Williams College is a private liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a colonist from the Province of Massachusetts Bay who was killed in the French and Indian War in 1755. Notable alumni of the college are listed below.

Academia

A–F

Brooke Ackerly 1988, political scientist and professor of Political Science at Vanderbilt University Peter Adamson 1994, professor of late ancient and Arabic philosophy at LMU Munich Lawrence A. Alexander 1965, Warren Distinguished Professor of constitutional law at University of San Diego Robert Z. Aliber 1952, professor emeritus of international economics and finance at the University of Chicago Robert S. Anderson 1974, geomorphologist at the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, and distinguished professor at University of Colorado Boulder W. H. Locke Anderson 1955, economist and professor at the University of Michigan; staff economist for the Council of Economic Advisers Albert LeRoy Andrews 1899, professor of Germanic philology and an avocational bryologist at Cornell University Richard T. Antoun 1953, anthropologist specializing in Islamic and Middle Eastern studies who was murdered in 2009 by a graduate student at Binghamton University Jonathan Arons 1965, astrophysicist and fellow of the American Physical Society; professor emeritus of Astronomy and Physics at University of California, Berkeley Bernard Bailyn 1945, two-time Pulitzer-prize-winning early American historian and professor at Harvard University Michel Balinski 1954, known for Balinski's theorem; mathematician and economist, winner of the John von Neumann Theory Prize and Lanchester Prize Sally Ball 1990, poet, editor, and professor; instructor at Arizona State University Emily Balskus 2002, chemist and microbiologist; Morris Kahn Associate Professor at Harvard University Edward Bartow 1892, professor of chemistry at the University of Iowa; expert on sanitary chemistry John Bascom 1849, Williams professor and president of the University of Wisconsin–Madison; namesake of Williams' Bascom House and Bascom Lodge atop Mount Greylock Amanda Bayer 1981, economics professor at Swarthmore College James Phinney Baxter III 1914, president of Williams College 1937–1961 and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1947; namesake of Williams' Baxter Fellow residential program Bruce Beehler 1974, ornithologist and conservationist at the Smithsonian Institute's Museum of Natural History Jere Behrman 1962, William R. Kenan Jr. professor of economics at the University of Pennsylvania David Bellinger 1971, professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School and professor in the Department of Environmental Health at Harvard School of Public Health Nathan S. S. Beman 1824, fourth president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Jonathan Berkey 1981, historian and professor of history at Davidson College Michael Beschloss 1977, called "the nation's leading presidential historian" by Newsweek Norman Birnbaum 1947, sociologist and emeritus professor at the Georgetown University Law Center Daniel I. Bolnick 1996, professor at the University of Connecticut Kimberly D. Bowes 1992, professor of Classical Studies at the University of Pennsylvania Julian Charles Boyd 1952, linguist Richard M. Brett 1925, conservationist and author Sterling Allen Brown 1922, teacher, literary critic, and poet Harry Gunnison Brown 1904, professor of economics at Yale University; pioneer in the development of mathematical economics and econometrics James MacGregor Burns 1939, Pulitzer Prize–winning author John C. Campbell 1892, president of Piedmont College, inspiration for John C. Campbell Folk School James Hulme Canfield 1869, chancellor of the University of Nebraska, founder of the American Library Institute Colin Cannonier 2005, professor of economics at Belmont University; notable sportsman in club soccer and cricket Franklin Carter 1862, professor of Germanic and Romance Languages; president of Williams College 1881–1901 Paul Chadbourne 1848, president of University of Wisconsin, Williams College, and University of Massachusetts Ross E. Cheit 1977, professor of political science and professor of International and Public Affairs at Brown University's Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs Kendrick Clements 1951, professor of history and presidential historian Dan Cohn-Sherbok, rabbi and professor of Jewish theology, University of Wales, Lampeter Eliot Coleman 1961, conservationist and farmer; pioneer of organic and cold-weather farming Hardin Coleman, dean of Boston University School of Education David Orgon Coolidge, founder of the Marriage Law Project and former professor of law at Catholic University of America Robert Coombe 1970, chancellor, University of Denver Albert Hewett Coons 1933, professor of pathology and immunology at Harvard Medical School; recipient of 1959 Albert Lasker Award Catherine Hirshfeld Crouch 1990, Professor of Physics at Swarthmore College and fellow of the American Physical Society Allison Davis 1924, educator, anthropologist, and professor; first African-American to hold a full faculty position at a major white university (University of Chicago) Horace Davis 1848, president of the University of California John Aubrey Davis Sr. 1933, political science professor and civil rights activist instrumental to the Brown vs. Board of Education legal team Tyler Dennett 1904, American historian and professor at Johns Hopkins University, Columbia University, and Princeton University; former president of Williams College; winner of the 1934 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography Anna Christina De Ozorio Nobre 1985, professor of cognitive neuroscience, University of Oxford Charles B. Dew 1958, American South historian, professor at Williams College Jennifer Doleac 2003, economist of crime and associate professor at Texas A&M University Daniel Drezner 1990, professor at Tufts University, political commentator William S. Dudley 1958, naval historian of the United States Navy; director of naval history and director of the Naval Historical Center in Washington, D.C. 1995–2004 Amos Eaton 1799, co-founder of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Peter Elbow 1957, professor of English emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Amherst; co-founder of Franconia College; developed the modern "writing process" Robert F. Engle 1964, won the 2003 Nobel Prize in Economics "for methods of analyzing economic time series with time-varying volatility" (ARCH models); holds the Armellino Chair at New York University; graduated with highest honors in Physics Willard F. Enteman 1959, former president of Bowdoin College S. Lane Faison 1929, art historian Andrew Guthrie Ferguson 1994, professor of Law at Washington College of Law Louis Fieser 1920, organic chemist and former professor emeritus at Harvard University Christopher Flavin, president emeritus and former president of the Worldwatch Institute Kristin Forbes 1992, associate professor of international management at the MIT Sloan School of Management; member of Council of Economic Advisers (confirmed by the United States Senate in 2003, she is the youngest person to ever hold this position) Nathan Fox 1970, developmental psychologist; Distinguished University Professor of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology at the University of Maryland Theodore Friend 1952, former president of Swarthmore College

G–M

Harry Augustus Garfield 1885, former president of Williams College, lawyer, academic, and supervisor of the Federal Fuel Administration during World War I Merrill Edwards Gates 1893, ninth president of Rutgers University and sixth president of Amherst College

Hans W. Gatzke 1938, historian of German Foreign Policy; awarded Guggenheim Fellowship Mary Gehring 1994, biomedical researcher at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Whitehead Institute John J. Gilbert 1959, recipient of the 2003 A.C. Redfield Lifetime Achievement Award; major contributor to the fields of ecology and biology Michael Goldfield 1965, political scientist, author, labor activist, and former student activist; Professor of Political Science at Wayne State University Steven Goode, law professor at the University of Texas at Austin Luther Carrington Goodrich 1917, prominent sinologist Eban Goodstein 1982, economist, professor, author, and public educator; directs the Center for Environmental Policy and the MBA in Sustainability at Bard College Edward Gramlich 1961, economics professor at University of Michigan and member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve James C. Greenough 1851, principal of the Rhode Island Normal School, sixth president of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, and seventh principal of the Westfield State Normal School Keith Griffin 1960, former president of Magdalen College, Oxford Claudio Guillén 1943, professor of comparative literature at Harvard University, University of California, San Diego, and Princeton University Elissa Hallem 1999, associate professor of microbiology at the University of California, Los Angeles; 2012 MacArthur Fellowship winner Ole Andreas Halvorsen 1986, founder and CEO of Viking Global; billionaire Hunt Hawkins 1965, professor at University of South Florida; poet and winner of the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize Karl G. Heider 1957, anthropologist John Henry Haynes 1871, traveller, archaeologist, and photographer; completed extensive archaeological work in the Mediterranean and Mesopotamia at Nippur and Assos Joel Hellman, dean of the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University; formerly the World Bank's first chief institutional economist John Haskell Hewitt 1888, professor of languages; acting president of Williams College Catharine Hill 1976, president of Vassar College Mahlon Hoagland 1944, former scientific director at Worcester Foundation for Biomedical Research; discovered transfer RNA Horace Holley 1799, former president of Transylvania University Juliet Hooker 1994, Nicaraguan political scientist; political philosopher at Brown University Henry Hopkins 1858, president of Williams College Mark Hopkins 1824; cited in former U.S. president James A. Garfield's description of an ideal college: "Give me a log hut, with only a simple bench, Mark Hopkins on one end and I on the other, and you may have all the buildings..." Diane Hughes 1979, professor of applied psychology at New York University James Willard Hurst 1932, founder of the modern field of American legal history Ishrat Husain 1972, governor of the State Bank of Pakistan Thomas H. Jackson 1972, president of University of Rochester, 1994–2005 David A. Jaeger 1986, professor in the Ph.D. program in Economics at the CUNY Graduate Center Harry Pratt Judson 1870, president of the University of Chicago, 1906–1923 Harold L. Kahn 1952, Professor of Chinese History at Stanford University Walter Kaufmann 1941, philosopher, poet, and translator Charles Stuart Kennedy 1950, founder and current director of the Foreign Affairs Oral History Program at the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training; oral historian of American diplomats Muhammad Kenyatta 1981, professor, civil rights leader and international human rights advocate John Sterling Kingsley 1876, professor of biology and zoology Daniel Kleppner 1953, physicist; National Medal of Science winner, 2006 Sally Kornbluth 1982, 18th president of Massachusetts Institute of Technology; former James B. Duke Professor of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology at Duke University School of Medicine; former provost of Duke University Edwin Kuh 1947, economist and professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management; John Kenneth Galbraith called him "one of the most innovative economists of his generation"