List of people associated with Birkbeck, University of London

This article is a list of people associated with Birkbeck, University of London, including alumni, members of faculty and fellows.

Current and former faculty

• Georgios Alogoskoufis, Greek Minister of Economy and Finance from March 2004 till January 2009.
• Anthony Bale, medievalist
• Julia Bell, author
• J. D. Bernal, pioneer of X-ray crystallography
• Derek Barton, organic chemist and Nobel Laureate for Chemistry, 1969
• Antony Beevor, historian
• Patrick Blackett, Baron Blackett, professor and Nobel Laureate for Physics, 1948
• Sir Tom Blundell, crystallographer, FRS
• David Bohm, quantum physicist
• Andrew Donald Booth, head of Numerical Automation
• Kathleen Booth née Britten, computer scientist
• C. Delisle Burns (1879-1942), atheist and secularist writer and lecturer
• Ian Christie, professor of film and media history
• Steven Connor, professor
• Ian Crawford, Professor of Planetary Science and Astrobiology
• Diana Coole, social scientist
• Costas Douzinas, law professor
• T. S. Eliot, Nobel Laureate for Literature 1948, publisher, playwright, literary and social critic
• Hilda Ellis Davidson, academic and English antiquarian
• Martina Evans, poet
• Richard J. Evans, Regius Professor of Modern History at Cambridge
• Martin Paul Eve, professor
• Dame Millicent Fawcett, suffragist
• Orlando Figes, professor of history
• Ben Fine, professor
• Rosalind Franklin, crystallographer
• Hugh Gaitskell, lecturer
• Caroline Goodson, medievalist
• A. C. Grayling, philosopher
• Vittorio Grilli, Italy's economy and finances minister (Monti cabinet) from 2012 to 2013.
• Richard Hamblyn, lecturer in creative writing
• Vanessa Harding, professor of London history
• Basil Hiley, quantum physicist and emeritus professor
• Paul Hirst, professor
• Eric Hobsbawm, professor of History
• Thomas Hodgskin, lecturer in economic theory
• Kenneth Holmes, crystallographer
• Elizabeth Hounsell, carbohydrate scientist
• C. E. M. Joad, Reader in Philosophy, author and popular broadcaster
• Mark Johnson, professor
• Charlotte Jolles, Professor, historian
• Russell Celyn Jones, professor of creative writing
• Annette Karmiloff-Smith, professor
• Anthony Julius, visiting professor
• Aaron Klug, crystallographer and Nobel Laureate for Chemistry, 1982
• Jon Lansman, Labour Party activist
• Gail Lewis, academic and activist
• Toby Litt, author, lecturer
• Joni Lovenduski, political scientist
• Mark Mazower, professor
• Louis Mordell, researcher in mathematics
• Laura Mulvey, professor of film and media studies
• Jeremy K. Nicholson, professor of biological chemistry
• Roger Penrose, theoretical physicist and Nobel Laureate for Physics, 2020
• Nikolaus Pevsner, professor
• Ben Pimlott, professor
• Lucy Riall, historian
• Helen Saibil, molecular biologist, FRS, FMedSci
• Roger Scruton, professor
• Lynne Segal, professor
• Colin Teevan, professor of playwriting
• Dame Janet Thornton, structural bioinformatics, FRS, Director EBI
• Li Wei, academic, linguist
• Ralph Vaughan Williams, lecturer, composer
• Kalpana Wilson, author, researcher, lecturer
• Tony Wright, politician, distinguished professor at Birkbeck
• Slavoj Žižek, philosopher

Presidents

The following have served as President of Birkbeck:

• 1823–1841: George Birkbeck FRS (founder of Birkbeck)
• 1841–1888: William Lloyd Birkbeck
• 1888–1897: The Rt Hon The Earl of Northbrook, GCSI
• 1903–1915: The Rt Hon Lord Alverstone, GCMG
• 1919–1928: The Rt Hon Viscount Haldane, KT, OM, FRS
• 1929–1933: The Rt Hon Viscount Burnham, GCMG, CH, LLD, DLitt
• 1935–1936: His Royal Highness The Duke of York (later King George VI)
• 1942–1944: The Most Rev and Rt Hon William Temple, PC (Archbishop of Canterbury)
• 1947–1950: Field-Marshal The Rt Hon Earl Wavell, GCB, GCSI, GCIE, CMG, MC, LLD
• 1952–1983: The Rt Hon Lord Denning, LLD, DCL, FBA
• 1983–1989: The Rt Hon Baroness Lockwood
• 1989–1993: The Rt Hon Lord Young of Dartington, HonFBA
• 1993–1998: The Rt Hon Lord Healey, CH, MBE
• 1998-2002: The Rt Hon Baroness Smith of Gilmorehill
• 2002-2012: Professor Eric Hobsbawm
• 2012-present: The Rt Hon Baroness Bakewell

Masters and Vice Chancellors

• John Redcliffe Maud (1939–1943)
• E.H. Warmington (acting, 1950–1951)
• John Francis Lockwood (1951–1965; Vice-Chancellor of the University of London 1955–1958)
• E.H. Warmington (acting, 1965–1966)
• Kenneth Hare (1966–1968)
• Ronald Tress (1968–1977)
• Tessa Blackstone, Baroness Blackstone (1987–1997; Vice-Chancellor of University of Greenwich)
• Timothy O'Shea (1998–2002; Principal of the University of Edinburgh)
• David Latchman (2003–2023)
• Sally Wheeler (since 2024)

Alumni

• Mukhlesur Rahman Chowdhury, politician, editor, Minister and former Adviser to the President of Bangladesh
• Chris Abani, writer
• Kemi Badenoch, politician and Member of Parliament, candidate for Leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
• Marian Bell, economist; former member of the Monetary Policy Committee
• Luciana Berger, politician and Member of Parliament
• Annie Besant, theosophist
• Simon Bird, actor and comedian
• Oliver Chris, actor
• Alex Corbisiero, England and British Lions rugby player
• Beth Cordingly, actress
• David Cox, statistician
• Bernard Crick, political theorist
• Juliet Davenport, businesswoman
• Alan Davey, civil servant; current Chief executive of British Arts Council
• Edward Davey, politician and Member of Parliament
• Dido, singer
• Jennifer Donnelly, writer
• Samir El-Youssef, writer
• Tracey Emin, artist
• Nissim Ezekiel, professor, poet
• Rachel Glennerster, economist, Chief Economist at the Department for International Development
• Tomás González Estrada, Colombian politician, former minister of energy
• Marcus Garvey, founder Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League
• Eliane Glaser, writer, broadcaster
• Julia Goldsworthy, politician; former Liberal Democrat MP for Falmouth and Camborne
• Bear Grylls, adventurer, author and television presenter
• John Joseph Haldane, philosopher
• Frank Hartley, vice-chancellor of the university
• Zhu Hua, applied linguist
• Vernon Ingram, Fellow of the Royal Society
• Paul Johnson, economist, Director of Institute of Fiscal Studies
• William Joyce, deputy Leader of the British Union of Fascists, Nazi wartime broadcaster and convicted traitor
• Oliver Kamm, journalist
• James Lovelock, developer of the Gaia Hypothesis
• Ramsay MacDonald, politician; first Labour Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
• John McDonnell, politician
• Denis MacShane, politician
• Leonard Mandel, nuclear physicist
• Ehsan Masood, science writer and editor of Research Fortnight
• Ram Charan Mehrotra, organometallic chemist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
• Ernest Millington, politician
• Seumas Milne, journalist and political aide
• Lisa Nandy, politician and Member of Parliament
• Jesse Norman, politician and Member of Parliament
• Nerina Pallot, singer
• Nick Palmer, politician and former Member of Parliament
• Arthur Wing Pinero, actor, stage director and dramatist
• Daisy Ridley, actress
• J. Philippe Rushton, psychologist
• John Rowan (psychologist), psychologist
• Jenny Rowe, Chief Executive, UK Supreme Court
• Richard Sambrook, broadcaster, formerly director of the BBC World
• Frank Sando, former International Cross-Country Champion
• Andy Saull, rugby player
• Helen Sharman, chemist and cosmonaut
• Joost Smiers, academic
• Nick Smith, politician
• Vaughan Smith, soldier, journalist, cameraman, and social entrepreneur
• Laura Solomon, writer
• Nicola Spence, Chief Plant Health Officer, Defra
• William Stanley, inventor, engineer and philanthropist
• Kim Thomson, stage, film and television actress
• Mark P. Taylor, economist, Dean of Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis
• Laurie Taylor, sociologist
• Tracey Thorn, pop star, singer with Everything but the Girl
• Ronald Tress, economist
• Kitty Ussher, British economist and former Labour Party politician
• Alfred Russel Wallace, naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist, and biologist. He is best known for independently conceiving the theory of evolution through natural selection
• Rob Williams, rower, silver medallist in the 2012 Olympics
• Sidney James Webb, 1st Baron Passfield, founder of the London School of Economics
• Jah Wobble, musician/writer
• Wai Hnin Pwint Thon, Burmese Muslim political activist
• Sidin Vadukut, columnist, writer and blogger
• Claudia Webbe, Labour MP
• Omeima Mudawi-Rowlings MBE, deaf British-Sudanese textile artist based in Brighton

Fellows

• Edward Davey, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Kingston and Surbiton
• Frank Dobson, Labour politician
• Dame Vivien Duffield, philanthropist
• Sir Richard J. Evans, historian
• Dame Julia Goodfellow, former Chief Executive of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
• Sir Peter Lampl, educationalist and philanthropist, founder of the Sutton Trust
• Leonard Wolfson, Baron Wolfson