This article lists notable people associated with Stuyvesant High School in New York City, organized into rough professional areas and listed in order by their graduating class.

Significant awards Alumni who have won significant awards in their fields of endeavor include:

James Cagney (1918) – 1942 Academy Award for Best Actor for Yankee Doodle Dandy Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1924) – 1949, 1950 Academy Award for Best Director for A Letter to Three Wives and All About Eve Joshua Lederberg (1941) – 1958 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Peter Lax (1943) – 1987 Wolf Prize in Mathematics, 2005 Abel Prize Robert Fogel (1944) – 1993 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences Elias Stein (1949) – 1999 Wolf Prize in Mathematics Paul Cohen (1950) – 1966 Fields Medal Roald Hoffmann (1954) – 1981 Nobel Prize in Chemistry Richard Axel (1963) – 2004 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Tim Robbins (1976) – 2003 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Mystic River Eric S. Lander (1974) – 2013 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences

Mathematics

Peter Lax (1943) – fluid dynamics, differential equations; elected 1970 to the United States National Academy of Sciences, 1987 Wolf Prize, 1992 Steele Prize, 2005 Abel Prize (New York University, emeritus) Bertram Kostant (1945) – lie groups and representation theory; elected in 1978 to the United States National Academy of Sciences (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) D. J. Newman (1947) – analytic number theory, long-time editor of problems section in the American Mathematical Monthly (Temple University, emeritus) Harold Widom (1949) – integral equations, symplectic geometry (University of California, Santa Cruz), 2007 Wiener Prize Elias Stein (1949) – harmonic analysis; 1974 elected to United States National Academy of Sciences, 1993 Schock Prize, 1999 Wolf Prize, 2002 Steele Prize (Princeton University) Paul Cohen (1950) – logic, Banach algebras, 1964 Bôcher Prize, 1966 Fields Medal, elected 1967 to the United States National Academy of Sciences (Stanford University) Neil R. Grabois (1953) – commutative algebra (president, Colgate University) Jeff Rubens (1957) – probability and statistics, co-editor of The Bridge World (Pace University) Melvin Hochster (1960) – commutative algebra, algebraic geometry, invariant theory; 1980 Cole Prize, elected in 1992 to the United States National Academy of Sciences (University of Michigan) James Lepowsky (1961) – lie theory (Rutgers University) Peter Shalen (1962) – low-dimensional topology, Kleinian groups, hyperbolic geometry (University of Illinois at Chicago) Robert Zimmer (1964) – ergodic theory, dynamical cocycles (president of University of Chicago) Richard Arratia (1968) – probability, combinatorics (USC) David Harbater (1970) – algebraic geometry; NSF Postdoctoral Fellow, in 1994 Invited Lecturer to the International Congress of Mathematicians, 1995 Cole Prize (University of Pennsylvania) Paul Zeitz (1975) – ergodic theory (University of California, San Francisco) Jon Lee (1977) – mathematical optimization (G. Lawton and Louise G. Johnson Professor of Engineering, University of Michigan) Noam Elkies (1982) – elliptic curves; youngest person ever to win tenure at Harvard; his musical compositions have been performed by major symphony orchestras (Harvard University) Dana Randall (1984) – discrete mathematics, theoretical computer science (Georgia Tech) Elizabeth Wilmer (1987) – Markov chains (Oberlin College) Michael Hutchings (1989) – topology, geometry (University of California, Berkeley) Aleksandr Khazanov (1995) – Math Olympiad; Regeneron Science Talent Search Finalist; Curry Fellowship; skipped college and became a PhD student at Pennsylvania State University Michael Develin (1996) – combinatorics, geometry; American Institute of Mathematics Fellow (University of California, Berkeley)

Physics

Marshall Rosenbluth (1942) – theory of liquids, fusion; Fermi Award, United States National Academy of Sciences (University of California, San Diego, emeritus) Rolf Landauer (1943) – physics of computation; elected in 1988 to the United States National Academy of Sciences, IBM Fellow (Thomas J. Watson Research Center) (d. 1998) Paul Chaikin (1962) – condensed matter physics, elected to both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2003) and National Academy of Sciences (2004), Oliver Buckley Prize (2018), (New York University) Brian Greene (1980) – string theory, mirror symmetry, author of The Elegant Universe; Rhodes Scholar (Columbia University) Lisa Randall (1980) – high energy physics, Randall–Sundrum model, 2004 elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (Harvard University)

Chemistry

Daniel Berg 1946 - physical chemist and Provost and Professor of Science and Technology at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Sheldon Datz (c. 1943) – 2000 Fermi Award Benjamin Widom (1945) – phase transitions, stat. mechanics, elected in 1974 to the United States National Academy of Sciences (Cornell University) Andrew Streitwieser, Jr. (1945) – organic chemistry, textbook author; elected in 1969 to the United States National Academy of Sciences, Sloan Fellow, Guggenheim Fellow (University of California, Berkeley) Edward Kosower (1945) – biophysics, 1996 Rothschild Prize in Chemistry (Tel Aviv University) Roald Hoffmann (1955) – geometric structure and reactivity of molecules, elected in 1972 to the United States National Academy of Sciences, 1973 Cope Award, 1981 Nobel Prize in Chemistry (Cornell University)

Life sciences and medicine

Hyman Biegeleisen (c. 1922) – physician and vein expert, pioneer of phlebology Philip H. Sechzer (1930) – anesthesiologist, pioneer in pain management; inventor of patient-controlled analgesia Joshua Lederberg (1940) – genetics; 1957 United States National Academy of Sciences, 1958 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1989 National Medal of Science, former president of Rockefeller University, 2006 Presidential Medal of Freedom Alvin Poussaint (1952) – clinical psychiatry (Judge Baker Children's Center, Harvard University) Robert Ira Lewy (1960)The Spectator, Volume XCVII, No 6, page 2, "Dedication Ceremony for the Lewy Multimedia Center Held". – hematology, Baylor College of Medicine; developed early application of aspirin in heart disease; donated to the creation of the Stuyvesant High School library in 2006, the Dr Robert Ira Lewy Multimedia Center Richard Axel (1963) – biochemistry, 2004 Nobel Prize Paul S. Appelbaum (1968) – psychiatrist and a leading expert on legal and ethical issues in medicine and psychiatry Robert Lustig (1973) – pediatric endocrinologist, professor at the University of California, San Francisco Eric Lander (1974) – computational biology; Westinghouse scholarship, Rhodes Scholar, MacArthur Fellow, co-director of Human Genome Project, 1997 United States National Academy of Sciences (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Lee Dugatkin (1980) – evolutionary biologist, animal behaviorist and historian of science; author of How to Tame a Fox and Build a Dog Oni Blackstock (1995) – primary care and HIV physician and researcher Uché Blackstock (1995) – emergency physician and equity advocate

Social sciences

Lewis Mumford (1912) – historian of technology and science Igor Ansoff (1937) – business theorist, coined term "strategic management" Tobias Schneebaum (1939) – anthropologist, artist, and activist Robert Fogel (1944) – economist, winner of 1993 Nobel Memorial Prize in economics Samuel P. Huntington (c. 1945) – political theorist, author Bruce Bueno De Mesquita (c. 1963) – political scientist and professor at New York University Thomas Sowell (1947) – economist Edward Von der Porten (1951) – early nautical archaeologist, expert in early Chinese export porcelains Gerald M. Pomper (c. 1951) – expert on American politics and elections at Rutgers University John F. Banzhaf III (c. 1955) – professor and practitioner of public interest law at George Washington University Michael Levin (1960) – philosopher, author of Why Race Matters

Technology

Philip Birnbaum – architect notable for designing numerous apartment towers in New York City; designed or contributed to the design of approximately 300 buildings Hans Mark (1947) – aerospace engineering; served as Deputy Administrator of NASA, and Secretary of the United States Air Force Ronald J. Grabe (1962) – astronaut (NASA) Richard Lary (1965) – computer architecture; co-designer of VAX architecture (DEC) Bob Frankston (1966) – software; author of the spreadsheet VisiCalc Daniel Hirschberg (1967) – design of algorithms (University of California, Irvine) Steven M. Bellovin (1968) – leading authority on firewalls and Internet security; elected to National Academy of Engineering in 2001 (Columbia University) Henk Rogers (1972) – entrepreneur and video game designer, creator of Blue Planet Software and The Tetris Company, best known for Tetris Omar Wasow (1988) – creator of BlackPlanet, Oprah's "tech guy", MSNBC Internet analyst Naval Ravikant (1991) – entrepreneur, investor; co-founder and former CEO of AngelList Bram Cohen (1993) – author of BitTorrent Vishal Garg (1995) – founder of Better.com

Writers

Staff Frank McCourt – memoirist and author; teacher of English and creative writing from 1972 until the late 1980s

Alumni

Samuel Spewack (c. 1917) – screenwriter, playwright, and double Tony Award-winner for Kiss Me, Kate and Academy Award nominee for My Favorite Wife Louis Zukofsky (c. 1918–1920) – poet Henry Roth (c. 1920) – author of Call It Sleep Nick Meglin (1953) – longtime MAD Magazine editor, and playwright Andrew Kaplan (1958) – writer, author of Hour of the Assassins, Scorpion, Dragonfire, War of the Raven Marv Goldberg (1960) – music critic and writer Alexander Rosenberg (1963) – novelist and non-fiction writer Eric Van Lustbader (1964) – writer, author of The Bourne Legacy and The Ninja David Lehman (1966) – writer, editor, critic, and professor of creative writing; series editor of The Best American Poetry; author of The Morning Line, Sinatra's Century, When a Woman Loves a Man, and Signs of the Times Hans Mark (1929–2021), (1947) U.S. Secretary of the Air Force, Chancellor of the UT System; physicist; engineer; Dean of Engineering, UT Austin M. G. Sheftall (1980) – writer, author of Blossoms in the Wind: Human Legacies of the Kamikaze David Lipsky (1983) – novelist (Absolutely American) Matt Ruff (1983) – writer (Set This House in Order) Laurie Gwen Shapiro (1984) – author (The Stowaway) and documentary director Jordan Sonnenblick (1987) – writer of young adult novels Drums, Girls, & Dangerous Pie, Notes from the Midnight Driver, Zen and the Art of Faking It, and Dodger and Me; student of Frank McCourt Arthur M. Jolly (1987)' – Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting, playwright of Past Curfew and A Gulag Mouse; student of Frank McCourt Alissa Quart (1989) – critic, journalist, poet, and editor; author of Republic of Outsiders: The Power of Amateurs, Dreamers and Rebels, Hothouse Kids: The Dilemma of the Gifted Child, Branded: The Buying and Selling of Teenagers, and Monetized Gary Shteyngart (1991) – author of The Russian Debutante's Handbook and Absurdistan Rebecca Pawel (1995) – writer Daniel Genis (1996) – writer, journalist, and ex-convict; columnist at Vice; author of The Last Beat: 1046 Books Behind the WallThe Last Beat: 1046 Books Behind the Wall Jessica Valenti (1996) – writer, online journalist, blogger, columnist and staff writer at The Guardian Ned Vizzini (1999) – writer

Music

Rudy Schrager (1918)Rudolph Schrager in the U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 – composer and conductor for radio, television, and film Kai Winding (1935) – jazz trombonist and composer Thelonious Monk (1936) – jazz pianist and composer Julius Hegyi (1941) – conductor and violinist Tom Dowd (1942) – pioneer recording engineer, 1992 Grammy Award Bobby Colomby (1962) – drummer and record producer Walter Becker (1967) – co-founder of Steely Dan