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

Notable alumni

Nobel laureates

Richard R. Schrock – Chemistry, 2005, professor at University of California, Riverside^[1]

Academia, science, and technology

Peter Adriaens – professor of engineering and entrepreneurship at the selling Biology textbook^[2]
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
Philip Michael Thomas – actor, Miami Vice
Charlyne Yi – actress, comedian, and performance artist (Knocked Up)

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 Los Angeles Football Club
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; 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 – novelist
Steve Erickson – Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing, 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 – 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
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