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 expanding it with reliably sourced entries.

Notable alumni

Nobel laureates

• Richard R. Schrock – Chemistry, 2005, professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Academia, science, and technology

• Peter Adriaens – professor of engineering and entrepreneurship at the University of Michigan
• Leonard Beeghley – professor of sociology at University of Florida
• Neil Campbell – scientist known best for his best-selling Biology textbook
• Mason Gaffney – professor of economics and prominent Georgist
• Harmohinder Singh Gill – plant pathologist who pioneered fungus classification by disc electrophoresis
• Matthew Haughey – blogger and founder of MetaFilter
• Marigold Linton – director of American Indian outreach at the University of Kansas
• 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
• 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

• Earl W. Bascom – inventor, actor, rodeo cowboy, Hall of Fame inductee, international artist and sculptor
• 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
• 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. Chung also appeared on MTV's The Real World and Real World/Road Rules Challenge
• 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
• 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
• Ruben Quesada – poet
• Lindsay Ridgeway – actress, Boy Meets World
• Charlyne Yi – actress, comedian, and performance artist (Knocked Up)

Athletics

• Michael Basinger – former professional football player for the Green Bay Packers
• 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 Boston Red Sox
• 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 San Francisco Giants
• Marc Rzepczynski – Major League pitcher for the San Diego Padres
• Eric Show – former professional baseball player for the San Diego Padres and Oakland Athletics
• Charles Smith – Major League pitcher for the Milwaukee Brewers
• Erasmo Solorzano – professional MLS football player for the Chivas USA acquired in the 2007 draft.
• Brendan Steele – professional golfer on the PGA Tour

Business, 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
• David S. Cunningham, Jr. – Los AngelesCity Council member, 1973–87, a graduate
• Lloyd Levine – former California State Assemblyman for the 40th District
• Holly J. Mitchell – California State Senator for the 26th District, former California State Assemblymember to the 54th and 47th Districts
• Ronald Neumann – former U.S. Ambassador to Algeria
• Rod Pacheco – former Riverside County District Attorney, California Assembly member
• Gloria Romero – former State Senate Majority Whip, former California Assembly member, 49th District
• Stefanie Schaeffer – defense attorney, 2006 winner of Donald Trump's reality show, The Apprentice.

Other

• Jeff Cooper – creator of the modern technique of shooting; firearms expert who defined the modern scout rifle
• James Holmes – gunman in the 2012 Aurora shooting; currently serving a life sentence for murder

Notable faculty

• Chris Abani – professor of creative writing and the recipient of the PEN USA Freedom-to-Write Award, the 2001 Prince Claus Awards, a Lannan Literary Fellowship, a California Book Award, a Hurston-Wright Legacy Award and the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award
• Reza Aslan – assistant professor of creative writing
• John Baez – professor of mathematics, mathematical physicist
• Alexander A. Balandin – professor of electrical engineering
• 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
• Christopher Chase-Dunn – sociologist, contributor to world-systems theory
• Sean Cutler – plant scientist noted for discovery of pyrabactin
• Mike Davis – urban theorist and author
• James H. Dieterich – Distinguished Professor of Geophysics, member of the National Academy of Sciences
• Josh Emmons – American novelist
• Steve Erickson – American author, essayist, critic
• 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
• Juan Felipe Herrera – poet, United States Poet Laureate
• Ivan Hinderaker – former chancellor
• Nalo Hopkinson – science fiction and fantasy writer
• 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 – 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
• Alexander Raikhel – professor of entomology, elected to the National Academy of Sciences
• 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 – Pulitzer Prize winning author
• Harry Scott Smith – entomologist
• Susan Straight – writer, professor of creative writing, National Book Award finalist
• 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