Carlsbad, California
- Andrew Rosen (A.B. 1982), Chairman and CEO of Kaplan, Inc.
- Drew Rosenhaus (J.D. 1990), NFL sports agent
- David M. Rubenstein (A.B. 1970), co-founder of The Carlyle Group
- Georg Schaeffler (J.D. 1999), owner of the Schaeffler Group; currently the wealthiest person in Germany
- Alan Schwartz (A.B. 1972), CEO, Bear Stearns
- Granville Semmes, founder of 1-800-Flowers[23]
- Malvinder Mohan Singh (M.B.A. 1998), former Chairman and CEO of Ranbaxy Laboratories; Chairman of Fortis Hospitals and Religare Financial Services; one of the twenty richest Indians in the world
- Shivinder Mohan Singh (M.B.A. 2000), Managing Director of Fortis Healthcare; Advisory Board Member of AIESEC India; one of the twenty richest Indians in the world
- David B. Snow, Jr. (M.S. 1978), Chairman and CEO of Medco Health Solutions, a Fortune 100 company
- Jimmy Soni (A.B. 2007), Managing Editor of the Huffington Post
- Robert K. Steel (A.B. 1973), Chairman of the Duke University Board of Trustees, President and CEO, Wachovia
- Joseph R. Swedish (M.H.A. 1979), CEO of WellPoint Inc., the second-largest health insurance provider in the US
- David S. Taylor (B.S.E 1980), President and CEO at Procter & Gamble
- Bill Timmerman (1968), Chairman, President, and CEO of SCANA
- Randall L. Tobias, former CEO of Eli Lilly and Company; served as U.S. Director of Foreign Assistance and Administrator of USAID, with the rank of ambassador
- David Trott (J.D. 1985), businessman; Republican politician
- James L. Vincent (B.S. 1961), Chairman and CEO, Biogen Idec
- Jeffrey Vinik (B.S. 1981), Chairman, President, and CEO of Vinik Asset Management, owner of Tampa Bay Lightning
- Karl von der Heyden (1962), Vice Chairman and CFO, Pepsico, Inc., namesake of the von der Heyden pavilion at Duke
- G. Richard Wagoner, Jr. (A.B. 1975), President and CEO, General Motors Corporation
- Gary L. Wilson (A.B. 1962), Director of The Walt Disney Company; Co-Chairman of Northwest Airlines; namesake of Wilson Rec Center at Duke
- Charles Xiaolin Wang (J.D. 1999), Chinese lawyer, entrepreneur and financier
- Thomas S. White, Jr. (1965), asset manager
- William Wrigley, Jr. (B.A), Chairman, President, CEO Wrigley Company
- Gao Xiqing (J.D. 1986), General Manager and Chief Investment Officer of the China Investment Corporation
Education
University presidents and administrators
- Rick Brewer, president of Louisiana College
- John Chandler (B.D. 1952, Ph.D. 1954), former president of Williams College
- Margaret Cuninggim, Dean of Women at the University of Tennessee and at Vanderbilt University
- Charles L. Flynn, Jr. (Ph.D.), president of the College of Mount Saint Vincent
- W. Kent Fuchs (B.S.E. 1977), president of the University of Florida, former provost of Cornell University
- Pamela Gann (J.D. 1973), president of Claremont McKenna College and former Dean of Duke University School of Law
- Susan Henking (B.A. 1977), President of Shimer College; scholar of religious studies
- Susan Herbst (B.A. 1984), President of University of Connecticut; political scientist
- Matthew S. Holland (M.A., Ph.D.), President of Utah Valley University
- A. D. Kirwan (Ph. D., 1947), seventh president of the University of Kentucky
- Benjamin Ladner (Ph.D. 1970), former president of American University
- Theodore E. Long (A.M 1968), president of Elizabethtown College
- Mirta Martin (B.S. 1982), ninth president of Fort Hays State University
- Lloyd B. Minor (residency), scientist, surgeon, and dean of Stanford University School of Medicine
- Roy Kinneer Patteson, Jr. (Th.M. 1964, Ph.D. 1967), ancient language scholar; authority on the origin of the alphabet; former president of Southern Virginia University and King College
- David P. Roselle (Ph.D. 1965), President, University of Delaware
- David E. Sweet (Ph.D., 1968), founding president of Metropolitan State University and later president of Rhode Island College
- Jill Tiefenthaler (A.M., Ph. D.), president of Colorado College; former provost of Wake Forest University
- Theodore Ziolkowski (A.B. 1951), former Dean of the Graduate School, Princeton University
- Jeffrey Vitter (M.B.A 2002), 17th chancellor of the University of Mississippi
Professors and academics
- Arun Agrawal (M.A. 1988, Ph.D. 1992), professor at the University of Michigan
- Dan Ariely (Ph.D. 1998), professor of behavioral economics at Duke and head of the eRationality research group at the MIT Media Lab, author of Predictably Irrational
- Susan Athey (A.B. 1991), professor of economics at Harvard University and winner of the John Bates Clark Medal
- Roy Baumeister (MA 1976), psychologist, fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- Bill Brown (A.B.), Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Chicago
- Robin M. Canup (B.S.), astrophysicist; member of the National Academy of Sciences; recipient of the Harold C. Urey Prize
- Barry F. Cooper (Ph.D. 1969), Canadian political scientist
- Thomas Daniel (Ph.D.), biologist, won a MacArthur Fellowship in 1996
- Sara Danius (Ph.D. 1997), Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy, a Royal Academy which awards the Nobel Prize in Literature
- Paul Doran (A.B. 2003), expert on history of religions and history of Europe
- David L. Downie (A.B. 1983), author, professor of politics and environment policy at Fairfield University
- David Efird (A.B. 1995), philosopher and lecturer at the University of York
- Garrett Epps (J.D. 1991), legal scholar, professor at the University of Baltimore
- Thomas Eugene Flanagan (Ph.D), conservative Canadian political scientist
- R. Edward Freeman (A.B. 1973), philosopher and professor of business administration, known for the stakeholder theory
- Ken Gergen (Ph. D. 1962), psychologist and professor at Swarthmore College
- John Graham (Ph.D. 1994), economist
- Huck Gutman, PhD from Duke; Professor of English at the University of Vermont and political advisor to Bernie Sanders.
- Dagmar Herzog (A.B., 1983), Distinguished Professor of History, the Graduate Center, City University of New York
- Craig Henriquez (B.S.E., 1981, Ph.D, 1988), Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Duke University
- Douglas Hodgkin (Ph.D.), political scientist; author; professor at Bates College
- D. Kern Holoman (B.A. 1969), Distinguished Professor of Music at the University of California, Davis[24]
- Robert A. Jarrow (B.S. 1974), Ronald P. and Susan E. Lynch Professor of Investment Management at the Johnson Graduate School of Management, Cornell University
- Siddharth Kara (B.A.), expert on modern-day slavery and human trafficking
- Kevin Lane Keller (Ph.D. 1986), E. B. Osborn Professor of Marketing at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College
- Anne R. Kenney (B.A. 1972), Carl A. Kroch University Librarian, Cornell University Library
- M. A. R. Koehl (Ph.D. 1976), professor at the University of California, Berkeley; member of the National Academy of Sciences; awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 1990
- Juanita M. Kreps (A.M. 1944, Ph.D. 1948), professor, economist, United States Secretary of Commerce
- Bruce R. Kuniholm (M.A. 1972, M.A.P.P.S. 1976, Ph.D. 1976), professor at the Sanford School of Public Policy; expert on U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East
- Luciano L'Abate (PhD 1956), the father of relational theory; author of 50 books in the field of American psychology
- Frank Lentricchia (Ph.D. 1960), literary critic; professor of literature at Duke University
- Jerry B. Lincecum (Ph.D.), Emeritus professor of English; author; affiliated with Austin College in Sherman, Texas[25]
- Marc Lynch (A.B.), Professor of Political Science at George Washington University
- Khaled Mattawa (Ph.D. 2009), Libyan poet, awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2014
- Raven I. McDavid, Jr., linguist, dialectologist
- Lionel W. McKenzie (B.S. 1939), economist
- Allan Meltzer (A.B. 1948, A.M. 1955), economist who served on the Council of Economic Advisors for Presidents Kennedy and Ronald Reagan
- Jean-Paul C. Montagnier (Ph.D. 1994), musicologist
- Richard L. Morrill (Ph.D. 1968), Chancellor of the University of Richmond
- Robert L. Morris (Ph.D. 1969), notable psychologist, Koestler professor at the University of Edinburgh
- Chip Mosher, education columnist, poet, teacher
- Burl Noggle (B.A. 1950, M.A. 1951, Ph. D. 1955), historian at Louisiana State University; wrote work on Teapot Dome scandal
- W. Darrell Overdyke (Ph.D. 1941), historian at Centenary College of Louisiana
- Noel Perrin (A.M., 1950), scholar, essayist, and critic; professor at Dartmouth College
- Joseph Gaither Pratt (A.B. 1931, M.A. 1933, Ph.D. 1936), psychologist
- Reynolds Price (A.B 1955), author and professor of literature at Duke
- John A. Rich (M.D. 1984), chair of the department of health management and policy at Drexel University; 2006 MacArthur Fellowship
- Haun Saussy (A.B., 1981), University Professor of comparative literature at the University of Chicago
- Baba Shiv (Ph.D. 1996), Professor of Marketing at Stanford's Graduate School of Business
- Glen Stassen (Ph.D.), ethicist; Baptist theologian; son of former Minnesota governor and nine-time Presidential candidate Harold Stassen
- Robert Tally (A.B. 1990, J.D. 2001), Professor of English at Texas State University
- John E. Thomas (Ph.D. 1959), medical ethicist
- J. Anderson Thomson (A.B. 1970), Trustee of the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science
- Robert M. Townsend (A.B. 1970), professor of economics at MIT and two time winner of the Frisch Medal (1998, 2012)
- Peter Turchin (Ph.D. 1985), Russian-American scientist, specializing in population biology and "cliodynamics"
- Betty Miller Unterberger (Ph.D. 1950), historian
- Sam Wang (Post Doc), neuroscientist, professor and best-selling author
Medicine, science and technology
- David H. Adams, heart valve surgery and mitral valve repair
- Soleio Cuervo (A.B. 2003), creator of the Facebook like button, head of design at Dropbox
- Raymond Delacy Adams (M.D. 1936), professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School; chief of neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital; Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- Waleed Al-Salam (Ph.D. 1958), mathematician
- Eben Alexander (M.D. 1980), neurosurgeon and best-selling author
- Lenox Baker (M.D. 1973), physician, public servant
- Lt. Andy Baldwin, The Bachelor, lieutenant, and doctor
- Ian Barbour (M.S. 1946), physicist, theologian, and recipient of the Templeton Prize in 1999
- Charles E. Brady, Jr. (M.D. 1975), astronaut
- John C. Browne (Ph.D.), former director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory
- Jerome Bruner (A.B. 1937), psychologist and professor
- David R. Bryant (PhD 1961), organic chemist
- John Buse (Ph.D. 1985, M.D. 1986), former President of the American Diabetes Association
- C. Thomas Caskey (M.D. 1963), medical geneticist and biomedical entrepreneur
- Iain Cheeseman (B.S. 1997), assistant professor at MIT
- George M. Church (B.S. 1974), father of most current sequencing and array technologies; helped initiate the Human Genome Project; professor at Harvard Medical School
- Daniel J. Clancy (A.B. 1985), computer scientist, engineering director for Google Book Search
- Marcus Conant (B.S. 1957, M.D. 1961), dermatologist and AIDS researcher
- Richard Cytowic (B.A. 1973), neuroscientist and leading authority on the field of synesthesia
- Rose May Davis (Ph.D. 1929), chemist; first woman to be awarded a Ph.D. at Duke
- William DeVries (GME 1971–1979), pioneer of artificial organs
- Patrick Emmet Duffy (M.D. 1986), malaria researcher
- Scott Dulchavsky (surgical fellowship), chairman of surgery and surgeon-in-chief at the Henry Ford Hospital
- Sylvia Earle (Ph. D, 1966), marine biologist; Chief Scientist of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
- Jim Ellis, co-creator of Usenet with Tom Truscott
- Robert Everett (B.S. 1942) – National Medal of Technology and Innovation laureate (1989)
- Paul Farmer (B.S. 1982), infectious disease specialist; winner of MacArthur Award; subject of Pulitzer Prize–winning author Tracy Kidder's biography Mountains Beyond Mountains
- Robert Fischell (B.S. 1951), physicist, inventor, holder of more than 200 U.S. and foreign medical patents, National Medal of Technology and Innovation laureate in 2015[26]
- C. Stephen Foster (B.S. 1965), ophthalmologist, developed the "step ladder approach to care" for treating patients with ocular inflammatory disease.
- Joseph F. Fraumeni, Jr. (M.D. 1958), cancer researcher; member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Association of American Physicians
- Irwin Fridovich (Ph.D. 1955), biochemist, member of the National Academy of Science
- Ken Gergen (Ph. D. 1962), psychologist and professor at Swarthmore College
- Myron L. Good (Ph.D. 1951), particle physicist
- Scott Guthrie, Executive Vice President of the Cloud and Enterprise group at Microsoft
- Robert S. Haltiwanger (B.S. 1980, Ph.D. 1986), Chairman of the Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology at SUNY Stony Brook
- Mark S. Humayun (M.D. 1989), recipient of the National Medal of Technology and Innovation (2015), member of the National Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Engineering
- George A. Keyworth, II (Ph.D. 1968), physicist; presidential science advisor; former board member of Hewlett Packard
- Derek Lowe (Ph.D. 1988), medicinal chemist
- John M. MacDougal (Ph. D. 1984), botanist
- Robert Malkin (Ph.D. 1993), biomedical engineer; fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering
- Peter V. E. McClintock (Post-Doc. 1968), physicist
- Joe M. McCord (Ph.D. 1970), biochemist; discovered the enzyme superoxide dismutase
- Frank B. McDonald (B.S. 1948), astrophysicist; former chief scientist of NASA; member of the National Academy of Sciences
- Delano Meriwether (M.D. 1967), physician, head of the United States Government 1976 swine flu immunization program
- Tony Mills (A.B. 1982, M.D. 1986), physician specializing in the treatment of HIV and AIDS
- Radhe Mohan (Ph. D. 1969), medical physicist and radiation treatment safety pioneer
- Harold A. Mooney (Ph.D. 1960), former President of the Ecological Society of America; member of the National Academy of Sciences
- Robert Morris (Ph. D 1969), psychologist, Koestler professor at the University of Edinburgh
- Terry Myerson (B.S. 1992), head of Microsoft's operating systems engineering group
- Bert W. O'Malley (residency), Distinguished Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Baylor College of Medicine; recipient of the National Medal of Science
- George B. Pegram (B.A. 1895), conducted pioneering research on the behavior of neutrons and played a key role in the administration of the Manhattan Project
- Sheldon Pinnell (A.B.), dermatologist; lead scientist of SkinCeuticals
- Walter Rudin (A.B. 1947, Ph.D. 1949), mathematician, recipient of the Leroy P. Steele Prize awarded by the American Mathematical Society
- Michael Ryschkewitsch (Ph.D. 1978), NASA Chief Engineer
- Alan R. Saltiel (A.B. 1975), Director of the Life Sciences Institute at the University of Michigan
- Sir John Skehel (Post-Doc 1968–1971), British virologist
- Dylan Smith, co-founder and Chief Financial Officer of Box
- William Kennedy Smith, founder of Physicians Against Land Mines
- Michael Tomasello (B.A. 1972), Director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology; 1997 Guggenheim Fellowship
- Joseph Travis (Ph.D. 1980), biologist; fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; former president of the American Society of Naturalists
- Tom Truscott, co-creator of Usenet with Jim Ellis
- Luis von Ahn, inventor of CAPCHA and the Google image labeler; awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2006
- Olaf von Ramm (Ph.D. 1973), first patent on a 3-D ultrasound, later developed the first electronically steered matrix-array 3-D ultrasound imager
- Ge Wang, creator of the ChucK programming language
- Lewis W. Wannamaker (M.D. 1946), biochemist; recipient of the Robert Koch Prize; member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences
- R. Sanders Williams (M.D. 1974), President of Gladstone Institutes; Professor of Medicine at UCSF
- Blake S. Wilson (B.S.E.E 1974), co-developer of the cochlear implant; recipient of the 2013 Lasker Award for clinical research
- Melanie Wood (B.S. 2003), mathematician
- Ricardo J. Komotar (B.S. 1999), academic neurosurgeon
- John H. Gibbons (Ph.D. 1954), American scientist, nuclear physicist, and internationally recognized expert in technologies for energy efficiency and energy resource conservation
- John H. Sampson (Ph.D. 1996, M.B.A. 2011), world-renowned neurosurgeon
- David Tab Rasmussen (Ph.D. 1986), paleontologist
Literature
- Arthur Talmage Abernethy (A.M. 1891, Trinity College), journalist, theologian, minister, first North Carolina Poet Laureate
- Dorsey Armstrong (Ph. D 1998), editor-in-chief of Arthuriana
- John W. Campbell (B.S. 1932), science fiction writer, described as "the most powerful force in science fiction" by Isaac Asimov
- Fred Chappell (A.B. 1961, A.M. 1964), North Carolina Poet Laureate, novelist
- Lucy Corin (A.B. 1992), novelist and short story writer; awarded Rome Prize by the American Academy of Arts and Letters
- Guy Davenport (B.A. 1948), author, Thasos and Ohio, National Review contributor
- G. William Domhoff (A.B. 1958), author of the controversial bestseller Who Rules America?
- David Drake (J.D. 1972), author of science fiction and fantasy literature
- Lee McGeorge Durrell (Ph. D 1979), author, television presenter, zookeeper
- Elizabeth A. Fenn (A.B. 1981), American historian, recipient of the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for History
- Josephine Humphreys (A.B. 1967), novelist
- Mac Hyman (A.B. 1947), author of No Time for Sergeants
- Russell Kirk (A.M. 1941), author, The Conservative Mind
- Nathaniel Lande (B.A. 1956), author, filmmaker, and former creative director of TIME magazine
- Peter Maas (A.B. 1949), author of novels The Valachi Papers and Serpico, later made into movies
- Tucker Max (J.D. 2001), author of I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
- Lydia Millet (M.E.M. 1996), author of novels Oh Pure and Radiant Heart, Everyone's Pretty
- Peggy Payne (1970), author, Sister India
- Noel Perrin (A.M., 1950), scholar, essayist, critic, professor at Dartmouth College
- Michael Peterson (A.B. 1965), author, politician, convicted of murdering his wife in 2003
- Reynolds Price (A.B 1955), author; James B. Duke professor of literature at Duke
- Lynn Veach Sadler, poet, author, and playwright
- Haun Saussy (A.B., 1981), University Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Chicago; formerly at Stanford University, where he chaired the comparative literature department, and Yale University
- William Seale (PhD 1965), American historian and author
- Frank G. Slaughter (B.A. 1926), novelist and physician
- Margaret Taylor Smith (A.B. 1947), author, social activist, Chair of Kresge Foundation
- William C. Styron (A.B. 1947), author, Pulitzer Prize winner, wrote The Confessions of Nat Turner and Sophie's Choice
- Anne Tyler (A.B. 1961), Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and writer of short stories
- Haim Watzman (B.A. 1978), writer
- Richard Zimler (A.B. 1977), novelist, author of The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon and The Warsaw Anagrams
- Douglas Brunt (A.B. 1993), American novelist and entrepreneur
- Ben Fountain (J.D. 1983), award-winning author of fiction
Fine arts
- Michael Best (A.B. 1962), former Principal Artist of the Metropolitan Opera
- Les Brown (A.B. 1936), musician, Les Brown & The Band of Renown; Jazz Hall of Fame inductee, 1999
- Michael Ching (A.B. 1980), composer
- Bill Cunliffe (A.B. 1978), Grammy Award-winning composer, arranger, pianist[27]
- Mike Posner (B.S. 2010), musician
- William Stone (B.A., 1966), operatic baritone
- Oleg Timofeyev (Ph.D. 1999), musicologist
Entertainment
- Ian Abrams, co-creator of the CBS TV series Early Edition, Undercover Blues, Rolling Thunder
- Andy Baldwin (B.S. 1999), The Bachelor, lieutenant, and doctor
- Jayne Brook (1982), actress, Chicago Hope
- Ryan Carnes (X. 2004), actor, Desperate Housewives, Eating Out
- Bailey Chase (B.A. 1995), actor, Longmire
- Jack Coleman (A.B. 1980), actor, Heroes, Dynasty, Days of Our Lives
- Robert L. Cook (B.S. 1973), Academy Award-winning software-programmer whose computer-graphics program, RenderMan, is used in many contemporary films
- Kara DioGuardi (A.B. 1993), songwriter for musicians including Carlos Santana, Kelly Clarkson and Britney Spears, American Idol judge
- Lee McGeorge Durrell (Ph.D. 1979), author, television presenter, zookeeper
- René Echevarria (A.B. 1984), producer, The 4400, Dark Angel, Now and Again; screenwriter, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
- Sean Flynn (X. 1963), actor and Vietnam War photojournalist
- Annabeth Gish (A.B. 1992), actress, X-Files, The West Wing
- Kelly Goldsmith (A.B. 2001), actress, Survivor
- Kevin Gray (A.B. 1980), Broadway actor, Phantom on Broadway after Michael Crawford
- Emmett Grogan (attended), founder of the Diggers theatre
- John Gromada (A.B. 1986), Broadway composer and sound designer
- Jared Harris (B.F.A. 1984), Emmy-nominated actor, Mad Men, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
- David Hudgins, television writer, Friday Night Lights
- Ken Jeong (B.S. 1990), comedian, physician, actor, Community, Knocked Up, Role Models,The Hangover
- Daniel Karslake, documentary filmmaker who directed For the Bible Tells Me So
- Eric Kirsten (A.B. 1991), screenwriter, "Midnight Sun"
- Martin Kratt (B.S. 1989), creator and star of PBS's Zoboomafoo
- Rossana Lacayo (B.S. 1979), Nicaraguan photographer and pioneer filmmaker
- Alisa Lepselter (A.B. 1985), editor of director Woody Allen's films since 1999
- Jon Marans (A.B. 1979), playwright, Old Wicked Songs, The Temperamentals
- Jon Martin (B.S. 2009), writer for Linus Media Group
- Tucker Max (J.D. 2001), author of the New York Times bestselling book I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell; internet celebrity (TuckerMax.com)
- Ben Mulroney (A.B. 1997), host of Canadian Idol and eTalk Daily; son of former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney
- Stephanie and Matthew Patrick, hosts of the webseries Game Theory on YouTube.
- Ellary Porterfield (A.B. 2011), actress, The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio, Sugar, Hidden Palms
- Mike Posner (A.B. 2010), singer, songwriter, Cooler Than Me, Please Don't Go
- Charles Randolph-Wright, director, writer, and producer
- Retta (B.S. 1992), stand-up comedian and actress, Parks and Recreation
- Teddy Schwarzman (J.D. 2006), Academy Award-nominated film producer, The Imitation Game; former corporate lawyer at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom
- Rebecca Sealfon (Ph.D. 2009), internet celebrity and winner of 1997 Scripps National Spelling Bee
- David H. Steinberg (J.D. 1993), screenwriter and film director; wrote screenplays for American Pie 2, Slackers, National Lampoon's Barely Legal, and American Pie Presents: The Book of Love
- Travis Lane Stork (B.S. 1994), reality star of ABC's Bachelor 8
- Mike Stud (A.B. 2010), singer, songwriter, A Toast to Tommy (2011), Relief (2013), Closer (2014), These Days (2016).
- Rita Volk (B.S. 2009), actress and model, known for her role as Amy Raudenfeld in the MTV hit romantic comedy series Faking It
- Randall Wallace (A.B. 1971), Academy Award-nominated screenwriter of Braveheart; also wrote screenplay for Pearl Harbor and wrote and directed The Man in the Iron Mask and We Were Soldiers
- Patrick Williams (A.B. 1961), Academy Award-nominated composer for movies and TV; Emmy and Grammy winner
- Robert Yeoman (A.B. 1973), Academy Award-nominated cinematographer, Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, The Darjeeling Limited, and The Grand Budapest Hotel
Journalism and media
- Dan Abrams (A.B. 1988), chief legal correspondent for NBC News, host of Verdict with Dan Abrams, former General Manager of MSNBC
- Diana Butler Bass (PhD 1991), columnist and author
- J. Bowyer Bell (doctorate 1959), historian, artist and art critic
- Dan Bernstein (A.B.), sports journalist, WSCR radio host[28]
- Jessica Faye Carter (J.D. 2002, M.B.A. 2002), author, columnist, social media entrepreneur
- Seth Davis (A.B. 1992), Sports Illustrated columnist and college basketball analyst for CBS Sports
- Kathryn Deane (B.A. 1978), President of the Tobe Report, a fashion merchandising consulting company
- Laila el-Haddad (A.B. 2000), Palestinian journalist
- Alex Epstein (A.B.), writer, founder and President of the Center for Industrial Progress
- John Feinstein (A.B. 1977), sports journalist
- Clay Felker (A.B. 1951), Founding Editor of New York Magazine
- Sean Flynn (X. 1963), actor and Vietnam War photojournalist
- Cornelia Grumman (B.S. 1985), Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist
- Kerry Hannon (A.B. 1982), best-selling author
- Doug Harlan (M.A.), Texas political consultant, columnist, author, lawyer, educator, and public official[29]
- Melissa Harris-Perry (Ph.D. 1999), author, television host and political commentator.
- David Hartman (A.B. 1956), first host of Good Morning America on ABC
- John Harwood (A.B. 1978), National Political Editor of The Wall Street Journal, frequent panelist on Washington Week
- Mangesh Hattikudur (A.B. 2001), co-founder of mental floss with Will Pearson
- Louis Isaac Jaffe, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
- Hugo Lindgren (A.B. 1990), Editor of The New York Times Magazine
- Mark Mazzetti (A.B. 1996), New York Times national security correspondent and 2009 Pulitzer Prize winner
- Scott McCartney (A.B. 1982), Travel Editor and journalist for The Wall Street Journal, author
- Sean McManus (A.B. 1977), President of CBS News and CBS Sports
- Susannah Meadows (A.B. 1995), Senior Writer for Newsweek
- Richard A. Oppel, Jr. (A.B. 1990), journalist, reported for The New York Times from Iraq, Israel and Washington, D.C.
- Will Pearson (A.B. 2001), co-founder of mental floss with Mangesh Hattikudur
- Steven Petrow (A.B. 1978), columnist for the New York Times
- Windland Smith Rice (X. 1992), photographer, daughter of Frederick W. Smith, billionaire founder of FedEx
- Charlie Rose (A.B. 1964, J.D. 1968), journalist, former CBS News anchor, 60 Minutes contributor
- Jim Rosenfield (A.B. 1981), WCBS-TV anchor
- Michael Ruhlman (A.B. 1985), nonfiction author
- Monty Sarhan (J.D. 1999), publisher and CEO of national humor magazine Cracked
- John Seigenthaler, Jr. (B.S. 1978), Al Jazeera America news anchor, formerly at NBC News and MSNBC
- Elizabeth Spiers (A.B. 1999), founding editor of Gawker.com
- Susan Tifft (A.B. 1973), writer and editor for TIME magazine; professor at Sanford School of Public Policy
- Kelly Tilghman (A.B. 1991), broadcaster for The Golf Channel; the PGA Tour's first female lead golf announcer
- Jim Toomey (B.S.E. 1983), syndicated cartoonist of Sherman's Lagoon
- Judy Woodruff (A.B. 1968), NBC's White House correspondent and Washington correspondent for the MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour, anchor at CNN
- JJ Ramberg (A.B. 1992), host of MSNBC's weekend business program Your Business
Athletics
- See also men's basketball players, women's basketball players, and football players.
American football
- Patrick Bailey, NFL linebacker, Pittsburgh Steelers
- Brian Baldinger (1982), former National Football League offensive lineman; commentator for Fox
- Dave Brown (1991), ten seasons in the NFL with the New York Giants and Arizona Cardinals
- Wray Carlton (1965), American Football League all star, Buffalo Bills fullback and all-time leading rusher from the AFL years.
- Mike Curtis, NFL All Pro linebacker with the Baltimore Colts
- Al DeRogatis (1948), Pro Bowl tackle for the New York Giants
- Anthony Dilweg (1989), former NFL quarterback, enjoyed brief success with the Green Bay Packers
- Dave Dunaway, NFL wide receiver
- Ryan Fowler, NFL linebacker, New York Jets
- Lennie Friedman NFL offensive lineman
- Sonny Jurgensen, Hall of Fame quarterback who played for the Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Redskins
- Kevin Lewis, NFL linebacker
- Patrick Mannelly, NFL longsnapper
- George McAfee, Hall of Fame halfback who played for the Chicago Bears
- Scottie Montgomery, Arena Football League wide receiver/defensive back
- Ed Newman (1973), NFL offensive guard; 12 seasons with the Miami Dolphins
- Ayanga Okpokowuruk, football player
- Clarence "Ace" Parker, Hall of Fame quarterback who played for the Brooklyn Dodgers, Boston Yanks, and New York Yankees
- Tommy Prothro, former head coach of the Los Angeles Rams and San Diego Chargers
- Tawambi Settles, player of gridiron football
- Drew Strojny, NFL football offensive tackle
Baseball
- Wayne Ambler, professional baseball player
- Bob Brower, Major League Baseball (MLB) player
- Chris Capuano (2000), MLB player, currently with the New York Mets
- Claude Corbitt, MLB player
- Lawrence "Crash" Davis, professional baseball player (see also Bull Durham)
- Nate Freiman, MLB player, currently with the Oakland A's
- Ryan Jackson, professional baseball player
- Bill McCahan, MLB player
- Quinton McCracken, MLB player, member of 2001 World Series Champion Arizona Diamondbacks
- Scott Schoeneweis, MLB pitcher, member of the 2002 World Series Champion Anaheim Angels, currently with the Boston Redsox
- Al Spangler, MLB player
- Marcus Stroman (A.B. 2015), MLB player, currently with the Toronto Blue Jays
- Eric Tipton, MLB player
- Mike Trombley, MLB pitcher
- Hal Wagner, MLB player
Basketball
- Alaa Abdelnaby, former professional basketball player, college basketball analyst
- Tommy Amaker, Harvard University head basketball coach
- Alison Bales, former professional player (WNBA)
- Shane Battier, former professional basketball player
- Alana Beard, professional basketball player, Los Angeles Sparks in the WNBA (jersey retired)
- Jay Bilas (A.B. 1986, J.D. 1992), ESPN sports commentator
- Carlos Boozer, professional basketball player, Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA
- Elton Brand, professional basketball player, Atlanta Hawks in the NBA
- Jeff Capel, men's basketball assistant coach, former head coach at the University of Oklahoma
- Chris Collins, men's basketball associate head coach
- Quinn Cook, NBA player, last played for Cleveland Cavaliers.
- Johnny Dawkins, Stanford University head basketball coach, former Duke associate head basketball coach and former professional basketball player (jersey retired)
- Luol Deng, professional basketball player, Miami Heat in the NBA
- Charles "Lefty" Driesell, former college basketball coach
- Chris Duhon, former professional basketball player; assistant coach for Marshall University
- Mike Dunleavy, Jr., professional basketball player, Chicago Bulls in the NBA
- Daniel Ewing, professional basketball player, Maccabi Ashdod of the Israeli Premier League
- Danny Ferry, former Cleveland Cavaliers general manager, former professional basketball player, member of 2003 NBA Champion San Antonio Spurs (jersey retired)
- Pat Garrity (M.B.A 2011), former professional basketball player and investment professional
- Mike Gminski, FSN sports commentator (jersey retired)
- Dick Groat, former professional baseball and basketball player (jersey retired)
- Lindsey Harding, professional basketball player, Los Angeles Sparks in the WNBA (jersey retired)
- Art Heyman, former professional basketball player (jersey retired)
- Grant Hill, former professional basketball player (jersey retired)
- Nick Horvath, West Sydney Razorbacks professional baseball player
- Bobby Hurley, former professional basketball player (jersey retired), head coach at the University at Buffalo
- Brandon Ingram, NBA player for Los Angeles Lakers, No. 2 pick in 2016 NBA Draft
- Kyrie Irving, professional basketball player, Cleveland Cavaliers; No. 1 of the 2011 NBA Draft; 2011–2012 NBA Rookie of the Year, 2016 NBA Champion.
- Dahntay Jones, professional basketball player
- Tyus Jones, NBA player for Minnesota Timberwolves
- Billy King, President and General Manager of the Brooklyn Nets
- Christian Laettner, former professional basketball player (jersey retired)
- Corey Maggette, professional basketball player
- Jeff Mullins, professional basketball player for the Golden State Warriors and head basketball coach at UNC Charlotte (jersey retired)
- DeMarcus Nelson, professional basketball player, Panathinaikos in Greece
- Jahlil Okafor, NBA player for Philadelphia 76ers
- Jabari Parker, professional basketball player, Milwaukee Bucks; No. 2 of the 2014 NBA Draft
- Marshall Plumlee, NBA player for New York Knicks
- Mason Plumlee, professional basketball player, Brooklyn Nets in the NBA
- Miles Plumlee, professional basketball player, Phoenix Suns in the NBA
- Shavlik Randolph, professional basketball player, Phoenix Suns in the NBA
- J. J. Redick (A.B. 2006), NCAA's all-time leader in three-point field goals, professional basketball player, Los Angeles Clippers (jersey retired)
- Austin Rivers, professional basketball player, Los Angeles Clippers in the NBA
- Jon Scheyer, American-Israeli McDonalds All American, All-American basketball player for national champion 2009–10 Duke basketball team[30]
- Adam Silver (1984), Deputy Commissioner and Chief Operating Officer of the NBA
- Kyle Singler, NBA player for Oklahoma City Thunder.
- Nolan Smith (2011), 2010 national champion
- Quin Snyder, former University of Missouri head coach; former Austin Toros of the NBDL head coach; head coach of the Utah Jazz in the NBA
- Jim Spanarkel, former professional basketball player, NBA and college basketball commentator
- Lance Thomas (2010), 2010 national champion (captain); 10th on Duke’s all-time list of offensive rebounds; professional basketball player, New York Knicks in the NBA
- Michele Van Gorp, former professional basketball player (WNBA)
- Abby Waner, former professional basketball player (WNBA)
- Jason Williams, former professional basketball player (jersey retired), college basketball commentator and analyst for ESPN
- Shelden Williams, Duke's all-time leader in rebounds and blocked shots, professional basketball player (jersey retired)
- Justise Winslow, NBA player for Miami Heat
- Steve Wojciechowski, men's basketball assistant coach
Golf
- Skip Alexander, professional golfer
- Beth Bauer, professional golfer
- Laetitia Beck, Israeli professional golfer
- Amanda Blumenherst, professional golfer
- Jenny Chuasiriporn, professional golfer
- Liz Janangelo, professional golfer
- Brittany Lang, professional golfer
- Joe Ogilvie, professional golfer
- Leif Olson, professional golfer
- Mike Souchak, professional golfer, winner of 15 PGA events
- Kevin Streelman, professional golfer
- Art Wall, Jr., professional golfer, winner of 1959 Masters
Other
- Drew Cannon (B.S. 2012), statistician and sports writer; on Boston Celtics staff
- Matt Danowski, professional lacrosse player for New Jersey Pride; all-time leading points scorer in NCAA Lacrosse history; Tewaaraton Trophy winner in 2007; two-time Jack Turnbull Award winner; two-time Lt. Raymond Enners Award winner
- Andy Frankenberger, professional poker player and former equity derivatives trader
- Paulie Harraka, NASCAR racer
- Jay Heaps, Head Coach of the New England Revolution as of November 2011; former player for the New England Revolution MLS team; former Duke basketball and soccer player
- Nancy Hogshead, Olympic gold medal winner in swimming
- Hiroshi Hoketsu (A.M. 1968), Japanese equestrian rider who debuted in the 1964 Summer Olympics and continues to compete today in the 2012 Summer Olympics
- Matthew Jacobs, martial arts expert; frequently appears in Ultimate Fighting Championship
- Abigail Johnston won a silver medal in synchronized diving at the 2012 Olympic games while an undergraduate at Duke and competed in the 2016 Olympic games while attending Duke Medical School.[31]
- Randy Jones, competed in four Olympics as member of U.S. bobsledding teams
- John Kerr, soccer player; winner of Hermann Trophy for top collegian; first American player in the Football League First Division (now known as the Premiership); Duke's head coach
- Jason Kreis, professional soccer player
- Alison Levine (M.B.A. 2000), mountain climber and explorer; the only woman in the world to have completed the Explorers Grand Slam, reaching the summit of the highest mountain on each continent and skiing to the North and South Poles
- Nick McCrory, Olympic diver
- Gunnar Peterson (B.A. 1985), fitness expert, author and motivational speaker
- Vanessa Rousso, professional poker player
- Shannon Rowbury, professional track athlete, middle distance runner
- Philip Schwalb, founder of National Sports Museum of America
- Jillian Schwartz, Olympic pole vaulter
- Dave Sime, champion sprinter, won a silver medal at the 1960 Rome Olympics
- Andrew Skurka (A.B. 2003), first person to complete the 7,700 sea-to-sea-route spanning North America
- Jessica Rae Springsteen, nationally-ranked equestrian; daughter of Bruce Springsteen
- Becca Ward, 2008 Olympic bronze medalist in fencing; three-time NCAA champion in individual women's sabre (2009, 2011, 2012)
- Andrew Wenger, first draft pick in the 2012 MLS SuperDraft and forward for the Montreal Impact
- Ibtihaj Muhammad (B.A. 2007), Olympic fencer
Fictional
- Ben Barry, a character played by Matthew McConaughey in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, is a Duke alumnus.
- Myron Bolitar, a character in several of Harlan Coben's novels, attended Duke on a basketball scholarship.
- Lt. Colonel Sarah MacKenzie, USMC, a character played by Catherine Bell in the television series JAG, earned her law degree from Duke University School of Law.
- Isobel Flemming-Saltzman, a character from The Vampire Diaries TV show
- Tori Frederking, a character played by Teresa Palmer in Take Me Home Tonight, attended Duke.
- Theo Huxtable's girlfriend Gwen, a character on The Cosby Show, was said to be very intelligent because she was "going to major in physics at Duke".
- Lieutenant Kif Kroker of Futurama mentions in Amazon Women in the Mood that he sang in the Duke Boy's Chorus.
- Dr. Jim Pomatter in Waitress
- Sloan Sabbith, a character played by Olivia Munn on HBO's The Newsroom, received her PhD in Economics from Duke.
- Nick Savrinn, a character on Prison Break, attended Duke as an undergraduate.
- Nathan Scott, a character played by James Lafferty on the television series One Tree Hill, received a scholarship to play basketball at Duke.
- Sam Seaborn, a character portrayed by Rob Lowe (whose son attends Duke in real life) on The West Wing, graduated from Duke University School of Law.
- In the pilot episode of Privileged, billionaire Laurel Limoges hires recent Yale graduate Megan Smith to tutor her two granddaughters with the goal of getting them into Duke.
- Stingo, the narrator of William Styron's novel Sophie's Choice, attended Duke as an undergraduate (as did Styron).
- Stacy Warner, a character played by Sela Ward on House
- Charlotte York's brother Wesley on Sex and the City
- Quentin, the protagonist of the novel Paper Towns and its film adaptation, is an incoming freshman at Duke.
- Natalie, the protagonist of the movie Keith is a high school tennis star who dreams of going to Duke.
Faculty
Current
- David Aers, James B. Duke Professor of English, expert on medieval and Renaissance literature and theology
- Pankaj K. Agarwal, computer scientist, known for his research on computational geometry
- John Aldrich, political scientist, fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- Samuel Alito, associate justice of the US Supreme Court
- Nancy Andrews, vice chancellor for academic affairs and dean of the Duke University School of Medicine
- Dan Ariely, professor of behavioral economics, author of Predictably Irrational
- Nancy Armstrong, Gilbert, Louis and Edward Lehrman Professor of English; critic of 18th- and 19th-century novels; editor of Novel: A Forum on Fiction
- Frank Asche, marine economist
- Valerie Ashby, Dean of Trinity College of Arts and Sciences
- Owen Astrachan (M.S. 1989, Ph.D. 1992), distinguished computer scientist
- Manny Azenberg, legendary producer of American theater who has won 40 Tony awards
- Lorena S. Beese, biochemist, fellow of the National Academy of Sciences
- Adrian Bejan, mechanical engineering professor, inventor of constructal theory and namesake of the Bejan number
- Peter B. Bennett, founder and former president and CEO of the Divers Alert Network
- Philip Bennett, former managing editor of the Washington Post
- James Berger, statistician, member of the National Academy of Sciences, recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship
- Paul Berliner, ethnomusicologist
- Tim Bollerslev, economist, expert on autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity
- Raphael M. Bonelli, professor of neurology and psychiatry
- James Boyle, William Neal Reynolds Professor of Law
- Geoffrey Brennan, philosopher associated with rational actor theory
- David Brooks, columnist for The New York Times
- Thomas Brothers, musicologist, received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2009
- Kelly D. Brownell, scientist, professor, expert on obesity; named as one of "The World's 100 Most Influential People" by Time magazine in 2006
- Caroline Bruzelius, art historian, expert on medieval architecture
- Robert Bryant, Chairman of the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, fellow of the American Mathematical Society, member of the National Academy of Sciences
- Allen Buchanan, philosopher
- Al Buehler, chairman of the Health, Physical Education, and Recreation department; United States Olympic Track coach at the 1972, 1984, and 1988 Summer Olympics; member of North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame
- Robert Calderbank, former vice president of AT&T; recipient of the Shannon Award in electrical engineering
- William Chafe, American historian
- Rey Chow, postcolonial, cultural critic
- Sarah Cohen, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist
- Philip J. Cook, Professor of public policy
- Miriam Cooke, literary critic
- Missy Cummings, professor of aeronautics, one of the US Navy's first female fighter pilots
- Sandy Darity, Jr., economist
- Ingrid Daubechies, first woman president of the International Mathematical Union; recipient of MacArthur Fellowship, Guggenheim Fellowship, and NAS Award in Mathematics
- Cathy Davidson, author
- Geraldine Dawson, former Chief Science Officer of Autism Speaks
- Walter E. Dellinger III, law professor, former United States Solicitor General under President Bill Clinton
- Bruce Donald, computer scientist, fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery and the IEE, recipient of the Presidential Young Investigator Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship
- Ariel Dorfman, novelist, playwright, human rights activist, 1992 winner of the Laurence Olivier Award
- Fred Dretske, philosopher of mind, winner of the Jean Nicod Prize
- Patrick Duddy, former Ambassador to Venezuela
- Charles J. Dunlap, Jr., deputy Judge Advocate General
- Rick Durrett, mathematician, fellow of the National Academy of Sciences
- Victor J. Dzau, James B. Duke Professor of Medicine; pioneering translational research scientist
- Herbert Edelsbrunner, computer scientist, winner of the Alan T. Waterman Award
- Carla Ellis, computer scientist, fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery
- Sir Harold Evans, author; editor of The Times; exposed Soviet spies
- Wendy Ewald, photographer, awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 1992
- Peter Feaver, political scientist; served on the National Security Council staff under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush
- Michael Ferejohn, expert on ancient philosophy
- Anne Firor Scott, historian, recipient of the National Humanities Medal
- Owen Flanagan, philosopher of mind, Phi Beta Kappa Romanell lecturer
- John Hope Franklin, civil rights activist, historian, awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton
- Ernestine Friedl, professor emerita in cultural anthropology; former president of the American Ethnological Society and the American Anthropological Association; known for her work on gender roles, rural life in modern Greece, and the St. Croix Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin
- Allan Friedman, neurosurgeon
- David Gergen, former Duke professor; Duke Trustee; adviser to Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Clinton
- Jay Golden, environmental engineer
- David Goldstein, population geneticist[32]
- Mark Goodacre, theologian
- Matthias Gromeier, developer of the PVSRIPO virus that has recently shown to be effective in treating cancer
- Gordon Hammes, biochemist, member of the National Academy of Sciences
- Moo-Young Han, discoverer of the quark color charge
- Michael Hardt, literature professor and Marxist, co-author with Antonio Negri of Empire and Multitude
- Campbell Harvey, economist
- Stanley Hauerwas, theologian and author
- N. Katherine Hayles, postmodern literary critic; fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- Richard B. Hays, theologian
- Dan Heath, bestselling author of Made to Stick
- Kieran Healy, Irish sociologist
- Oscar Hijuelos, novelist; first Hispanic to win a Pulitzer Prize for fiction
- Brigid Hogan, distinguished developmental biologist, known for her groundbreaking work on stem cell biology and transgenic technology and techniques; member of the National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine, and fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- Kevin Hoover, economist
- Jerry F. Hough, political scientist, author, and professor
- Reinhard Hütter, Catholic theologian
- Fredric Jameson, Marxist literary theorist; former Chair of the Literature Program
- Andrew Janiak, philosopher
- Erich Jarvis, National Institutes of Health Director's Pioneer Award recipient, Popular Science's Brilliant 10 of 2006 under the age of 45, Discover top 100 science discoveries of 2005 (avian brain nomenclature listed at #51), People's "Sexiest Brain Researcher" for 2006
- Abdul Sattar Jawad, literary theorist, fled Mustansiriya University after the 2003 Invasion of Iraq
- Bruce Jentleson, director of Sanford Institute of Public Policy; Senior Foreign Policy Advisor to Vice President Al Gore
- Wu Jinglian, economist
- James A. Joseph, former U.S. Ambassador to South Africa
- Samuel Katz, virologist, known for the development of the measles vaccine
- Harold G. Koenig, psychiatrist
- Claudia Koonz, feminist historian
- Sally Kornbluth, provost and James B. Duke Professor of pharmacology and cancer biology
- Rachel Kranton, economist, fellow of the Econometric Society, recipient of the Blaise Pascal Chair
- Timur Kuran, Turkish economist
- Pedro Lasch, artist and assistant research professor, Department of Art, Art History, and Visual Studies
- Mark Leary, psychologist
- Frank Lentricchia, literary critic
- David F. Levi, jurist
- Nan Lin, sociologist
- Martin J. Lohse, German physician and pharmacologist doing research on G protein-coupled receptors
- Julian Lombardi, computer scientist, inventor
- Nathaniel Mackey, poet and novelist, recipient of the 2015 Bollingen Prize and the 2014 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize
- Robert Malkin, biomedical engineer, fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering
- J. Lorand Matory, Chair of the department of African and African American Studies
- Achille Mbembe, philosopher and political scientist
- Mark McCahill, creator of Internet Gopher, POP mail, and Croquet; coined the phrase "surfing the Web"
- Thomas Carlos Mehen, nuclear physicist
- Walter Mignolo, literary theorist
- Terrie Moffitt, pioneering researcher in the development of antisocial behavior
- Toril Moi, literary theorist associated with feminist theory
- Ebrahim Moosa, religious scholar
- V. Y. Mudimbe, philosopher associated with philosophy of language, phenomenology, and structuralism
- Norman Myers, British environmentalist
- Mark Anthony Neal, author
- Lenhard Ng, mathematician, child mathematical prodigy
- Miguel Nicolelis, pioneer of brain-machine interfaces
- Mohamed Noor, evolutionary biologist known for experimentally demonstrating speciation by reinforcement; 2008 recipient of the Darwin-Wallace Medal
- Wayne Norman, expert on political philosophy
- Jean Fox O'Barr, feminist teacher, scholar, and administrator; founded women's studies program at Duke
- Linwood Pendleton, former Chief Economist of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
- Henry Petroski, civil engineer and writer
- Arlie Petters, pioneer in the mathematical theory and mathematical physics of gravitational lensing; Professor of Mathematics, Physics, and Business Administration
- Orrin H. Pilkey, geologist
- Robert Plonsey, biomedical engineer, member of the National Academy of Engineering
- Reynolds Price, author and professor of literature
- Kathy Alexis Psomiades, associate professor of English, specializing in Victorian poetry and novel theory
- Christian R. H. Raetz, professor of biochemistry and member of the National Academy of Sciences
- William Raspberry, Knight Professor of the Practice of Communications and Journalism; syndicated columnist for The Washington Post; Pulitzer Prize winner
- Paul Rehak, archaeologist
- John Reif, computer scientist; fellow of the AAAS, IEEE and ACM
- Jane S. Richardson, Professor of Biochemistry; developed the Richardson diagram, or ribbon diagram, method of representing the 3D structure of proteins, MacArthur Fellow
- Alexander Rosenberg, philosopher; winner of Lakatos Award in philosophy of science, Phi Beta Kappa Romanell lecturer
- Kathy Rudy, social constructionist
- Omid Safi, professor of Islamic Studies
- David H. Sanford, philosopher
- Nicola Scafetta, physicist
- Tad Schmaltz, editor of the Journal of the History of Philosophy
- Christopher H. Schroeder, former Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Policy for the United States Department of Justice
- Barbara Ramsay Shaw, chemist, cancer researcher, expert on signal transduction
- Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, philosopher
- David Smith, invisibility cloak pioneer; awarded the Descartes Prize in 2005
- Tommy Sowers, Assistant Secretary for Public and Intergovernmental Affairs at the US Department of Veterans Affairs
- J. E. R. Staddon, behavioral psychologist
- Orin Starn, cultural anthropologist
- Kristine Stiles, art historian
- John Terborgh, conservation biologist, awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 1992, and the Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal of the National Academy of Sciences in 1996
- Timothy Tyson, historian
- Cindy Lee Van Dover, professor of biological oceanography
- Tuan Vo-Dinh, biophysicist
- Olaf von Ramm, Thomas Lord Professor of Engineering; first patent on a 3-D ultrasound
- Geoffrey Wainwright, Methodist theologian
- E. Roy Weintraub, economist
- Huntington F. Willard, human geneticist; former President of American Society of Human Genetics; member of the National Academy of Sciences
- E.O. Wilson, biologist, "the father of sociobiology and biodiversity", National Medal of Science (1976)
- Lauren Winner, author and journalist
- Judy Woodruff, news anchor, journalist
- Vanessa Woods, internationally published Australian scientist, author and journalist
- Weitao Yang, chemist
- Anthony Zinni, decorated general
- Bill Adair, founder of the Pulitzer Prize-winning website PolitiFact
- Mark McClellan, former Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration
- Ravi V. Bellamkonda, biomedical engineer
- Jack Knight, legal theorist
Former
- Norman B. Anderson, CEO of the American Psychological Association
- Kwame Anthony Appiah, philosopher, author of In My Father's House and The Ethics of Identity
- Srinivas Aravamudan, Professor of English, Literature and Romance Studies; Dean of Humanities; specialist in 18th-century and postcolonial literature; author
- Clay Armstrong, physiologist; recipient of the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research and the Gairdner Foundation International Award for contributions to medical science
- James Arthur, mathematician, former President of the American Mathematical Society
- Katharine Banham, Associate Professor of Psychology, Emerita
- John Spencer Bassett, historian who initiated the Bassett Affair, an important victory for academic freedom
- Robert Bates, Eaton Professor in the Department of Government at Harvard University
- Upendra Baxi, legal scholar
- Andrea Bertozzi, mathematician
- Helen Bevington, poet and author
- Utpal Bhattacharya, expert on business ethics
- Lawrence Biedenharn, theoretical nuclear physicist
- Harry Binswanger, objectivist philosopher and philosopher of mind
- Calvin B. Hoover, founder of the field of comparative economic systems, awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Harry Truman in 1947.
- Mary L. Boas, mathematician
- Ralph Boas, mathematician, recipient of the Lester R. Ford Award
- James Bonk, chemist
- Edgar Bowers, poet, For Louis Pasteur, Bollingen Prize in Poetry in 1989, Guggenheim Fellowship twice
- David S. Broder, current Washington Post and former New York Times reporter
- H. Keith H. Brodie, psychiatrist, educator and eventual president of Duke
- David Allan Bromley, nuclear physicist, scientific advisor to US President George H.W. Bush, recipient of National Medal of Science (1988)
- Annie Leigh Hobson Broughton, advocate of women's education
- Hubie Brown, assistant men's basketball coach (1969–1972); NBA coach and commentator
- John Buettner-Janusch, anthropologist
- Michael Byers, Canadian legal scholar and nonfiction author
- Tina Campt, Associate Professor of Women's Studies and History; Director of Graduate Studies
- Leonard Carlitz, mathematician
- Erwin Chemerinsky, law professor, constitutional scholar
- Randolph Chitwood, first cardio-thoracic surgeon to perform robot-assisted heart valve surgery in North America
- Amy Chua, best-selling author
- George Elliott Clarke, author, poet
- G. Wayne Clough, president of the Georgia Institute of Technology
- Kalman J. Cohen, economist, pioneer of market micro-structure
- Roger Corless, theologian who made significant contributions to interfaith dialogue
- John Shelton Curtiss, historian, James B. Duke Professor
- Chuck Daly, assistant men's basketball coach (1963–1969); NBA coach
- Burton Drayer, radiologist; authority on the use of computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for diagnosing neurological disorders
- Mike Duffy, television host
- Eleanor Lansing Dulles, politician involved in the affairs of post-World War II Germany, Bretton Woods Conference, US State Department
- Paul Ebert, cardiovascular surgeon
- William M. Fairbank, physicist known for his work on liquid helium; member of the National Academy of Sciences
- Stanley Fish, former Chair of the English Department, deconstructionist literary critic
- Wallace Fowlie, author and poet, awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1947
- Bertram Fraser-Reid, organic chemist
- Robert C. Frasure, ambassador to Estonia
- Henry Louis Gates, Chair of African-American Studies at Harvard
- Erol Gelenbe, computer scientist, known for introducing the random neural network and the eponymous G-networks
- David Gergen, political analyst, adviser to Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Clinton
- John Jay Gergen, mathematician
- René Girard, philosopher, literary critic, and historian; member of the Académie française
- Peter J. Gomes, preacher and theologian from Harvard University's Divinity School
- Walter Gordy, physicist, member of the National Academy of Sciences
- Phillip Griffiths, mathematician; fellow of the American Mathematical Society, recipient of the Wolf Prize
- Paul Magnus Gross, chemist, former President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
- Julia Grout, Chair of the Women's Department of Health and Physical Education, 1924–1964
- Philip Handler, biochemist; two-term president of the National Academy of Sciences; winner of the National Medal of Science
- Gerald Heard, philosopher, historian
- Charles Honorton, parapsychologist
- Sally Hughes-Schrader, zoologist, Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- Aldous Huxley, novelist, mystic
- Daniel James, British historian
- Harold Jenkins (Shakespeare scholar)
- Randy Jirtle, biologist, known for his contribution to the field of epigenetics
- Kristina M. Johnson, Under Secretary of Energy for the Obama Administration; former Dean of the Pratt School of Engineering; former Director of Boston Scientific Corporation
- Simon Johnson, former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund
- Edward E. Jones, social psychologist, developed fundamental attribution error
- Alice Kaplan, author, chair of the French department at Yale
- Lawrence C. Katz, neurobiologist
- Randall Kenan, author
- Robert Keohane, neoliberal scholar of international relations
- Kim Sung-Hou, structural biologist and biophysicist, member of the National Academy of Sciences
- Claudia Koonz, feminist historian
- Paul J. Kramer, biologist, member of the National Academy of Sciences
- Juanita M. Kreps, United States Secretary of Commerce
- Anne O. Krueger, World Bank Chief Economist
- Weston La Barre, anthropologist, worked in ethnography
- Thomas LaBean, leading researcher in the field of DNA nanotechnology
- Bernard Lefkowitz, sociologist, journalist, investigative reporter
- Raphael Lemkin, human rights activist; coined the word "genocide"
- Michael L. Littman, computer scientist
- Fritz London, physicist, won the Lorentz Medal
- Alasdair MacIntyre, philosopher, virtue ethicist
- John Madey, developer of the free electron laser
- Ernest Mario, pharmaceutical industry executive
- William McDougall, psychologist, author of An Introduction to Social Psychology
- George McLendon, biochemist, winner of Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry and Guggenheim fellowship
- Karl Menger, mathematician
- Edwin Mims (1872–1959), Professor of English literature
- Thom Mount, film producer; President of the Producers Guild of America
- David R. Morrison, mathematician; Guggenheim Fellow; member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- Francis Joseph Murray, mathematician and founder of functional analysis; winner of the Outstanding Civilian Service Medal
- Toshio Narahashi, pharmacologist, the "founding father of neurotoxicology"
- Charles Nemeroff, psychiatrist, known for work in treating depression
- Hans Neurath, biochemist, leading researcher in the field of protein chemistry
- Lothar Wolfgang Nordheim, theoretical physicist
- Albert Outler, Methodist theologian
- G. B. Pegram, key administrator of Manhattan Project
- William Howell Pegram, chemist
- Anton Peterlin, physicist
- Ernest C. Pollard, professor of biophysics
- David Price, United States Representative
- James Rachels, philosopher and cultural relativist
- Joseph B. Rhine, psychologist and parapsychologist; founder of modern studies of psychical phenomena
- Sidarta Ribeiro, Brazilian neuroscientist
- John Ridpath, intellectual historian
- Sócrates Rizzo, former mayor of Monterrey; former governor of Nuevo León
- Mary Ellen Rudin, mathematician
- David Sabiston, cardiac surgeon, one of the pioneers of coronary bypass surgery
- Guy Salvesen, biochemist, known for his work in the field of apoptosis
- E. P. Sanders, British Academy member; leading figure in the third Historical Jesus movement
- Michael Scharf, lawyer, nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005
- David Scheffer, diplomat
- William H. Schlesinger, biogeochemist, president of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies
- Knut Schmidt-Nielsen, figure in the field of comparative physiology, member of the National Academy of Sciences
- Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, feminist theorist, literary theorist, expert in gender studies
- Barbara Herrnstein Smith, literary theorist
- Brian Cantwell Smith, scholar who conducts research in the fields of cognitive science, computer science, information studies, philosophy, and ontology
- Cordwainer Smith, author
- Ralph Snyderman, biotech entrepreneur
- Joseph J. Spengler, economist, statistician, and historian of economic thought
- Eugene A. Stead, medical educator, founder of the physician assistant profession
- William Stern, psychologist, philosopher
- Kenneth B. Storey, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology
- Charles Tanford, protein chemist, member of the National Academy of Sciences
- Edward D. Thalmann, expert in hyperbaric medicine
- Paul Tillich, theologian
- Sander Vanocur, ABC and NBC correspondent; The Washington Post television editor; The New York Times reporter
- Robert Ward, composer
- Kenny Williams, author, winner of the MidAmerica Award
- Mary Lou Williams, composer
- Patricia J. Williams, legal scholar, awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2000
- William H. Willimon, Methodist theologian
- Kwasi Wiredu, philosopher
- Karl Zener, parapsychologist
- Joseph Tyree Sneed, III, U.S. Deputy Attorney General, judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
- S. Malcolm Gillis, prominent economist, former President of Rice University
- Howard Nathaniel Lee, former mayor of Chapel Hill, North Carolina
- Daniel A. Livingstone, limnologist, recipient of the G. Evelyn Hutchinson Award
- Elwyn L. Simons, paleontologist and primate conservationist.
- Allan Gurganus, author
Men's basketball head coaches
- 1981 to present: Mike Krzyzewski, five-time national champion men's basketball coach, member of the Basketball Hall of Fame
- 1975 to 1980: Bill Foster
- 1974: Neill McGeachy
- 1970 to 1973: Bucky Waters
- 1960 to 1969: Vic Bubas, member of the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame
- 1951 to 1959: Harold Bradley
- 1943 to 1950: Gerry Gerard
- 1929 to 1942: Eddie Cameron, namesake of Cameron Indoor Stadium and member of the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame
- 1925 to 1928: George Buchheit
- 1923 to 1924: J.S. Burbage
- 1922: James Baldwin
- 1921: Floyd Egan
- 1920: W.J. Rothensies
- 1919: H.P. Cole
- 1917 to 1918: Chick Doak
- 1916: Bob Doak
- 1914 to 1915: Noble Clay
- 1913: Joseph Brinn
- 1906 to 1912: W.W. Card
Football head coaches
- 2007 to present: David Cutcliffe
- 2003 to 2007: Ted Roof
- 1999 to 2003: Carl Franks
- 1994 to 1998: Fred Goldsmith
- 1990 to 1993: Barry Wilson
- 1987 to 1989: Steve Spurrier, ACC Coach of the Year in 1988 and 1989
- 1983 to 1986: Steve Sloan
- 1979 to 1982: Shirley "Red" Wilson
- 1971 to 1978: Mike McGee
- 1966 to 1970: Tom Harp
- 1951 to 1965: William D. "Bill" Murray
- 1946 to 1950: Wallace W. Wade
- 1942 to 1945: Eddie Cameron, namesake of Cameron Indoor Stadium and member of the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame
- 1931 to 1941: Wallace W. Wade, namesake of Wallace Wade Stadium and member of the College Football Hall of Fame
- 1926 to 1930: James "Jimmy" DeHart
- 1925: James P. "Pat" Herron
- 1924: Howard H. Jones
- 1923: S.M. Alexander
- 1922: Herman Steiner
- 1921: James A. Baldwin
- 1920: Floyd J. Egan
- 1888 to 1889 : Dr. John F. Crowell
University Presidents
President | Tenure |
---|---|
Brantley York | 1838–1842 |
Braxton Craven | 1842–1863 |
William Trigg Gannaway* | 1864–1865 |
*Appointed president pro tempore during the break in Craven's presidency | |
Braxton Craven | 1866–1882 |
Marquis Lafayette Wood | 1883–1886 |
John Franklin Crowell | 1887–1894 |
John Carlisle Kilgo | 1894–1910 |
William Preston Few | 1910–1924 |
University officially established as Duke University in 1924 | |
William Preston Few | 1924–1940 |
Robert Lee Flowers | 1941–1948 |
Arthur Hollis Edens | 1949–1960 |
Julian Deryl Hart | 1960–1963 |
Douglas Knight | 1963–1969 |
Terry Sanford | 1969–1985 |
H. Keith H. Brodie | 1985–1993 |
Nannerl O. Keohane | 1993–2004 |
Richard H. Brodhead | 2004–present |
Major philanthropists
Donors who have contributed at least $20 million to the university or founding donors:
Donor | Total Amount | Year | Purpose |
---|---|---|---|
The Duke Endowment | $1.5+ billion[33][34][35][36] | 1924– 2006 | Various |
James B. Duke | $40 million ($458 million in 2006 dollars) | 1924 | For endowment; established The Duke Endowment later that year |
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation | $106.5+ million | 2002–2007 | $46.5 for AIDS research,[37] $30 million for a new science facility and $5 million for student life initiatives,[38] $15 million for DukeEngage, a civic engagement program,[39] $9 million for undergraduate financial aid and $1 million for Fuqua students financial aid[40] |
Bruce and Martha Karsh | $85 million | 2005–2011 | For student financial aid[41][42][43] |
Anne and Robert Bass | $70 million | 1996–2013 | $20 million for the FOCUS program and various endowed chairs, $50 million for interdisciplinary research [44][45] |
J. Michael and Christine Pearson | $50+ million | 2014 | $30 million to the Pratt School of Engineering to advance engineering and science education, $15 million to the School of Nursing and $7.5 million to the Fuqua School of Business[46] |
David Rubenstein | $50 million | 2002–2013 | $13.6 million to Duke Libraries, $20.75 million to the Sanford School of Public Policy, $10 million to Duke athletics[47][48] |
Edmund T. Pratt, Jr. | $35 million | 1999 | To endow the School of Engineering[49] |
David H. Murdock | $35 million | 2007 | For "translational medicine" research by the Duke Medical School[50] |
Disque Deane | $20 million ($34 million in 2005 dollars) | 1986 | To "establish a research institute on the human future"[51] |
Dr. Steven and Rebecca Scott | $30 million | 2013 | $20 million for Duke Sports Medicine, $10 million for Duke athletic facility |
Michael J. and Patty Fitzpatrick | $25 million | 2000 | For a center for advanced photonics and communications[52] |
William and Sue Gross | $23 million | 2005 | $15 million for undergraduate scholarships, $5 million for medical students' scholarships, and $3 million to support faculty members of the Fuqua School of Business[53] |
Peter and Ginny Nicholas | $20+ million | 1999– 2004 | $20 million for the School of the Environment and Earth Sciences;[54] $70 million pledged for the School of the Environment and $2 million pledged for Perkins library in 2003 still unpaid as of September 2010[55] |
Bill and Melinda Gates | $20 million | 1998 | For undergraduate scholarships[53] |
Washington Duke | $385,000 ($7.9 million in 2005 dollars) | 1892 | For original endowment and construction |
Julian S. Carr | N/A | 1892 | Donated site of East Campus |
References
- ↑ "Charles Townes". The Array of Contemporary American Physicists. Retrieved 30 December 2015.
- ↑ Wayne, Tiffany K. American Women of Science Since 1900: Essays A-H. Vol.1. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. p. 370. ISBN 1598841580.
- ↑ Weatherall, Miles (20 March 1998). "Obituary: George Hitchings". The Independent. Retrieved 30 December 2015.
- ↑ "Hans Dehmelt — Curriculum Vitae". Nobelprize.org. Retrieved 30 December 2015.
- ↑ Bulletins of Duke University (from 1991 to 1998), published by Duke University
- ↑ "Nobel Laureate Martin Rodbell Dies". Environmental Health Perspectives. 107 (1): A9. January 1999. doi:10.1289/ehp.99107a9. PMC 1566302. PMID 9872722.
- ↑ Barnes, Bart (December 11, 1998). "Nobel Winner Martin Rodbell Dies". The Washington Post. Retrieved 31 December 2015.
- ↑ "Robert C. Richardson — Biographical". Nobelprize.org. Retrieved 30 December 2015.
- ↑ "Nobel Laureate Peter Agre to Lead Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute". Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. October 24, 2007. Retrieved 3 January 2016.
- ↑ Simpson, Brian W. "Return of the Laureate". Johns Hopkins Public Health. Retrieved 3 January 2016.
- ↑ "Robert J. Lefkowitz — Biographical". Nobelprize.org. Retrieved 3 January 2016.
- ↑ "Brian K. Kobilka — Biographical". Nobelprize.org. Retrieved 3 January 2016.
- ↑ "Paul Modrich Shares Nobel Prize in Chemistry". Duke Today. Retrieved 3 January 2016.
- ↑ Booch, Grady. "Frederick ("Fred") Brooks". Association for Computing Machinery. Retrieved 31 December 2015.
- ↑ Kirkpatrick, Ted. "Edmund Melson Clarke". Association for Computing Machinery. Retrieved 31 December 2015.
- ↑ Burke, Michael G.; Sarkar, Vivek. "John Cocke". Association for Computing Machinery. Retrieved 31 December 2015.
- ↑ "Winston Choo Wee Leong".
- ↑ http://infopediatalk.nl.sg/biographies/SIP_1539_2009-06-30/
- ↑ "HugeDomains.com - Sa-Bs.com is for sale (Sa- Bs)".
- ↑ Bresnahan, John & Jake Sherman (July 27, 2011). "GOPers chant 'fire him' at RSC staffer". Politico. Retrieved July 27, 2011.
- ↑ "Featured Alum: Paul Teller". Duke University. Retrieved February 2, 2011.
- ↑ "Jaguars hire former Jets GM John Idzik as consultant".
- ↑ Pope, John (April 5, 2012). "Granville Semmes, founder of 1-800-FLOWERS, dies at 84". The Times-Picayune. Retrieved May 2, 2012.
- ↑ Slonimsky, Nicolas and Kuhn, Laura (2005). "Holoman, D(allas) Kern". Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians. Retrieved online via HighBeam Research May 9, 2013 (subscription required).
- ↑ "Jerry Bryan Lincecum". Humanities Texas. Retrieved August 10, 2012.
- ↑ "Fischell to Receive National Medal of Technology and Innovation". University of Maryland. Retrieved 5 January 2016.
- ↑ "Grammy Awards: List of Winners: Music". The New York Times. January 31, 2010. Retrieved June 7, 2010.
Instrumental Arrangement ... "West Side Story Medley," Bill Cunliffe
- ↑ "Dan Bernstein". Retrieved April 4, 2009.
- ↑ "Guide to the Douglas Harlan Texas & National Politics Collection, 1970–1999". lib.utexas.edu. Retrieved February 19, 2015.
- ↑
- ↑ "How Abby Johnston Manages Olympic Training -- And Med School".
- ↑ Wade, Nicholas (September 15, 2008). "A Dissenting Voice as the Genome Is Sifted to Fight Disease". The New York Times. Retrieved September 16, 2008.
- ↑ Williams embodies loyalty to Duke. The Chronicle, 2011. Retrieved August 25, 2011.
- ↑ Duke Launches Initiative to Make Civic Engagement Integral Part of Undergraduate Education. Duke News & Communications. February 12, 2007.
- ↑ Duke Endowment Awards More Than $20 Million to Duke University for Nursing School, Library, Other Priorities. DukeMed News. January 27, 2004.
- ↑ Duke Endowment Gives Record $75 Million for Financial Aid
- ↑ Eaglin, Adam. Duke nets $46.5M for AIDS research. The Chronicle. August 25, 2006.
- ↑ Duke Receives $35 Million From The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Duke News & Communication. May 9, 2002.
- ↑ DukeEngage launches. The Chronicle. February 13, 2007.
- ↑ Gates Give $10M for financial aid. The Chronicle. February 21, 2007.
- ↑ "Bruce and Martha Karsh Give $50 Million". December 5, 2011.
- ↑ "Duke given $20M to aid international students". January 30, 2008.
- ↑
- ↑ "$10 Million Gift for Undergrad Education".
- ↑ New Initiative Prepares Students for Society’s Challenges.
- ↑ "$30 Million Gift to Advance Engineering, Science Education at Duke".
- ↑ Duke Libraries to receive $13.6M gift, largest in history
- ↑ Rubenstein donates $10 million to the Sanford School of Public Policy.
- ↑ The Pratt Gift. Pratt School of Engineering. Accessed on June 25, 2006.
- ↑ Murdock gives Duke $35M for study at Kannapolis campus. Triangle Business Journal. Accessed on September 26, 2007.
- ↑ Articles About Duke University. New York Times. December 12, 1986.
- ↑ The Fitzpatrick Gift. Pratt School of Engineering. Accessed on June 25, 2006.
- 1 2 Sue and William Gross Donate $23 Million
- ↑ Largest Gift In Duke History Closes Campaign At Record $2.36 Billion. Duke News and Communication. January 8, 2004.
- ↑