List of University of California, Riverside people

This is a list of notable alumni and faculty of the University of California, Riverside.

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

Notable alumni

Nobel laureates

• Richard R. Schrock – Chemistry, 2005, professor at University of California, Riverside

Academia, science, and technology

• Peter Adriaens – professor of engineering and entrepreneurship at the [selling Biology textbook
• Mason Gaffney – professor of economics and prominent Georgist
• Harmohinder Singh Gill – plant pathologist who pioneered fungus classification by disc electrophoresis
• Lynn G. Gref – technologist and systems engineer
• Matthew Haughey – blogger and founder of MetaFilter
• Anthea M. Hartig – director of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History (2019 - present)
• Marigold Linton – director of American Indian outreach at the University of Kansas
• Todd D. Little - professor of Educational Psychology, Texas Tech University
• Gary North – economist and author
• Arthur Riggs – director of the Beckman Research Institute and former geneticist with Genentech and father of modern biotechnology
• Pedram Salimpour – physician-scientist, author, and professor
• Bettie Steinberg – microbiologist, Chief Scientific Officer for The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research
• Peter Steinberger – Dean of the Faculty at Reed College, Robert H. and Blanche Day Ellis Professor of Political Science and Humanities
• Tim White – professor of integrative biology and research, paleoanthropologist
• Jennifer Wilby – director of the Centre for Systems Studies, University of Hull
• Charles E. Young – first UCR student body president and former chancellor at the University of California, Los Angeles

Arts, film, and literature

• Mark Andrus – Academy Award-nominated screenwriter, As Good as it Gets
• Earl W. Bascom – inventor, actor, rodeo cowboy, Hall of Fame inductee, international artist and sculptor
• Frank Bidart – Pulitzer Prize-winning poet
• Amine Bouhafa – Tunisian composer and engineer, winner of the 2015 César Award for Best Music for the movie Timbuktu
• Steve Breen – 1998 Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist
• Joanna Cameron - actress and model The Secrets of Isis
• Jamie Chung – actress, TV series The Real World: San Diego and films, such as I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, Sorority Row, Grown Ups, The Hangover II
• Billy Collins – eleventh US Poet Laureate
• Katherine Fugate – screenwriter Valentine's Day and creator of Army Wives TV series
• Elizabeth George – mystery writer
• Barbara Hambly – novelist and screenwriter
• Howard Hendrix – novelist
• Ryan Holiday – author of Trust Me, I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator; director of marketing for American Apparel
• Lisa Kekaula – lead singer for The Bellrays
• Patricia Ja Lee – actress known for role as Cassie Chan as the Pink Ranger in the television series Power Rangers: Turbo and Power Rangers in Space
• Nakul Dev Mahajan – choreographer
• Daryl F. Mallett – author, editor, publisher
• Fatima Farheen Mirza – novelist, A Place for Us
• Steve Nguyen – film director, producer
• Ruben Quesada – poet
• Lindsay Ridgeway – actress, Boy Meets World
• Charlyne Yi – actress, comedian, and performance artist (Knocked Up)
• Philip Michael Thomas – actor, Miami Vice

Athletics

• Matt Andriese – Major League pitcher for the Seattle Mariners
• Michael Basinger – former professional football player for the Green Bay Packers
• Jennifer Bermingham – golfer
• Pat Hill – head football coach of Fresno State
• Butch Johnson – former professional football player for the Dallas Cowboys and the Denver Broncos
• Joe Kelly – Major League pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers
• Aaron Long – professional MLS soccer player for the New York Red Bulls
• John Lowenstein – former Major League Baseball player
• Steve Lubratich – former Major League Baseball player and current Cleveland Indians Special Assistant to the GM
• AnnMaria De Mars – 1984 Judo World Champion, mother of Ronda Rousey
• Brenda Martinez – track and field athlete
• Gary McCord – professional golfer, CBS announcer and analyst and won the DII individual golf championship in 1970
• Troy Percival – all-time saves leader for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
• Dan Runzler – Major League pitcher for the Boston Red Sox
• Marc Rzepczynski – Major League pitcher for the Arizona Diamondbacks
• Michael Salazar – professional MLS soccer player
• Eric Show – former professional baseball player for the San Diego Padres and Oakland Athletics
• Chris Smith – Major League pitcher for the Oakland Athletics
• Erasmo Solorzano – professional MLS soccer player for the Chivas USA acquired in the 2007 draft
• Brendan Steele – professional golfer on the PGA Tour

Business

• Gary North – economist
• Shelli Taylor – CEO of Alamo Drafthouse Cinema (2020 - present)

Politics and law

• Ruben Barrales – deputy assistant to President Bush and director of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs in the White House, former San Mateo County supervisor
• Sabrina Cervantes – current California State Assemblywoman for the 60th District
• Paul Cook – former U.S. Member of Congress for the CA-08 district, current Supervisor for San Bernardino County
• David S. Cunningham, Jr. – Los Angeles City Council member, 1973–87
• Patricia Lock Dawson – Mayor of Riverside, 2020 - present
• Julie Furuta-Toy – current U.S. Ambassador to Equatorial Guinea
• Eduardo Garcia – current California State Assemblyman for the 56th District
• Sherilyn Peace Garnett – United States district judge for the United States District Court for the Central District of California (2022 - present)
• Michael Huerta – former Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration
• Jerold Krieger – Judge for the Los Angeles Superior Court (1988-2002)
• Lloyd Levine – former California State Assemblyman for the 40th District
• Jose Medina – current California State Assemblyman for the 61st District
• Holly J. Mitchell – current California State Senator for the 30th and 26th (2013–2014) District, former California State Assemblymember to the 54th and 47th (2010–2012) Districts
• Ronald Neumann – former U.S. Ambassador to Algeria
• Rod Pacheco – former Riverside County District Attorney, California Assembly member
• Virginia A. Phillips – senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Central District of California
• Anthony Rendon – Speaker of the California State Assembly (2016-2023)
• Gloria Romero – former State Senate Majority Whip, former California Assembly member, 49th District
• Stefanie Schaeffer – defense attorney, 2006 winner of The Apprentice
• Marc Steinorth – current California State Assemblyman for the 40th District
• Mark Takano – current U.S. House of Representative for the 41st District

Other

• Jeff Cooper – creator of the modern technique of shooting; firearms expert who defined the modern scout rifle
• John Mack Faragher - Historian
• James Holmes – gunman in the 2012 Aurora, Colorado shooting; currently serving a life sentence for murder
• Shruti Kapoor – economist, women's right's activist, and social entrepreneur
• Anil Raj – humanitarian activist killed in 2019 in a terrorist attack in Kabul while working for U.N.

Notable faculty

• Chris Abani – professor of creative writing and recipient of the Pen Center Freedom to Write Award, Prince Claus Award, a Lannan Literary Fellowship, a Hurston-Wright Legacy Award, and the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award
• Reza Aslan – Professor of Creative Writing, writer, producer, critic, religion scholar, television celebrity James Joyce Award
• John Baez – professor of mathematics, mathematical physicist
• Alexander A. Balandin – professor of electrical engineering
• Lindon W. Barrett – professor and cultural theorist
• Bir Bhanu – Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering, director of the Center for Research in Intelligent Systems
• Alfred M. Boyce – first dean of the College of Agriculture
• Patricia Cardoso – Award-winning filmmaker, Professor of Film
• Christopher Chase-Dunn – sociologist, contributor to world-systems theory
• Sean Cutler – plant scientist noted for discovery of pyrabactin
• Mike Davis – Emeritus Professor, urban theorist and author MacArthur Fellow in 1998. He won the Lannan Literary Award for Nonfiction
• James H. Dieterich – Distinguished Professor of Geophysics, member of the National Academy of Sciences
• Kim Yi Dionne – political scientist
• Josh Emmons – American novelist
• Steve Erickson – Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing, American author, essayist, critic Lannan Literary Award Guggenheim
• John Martin Fischer – professor of philosophy, Vice-President of the Pacific Division of the American Philosophical Association, primary proponent of semi-compatibilism
• Katie Ford – American Poet
• Theodore Garland, Jr. – a founder of the field of evolutionary physiology
• Gail Hanson – Distinguished Professor of Physics
• Allison Adelle Hedge Coke – Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing, poet, writer, editor, China's First Jade Nurtured SiHui Female International Poetry Award, a Witter Bynner Fellowship, a Fulbright Scholar, American Book Award,
• Juan Felipe Herrera – Emeritus Professor, poet, Tomás Rivera Endowed Chair, National Book Critics Circle Award, Guggenheim Fellowship, PEN USA Poetry Award, American Book Award, California State Poet Laureate, United States Poet Laureate
• Ivan Hinderaker – former chancellor
• Nalo Hopkinson – Professor of Creative Writing, science fiction and fantasy writer Andre Norton Award and British Fantasy Award
• Theodore L. Hullar – former chancellor
• Laila Lalami – professor, Pulitzer Prize finalist
• Perry Link – Chancellorial Chair, professor of China Studies
• Ronald O. Loveridge – Mayor of Riverside, California
• Tom Lutz – Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing, author, literary critic, founder and editor of the Los Angeles Review of Books
• Robert Nisbet – conservative sociologist and early Dean of Letters and Science at UCR
• John W. Olmsted – first chairman of the Humanities division
• Raymond L. Orbach – former chancellor and first Under Secretary of Energy for Science
• Michelle H. Raheja – Associate Professor of English, autobiography, visual culture, and film critic, Director of California Center for Native Nations, Fulbright Scholar awarded the first annual Emory Elliott Book Award
• David Reznick - Distinguished Professor of Biology, Evolutionary Biologist
• Robert Rosenthal – professor of psychology, former chair of Harvard's psychology department
• Irwin Sherman – professor of biology, specializing in malariology
• George Edgar Slusser – professor of comparative literature, science fiction expert
• Andrea Smith – Associate Professor in the Department of Media and Cultural Studies, Nobel Peace Prize nominee
• Jane Smiley – Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing, writer, Pulitzer Prize winning author
• Harry Scott Smith – entomologist
• Susan Straight – Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing, writer, National Book Award finalist Lannan Literary Award
• Karl Taube – professor of anthropology, specializing in research into pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures
• Bob Toledo – former UCR football coach, 13th head coach of UCLA
• John V. Tunney – professor of business law, former United States Senator and member of Congress
• Jonathan H. Turner – sociologist, one of the last remaining grand theorists in the discipline, author of Structure of Sociological Theory and Emergence of Sociological Theory
• Seymour Van Gundy – former dean of the College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences
• Georgia Warnke – Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and the director of the Center for Ideas and Society