Alumni Balzan Prize winners
Charles Coulston Gillispie (1940) – 1997 Balzan Prize; George Sarton Medal; Pfizer Award; professor, history of science, Emeritus, Princeton University Russell J. Hemley (1977) – physicist; 2005 Balzan Prize (with Ho-Kwang Mao); director, Carnegie Institution for Science; National Academy of Sciences
Pulitzer Prizes
Ethan Bronner (1976) – Pulitzer Prize (Explanatory Journalism, 2001); Battle for Justice (The New York Public Library, one of the 25 best books of 1989) Lisa Chedekel (1982) – Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting (1999); finalist, Pulitzer (2007); George Polk Award; Selden Ring Award for Investigative Reporting; Worth Bingham Prize David Garrow (1975) – Pulitzer Prize for Biography (1987); Fellow, Homerton College, Cambridge University Alan C. Miller (1976) – Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting (2003), Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting (1997), George Polk Award (1996) Lin-Manuel Miranda (2002) – playwright, winner of Pulitzer Prize for Drama (2016) for Hamilton Stephen Schiff (1972) – journalist; finalist, Pulitzer Prize for Criticism (1983) Wadada Leo Smith – composer, musician; finalist, Pulitzer Prize for Music (2013) Leland Stowe (1921) – Pulitzer Prize (Correspondence, 1930); runner-up for second Pulitzer (Correspondence, 1940)
MacArthur Fellows The following alumni are fellows of the MacArthur Fellows Program (known as the "genius grant") from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. As this is an interdisciplinary award, recipients are listed here in addition to their listing in their field of accomplishment.
Ruth Behar (1977–88) – first Latin woman named a MacArthur Fellow; professor, anthropology, University of Michigan; poet, writer Majora Carter (1984–2005) – MacArthur Fellow; environmental justice advocate; urban revitalization strategist; public radio host; 2011 Peabody award Mary Halvorson – 2019 MacArthur Fellow; avant-garde jazz composer and guitarist James Longley (1994–2009) – MacArthur Fellow; documentarian, including Gaza Strip, Iraq in Fragments, Sari's Mother Lin-Manuel Miranda – 2015 MacArthur Fellow; Broadway actor, composer, playwright, and lyricist (In the Heights, Hamilton); 2008 Tony Award winner for Best Musical and Best Original Score, 2008 Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album, 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Drama winner
Academy, Emmy, Tony, and Grammy awards Academy awards and nominations
Miguel Arteta (1989) – Student Academy Award, Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Award; film director (Chuck & Buck, The Good Girl, Youth in Revolt, Cedar Rapids) Shari Springer Berman (1985) – Academy Award-nominated screenwriter, director, American Splendor (Best Adapted Screenplay); The Extra Man, Cinema Verite Akiva Goldsman (1983) – Academy Award-winning screenwriter, A Beautiful Mind (2001, Best Adapted Screenplay); Golden Globe Award; The Client, A Time to Kill Sebastian Junger (1984) – documentarian; Restrepo; 2011 Academy Award nomination; Grand Jury Prize, Best Documentary, 2010 Sundance Film Festival Jennifer Lame (2004) – Academy Award-winning film editor, Oppenheimer (2023, Academy Award for Best Film Editing) Kenneth Lonergan – playwright, screenwriter, director; nominated for two Academy Awards (2002, Gangs of New York; 2000, You Can Count on Me) and Pulitzer Prize (2001, The Waverley Gallery); Grand Jury Prize, Best Drama, 2000 Sundance Film Festival (You Can Count on Me) James Longley (1994) – documentarian; Student Academy Award (1994); Academy Award-nominated Iraq in Fragments (2007), Academy Award-nominated Sari's Mother (2008); three jury awards, 2006 Sundance Film Festival Laurence Mark (1971) – producer, nominated for three Academy Awards: Jerry Maguire, As Good as It Gets, Working Girl; Dreamgirls (won Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy); Independent Spirit Award; Julie & Julia Paul Weitz (1988) – Academy Award-nominated director, American Pie; About a Boy, Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant, Little Fockers Joss Whedon (1987) – Academy Award-nominated screenwriter, Toy Story; Speed; director, screenwriter, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Serenity, The Cabin in the Woods, The Avengers Allie Wrubel – Academy Award-winning composer, songwriter, Song of the South, song, "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" (1947, Best Original Song); Songwriters Hall of Fame Benh Zeitlin (2004) – filmmaker, composer, director; his Beasts of the Southern Wild garnered four 2012 Academy Award nominations; 2012 Caméra d'Or award, Cannes Film Festival; 2012 Grand Jury Prize, Dramatic, Sundance Film Festival
Emmy awards Emmy awards in journalism
David Brancaccio (1982) – Emmy Award-winning newscaster and host, NOW on PBS; DuPont-Columbia Award; Peabody Award Randall Pinkston (1972) – three-time Emmy Award-winning television journalist; RTNDA Edward R. Murrow Award Stephen Talbot (1970) – television reporter, writer, producer for PBS' Frontline; two Emmy Awards, two Peabody Awards; Edward Murrow Award; DuPont-Columbia Award; Edgar Allan Poe Award
Emmy awards in film and television
Phil Abraham – Emmy Award-winning film and television cinematographer, director Dana Delany (1978) – two Emmy Awards; actress; television shows China Beach, Presidio Med, Desperate Housewives, Body of Proof; films Tombstone, Fly Away Home Evan Katz – Emmy Award-winning writer, executive producer of television series 24 Michael E. Knight (1980) – three Emmy Awards; actor, best known for his role as Tad Martin on All My Children David Kohan (1986) – Emmy Award-winning co-creator, executive producer, Will & Grace and Good Morning, Miami Jeffrey Lane – five Emmy Awards, Golden Globe, two Peabody Awards, three Writers Guild of America Awards; author, television scriptwriter, film producer Alan Levin (1946) – three Emmy Awards; maker of documentaries Marc Levin (1973) – three Emmy Awards (1988, 1989, 1999), documentary filmmaker; 1998 Caméra d'Or award, Cannes Film Festival; 1998 Grand Jury Prize, Sundance Film Festival; 1997 DuPont-Columbia Award; founder of Blowback Productions (1988) Bruce McKenna (1984) – Emmy Award-winning television and movie producer, writer; Writers Guild Award; The Pacific Owen Renfroe – three Emmy Awards; three Directors Guild of America Awards, television soap opera director; former film editor Matthew Senreich (1996) – Emmy Award-winning screenwriter, director; producer, Robot Chicken Bill Sherman (2002) – Emmy Award-winning composer (2011); current musical director of Sesame Street Matthew Weiner (1987) – 2011 Time's "100 Most Influential People in the World"; The Atlantic, one of 21 "Brave Thinkers 2011"; nine Emmy Awards, three Golden Globes; creator, executive producer, writer, Mad Men; screenwriter, supervising producer, The Sopranos Joss Whedon (1987) – Emmy Award, Nebula Award, two Hugo Awards; writer, creator, producer, director, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, Dollhouse, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog Bradley Whitford (1981) – Emmy Award-winning actor; television dramas, The West Wing, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip; films, Billy Madison, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
Tony and Grammy awards
Bill Cunliffe (1978) – jazz pianist, composer, arranger; 2009 Grammy Award; won 1989 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Award; won several Down Beat Awards; 2 Emmy nominations; 4 Grammy nominations Thomas Kail (1999) – director; Tony Award winner for Hamilton and nominee for In the Heights Lin-Manuel Miranda (2002) – creator, composer, lyricist, actor: In the Heights (two Tony Awards, 2008, Best Musical and Best Original Score; Grammy Award, 2009) and Hamilton (three Tony Awards, 2016, Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, Best Original Score; Grammy Award, 2016) Jeffrey Richards (1969) – producer; six Tony Awards; including 2012 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical, 2011 The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess (Paulus adaptation); August: Osage County (Pulitzer Prize, five Tony Awards); co-producer, Spring Awakening (three Tony Awards, Grammy Award) L. Shankar (PhD) – Tamil Indian virtuoso violinist, composer; professor of music; 1994 Grammy Award; 1996 Grammy nomination Frank Wood (1984) – Tony Award-winning actor (Side Man); Angels in America
Academia Presidents, chancellors, founders See also: for listing of additional college presidents.
David Allison (B.A. 1859, M.A. 1862) – president, Mount Allison University, Canada (1891–1911); 2nd president, Mount Allison College, Canada (1869–78) Joseph Beech (1899) – co-founder, 1st president, West China Union University in Chengtu, West China Douglas J. Bennet (1959) – 15th president, Wesleyan (1995–07) Anthony S. Caprio (1967) – 5th president, Western New England College (since 1996) Joseph Cummings (1840) – 5th president, Wesleyan (1857–75); 5th president, Northwestern University (1881–90); president, predecessor of Syracuse University (Genesee College) Joseph Denison (1840) – co-founder, 1st president, Kansas State University (1863–73); president, Baker University (1874–79); 1st president, Blue Mont Central College Nicholas Dirks (1972) – 10th chancellor-designate, University of California, Berkeley (effective June 1, 2013); professor, anthropology, history, and dean, faculty of arts and sciences, Columbia University Paul Douglass – 6th president, American University (1941–52) Gordon P. Eaton (1951) – 12th president, Iowa State University (1986–90) Ignatius Alphonso Few (1838) – co-founder and first president, Emory University Cyrus David Foss (1854) – 6th president, Wesleyan (1875–80) E. K. Fretwell (1944) – president, University at Buffalo (1967–78); 2nd chancellor, University of North Carolina at Charlotte (1979–89); interim president, University of Massachusetts (1991–92); interim president, University of Florida (1998) Bishop John W. Gowdy (1897) – president, Anglo-Chinese College, in Fuzhou, China (1904–23); president, Fukien Christian University (1923–27) A. LeRoy Greason (1944) – 12th president, Bowdoin College (1981–90) William R. Greiner (1955) – 13th president, University at Buffalo (1991–03); also professor, dean, and provost of the University at Buffalo Law School Burton Crosby Hallowell – 9th president, Tufts University (1967–76) Abram W. Harris – 14th president, Northwestern University (1906–16); 1st president, University of Maine (1896–06); president, Maine State College (1893–96) Bishop Erastus Otis Haven (1842) – 2nd president, University of Michigan (1863–69); 6th president, Northwestern University; 2nd chancellor, Syracuse University; overseer, Harvard University Clark T. Hinman – 1st president, Northwestern University (1853–54 (death)); president, Albion College (1846–53) Francis S. Hoyt (1844) – 1st president, Willamette University (1853–60) Harry Burns Hutchins (1870) – 4th president, University of Michigan (1910–20), twice acting president; dean, University of Michigan Law School; organized law department, Cornell University Isaac J. Lansing (B.A. 1872, graduate student 1872–73, M.A. 1875) – president, predecessor, Clark Atlanta University (HBCU) (1874–76) Gregory Mandel – dean at Temple University Beasley School of Law Oliver Marcy (1846) – twice acting president, Northwestern University (1876–81, 1890); established the Northwestern University Museum of Natural History, served as its curator Anthony Marx (1981, attended 1977–79) – 18th president, Amherst College (2003–11); president, New York Public Library (2011–) William Williams Mather (A.M. 1834) – acting president, Ohio University (1845) John McClintock (1834) – 1st president, Drew Theological Seminary (later, Drew University) Frank L. McVey (B.A.) – 4th president, University of North Dakota (1909–17); 3rd president, University of Kentucky (1917–40); economist Bishop Samuel Sobieski Nelles (1846) – 1st chancellor, president, Victoria University in the University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada (1884–87); president, Victoria College