List of University of Adelaide people

This is a list of notable alumni and staff associated with the University of Adelaide in Australia.

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by expanding it with reliably sourced entries.

Chancellors and vice-chancellors

Source: http://www.adelaide.edu.au/records/archives/former/

Chancellors

Appointed	Chancellor
1874	Sir Richard Hanson
1876	The Right Reverend Augustus Short DD
1883	The Right Honourable Sir Samuel Way Bart, PC, DCL, LLD
1916	The Honourable Sir George Murray KCMG, BA, LLM
1942	Professor Sir William Mitchell KCMG, DSc, MA
1948	The Honourable Sir Mellis Napier KCMG, LLD
1961	The Honourable Sir George Ligertwood LLD, BA
1966	Sir Kenneth Wills KBE, MC, KStJ, ED
1968	The Honourable John Jefferson Bray AC, LLD, DUniv (Adel)
1983	The Honourable Dame Roma Mitchell AC, DBE, CVO, QC, LLB, DUniv (Adel)
1991	William Faulding Scammell AO, CBE, DUniv (Adel)
1998	Bruce Phillip Webb AM, FTSE, MSc, FAusIMM, FIEAust, FAICD
2000	Robert Champion de Crespigny AC, DUniv (Adel), BCom (Melb), FCA, FTSE, FAICD, FAusIMM
2004	The Honourable John von Doussa AO, QC
2010	The Honourable Robert Hill AC
2014	Rear Admiral the Honourable Kevin Scarce AC, CSC, RANR

Vice-chancellors

Appointed	Vice-Chancellor
1874	The Right Reverend Augustus Short DD
1876	The Right Honourable Sir Samuel Way Bart, PC, DCL, LLD
1883	The Reverend Professor William Fletcher MA
1887	The Venerable George Farr MA, LLD (Archdeacon of Mt Gambier and the West, Rector of St Luke's, Adelaide.)
1893	John Anderson Hartley BA, BSc
1896	William Barlow CMG, LLD
1915	The Honourable Sir George Murray KCMG, BA, LM
1916	Professor Sir William Mitchell KCMG, MA
1942	The Honourable Sir Herbert Parsons KBE, KC, LLB
1945	Professor John Stewart CMG, PPhil
1948	Albert Rowe CBE, BSc, LLD Melb)
1958	Sir Henry Basten CMG, MA, DLitt
1967	Professor Emeritus Sir Geoffrey Badger AO, Ktcr, PhD, DSc, DUniv (Adel), FRSC, FRACI, FTSE, FAA, FACE
1977	Professor Don Stranks AO, MSc, PhD
1987	Professor Kevin Marjoribanks BSc, DipEd (UNSW), BA (UNE), MEd (Harvard), PhD (Toronto), FASSA, FACE, FSS (Emeritus Professor 2005)
1994	Professor Gavin Brown MA(StAnd.), PhD (N'cle,UK), FAA (Emeritus Professor 1996)
1997	Professor Mary O'Kane BSc (Qld), PhD (ANU), FTSE (Emeritus Professor 2001)
2001	Professor Clifford Blake AO, PhD (Lond), BSc (Hons) (Syd), DUniv (Charles Sturt), PhD (aeg) (Adel), Hon. DEduc Admin (Syd) (Emeritus Professor, Charles Sturt, 2001)
2002	Professor James McWha AO, BSc, BAgr (Hons) (Belfast), PhD (Glasgow), PhD (aeg) (Adel), DSc (hc) (Massey) (Emeritus Professor 2012)
2012	Professor Warren Bebbington MA, MMus, MPhil, PhD, FMusA

Notable alumni

Nobel laureates

• William Lawrence Bragg, BS 1908 – physicist, Nobel laureate (Physics, 1915) with his father (William Henry Bragg, a member of the faculty of the University of Adelaide) "for their services in the analysis of crystal structure by means of X-rays"
• Howard Florey, MB and BS 1921 –pharmacologist, Nobel laureate (Physiology or Medicine,1945) "for the discovery of penicillin and its curative effect in various infectious diseases"
• Robin Warren, MBBS 1961–pathologist, Nobel laureate (Physiology or Medicine, 2005), for the "discovery of the bacterium Helicobacter pylori and its role in gastritis and peptic ulcer disease"

Business

• Shaun Bonett - founder of the Precision Group
• John Langdon Bonython - founding chairman of Santos
• Bruce Carter - chairman of ASC Pty Ltd
• Cheong Choong Kong - former chief executive officer of Singapore Airlines, chairman of Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation
• Tim Cooper – managing director of Coopers Brewery
• Simon Hackett – founder of Internode (ISP)
• Tim Harcourt – economist
• Edward Holden - managing director of General Motors-Holden
• Wayne Jackson - former chief executive officer of the Australian Football League (AFL)
• Lim Siong Guan - group president of the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation
• Gillon McLachlan - chief executive officer of the AFL
• Thorburn Brailsford Robertson – pioneered insulin manufacture in Australia
• John Spalvins - managing director of the Adelaide Steamship Company
• Neil Weste – microelectronics engineer and entrepreneur
• Philip Wollen - former general manager at Citicorp, philanthropist

Military

• Brigadier Arthur Seaforth Blackburn VC CMG CBE - soldier and lawyer; awarded the Victoria Cross in 1916

Politics

National leaders

• Julia Gillard - 27th Prime Minister of Australia (2009–12) (attended 1979 to 1982, transferred to the University of Melbourne) – First female Prime Minister of Australia
• Peter Ong Boon Kwee - Head of the Civil Service, Singapore since 2010, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, Singapore since 2009, and Permanent Secretary with Special Duties in the Prime Minister's Office, Singapore
• Ong Teng Cheong - 5th President of Singapore (1993–99)
• Joseph Pairin Kitingan - 7th Chief Minister of Sabah, Malaysia (1985–94)
• Abdul Taib – 4th Chief Minister of Sarawak, Malaysia (1981-2014); Governor of Sarawak (2014-)
• Tony Tan Keng Yam – 7th President of Singapore (2011-); Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore (1995-2005)

South Australian premiers

• Lynn Arnold - Premier of South Australia 1992-1993
• John Bannon – Premier of South Australia 1982–1992
• Henry Barwell - Premier of South Australia 1920–1924
• Dean Brown - Premier of South Australia 1993–1996
• Don Dunstan – Premier of South Australia 1967–1968, and 1970–1979
• Rob Kerin - Premier of South Australia 2001-2002
• David Tonkin – Premier of South Australia 1979-1982
• Jay Weatherill - Premier of South Australia 2011–present

South Australian governors

• Roma Mitchell - Australia's first female judge; its first female governor 1991-1996
• Eric Neal - business leader, governor 1996-2001
• Mark Oliphant - physicist; governor 1971-1976
• Keith Seaman - Uniting Church minister; governor 1977-1982
• Hieu Van Le - Lieutenant Governor of South Australia 2007-2014; governor 2014-present

Legislators

• Benjamin Benny - Australian Senator
• Gordon Bilney - Member of the Australian House of Representatives and Minister for Defence Science
• Simon Birmingham - Australian Senator and Minister for Education
• Julie Bishop - Australian Foreign Minister and former Deputy Leader of the Opposition
• Mark Bishop - Australian Senator
• Nick Bolkus - Australian Senator and Minister for Immigration
• Mark Butler - Member of the Australian House of Representatives and Minister for the Environment
• Peter Duncan - Member of the Australian House of Representatives
• Don Farrell - Australian Senator and Minister for Science
• Pru Goward - Member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly
• Janine Haines - Australian Senator and first female leader of an Australian political party
• Sarah Hanson-Young - Australian Senator
• Robert Hill - Australian Senator; Australian Defence Minister; and Permanent Representative of Australia to the United Nations
• Annette Hurley - Australian Senator
• Linda Kirk - Australian Senator
• Keith Laught - Australian Senator
• Raymond Lim - Minister for Transport; second Minister for Foreign Affairs (Singapore)
• Alexander McLachlan - Australian Senator and Postmaster-General
• Christopher Pyne - Member of the Australian House of Representatives and Minister for Education
• Margaret Reid - First female President of the Australian Senate
• Lockwood Smith - Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives
• Andrew Southcott - Member of the Australian House of Representatives
• Shane Stone - Chief Minister of the Northern Territory
• Natasha Stott Despoja - Australian Senator and Leader of the Australian Democrats
• Amanda Vanstone - Australian Senator; Minister for Immigration; and Ambassador to Italy
• David Vigor - Australian Senator
• Ian Wilson - Member of the Australian House of Representatives and Minister for Aboriginal Affairs
• Penny Wong - Australian Senator and Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency
• Nick Xenophon - Australian Senator

Other

• David Combe - former Secretary of the Australian Labor Party
• Finlay Crisp - public servant, academic and political scientist
• Lynton Crosby – campaign strategist and co-founder of the Crosby Textor Group
• Lim Soo Hoon - first female Permanent Secretary of Singapore
• Peter Malinauskas - Australian trade union leader
• John Menadue - Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet
• Martin Parkinson - Secretary of the Department of the Treasury

Judiciary and the law

• Richard Blackburn - former Chief Justice of the Australian Capital Territory
• Catherine Branson - former President of the Australian Human Rights Commission and Justice of the Federal Court of Australia
• John Bray - Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of South Australia, poet and classicist
• James Crawford - legal academic; Judge of the International Court of Justice (2014)
• John Doyle - Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of South Australia
• John Finnis - legal scholar and philosopher
• Elliott Johnston - Communist activist and Justice of the Supreme Court of South Australia
• Len King - South Australian Attorney-General; Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of South Australia
• Chris Kourakis - Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of South Australia
• Bruce Lander - South Australia's first Independent Commissioner Against Corruption
• George Ligertwood - Judge of the Supreme Court of South Australia
• Brian Martin - Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory
• Robin Millhouse – lawyer, politician, Justice of the Supreme Court of South Australia; Chief Justice of Kiribati and Nauru
• Roma Mitchell - lawyer, first female Queen's Counsel in Australia (1962); Justice of the Supreme Court of South Australia; first female superior court judge in the British Commonwealth (1965)
• George Murray - Chief Justice of South Australia
• Mellis Napier - Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of South Australia
• Geoffrey Reed - Judge in the Supreme Court of South Australia; the first Director-General of ASIO
• Margaret White - first female judge of the Supreme Court of Queensland

Diplomats

• Frances Adamson - Australian Ambassador to the People's Republic of China (2011-)
• Brett Aldam - High Commissioner to Tonga (2012-)
• Robin Ashwin - Former Ambassador to Egypt, the Soviet Union and Germany
• Jeremy Bruer - High Commissioner to Vanuatu (2012-); Australian Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates and Qatar (2005–09)
• Walter Crocker - diplomat and writer
• Maurice de Rohan – South Australian Agent General in London (1998-2006)
• Andrea Faulkner - Australian Ambassador to Israel (2010-2013)
• Tim George - Australian Ambassador to Mexico (2012-); High Commissioner to Pakistan (2009-2012), Special Coordinator for the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (2006-2009), Ambassador to Israel (2003-2006); Ambassador to Spain (2000-2003)
• Robyn Mudie - High Commissioner to Sri Lanka (2012-)
• Sim Cheok Lim – Singapore's Ambassador (Non-Resident) to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan
• Michael Smith - Executive Director of the UN Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (2007-); Australian Permanent Representative to the United Nations and Australian Ambassador for Counter-Terrorism (2002-2006); Ambassador to Egypt and Sudan (1995–98), Minister (Political) in the Australian Embassy in the United States (1993–95), Ambassador to Algeria and Tunisia (1989–91)
• Deborah Stokes - Australian High Commissioner to Papua New Guinea (2013-); Australian Ambassador to Austria (2006–10)

Literature

• Georgia Blain – author
• James Bradley – author
• John Jefferson Bray – poet and jurist
• Nancy Cato - author
• David Chalmers – philosopher and Federation Fellow (2004)
• Garry Disher - author
• Geoffrey Dutton – author and historian
• Anna Goldsworthy - writer and classical pianist
• Kerryn Goldsworthy - writer and critic
• Peter Goldsworthy - author
• Max Harris – Angry Penguins poet and publisher
• Rex Ingamells - poet and founder of the Jindyworobak Movement
• Joe Penhall - playwright
• Darren Porter – author, poet, social commentator
• Margaret Somerville – ethicist
• Colin Thiele – writer
• Russel Ward - historian and author of The Australian Legend
• Sean Williams – science fiction author

Science and mathematics

• Herbert Basedow - anthropologist, geologist, politician, explorer and medical practitioner
• Warren Bonython - conservationist, explorer, author, and chemical engineer
• Keith Briggs – mathematician
• Henry Brose - physicist
• Helen Caldicott – physician and anti-nuclear advocate
• Herbert Condon – ornithologist
• Tim Jarvis - environmental scientist
• Norman Jolly - Forrester
• Rodney Jory – physicist
• Abdul Karim - soil scientist
• Aubrey Lewis – first Professor of Psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry
• Brian Morris – molecular biologist
• Keith Nugent – physicist
• Mark Oliphant – nuclear physicist
• Ian Plimer – professor and global warming critic
• Hugh Possingham – mathematical ecologist
• Lindsay Pryor - botanist and founding designer of the Australian National Botanic Gardens
• Roy Robinson - Forester
• Nagendra Kumar Singh – National Professor, Dr. B.P.Pal Chair, Indian Council of Agricultural Research
• Reg Sprigg - geologist and conservationist (Arkaroola); discovered Ediacara biota
• Ted Strehlow - Australian anthropologist
• Andy Thomas – first Australia-born professional astronaut to enter space
• Cecil Edgar Tilley – petrologist and geologist
• Norman Tindale - Australian anthropologist, archaeologist, entomologist and ethnologist

Medicine

• Henry Fry - physician and anthropologist
• Basil Hetzel – authority on iodine deficiency
• Loretta Marron, OAM - CEO of Friends of Science in Medicine
• Helen Mayo – pioneer in women's and children's health
• Henry Simpson Newland - surgeon

Music

• Julian Cochran – composer
• Mark Holden – singer, actor, television personality and barrister
• Graham Jenkin – poet, composer and historian
• Graham Koehne – composer
• Guy Sebastian – singer-songwriter
• Stephen Whittington – composer, pianist and writer on music

Performing and visual arts

• Robyn Archer - performer and director
• John Dowie - painter and sculptor
• Francis Greenslade – comedian
• Robert Hannaford - realist artist
• Dichen Lachman – actress (portrayed Sierra on Dollhouse)
• Anthony "Lehmo" Lehmann - comedian
• Lionel Logue - speech and language therapist and stage actor who successfully treated King George VI
• Gary McCaffrie - comedy writer and producer
• Shaun Micallef – comedian and writer
• Keith Mitchell - film and television actor
• Steve J. Spears - playwright and director

Media and journalism

• Keith Conlon - television and radio presenter
• Annabel Crabb - political writer and commentator
• Fran Kelly - journalist and political correspondent
• Christian Kerr - political commentator and journalist
• Samantha Maiden - national political editor of News Corporation Sunday papers
• Hamish McLachlan - television sports commentator for the Seven Network
• David Penberthy - editor-in-chief of the The Daily Telegraph
• Michael Stutchbury - editor-in-chief of the The Australian Financial Review
• Anne Summers - feminist writer and commentator

Sports

• Max Basheer - football administrator
• Leonidas Bott - cricketer
• Matthew Cowdrey - swimmer; Australia's most successful Paralympian
• Collier Cudmore - Olympic rower and gold medal winner at 1908 Summer Olympics
• Hannah Davis - Olympic medal winning sprint canoer
• Moya Dodd - soccer official and player
• Annette Edmondson - Olympic cyclist and bronze medal winner at 2012 Summer Olympics
• Jaime Fernandez - three time Olympic rower in the Men's Eight (1992, 1996 and 2000), winning a silver medal in 2000
• David Fitzsimons – middle distance runner
• Amber Halliday - three time world champion in the Women's Lightweight Double Scull (2002,'03, '07) and in the Lightweight Quad Scull (2001)
• Juliet Haslam - Olympic hockey player and winner of gold medals at the 1996 and 2000 Summer Olympics
• Marguerite Houston - Olympic rower
• James McRae - world champion and Olympic medal winning rower
• Chris Morgan - world champion in the Quadruple Scull in 2011 and Coxed Pair in 2010, 4th place in the Quadruple Scull at the Athens Olympics
• Darren Ng - professional basketball player for the Adelaide 36ers
• Kate Slatter - Olympic rower; won gold at Atlanta '96 and a silver at Sydney 2000
• Tim Willoughby - rowed twice in the Olympic Men's Eight (1980 and 1984), winning bronze in '84

Notable staff

Nobel laureates

• Sir William Bragg – physicist, Nobel laureate (Physics, 1915) with his son William Lawrence Bragg "for their services in the analysis of crystal structure by means of X-rays"
• J. M. Coetzee – acclaimed South African novelist and Nobel laureate (Literature, 2003); retired to Adelaide and Honorary Visiting Research Fellow in the Discipline of English

Law

• Leo Blair – father of British Prime Minister Tony Blair; law lecturer at the University of Adelaide while Tony was a child
• Daniel Patrick O'Connell - international law professor
• John Salmond - professor of law and judge of the Supreme Court of New Zealand

Science

Natural sciences

• William Noel Benson – geologist
• Martin Glaessner - geologist and palaeontologist
• Arthur Mills Lea - entomologist
• Cecil Madigan – geologist
• Sir Douglas Mawson – Antarctic explorer and geologist
• Ian Plimer – geologist and noted global warming critic
• Ralph Tate – botanist and geologist
• Frederic Wood Jones - naturalist and anthropologist

Mathematicians

• Keith Briggs – mathematician, formerly on the staff of the Physics Department
• Gavin Brown – mathematician
• Charles E. M. Pearce – applied mathematician
• Renfrey Potts – Adelaide's first professor of applied mathematics
• George Szekeres – mathematician known for the Erdős–Szekeres theorem
• Ernie Tuck – applied mathematician
• Mathai Varghese – pure mathematician

Physicists

• Derek Abbott – physicist and engineer; pioneered the first terahertz (T-ray) program in Australia; led the early development of a branch of game theory known as Parrondo's paradox
• Rod Crewther – physicist; former PhD student of the Nobel prize winner Murray Gell-Mann
• Sir Kerr Grant - Elder professor of physics 1911-1948
• Bert Green - former PhD student of the Nobel Laureate Max Born; the "G" in "BBGKY"
• Kenneth G. McCracken - physicist and former director of CSIRO
• Tanya Monro – physicist and Federation Fellow (2008)
• Albert Percival Rowe – Vice-Chancellor, physicist; previously radar pioneer in Britain
• Anthony William Thomas - Elder professor of physics; South Australian Scientist of the Year 2014

Medicine

• Brendon Coventry – discovered the immune cycle; cancer pioneer
• Edward Charles Stirling - physiologist, politician and advocate for women's suffrage
• Sir Joseph Cooke Verco – physician and conchologist

Humanities

• Neal Blewett - academic, politician and diplomat
• Tristram Cary – composer of the Dalek theme tune for Doctor Who
• Brian Castro – novelist
• Robert Champion de Crespigny – industrialist
• Alexander Downer - former Minister for Foreign Affairs
• Keith Hancock - historian
• Graeme Hugo – demographer and Federation Fellow (2002)
• Ken Inglis - journalist and historian
• Frank Cameron Jackson – philosopher
• Jill Jones - poet
• Charles Jury - poet
• Gavan McCormack – orientalist
• Sir Leslie Melville – inaugural Professor of Economics at age 27; later Vice-Chancellor of the Australian National University
• Sir William Mitchell – philosopher
• Sir Archibald Grenfell Price - historian and politician
• George Rudé – Marxist historian
• J. J. C. Smart – philosopher
• J. I. M. Stewart - novelist
• Randolph Stow - novelist
• Hugh Stretton - historian and sociologist
• Andrew Taylor – poet
• Ghil'ad Zuckermann – linguist

Other

• Barry Brook – climate scientist and advocate of nuclear power
• Alan Cooper – ancient DNA expert and Federation Fellow (2004)
• Paul Davies – Professor of Natural Philosophy, Templeton Prize winner (1995)
• Tim Flannery – paleontologist, Australian of the Year
• Fay Gale – Adelaide's first Honours Geography graduate; first woman President of the Australian Vice-Chancellors' Committee; President of Academy of Social Sciences in Australia 1998-2000; Vice-Chancellor of University of Western Australia 1990-1997
• Elizabeth Grant - architect and anthropologist
• Geoff Harcourt - economist
• Frederic Wood Jones – naturalist
• Peter Sutton – anthropologist
• Mark Tester – botanist and Federation Fellow (2004)