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Quick Facts
![Lee Duffield](https://pplstatic.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.commedia/people/featured/L/lee-duffield/University_of_Sydney_Main_Quadrangle.jpg)
Biography
This is a list of University of Sydney people, including notable alumni and staff.
Alumni
Academia
- Elizabeth Bannan, educationist awarded the Walter Beavis prize and the Jones medal
- Brian L. Byrne, social scientist known for research in psycholinguistics; Emeritus professor at the University of New England
- Beverly Derewianka, Emeritus Professor of linguistics at University of Wollongong
- Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, biologist and climate scientist known as a leading expert in the effects of climate change on coral reefs
- Frank Lancaster Jones, sociologist known for research on social inequality, social stratification, social mobility, and national identity
- Sir Robert Madgwick OBE, first Vice-Chancellor of the University of New England; two-term Chairman of the Australian Broadcasting Commission; Director of the Australian Army Education Service during World War II
- Nicholas Saunders, Former Vice-Chancellor University of Newcastle and former Dean of Medicine Monash University and Flinders University
- Eddie Woo, the most famous mathematics teacher in Australia
Architecture
- John Andrews, designer of CN Tower, Toronto, Canada, the tallest concrete structure in the world and often listed as one of the seven wonders of the modern world
- Philip Cox AO, founder and principal of COX Architecture
- Eleanor Cullis-Hill
- László Peter Kollar, Hungarian-born former Australian architect and academic (Architecture)
- Andrea Nield
Business
- Matt Barrie – CEO of Freelancer.com
- David S. Clarke – Chairman of Macquarie Bank (1985–2007)
- Cameron Clyne – CEO of National Australia Bank (2009–2014)
- Matt Comyn – CEO of Commonwealth Bank
- Philip Corne – CEO of Louis Vuitton Oceania
- Margaret Gardner – CEO of Monash University
- John Grill – billionaire, CEO of WorleyParsons
- Angus Harris – Co-CEO of Harris Farm Markets
- Sir David Higgins – CEO of Network Rail
- Fred Hilmer – CEO of University of New South Wales
- Michael Hintze– billionaire, philanthropist; former Head of U.K. Trading and Head of European emerging markets trading at Goldman Sachs
- Ryan Junee – founder and CEO of Omnisio and Inporia
- Jeni Klugman – Director of the Human Development Report Office, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
- Jim Millner – former Chairman of Washington H. Soul Pattinson
- Allan Moss – Managing Director/CEO of Macquarie Bank (1993–2008)
- John Mulcahy – CEO of Suncorp-Metway Ltd (2003–2009)
- Michael Patsalos-Fox – Chairman of McKinsey & Co in America
- Timothy Potts – Director of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles
- Mark Scott – former CEO of Australian Broadcasting Corporation
- Michael Spence – Vice-Chancellor and Principal of University of Sydney
- Glenn Stevens – Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia
- Matt Sweeny – CEO and co-founder of Flirtey, inventor
- Malcolm Turnbull – Prime Minister, lawyer, investment banker, prominent republican
- Tom Waterhouse – bookmaker;CEO of William Hill Australia
- James Wolfensohn – President of the World Bank (1995–2005)
Community activism
Government
Royalty
- Sikhanyiso Dlamini – Princess of Swaziland
- Taufa'ahau Tupou IV – King of Tonga
Governors-General of Australia
- Sir William Deane
- Sir John Kerr
State governors and Territory Administrators
- Dame Marie Bashir (NSW)
- Richard Butler (Tas)
- Peter Coleman (NF)
- Sir Roden Cutler (NSW)
- Sir Alan Mansfield (Qld)
- Sir Jack Keith Murray (Papua and New Guinea)
- Tom Pauling (NT)
- Sir James Plimsoll (Tas)
- Sir James Rowland (NSW)
Politicians
Prime Ministers of Australia
- Tony Abbott
- Sir Edmund Barton
- John Howard
- Sir William McMahon
- Sir Earle Page
- Malcolm Turnbull
- Gough Whitlam
Premiers of New South Wales
- Mike Baird
- Sir Thomas Bavin
- Sir Joseph Carruthers
- John Fahey
- Sir George Fuller
- Nick Greiner
- Morris Iemma
- James McGirr
- Nathan Rees
- Sir Eric Willis
- Neville Wran
Federal politicians
- Anthony Albanese
- John Anderson
- Sir Garfield Barwick
- Lionel Bowen
- Sir Nigel Bowen
- Sir Percy Spender
- Kerry Bartlett
- Chris Bowen
- Bob Brown
- Ross Cameron
- Peter Coleman
- Craig Emerson
- Laurie Ferguson
- Martin Ferguson
- Jennie George
- Joe Hockey
- Tom Hughes
- Ros Kelly
- Peter King
- Andrew Laming
- Mark Latham
- Robert McClelland
- Daryl Melham
- Tsebin Tchen
- Danna Vale
Australian state and territory politicians
- Clare Martin (NT)
- George Thorn (QLD)
International politicians
- Natalie Bennett – Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales
- H. V. Evatt – President of the United Nations General Assembly
- Martin Indyk – former U.S. Ambassador to Israel, special assistant to U.S. President Bill Clinton and senior director of Near East and South Asian Affairs at the United States National Security Council
- Kevin Gardner
- Trixie Gardner, Baroness Gardner of Parkes
- Robert May, Baron May of Oxford
- Dave Sharma – youngest ever Australian diplomat, becoming Ambassador to Israel at the age of 36
- Catherine West – Labour Party politician in the United Kingdom
- Akhilesh Yadav – 20th Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, India
Lord mayors of the City of Sydney
- Jeremy Bingham
- Sir Emmet McDermott
- Nelson Meers
- Clover Moore
- Frank Sartor
- Lucy Turnbull
Public servants
- Tony Cole – thirteenth Secretary of the Department of the Treasury
- Philip Flood – former Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
- Devadas Krishnadas, author and socio-political commentator,former Singapore civil servant
- Neil McInnes AM – intellectual, journalist and senior public servant (Medicine and Physiology; did not graduate)
- Ewart Smith – campaigner against the Australia Card (LLB)
Humanities
- Margaret Clunies Ross – McCaughey Professor of English Language and Early English Literature, Director of the Centre for Medieval Studies
- Jill Ker Conway – former Vice-President of the University of Toronto and President of Smith College; Visiting Professor in MIT's program in Science, Technology, and Society; serves on the boards of Nike, Merrill Lynch, and Colgate-Palmolive; chairman of Lend Lease Corporation
- Sandy Edwards – photographer
- Charles Firth
- Tom Gleeson
- Germaine Greer – feminist
- Michael Halliday– creator of the systemic functional grammar, an internationally influential grammar model
- Andrew Hansen
- Dominic Knight
- Chas Licciardello
- Niall Lucy – writer and scholar, best known for his work on Jacques Derrida and deconstruction
- Julian Morrow
- Timothy Potts – known for his directorship of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Kimbell Museum, and National Gallery of Victoria, and for his writings on the art and archaeology of the ancient Near East and Mediterranean
- Craig Reucassel
- Chris Taylor
- Georgina Wilson – model, host of Asia's Next Top Model
Arts
- John Bell
- Rose Byrne
- Somaratne Dissanayake – Sri Lankan film director, screenwriter and stageplay director
- Jacqueline Fernandez – Sri Lankan actress, model and TV host famous for her work in Bollywood
- John Flaus
- Michael Hannan – composer, pianist, and musicologist
- May Hollinworth – theatre producer and director
- Yvonne Kenny
- Dolph Lundgren
- Dame Joan Sutherland
- Kip Williams – director of the Sydney Theatre Company
- Roger Woodward – Foundation Director at California State University in San Francisco, School of Music & Dance; pianist and musician
History
- Alan Atkinson
- Richard Bosworth
- Sir Christopher Clark
- Sir Stephen Roberts
- John Manning Ward
- Richard White
Journalism
- Phillip Adams
- Bob Ellis
- Robert Hughes
- Clive James
- Paul Kelly – Editor-at-Large of The Australian
- Ray Martin
- Richard McGregor
- Jessica Rowe
- Lillian Roxon
- Adam Spencer
Literature, writing and poetry
- Millicent Armstrong (1888–1973) – playwright and farmer who wrote primarily about the experiences of country life in early 20th century Australia; graduated BA with first class honours in English in 1910
- Nikos Athanasou
- Clive Stephen Barry
- Bruce Beresford
- Dora Birtles
- Christopher Brennan
- Geraldine Brooks – winner of the Pulitzer Prize for March (2006)
- Jane Campion
- Dymphna Cusack
- Ursula Dubosarsky
- Kate Grenville
- A. D. Hope
- Geoffrey Lehmann
- Jeni Mawter
- Les Murray
- Jennifer Rowe
- Pierre Ryckmans (Simon Leys)
- Kimberley Starr
- Peter Weir
Philosophy
Law
- Anu Singh-Known for the murder of her boyfriend in 1997
- Hugh Atkin
- Sir Edmund Barton
- Sir Garfield Barwick
- Tom Bathurst
- Virginia Bell
- Sir Maurice Byers
- Susan Crennan
- Sir William Portus Cullen
- Sir William Deane
- H. V. Evatt
- Mary Gaudron
- Murray Gleeson
- Sir Samuel Griffith
- William Gummow
- Sir Leslie James Herron
- Dyson Heydon
- Sir Kenneth Jacobs
- Sir Lawrence Jackson
- Sir Frederick Richard Jordan
- Sir John Kerr
- Michael Kirby
- Sir Frank Kitto
- Hugh Macrossan
- Sir Alan Mansfield
- Sir Anthony Mason
- Michael McHugh
- Sir Edward McTiernan
- Lionel Murphy
- Richard O'Connor
- Albert Piddington
- Sir George Rich
- Sir Percy Spender
- James Spigelman
- Sir Kenneth Whistler Street
- Sir Laurence Whistler Street
- Sir Philip Whistler Street
- Sir Alan Taylor
- Sir Cyril Walsh
- Sir Dudley Williams
- Sir Victor Windeyer
Other legal professionals
- John Davies – Judge of the United States District Court
- Marcus Einfeld (born 1938) – Australian former Superior Court Judge
- Geoffrey Robertson – international human rights lawyer
- Charles Waterstreet – criminal defence lawyer, writer and producer
Military
- Lieutenant General Sir Frank Berryman
- Major-General John Broadbent CBE
- Major-General Paul Brereton – Head Cadet, Reserve and Employer Support Division
- Lieutenant General Sir Mervyn Brogan – Chief of the General Staff
- Brigadier Sir Frederick Oliver Chilton – led the Sydney Anzac Day March in his 100th year
- Air Vice Marshal William Collins AO
- Air Vice Marshal Lyndon Compton AO OBE
- Roden Cutler – Victoria Cross recipient
- Air Vice Marshal Christopher Deeble AM CSC
- Air Vice Marshal Joseph Dietz
- Major-General Sir Ivan Dougherty
- Air Vice Marshal Desmond Douglas OBE DFC
- Lieutenant-General Sir Robert Drew – Director-General of Army Medical Services (United Kingdom)
- Air Vice Marshal Brian Graf AO
- Air Vice Marshal Michael Helsham AO DFC
- Air Vice Marshal Ernest Hey CB CBE
- Air Vice Marshal Colin Hingston AM
- Major-General W B "Digger" James – Director-General of Army Medical Services
- Lieutenant General Sir Carl Jess
- Captain Gordon Grimsley King – commando leader awarded the Distinguished Service Order for action at the Battle of Kaiapit
- Lieutenant General James Legge – Chief of the General Staff
- Major-General Greg Melick
- Air Vice Marshal David Morgan AO OBE
- Air Vice Marshal Rodney Noble AO
- Air Vice Marshal Glen Reed
- Air Vice Marshal Bruce Short
- Air Vice Marshal Neil Smith AM MBE
- Percy Storkey – Victoria Cross recipient
- Air Vice Marshal Ian Sutherland AO
- Major General Mervyn Tan – Chief of Air Force, Republic of Singapore Air Force
- Major-General Sir Victor Windeyer
Religious leaders
- Leo Ash – Bishop of Rockhampton
- Neville Chynoweth – Bishop of Gippsland
- Geoffrey Cranswick – Bishop of Tasmania
- George Cranswick – Bishop of Gippsland
- Hubert Cunliffe-Jones
- Edwin Davidson – Bishop of Gippsland
- Glenn Davies – Archbishop of Sydney, Bishop of North Sydney
- Anthony Fisher – Archbishop of Sydney
- Robert Forsyth – Bishop of South Sydney
- David Garnsey – Bishop of Gippsland
- Eric Gowing – Bishop of Auckland
- Arthur Green – Bishop of Ballarat
- William Hilliard – Bishop of Nelson
- Peter Jensen – Archbishop of Sydney
- Clive Kerle – Bishop of Armidale
- Sir Marcus Loane – Archbishop of Sydney
- Henry Newton – Bishop of New Guinea
- Anthony Howard Nichols – Bishop of North West Australia
- Donald Robinson – Archbishop of Sydney
- John Satterthwaite – Bishop of Lismore
- Ian Shevill – Bishop of Newcastle
- Father Joseph Patrick Slattery, C.M. – physicist, radiologist, pioneer in the field of radiography in Australia
- Peter Watson – Archbishop of Melbourne
- William Wright – Bishop of Maitland-Newcastle
- Chen Fah Yong – Assistant Bishop of Sabah
Sciences
- Brian Anderson
- David Craig
- Robert May, Baron May of Oxford – former president of The Royal Society; Chief Scientific Adviser to HM Government
- Sir Gustav Nossal
- Jim Peacock – former President of Australian Academy of Science
- Michael Pitman
- E. James Prendergast – former Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for DuPont Electronic & Communication Technologies
Astronauts and astronomy
- Ruby Payne-Scott – first to use radio interferometry
- Bernard Mills – developed the Mills Cross Telescope and Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope
- Ron Bracewell – known for nulling interferometry, and the Bracewell probe concept in SETI; Lewis M. Terman Professor of Electrical Engineering, Emeritus at Stanford University
- Edwin Ernest Salpeter – Crafoord Laureate Astronomy 1997, known for the initial mass function and accretion disk model of active galactic nuclei
- Paul D. Scully-Power – first Australian-born astronaut to fly in space
- Greg Chamitoff – NASA astronaut and University of Sydney Lawrence Hargrave Professor of Aeronautical Engineering
- Philip K. Chapman – Apollo 14 Mission Scientist
Biology
- Marnie Blewitt – molecular biologist, scientist in the field of epigenetics
- Catherine King – ecotoxicologist, Antarctic researcher
- June Lascelles – microbiologist, pioneer in microbial photosynthesis
- Robert May, Baron May of Oxford – Crafoord Laureate Biosciences 1996
- Roland Stocker – scientist in the field of redox biology
Chemistry
- Arthur Birch
- Sir John Cornforth– winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry (1975)
- Philip A. Gale
- Noel Hush – FRS; winner of the 2007 Welch Award in Chemistry
- Alice Motion
- Elizabeth New
- Sir Robert Robinson–winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry (1947)
- Peter Rutledge
- Matthew H. Todd
- Anthony Weiss – McCaughey Professor in Biochemistry and Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, for discoveries on human elastic materials that accelerate the healing and repair of arteries, skin and 3D human tissue components
Computer scientists
- Michael Georgeff – AAAI Fellow, Director of the Australian Artificial Intelligence Institute
- Rick Jelliffe – inventor of the Schematron schema language
- Rod Johnson –best-selling author; expert in Java/Java EE; founder of the Spring Framework
- John Lions – author of Lions' Commentary on UNIX 6th Edition, with Source Code, commonly known as the Lions Book
- Vaughan Pratt – ACM Fellow; pioneer in computer science; Professor Emeritus at Stanford University
- Ross Quinlan – AAAI Fellow; highly cited scholar and a pioneer in decision theory
- Ken Thompson– co-creator of unix; Turing Award recipient
- Andrew Tridgell – co-inventor of the rsync algorithm; author of and contributor to the Samba file server
Engineering
- Ronald Ernest Aitchison – solid-state physicist and electronics engineer
- Harvey Warren Blanch – biochemical engineer
- Ronald N. Bracewell – known for nulling interferometry, and the Bracewell probe concept in SETI; Lewis M. Terman Professor of Electrical Engineering, Emeritus at Stanford University
- John Bradfield – designer of the Sydney Harbour Bridge
- Julie Cairney – materials scientist and engineer and Director of the Australian Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis
- Graeme Clark – inventor of the bionic ear implant
- Bryan Gaensler – former associate professor of astronomy at Harvard University; ARC Federation Fellow at the University of Sydney
- Robert May, Baron May of Oxford – former Chairman of the University Research Board and Professor of Zoology at Princeton University
- John O'Sullivan – winner of 2009 Prime Minister's Prize for Science; an originator of wireless technology, credited with the invention of WiFi, earning hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties
- Ruby Payne-Scott – first female radio astronomer
- Terence Percival – made pioneering contributions to WIFI technology
- David Skellern – made pioneering contributions to WIFI technology
- Richard H. Small – co-inventor of Thiele/Small parameters
- Neville Thiele – co-inventor of Thiele/Small parameters
- David Warren – inventor of the "black box" (flight data recorder)
Geology, archeology and oceanography
- Nerilie Abram – climate scientist
- Stephen Bourke
- V. Gordon Childe – Culture-historical archaeology
- Peter Cockcroft – petroleum geologist, researcher
- Sir Edgeworth David – geologist and Antarctic explorer
- Anthony Haymet – Director of Scripps Institution of Oceanography
- Basil Hennessy
- Sir Douglas Mawson – geologist and Antarctic explorer
- Beryl Nashar – geologist; first female PhD in geology at an Australian university (UTas); first female Dean of an Australian university
- David O'Connor – Egyptologist
- Timothy Potts
- Karin Sowada
- Griffith Taylor – Antarctic explorer; Professor of Geography at the University of Chicago; founder of the Geography department at the University of Toronto
Mathematics and economics
- Dennis A. Ahlburg – President of Trinity University; previously dean of the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado at Boulder and professor of human resources at Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota
- Robert Griffiths – FRS, Professor of Mathematical Genetics at University of Oxford
- Peter Gavin Hall – Professor of Statistics at University of California, Davis
- John Harsanyi – Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (1994)
- Richard Holden – economist at the MIT Sloan School of Management
- Jan Kmenta – Professor Emeritus of Economics at University of Michigan
- Kelvin Lancaster – creator of the theory of the second best and "A New Approach to Consumer Theory"; John Bates Clark Professor of Economics at Columbia University
- Graeme Milton – Professor of Mathematics at University of Utah, recipient of SIAM Ralph E. Kleinman Prize and SIAM fellow
- Pat Moran – made significant contributions to probability theory and its application to population and evolutionary genetics
- Yew-Kwang Ng – economist at Monash University
- Graeme Segal – FRS, Lowndean Professor of Astronomy and Geometry; Fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge (1990–1999)
- Eugene Seneta – co-inventor of the Variance-gamma distribution
- Trevor Swan – the Swan in the Solow-Swan Model
- Justin Wolfers – economist at Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business
Medicine
- George Henry Abbott – surgeon and former Fellow University of Sydney
- Katie Louisa Ardill – first woman to be appointed as a divisional surgeon in New South Wales; among the first female doctors when she joined the British Expeditionary Forces in Egypt in 1915
- Nikos Athanasou – Professor of Musculoskeletal Pathology at Oxford University and Greek-Australian novelist
- Samy Azer – Professor of Medical Education; international medical educator
- Maxwell Bennett – proved that nerve terminals on muscles release transmitter molecules, rather than just the noradrenaline and acetylcholine that were previously known
- Dame Valerie Beral (graduated with first-class honours in both medicine and surgery, 1969) – epidemiologist; Fellow of the Royal Society; Head of Cancer Epidemiology Unit at the University of Oxford and Cancer Research UK since 1989
- Grace Boelke – general practitioner; one of the first two female graduates in medicine from the University of Sydney
- Claudia Bradley, MBE (1909–1967) – pharmacist, paediatrician, orthopaedist
- Jennifer Byrne – cancer research
- Janet Carr (1933–2014) – physiotherapist
- John Carter AO – endocrinologist and former president Australian Diabetes Society
- Victor Chang AC (1936–1991) – pioneer of modern heart transplantation
- Robert Clancy – developer of first oral vaccine for acute bronchitis
- Graeme Clark FRS – inventor of cochlear ear implant
- Sir Archibald Collins – President of British Medical Association in Australia
- David A. Cooper AO – HIV/AIDS researcher and director of the Kirby Institute
- Grace Cuthbert-Browne, MBE – doctor and Director of Maternal and Baby Welfare in the New South Wales Department of Public Health, 1937–1964
- Raymond Dart – anatomist and anthropologist, known for his discovery in 1924 of a fossil (first ever found) of Australopithecus africanus (extinct hominid closely related to humans)
- John Diamond – developer of Behavioral Kinesiology (now called Life-Energy Analysis), a system based upon applied kinesiology, incorporating the emotions
- Anna Donald (1966–2009) – pioneer and advocate of evidence-based medicine
- Rachael Dunlop – medical researcher and sceptic
- John Dwyer AO – Australian doctor, professor of medicine, and public health advocate.
- Creswell Eastman AM – Endocrinologist, professor of medicine, known for Iodine Deficiency Disorders research.
- Sir John Eccles – 1963 Nobel Laureate in Medicine or Physiology "for discoveries concerning the ionic mechanisms involved in excitation and inhibition in the peripheral and central portions of the nerve cell membrane"
- Peter Green – Director of the Celiac Disease Center at Columbia University
- Sir Norman Gregg – identified rubella in early pregnancy as a human teratogen
- Sir Henry Harris FRS – Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford; first demonstrated the existence of tumour-suppressing genes
- Freida Ruth Heighway (1907–1963) – obstetrician and gynaecologist
- Ken Hillman – intensive care physician
- Portia Holman – child psychiatrist
- David Hunter – Dean for Academic Affairs, Harvard School of Public Health
- Harry Critchley Hinder – surgeon and Former President of the NSW Branch of the British Medical Association
- John Hunter – Challis Professor of Anatomy at age 24 years whose brilliant career, achieving international recognition, was cut short by fever just two years later
- Sir Keith Jones – surgeon and former president of the Australian Medical Association
- Sir Bernard Katz – 1970 Nobel Laureate in Medicine or Physiology "for discoveries concerning the humoral transmittors in the nerve terminals and the mechanism for their storage, release and inactivation"
- Robert Kavanaugh – dentist and George Cross recipient
- Stephen W. Kuffler – "father of modern neuroscience"
- Max Lake – Australia's first specialist hand surgeon
- Gerald Lawrie – American heart surgeon and pioneer in the surgical treatment of valvular heart disease; performed the first mitral valve repair using the daVinci robotic surgical system; Methodist Hospital Michael E. Debakey Professor of Cardiac Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine
- Sir Herbert Maitland – surgeon
- Wirginia Maixner – neurosurgeon
- William McBride – obstetrician, who in 1961 first warned the medical world against thalidomide as a human teratogen
- Charles George McDonald – physician, army officer and academic
- Patrick McGorry – Australian of the Year 2010
- Wirginia Maixner – director of neurosurgery at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne; graduated in 1986
- Sir Michael Marmot – President of British Medical Association, Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health at University College London; has conducted ground-breaking studies into stroke
- John Mattick – Executive Director of the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney, whose research led to the discovery of the function of non-coding DNA
- Stan Devenish Meares – former President Australian Council Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
- Donald Metcalf FRS – his research revealed the control of blood cell formation
- Errol Solomon Meyers – prominent Brisbane doctor; one of the founding fathers of the University of Queensland School of Medicine
- Jacques Miller FRS – discoverer of the function of the thymus (the last major organ of the human body whose function remained unknown)
- Sir William Morrow – former President Royal Australasian College of Physicians
- Philip Nitschke – physician, humanist, author, founder and director of the pro-euthanasia group Exit International
- Sir Gustav Nossal FRS – immunologist, discoverer of the "one cell-one antibody" rule, which states that each B lymphocyte, developed in bone marrow, secretes a specific antibody in response to an encounter with a specific foreign antigen
- Mitchell Notaras – graduate who funded the $1.1 million Mitchel J Notaras Scholarship for Colorectal Medicine at the University of Sydney
- Susie O'Reilly – family doctor and obstetrician, noted for her rejected application for residency at Sydney Hospital in favour of male applicants in 1905 despite her excellent academic record
- Brian Owler – President of the Australian Medical Association
- Cecil Purser – former chairman Royal Prince Alfred Hospital
- Margery Scott-Young – surgeon
- Colin Sullivan – inventor of the Continuous Positive Airflow Pressure (CPAP) mask
- Mavis Sweeney – hospital pharmacist
- Frank Tidswell – former Director New South Wales Government Bureau of Microbiology and Director of Pathology at the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children
- Alan O. Trounson – President of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine
- John Turtle – former Kellion Professor of Endocrinology University of Sydney
- Nan Waddy – psychiatrist
- Geoff White – vascular surgeon; perfected new surgical methods and devices that vastly improved the survival rates of patients and replaced intrusive open surgery, sometimes with day procedures
- Harry Windsor – heart surgeon
- Sir Brian Windeyer – Professor of Therapeutic Radiology at Middlesex Hospital Medical School, University of London; Vice-Chancellor of the University of London
- Donald Wood-Smith – Professor of Clinical Surgery Columbia University New York
Physics
- Bruce Bolt – pioneer of engineering seismology; Professor of Earth and Planetary Science at the University of California, Berkeley
- Richard Dowden (scientist) – noted geo- and astrophysicist
- Herbert Huppert – FRS, Professor of Theoretical Geophysics and Foundation Director, Institute of Theoretical Geophysics, Cambridge University since 1989; Fellow of King's College, Cambridge since 1970
- Richard Makinson – physicist notable for his contributions to amorphous semiconductors
- Bernard Mills – FRS, inventor of the Mills Cross Telescope
- Edwin Ernest Salpeter – known for his contributions to astronomy; Professor of Physics, Emeritus at Cornell University
Veterinary and agricultural scientists
- William Ian Beardmore Beveridge – Professor of Animal Pathology and Director of the Institute of Animal Pathology at Cambridge University from 1947 to 1975
- Sir Ian Clunies Ross – Chairman Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
- Hugh McLeod Gordon – veterinary parasitologist
- Charles MacKenzie AO, Michigan State University – significant contributor to filarial disease eradication in the peoples of Equatorial Africa
- Gordon McClymont – agricultural scientist, ecologist, and educationist; foundation chair of the Department of Rural Science at the University of New England; originator of the term "sustainable agriculture"
- Ross Perry – Australia’s first registered avian veterinarian; first to study and name Psittacine Beak and Feather Disease, for which he was co-discoverer of viral infection agent
- Sanjaya Rajaram– World Food Prize Laureate and the Head of Wheat Programme from 1976 to 2001 at International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT), once referred to as "the greatest present-day wheat scientist in the world" by Norman Borlaug
Sport
- 'Snowy' Baker – rugby union, diving, boxing, swimming and polo
- Nigel Barker – holder of Australia's first athletics world record, in the 370 metres (400 yd)
- Ken Catchpole
- Alex Chambers – professional mixed martial artist in the UFC
- Brendon Cook – international race car driver
- Chloe Dalton OAM – formed part of the first female rugby 7s team to win gold at the Olympic Games, 2016
- Caitlin De Wit – wheelchair basketball player
- Nick Farr-Jones
- Jessica Fox – French-born Australian slalom canoer, Olympic silver (K-1 slalom), world championships bronze (C-1)
- Scott Gourley – rugby union and rugby league
- Phil Hardcastle
- Peter Johnson – rugby player
- Tom Lawton, Snr
- Jack Metcalfe – whilst competing on Sydney University Oval on 14 December 1935, set a new world record in the triple jump, leaping 15.78 metres (51.8 ft)
- Herbert Moran
- Stirling Mortlock
- Dean Mumm
- Otto Nothling – rugby union and cricket player
- Ellyse Perry – cricket and football player
- Mike Pyke – rugby union player and Australian rules footballer
- Alex Ross
- Kevin Ryan – rugby union and rugby league player
- John Solomon
- Johnny Taylor – rugby union and cricket
- John Thornett
- Dick Tooth
- John Treloar – first Australian to reach an Olympic Games 100-metre (330 ft) final sprint
- Johnnie Wallace
- Phil Waugh
- Zhao Zong-Yuan – youngest Australian to become a chess Grandmaster. As of September 2019, he was the third-ranked active chess player in Australia.
Other
- David Gulasi, Australian social media star active in China
- Justine Ruszczyk
Footnotes
Faculty
- John Anderson – Challis professor of Philosophy
- Nadia Badawi AM – Chair of Cerebral Palsy
- Charles Badham – professor of Classics and Logic
- William Noel Benson – demonstrator in the Department of Geology
- Alison Betts – professor of Silk Road Studies
- Quentin Bryce – principal of The Women's College, University of Sydney, 1997–2003; later Governor-General of Australia
- John Burnheim – professor of General Philosophy
- Gregory Chamitoff – adjunct professor; later astronaut
- James Crawford – Challis professor of International Law and Dean of the Faculty of Law; later justice of the International Court of Justice
- William A. Foley – professor of Linguistics; co-developer of Role and Reference Grammar
- Moira Gatens – Challis professor of philosophy
- Robert Gilbert – professor of Chemistry and Founding Director of the Key Centre for Polymer Colloids
- Enoch Powell – professor of Greek; later British politician
- Leo Radom – professor of Computational Chemistry
- John Smith – professor of Chemistry and Experimental Physics
- James Stewart – professor of Near Eastern Archaeology
- Julius Stone – Challis professor of Jurisprudence and International Law
- Yanis Varoufakis – senior lecturer in economics; later Finance Minister of Greece during the Greek Debt Crisis of 2015
- Roger Vaughan – rector of St John's College, University of Sydney – 1874–1877; later archbishop of Sydney
- George Winterton – professor of Constitutional Law
- Dinesh Wadiwel – senior lecturer in Human Rights and Socio-Legal Studies
- Dacheng Tao – FAA, Professor of Computer Science in the School of Computer Science
Administration
Chancellors
The chancellor is elected by the fellows and presides at Senate meetings. In 1924, the executive position of vice-chancellor was created, and the chancellor ceased to have managerial responsibilities. Until 1860, the chancellor was known as the provost.
Ordinal | Name | Term begin | Term end | Time in office | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Edward William Terrick Hamilton | 1851 | 1854 | 2–3 years | |
2 | Sir Charles Nicholson | 1854 | 1862 | 7–8 years | |
3 | Francis Lewis Shaw Merewether | 1862 | 1865 | 2–3 years | |
4 | Sir Edward Deas Thomson | 1865 | 1878 | 12–13 years | |
5 | Sir William Montagu Manning | 1878 (1878) | 27 September 1895 (1895-09-27) | 6–7 years | |
6 | Sir William Charles Windeyer | 1895 | 1896 | 0–1 years | |
7 | Sir Henry Normand MacLaurin | October 1896 (1896-10) | 24 August 1914 (1914-08-24) | 17 years, 327 days | |
8 | Sir William Cullen | 1914 | December 1934 (1934-12) | 19–20 years | |
9 | Sir Mungo William MacCallum | 1934 | 1936 | 1–2 years | |
10 | Sir Percival Halse Rogers | 1936 | 1941 | 4–5 years | |
11 | Lt-Col. Sir Charles Bickerton Blackburn | 1941 | 1964 | 22–23 years | |
12 | Sir Charles George McDonald | 1964 | 1970 | 5–6 years | |
13 | Sir Hermann David Black | 1970 | 1990 | 19–20 years | |
14 | Sir James Rowland | 2 April 1990 (1990-04-02) | 1 May 1991 (1991-05-01) | 1 year, 29 days | |
15 | Dame Leonie Kramer | 1991 | 1 July 2001 (2001-07-01) | 9–10 years | |
16 | Justice Kim Santow | 2 October 2001 (2001-10-02) | 31 May 2007 (2007-05-31) | 5 years, 241 days | |
17 | Dame Marie Bashir | 1 June 2007 (2007-06-01) | 15 December 2012 (2012-12-15) | 5 years, 197 days | |
18 | Belinda Hutchinson | February 2013 (2013-02) | present | 7 years, 122 days |
Vice-Chancellors
The vice-chancellor serves as the chief executive officer of the university, and oversees most of the university's day-to-day operations, with the chancellor serving in a largely ceremonial role. Before 1924, the vice-chancellors were fellows of the university, elected annually by the fellows. Until 1860, the vice-chancellor was known as the vice-provost. Since 1955, the full title has been Vice-Chancellor and Principal.
Ordinal | Name | Term begin | Term end | Time in office | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Sir Charles Nicholson | 1851 | 1853 | ||
2 | Francis Merewether | 1854 | 1862 | ||
3 | Sir Edward Deas Thomson | 1863 | 1865 | ||
4 | John Hubert Plunkett | 1865 | 1869 | ||
5 | Robert Allwood | 1869 | 1883 | ||
6 | Sir William Charles Windeyer | 1883 | 1886 | ||
7 | Sir Henry Normand MacLaurin | 1887 | 1889 | ||
8 | Sir Arthur Renwick | 1889 | 1891 | ||
9 | Henry Chamberlain Russell | 1891 | 1892 | ||
10 | Alfred Paxton Backhouse | 1892 | 1894 | ||
— | Sir Henry Normand MacLaurin | 1895 | 1896 | ||
— | Alfred Paxton Backhouse | 1896 | 1899 | ||
— | Sir Arthur Renwick | 1900 | 1902 | ||
11 | Archibald Henry Simpson | 1902 | 1904 | ||
12 | Sir Philip Sydney Jones | 1904 | 1906 | ||
— | Sir Arthur Renwick | 1906 | 1908 | ||
13 | Sir William Portus Cullen | 1909 | 1911 | ||
— | His Honour Judge Alfred Paxton Backhouse | 1911 | 1914 | ||
14 | Frank Leverrier | 1914 | 1917 | ||
15 | Cecil Purser | 1917 | 1919 | ||
16 | Sir David Gilbert Ferguson | 1919 | 1921 | ||
— | Frank Leverrier | 1921 | 1923 | ||
— | Cecil Purser | 1923 | 1924 | ||
17 | Sir Mungo William MacCallum | 1924 | 1928 | ||
18 | Sir Robert Strachan Wallace | 1928 | 1947 | ||
19 | Sir Stephen Henry Roberts | 1947 | 1967 | ||
20 | Sir Bruce Rodda Williams | 1967 | 1981 | ||
21 | John Manning Ward | 1981 | 1990 | ||
22 | Donald McNicol | 1990 | 1996 | ||
— | Derek John Anderson (acting) | 1996 | 1996 | ||
23 | Gavin Brown | 1996 | 2008 | 11–12 years | |
24 | Michael Spence | 11 July 2008 (2008-07-11) | incumbent | 11 years, 327 days |