University of Edinburgh

The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a renowned centre for teaching and research in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is one of the ancient universities of Scotland and is amongst the largest and most prestigious in the United Kingdom.

Alumni and faculty

The University has many famous alumni, including:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Politics

• Gordon Brown, British Chancellor of the Exchequer
• Robin Cook, former Foreign Secretary
• Tessa Jowell, Secretary of State for Culture, Media, and Sport
• Lord Melville, statesman
• Lord Robert Finlay, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain
• Jennie Lee, former Minister for the Arts and founder of the Open University
• Lord MacKay, Lord Chancellor
• David McLetchie, Leader of the Scottish Conservatives
• Lord Petty-Fitzmaurice, Chancellor of the Exchequer
• Malcolm Rifkind, former Foreign Secretary
• Lord John Russell, Prime Minister
• David Steel, Leader of British Liberal Party and first Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament
• Jim Wallace, Former leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats and Deputy First Minister
• Charles Tupper, Prime Minister of Canada
• Mike Synar, Former United States Congressman
• John Witherspoon, signatory, American Declaration of Independence
• Benjamin Rush, Signatory, American Declaration of Independence
• Julius Nyerere, First President of Tanzania
• Yun Po Sun, former President of South Korea

Sciences

• Sir Michael Atiyah, mathematician
• Charles Glover Barkla, Nobel laureate in Physics
• Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone
• Joseph Bell, medic
• Joseph Black, physicist and chemist
• Sophia Jex-Blake, pioneer of medical education for women in Britain
• Max Born, Nobel laureate in Physics
• David Brewster, scientist
• Charles Darwin, naturalist, author of the "Origin of Species"
• James Dewar, chemist and physicist
• Peter Doherty, Nobel laureate in Medicine
• Klaus Fuchs, physicist
• Archibald Geikie, geologist
• James Hector, geologist
• Peter Higgs, physicist, Emeritus Professor of Physics and father of the Higgs boson.
• Robin Hochstrasser, chemist.
• Archie Howie, physicist.
• Charles Hutton, mathematician
• James Hutton, the father of modern geology.
• Robert Jameson, naturalist and mineralist
• George Kelly, psychologist
• Sir John Leslie, mathematician and physicist
• Joseph Lister, introduced antiseptics into surgery
• Colin Maclaurin, mathematician
• David MacRitchie, archaeologist
• James Clerk Maxwell, physicist and father of electromagnetics (The Maxwell Equations are fundamental to modern electrical and electronic engineering)
• Roger Mercer, archaeologist
• Robin Milner, computer scientist
• Augustus De Morgan, mathematician and logician
• Alexander Munro III, anatomists
• Richard Owen, biologist and palaeontologist
• John Playfair, mathematician
• Robert Sibbald, Professor of Medicine
• James Young Simpson, pioneered the use of chloroform in midwifery
• Peter Guthrie Tait, physicist
• Igor Tamm, Nobel laureate in Physics
• Stephen Tweedie, computer scientist
• John Walker, naturalist
• Edmund Whittaker, mathematician
• William Withering, physician

Arts

• Robert Adam, architect
• J. M. Barrie, Peter Pan author
• Elizabeth Blackadder, artist
• Thomas Brown, philosopher
• Thomas Carlyle, essayist and historian
• Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes author
• Adam Ferguson, philosopher and historian
• Robert Garioch, poet and translator
• Oliver Goldsmith, writer and physician
• David Hume, philosopher and historian
• Margaret Iversen, art historian
• Ku Hung-ming, writer and polyglot
• Sorley Maclean (Somhairle MacGill-Eain), Gaelic poet
• James Mill, historian and utilitarianist philosopher
• Keith Moxey, art historian
• J K Rowling, famous author
• Peter Roget, author of the first Thesaurus
• Sir Walter Scott, author and poet
• Robert Louis Stevenson, author
• Dugald Stewart, philosopher
• Kerry Stewart, artist

Miscellaneous

• John Aikin, physician and writer
• John Brown, physician and author
• George Chalmers, antiquarian and political writer
• Henry Thomas Cockburn, judge
• Daisy Donovan, actor and broadcaster
• Reginald Johnston, diplomat and pedagogue of Pu Yi, the last Emperor of China
• Ian Rankin, author
• Benjamin Constant, writer and politician
• James Africanus Horton, First African Graduate from a British University
• Allan Little, BBC Foreign Correspondent
• A.S. Neill, educationalist
• Gregory Neilson, Publisher and notable Roman Catholic
• Mark O'Neil, philanthropist
• George Newlands, theologian
• Lord Playfair, scientist and parlimentarian
• Stella Rimington, former head of MI5
• Piers Sellers, astronaut
• Samuel Smiles, author and reformer
• Kirsty Wark, broadcaster

Hume and Maxwell both applied for teaching posts at the university, which refused to employ either.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~