List of University of California, Irvine people

The following are noted alumni and students of the University of California, Irvine, listed by the field(s) they have been noted for. When the information is known and available, degree and year are listed in parentheses.

• Vartkess Ara Apkarian – Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Director of Center for Chemistry at the Space-Time Limit
• Francisco J. Ayala – 2001 National Medal of Science, 2010 Templeton Prize, Founding Director of the Bren Fellows Program, Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and of Philosophy
• Ricardo Asch – fertility doctor and fugitive, accused of stealing ova from women while a UC Irvine employee
• Pierre Baldi – Chancellor's Professor of Computer Science and director of the Institute for Genomics and Bioinformatics
• Lindon W. Barrett – Director of African Studies, professor and cultural theorist
• Gregory Benford – physicist, science fiction author of the Galactic Center Saga
• George W. Brown – Information scientist and dean of the business school
• Ron Carlson – Professor of English, MFA Programs in Writing
• Leo Chavez – anthropologist and author
• Erwin Chemerinsky – founding dean of the UCI School of Law, lawyer, law professor, and United States constitutional law and civil procedure scholar
• Robert Cohen – acting teacher and author
• Rui de Figueiredo – Research Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and Mathematics
• Jacques Derrida (1986 – 2004 [his death]) – philosopher
• Paul Dourish – Professor of Informatics
• Nikil Dutt – Chancellor's Professor of Computer Science
• David Eppstein – Professor of Computer Science
• Walter M. Fitch – Professor of Molecular Evolution
• Michael Franz – Chancellor's Professor of Computer Science
• Matthew Foreman – Professor of Mathematics[18]
• Robert Garfias – musicologist, awarded the Order of the Rising Sun
• Jean-Luc Gaudiot — professor at the Henry Samuel School of Engineering[19]
• Amy Gerstler – poet, Professor of English, winner of National Book Critics Circle Award
• Michael T. Goodrich – Chancellor's Professor of Computer Science
• Louis A. Gottschalk – neuroscientist, Professor Emeritus
• Jutta Heckhausen – Professor of Psychological Science[20]
• Payam Heydari – Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
• James D. Herbert – professor and chair of the Art History department
• Dan Hirschberg – Professor of Computer Science
• Hamid Jafarkhani – Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
• Ramesh Jain – Bren Professor of Computer Science
• Valerie Jenness – Professor of Criminology, Law & Society, Sociology, and Nursing Science
• Wilson Ho – Donald Bren Professor of Physics and Chemistry and discoverer of scanning tunneling microscopy based inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy
• Murray Krieger – literary critic and theorist
• Michelle Latiolais – Professor of English, MFA Programs in Writing
• Elizabeth Loftus – psychologist, Distinguished Professor in the School of Social Ecology
• R. Duncan Luce – cognitive psychologist, 2003 National Medal of Science, Distinguished Research Professor of Cognitive Science
• George Marcus – Chancellor's Professor of Anthropology
• James McGaugh – Research Professor of Neurobiology and Behavior, founding Director of the Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory
• Donald McKayle – choreographer
• Penelope Maddy – Distinguished Professor of Logic and Philosophy of Science and Mathematics, famous for her work in philosophy of mathematics
• David B. Malament – Distinguished Professor of Logic and Philosophy of Science, best known for his work in the philosophy of physics.
• J. Hillis Miller – literary critic
• Peter Navarro-Professor of business, incumbent director of the White House National Trade Council
• Bonnie Nardi – Professor of Informatics
• David Neumark – Professor of Economics, expert on labor economics
• Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o – author of A Grain of Wheat, Distinguished Professor in the School of Humanities and director of the International Center for Writing and Translation
• James Nowick – Professor of Chemistry
• Richard E. Pattis – author of the Karel programming language
• Lyman W. Porter - dean of UC Irvine's Paul Merage School of Business from 1972 to 1983[21]
• Curt Pringle – mayor of Anaheim, former speaker of the California State Assembly
• R. Radhakrishnan – Chancellor's Professor of English and Comparative Literature
• Frederick Reines (faculty 1966–1998, deceased) – Nobel laureate, Physics 1995
• Irwin Rose – Nobel laureate (Chemistry 2004)
• Eric Rignot – Professor of Earth System Science
• F. Sherwood Rowland – Nobel laureate (Chemistry 1995), Research Professor in Chemistry and Earth System Science
• Donald G. Saari – Distinguished Professor of Mathematics and Economics
• Dr. William Sears – Associate Clinical Professor of Pediatrics, author of the Sears Parenting Library
• Patricia Seed – Professor of History
• Barry Siegel – Pulitzer Prize winner
• Brian Skyrms – philosophy of science expert, Distinguished Professor of social science
• David A. Snow – Distinguished Professor of Sociology
• Etel L. Solingen – Tierney Chair, Professor of Political Science, former President of the International Studies Association, 2012–2013, author of award-winning Nuclear Logics[22]
• George Sperling – cognitive psychologist, Distinguished Professor of Cognitive Science
• Grover C. Stephens (faculty 1964–2003, deceased) – Professor and dean of Biological Sciences
• Lee Swindlehurst – Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
• Rein Taagepera (until 1991) – Estonian politician and political scientist
• Edward O. Thorp – author (Beat the Dealer: A Winning Strategy for the Game of Twenty-One), professor of mathematics
• Martin Wattenberg – political scientist
• Douglas R. White – social anthropologist and network sociologist, author of Network Analysis and Ethnographic Problems
• Kumar Wickramasinghe – Henry Samueli Endowed Chair and inventor of Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy and other microscopy techniques
• Jon Wiener - historian
• Geoffrey Wolff – co-director of a writing program
• Jenny Y Yang – chemist

• Daniel Aldrich - founding chancellor
• Ralph J. Cicerone – fourth chancellor, former president of the National Academy of Sciences
• Larry Coon – basketball writer
• Michael V. Drake - fifth chancellor, president of Ohio State University
• Jack Peltason - second chancellor, former president of the University of California
• William Pereira -- original architect of the campus and surrounding city
• Tom Jennings – creator of FidoNet