Turing Award laureate Ken Thompson (left), BS 1965, MS 1966, with fellow laureate and colleague Dennis Ritchie (right); together, they created

the Hubble Space Telescope,[128] resulting in a National Medal of Science.[128] Peter Smith (BS 1969) was the principal investigator and project leader for the $420 million NASA robotic explorer Phoenix,[129] which physically confirmed the presence of water on the planet Mars for the first time.[130] Astronauts James van Hoften (BS 1966), Margaret Rhea Seddon (BA 1970), Leroy Chiao (BS 1983), and Rex Walheim (BS 1984) have physically reached out to the stars, orbiting the earth in NASA's fleet of space shuttles.
Undergraduate alumni have founded or co-founded such companies as Apple Computer,[131] Intel,[132] LSI Logic[133] The Gap,[134] MySpace,[135] PowerBar,[136] Berkeley Systems,[137] Bolt, Beranek and Newman[138] (which created a number of underlying technologies that govern the Internet), Chez Panisse,[139] GrandCentral (known now as Google Voice),[140] Advent Software,[141] HTC Corporation,[142] VIA Technologies,[142] Marvell Technology Group,[143] MoveOn.org,[137] Opsware,[144] RedOctane,[145] SanDisk,[146] Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker,[147] VMware,[148] and Zilog,[149] while graduate school alumni have co-founded companies such as DHL,[150] KeyHole Inc (known now as Google Earth),[151] Sun Microsystems,[152] and The Learning Company.[153] Berkeley alumni have also led various technology companies such as Electronic Arts,[154] Google,[155] Adobe Systems,[156] and Qualcomm.[157]


Turing Award laureate Ken Thompson (left), BS 1965, MS 1966, with fellow laureate and colleague Dennis Ritchie (right); together, they created Unix
Berkeley alumni nurtured a number of key technologies associated with the personal computer and the development of the Internet.[158] Unix was created by alumnus Ken Thompson (BS 1965, MS 1966) along with colleague Dennis Ritchie. Alumni such as L. Peter Deutsch[159][160][161] (PhD 1973), Butler Lampson (PhD 1967), and Charles P. Thacker (BS 1967)[162] worked with Ken Thompson on Project Genie and then formed the ill-fated US Department of Defense-funded Berkeley Computer Corporation (BCC), which was scattered throughout the Berkeley campus in non-descript offices to avoid anti-war protestors.[163] After BCC failed, Deutsch, Lampson, and Thacker joined Xerox PARC, where they developed a number of pioneering computer technologies, culminating in the Xerox Alto that inspired the Apple Macintosh. In particular, the Alto used a computer mouse, which had been invented by Doug Engelbart (B.Eng 1952, Ph.D. 1955). Thompson, Lampson, Engelbart, and Thacker[164] all later received a Turing Award. Also at Xerox PARC was Ronald V. Schmidt (BS 1966, MS 1968, PhD 1971), who became known as "the man who brought Ethernet to the masses".[165] Another Xerox PARC researcher, Charles Simonyi (BS 1972), pioneered the first WYSIWIG word processor program and was recruited personally by Bill Gates to join the fledgling company known as Microsoft to create Microsoft Word. Simonyi later became the first repeat space tourist, blasting off on Russian Soyuz rockets to work at the International Space Station orbiting the earth.
In 1977, a graduate student in the computer science department named Bill Joy (MS 1982) assembled[166] the original Berkeley Software Distribution, commonly known as BSD Unix. Joy, who went on to co-found Sun Microsystems, also developed the original version of the terminal console editor vi, while Ken Arnold (BA 1985) created Curses, a terminal control library for Unix-like systems that enables the construction of text user interface (TUI) applications. Working alongside Joy at Berkeley were undergraduates William Jolitz (BS 1997) and his future wife Lynne Jolitz (BA 1989), who together created 386

roove Back, which was later made into a film of the same name starring Oscar-nominated actress Angela Bassett. Randi Mayem Singer (BA 1979) wrote the screenplay for Mrs. Doubtfire, which starr

Harold Urey, PhD 1923, Nobel laureate and discoverer of deuterium

Kartar Singh Sarabha was an Indian revolutionary who was hanged till death by British rule in 1915.


The computer mouse was invented by Turing Award laureate Doug Engelbart, B. Eng. 1952, Ph.D. 1955
26 alumni and 27 past and present full-time faculty are counted among the 72 Nobel laureates associated with the university. The Turing Award, the "Nobel Prize of computer science", has been awarded to nine alumni and six past and present full-time faculty.
Alumni have been involved in the field of politics and international relations, one of whom is Nicholas A. Veliotes (1928-). Veliotes went on to become the Ambassador to the countries of Jordan (1978–1981) and Egypt (1984–1986), among holding many other highly prestigious job titles and positions throughout his lengthy career.
Alumni have written novels and screenplays that have attracted Oscar-caliber talent. Irving Stone (BA 1923) wrote the novel Lust for Life, which was later made into an Academy Award–winning film of the same name starring Kirk Douglas as Vincent van Gogh. Stone also wrote The Agony and the Ecstasy, which was later made into a film of the same name starring Oscar winner Charlton Heston as Michelangelo. Mona Simpson (BA 1979) wrote the novel Anywhere But Here, which was later made into a film of the same name starring Oscar-winning actress Susan Sarandon. Terry McMillan (BA 1986) wrote How Stella Got Her Groove Back, which was later made into a film of the same name starring Oscar-nominated actress Angela Bassett. Randi Mayem Singer (BA 1979) wrote the screenplay for Mrs. Doubtfire, which starred Oscar winning actor Robin Williams and Oscar winning actress Sally Field. Audrey Wells (BA 1981) wrote the screenplay The Truth About Cats & Dogs, which starred Oscar-nominated actress Uma Thurman. James Schamus (BA 1982, MA 1987, PhD 2003) has collaborated on screenplays with Oscar winning director Ang Lee on the Academy Award winning movies Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Brokeback Mountain.


Robert Laughlin, BA 1972, Nobel laureate
Alumni have made important contributions to science. Some have concentrated their studies on the very small universe of atoms and molecules. Nobel laureate William F. Giauque (BS 1920, PhD 1922) investigated chemical thermodynamics, Nobel laureate Willard Libby (BS 1931, PhD 1933) pioneered radiocarbon dating, Nobel laureate Willis Lamb (BS 1934, PhD 1938) examined the hydrogen spectrum, Nobel laureate Hamilton O. Smith (BA 1952) applied restriction enzymes to molecular genetics, Nobel laureate Robert Laughlin (BA math 1972) explored the fractional quantum Hall effect, and Nobel laureate Andrew Fire (BA math 1978) helped to discover RNA interference-gene silencing by double-stranded RNA. Nobel laureate Glenn T. Seaborg (PhD 1937) collaborated with Albert Ghiorso (BS 1913) to discover 12 chemical elements, such as Americium, Berkelium, and Californium. Carol Greider (PhD 1987), professor of molecular biology and genetics at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in medicine for discovering a key mechanism in the genetic operations of cells, an insight that has inspired new lines of research into cancer, and Daniel Kahneman was awarded the 2002 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics for his work in Prospect theory.
John N. Bahcall (BS 1956) worked on the Standard Solar Model and

Gregory Peck, BA 1939, Academy Award winning actor Natalie Coughlin, BA 2005, multiple gold

l



Eric Schmidt, MS 1979, PhD 1982, Executive Chairman of Google Inc.



Edmund Gerald "Jerry" Brown, Jr, BA 1961, Governor of California, former California Attorney General



Gregory Peck, BA 1939, Academy Award winning actor



Natalie Coughlin, BA 2005, multiple gold medal winning Olympic swimmer



Mostafa Chamran, Ph.D. 1963, Iranian scientist, Vice President and Defense Minister of Iran



Haakon Magnus, Crown Prince of Norway, BA 1999[127]



Robert McNamara, BA 1937, President of World Bank (1968–1981), United States Secretary of Defense (1961–1968), President of Ford Motor Company (1960)



Daniel Kahneman, PhD 1961, awarded the 2002 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics for his work in Prospect theory