PEOPLE KNOWN FOR: higher education
German chemist
Justus, baron von Liebig was a German chemist who made significant contributions to the analysis of organic compounds, the organization of laboratory-based chemistry education, and the application of chemistry...
American philosopher and educator
John Dewey was an American philosopher and educator who was a cofounder of the philosophical movement known as pragmatism, a pioneer in functional psychology, an innovative theorist of democracy, and a...
British nurse, statistician, and social reformer
Florence Nightingale was a British nurse, statistician, and social reformer who was the foundational philosopher of modern nursing. Nightingale was put in charge of nursing British and allied soldiers...
Roman Catholic nun and teacher
In 1989 Thea Bowman was a keynote speaker at a semiannual conference of U.S. Roman Catholic bishops. The topic of her address, on what it means to be Black and Catholic, drew upon her experience as a convert...
German-American anthropologist
Franz Boas was a German-born American anthropologist of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the founder of the relativistic, culture-centered school of American anthropology that became dominant in...
Canadian physician
Sir William Osler, Baronet was a Canadian physician and professor of medicine who practiced and taught in Canada, the United States, and Great Britain and whose book The Principles and Practice of Medicine...
Canadian political leader
Michael Ignatieff is a Canadian author, literary critic, and politician who represented the Etobicoke-Lakeshore riding in the Canadian House of Commons (2006–11) and who served as leader of the Liberal...
American scientist and educator
Shirley Ann Jackson is an American scientist and educator and the first Black woman to receive a doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Jackson helped develop technologies that...
Canadian molecular biologist
Shirley M. Tilghman is a Canadian molecular biologist and the first woman to serve as president of Princeton University (2001–13). Tilghman is also known for her research into genomic imprinting and gene...
American activist, television producer, writer, educator and filmmaker
Tony Brown is an American activist, television producer, writer, educator, and filmmaker who hosted Tony Brown’s Journal (1968–2008; original name Black Journal until 1977), the longest-running Black news...
American educator
Emma Willard was an American educator whose work in women’s education, particularly as founder of the Troy Female Seminary, spurred the establishment of high schools for girls and of women’s colleges and...
American chemist
Ellen Swallow Richards was an American chemist and founder of the home economics movement in the United States. Ellen Swallow was educated mainly at home. She briefly attended Westford Academy and also...
Scottish physician and professor
William Cullen was a Scottish physician and professor of medicine, best known for his innovative teaching methods. Cullen received his early education at Hamilton Grammar School, in the town where he was...
American psychologist
G. Stanley Hall was a psychologist who gave early impetus and direction to the development of psychology in the United States. Frequently regarded as the founder of child psychology and educational psychology,...
American minister
Jerry Falwell was an American religious leader, televangelist, and founder of the Moral Majority, a political organization for the promotion of conservative social values. Although his grandfather and...
American educator and historian
Drew Gilpin Faust is an American educator and historian who was the first female president of Harvard University (2007–18). Gilpin grew up in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, where her parents raised Thoroughbred...
American official
Donna Shalala is an American educator, administrator, and public official who was secretary of health and human services (1993–2001) under U.S. Pres. Bill Clinton and who later served in the U.S. House...
American educator
Abbie Park Ferguson was an American educator, a founder and preserver of Huguenot College as the only women’s college in South Africa in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Ferguson was the daughter...
United States senator
Roy Blunt is an American politician who was elected as a Republican to the U.S. Senate in 2010 and represented Missouri in that body from 2011 to 2023. He previously served in the U.S. House of Representatives...
American educator
Alice Elvira Freeman Palmer was an American educator who exerted a strong and lasting influence on the academic and administrative character of Wellesley (Massachusetts) College during her brief tenure...
American educator
Mary Lyon was an American pioneer in the field of higher education for women and founder and first principal of Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, the forerunner of Mount Holyoke College. Lyon began teaching...
American author
Allan Nevins was an American historian, author, and educator, known especially for his eight-volume history of the American Civil War and his biographies of American political and industrial figures. He...
American educator
M. Carey Thomas was an American educator and feminist and the second president (1894–1922) of Bryn Mawr College in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Carey Thomas, as she preferred to be known, was the daughter...
pope
Gregory XIII was the pope from 1572 to 1585, who promulgated the Gregorian calendar and founded a system of seminaries for Roman Catholic priests. Educated at the University of Bologna, he taught jurisprudence...
American librarian and missionary
Mary Elizabeth Wood was an American librarian and missionary, whose efforts brought numerous libraries to China and established a strong program in that country to train librarians. Wood grew up and attended...
American scholar
I. Michael Heyman was an American scholar known for his academic career at the University of California at Berkeley and for spearheading the digitization of the archives of the Smithsonian Institution...
American educator and reformer
Julia Strudwick Tutwiler was an American educator and reformer who was responsible for making higher education in Alabama more readily available to women through her association with several colleges and...
American educator
Laura Drake Gill was an American educator, remembered particularly for her role in establishing organized placement assistance for educated women. Gill was educated at Smith College. After graduating in...
American missionary and educator
Susan Lincoln Tolman Mills was an American missionary and educator who, with her husband, established what would become the first U.S. women’s college on the west coast. Susan Tolman graduated from Mount...
American educator and military officer
Katherine Amelia Towle was an American educator and military officer who became the first director of women’s marines when the regular U.S. Marine Corps integrated women into their ranks. Towle graduated...
American politician and educator
Hiram Rhodes Revels was an American clergyman, educator, and politician who became the first African American to serve in the U.S. Senate (1870–71), representing Mississippi during Reconstruction. He was...
American literary critic and teacher
Elaine Showalter is an American literary critic and teacher and founder of gynocritics, a school of feminist criticism concerned with “woman as writer…with the history, themes, genres, and structures of...
prime minister of Canada
Louis Saint Laurent was a Canadian statesman and jurist who, as Liberal prime minister in 1948–57, helped to maintain Canadian unity and to bring about reforms. Saint Laurent studied at St. Charles College...
American teacher, historian, and author
Jacques Barzun was a French-born American teacher, historian, and author who influenced higher education in the United States by his insistence that undergraduates avoid early specialization and instead...
American inventor
George Washington Pierce was an American inventor who was a pioneer in radiotelephony and a noted teacher of communication engineering. The second of three sons of a farm family, Pierce grew up on a cattle...
American educator and historian
Emily James Smith Putnam was an American educator and historian, remembered especially for her early influence on the academic quality of Barnard College in New York City. Emily Smith graduated from Bryn...
American educator
Ellen Fitz Pendleton was an American educator who served as president of Wellesley (Massachusetts) College for a quarter of a century. Pendleton graduated from Wellesley College in 1886. She remained at...
American priest and educator
Theodore Hesburgh was an American Roman Catholic priest and educator under whose presidency (1952–87) the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, became as respected for its academic record as...
Scottish physician and antiquarian
Sir Robert Sibbald was a Scottish physician and antiquarian, who became the first professor of medicine at the University of Edinburgh (1685), which became thereafter, for more than a century, one of the...
Orthodox theologian
Petro Mohyla was an Orthodox monk and theologian of Moldavian origin who served as metropolitan of Kiev and who authored the Orthodox Confession of the Catholic and Apostolic Eastern Church. He reformed...
American photographer
Arthur Siegel was a photographer noted for his experimental photography, particularly in colour, and for his contributions to photographic education. Siegel already had 10 years of experience in photography...
American scholar
Jill Ker Conway was an Australian-born American scholar, the first woman president of Smith College (1975–85), whose research as a historian focused on the role of feminism in American history. Jill Ker...
American educator
Nathan Pusey was an American educator, president of Harvard University (1953–71), who greatly enhanced the school’s endowment and educational facilities and revitalized its teaching of the humanities....
American educator and activist
Betty Shabazz was an American educator and civil rights activist who is perhaps best known as the wife of slain Black nationalist leader Malcolm X. Betty Shabazz was born Betty Dean Sanders in the small...
British economist
Lionel Charles Robbins, Baron Robbins was an economist and leading figure in British higher education. Robbins was educated at the University of London and the London School of Economics (LSE). After periods...
American academician and administrator
Nannerl Overholser Keohane is an American academician and administrator who gained particular prominence when she became the first woman president of Duke University in Durham, N.C. Keohane received an...
American historian
Lucy Maynard Salmon was an American historian who extended the offerings in history during her long tenure at Vassar College. She also was instrumental in building a library there of high scholarly merit....
American geologist
Thomas Chrowder Chamberlin was a U.S. geologist and educator who proposed the planetesimal hypothesis, which held that a star once passed near the Sun, pulling away from it matter that later condensed...
American educator
Abby Lillian Marlatt was an American educator who brought a strong academic base to the university programs in home economics that she established. Marlatt graduated from Manhattan’s Kansas State Agricultural...
American educator
Maria Louise Sanford was an American educator remembered for the innovation and inspiration she brought to her teaching. Sanford graduated from the New Britain Normal School in 1855 and then taught school...