This list includes notable alumni, non-matriculating, faculty, and staff of what is now Iowa State University (ISU).
Academia
Don E. Albrecht (born 1952), rural sociologist Aureliano Brandolini (1927–2008), Department of Botany and Agronomy class of 1955, Italian agronomist and development cooperation scholar William R. Brinkley, Biology PhD 1964, Dean Emeritus of Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine Robert D. Bullard, Sociology PhD 1976, "father of environmental justice" and Distinguished Professor at Texas Southern University Margaret Burchinal (born 1951), quantitative psychologist and statistician known for her research on child care Nathaniel Oglesby Calloway (1907–1979), B.S 1930 and Chemistry PhD 1933, first African-American to receive a PhD in chemistry from Iowa State University Professor at the University of Illinois Medical School, medical director of Provident Hospital in Chicago until 1949, and then founded the Medical Associates Clinic of Chicago David P. Campbell, B.S. and M.S., creator of Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory, an interest inventory used in career assessment, ISU Distinguished Alumni Award in 2007 Michael M. Crow (born 1955), Political Science B.A. 1977, president, Arizona State University since 2002Columbia News (March 29, 2002) "Michael Crow Leaving Columbia to Become President of Arizona State University". Columbia University Office of Public Affairs. Retrieved November 17, 2012. Niels Ebbesen Hansen (1866–1950), M.S., 1895, Head of the Horticultural Department at South Dakota State University JoAnne L. Hewett (born 1960), Physics and Mathematics B.S. 1982, theoretical particle physicist on the faculty of the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory Daniel G. Horvitz (1921–2008), survey statistician, best known for the eponymous Horvitz-Thompson estimator Harold Hume (1875–1965), B.S. 1899 and M.S. 1901, noted citrus fruit horticulturalist and president of the University of Florida Bhanu Pratap Jena (born 1955), PhD 1988, a cell biologist and professor at the Wayne State University School of Medicine, discovered porosome Leonard Klinck (1877–1969), Agriculture M.S., 1905, second president of the University of British Columbia (1919–1940) Charles Boynton Knapp (born 1946), B.S. 1968, president of the University of Georgia (1987–1997) Samuel Massie (1919–2005), Chemistry PhD 1942, science educator, worked on the Manhattan Project, first African-American to teach at the U.S. Naval Academy Rose Mwonya, Kenyan academic James L. Oblinger (born 1945), Food Technology M.S. 1970 and Food Technology PhD 1972, Chancellor at North Carolina State University 2005–2009, received the ISU Distinguished Alumni Award in 2006 Frederick Douglas Patterson (1901–1988), 1927 M.S. and Veterinary Medicine PhD 1923, former president of Tuskegee Institute and founder of the United Negro College Fund Francis de los Reyes III, Glenn E. and Phyllis J. Futrell Distinguished Professor and Alumni Distinguished Undergraduate Professor at North Carolina State University Donald W. Roberts, Utah State University Research Professor Emeritus and Cornell University Roy A. Young Scientist Emeritus Chair, see below Emil Steinberger (1928–2008), endocrinologist and founding president of the American Society of Andrology Subra Suresh (born 1956), Mechanical Engineering M.S. 1979, former president of Carnegie Mellon University, the former director of National Science Foundation, and the former Dean of Engineering at M.I.T. My T. Thai, computer science engineer and professor at University of Florida Edward M. Walsh (born 1939), M.S. 1963 and PhD 1964, founder of the University of Limerick Don Weinkauf, Chemical Engineering B.S. 1986, Dean of the School of Engineering at the University of St. Thomas (since 2008), and former Chair of the Department of Engineering at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology Earl G. Yarbrough (born 1946), Industrial Education PhD 1976, former president of Savannah State University (2007–2011)
Arts Literature Jill Dopf Viles, writer known for researching and having Emery-Dreifuss muscular dystrophy and Partial lipodystrophy
Design
Performing arts
Business
Government and politics
United States
U.S. vice presidents Henry A. Wallace (1888–1965), Animal Husbandry B.A. 1910, Vice President of the United States (1941–1945), United States Secretary of Agriculture (1933–1940), United States Secretary of Commerce (1945–1946), founder of Pioneer Hi-Bred, a producer of hybrid seeds for agriculture
U.S. cabinet Ezra Taft Benson (1899–1994), Agriculture Economics M.S. 1927, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture (1953–1961), 13th President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Lauro Cavazos (born 1927), Economics PhD 1954, U.S. Secretary of Education (1988–1990) Henry C. Wallace (1866–1924), B.A. Diary Science 1892, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture (1921–1924), father of U.S. Vice President Henry A. Wallace
U.S. governors Robert D. Blue, governor of Iowa (1945–1949), lieutenant governor of Iowa (1943–1945), speaker of the Iowa House of Representatives (1941–1943) Garrey Carruthers (born 1939), Economics PhD 1968, governor of New Mexico (1987–1991); president and CEO of Cimarron Health Plan James Benton Grant (1848–1911), attended and then transferred to Cornell, governor of Colorado (1883–1885) Bourke B. Hickenlooper (1896–1971), Industrial Science B.A. 1919, Governor of Iowa (1943–1945) and longtime U.S. Senator (1945–1969) Frank D. Jackson (1854–1938), governor of Iowa (1894–1896), and Iowa secretary of state (1885–1891) John Edward Jones (1840–1896), class of 1865, eighth governor of Nevada (1895–1896) Kim Reynolds (born 1959), degree concentrations in Political Science, Business Management, and Communications B.L.S. 2016, lieutenant governor of Iowa (2011–2017), 43rd governor of Iowa (2017–present)
U.S. senators
Joni Ernst (born 1970), Psychology B.A. 1992, United States senator from Iowa since 2015, lieutenant colonel (retired) Iowa Army National Guard (1993–2015) Tom Harkin (born 1939), Government and Economics B.A. 1962, United States senator from Iowa (1985–2015), United States representative from Iowa's 5th congressional district (1975–1985), and author of Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) Herbert E. Hitchcock (1867–1958), attended but did not graduate, United States senator from South Dakota (1936–1938)
U.S. representatives
Berkley Bedell (1921–2019), attended for two years but did not graduate, United States representative from Iowa's 6th congressional district (1975–1987) Bruce Braley (born 1957), B.A. 1980, United States representative from Iowa's 1st congressional district (2007–2015) T. Cooper Evans (1924–2005), B.S. & M.S., United States representative from Iowa's 3rd congressional district (1981–1987) Randy Feenstra (born 1969), MPA, United States representative from Iowa's 4th congressional district (2021–present) Tom Latham (born 1948), attended but did not graduate, United States representative from Iowa's 4th congressional district (1995–2015) Dave Loebsack (born 1952), B.S 1974 and M.A. 1976, United States representative from Iowa's 2nd congressional district (2007–2021)
U.S. ambassadors Charles Manatt (1936–2011), Rural Sociology B.A. 1958, U.S. ambassador to the Dominican Republic (1999–2001) and Chairman of the Democratic National Committee (1981–1985) Dan Mozena (born 1949), History and Government B.S. 1970, U.S. ambassador to Angola (2007–2010), and U.S. Ambassador to Bangladesh (2011–2015) James Pettit (born 1956), B.A. International Studies, U.S. Ambassador to Moldova (2015–2018)
State of Iowa officials
Maurice E. Baringer (1921–2011), B.A. & M.A. Animal Husbandry (1949), treasurer of Iowa (1969–1983), speaker of the Iowa House of Representatives (1967–1969) Dale M. Cochran (1928–2018), B.A. Agriculture 1950, Iowa secretary of Agriculture (1987–1999), speaker of the Iowa House of Representatives (1975–1979), member of the Iowa House (1965–1987) Dayton Countryman (1918–2011), B.S. Forestry 1940, attorney general of Iowa (1955–57) E. Thurman Gaskill (born 1935), Commissioner of both Iowa's Department of Economic Development and its Department of Natural Resources, president of Iowa Corn Growers Association, president of National Corn Growers Association, chairman of the United States Feed Grains Council William C. Hayward (1847–1917), did not graduate, Iowa secretary of state (1907–1913) Clem F. Kimball (1868–1928), B.A. Mechanical Engineering, lieutenant governor of Iowa (1925–1928) Jeff Kurtz (born 1954), did not graduate, Iowa state representative (2019–2021) Mary Mosiman (born 1962), B.S. Accounting 1999, Iowa state auditor (2013–2019) Bill Northey (born 1959), Agricultural Business B.A. 1981, Iowa secretary of Agriculture (2007–2018) Timothy Orr, MG, Education M.S. 1991, Adjutant General, State of Iowa Kraig Paulsen (born 1964), speaker of the Iowa House of Representatives (2011–2015) Sally Pederson (born 1951), class of 1973, former lieutenant governor of Iowa (1999–2007) Elaine Szymoniak (1920–2009), Family Environment M.A. 1977, Iowa state senator (1988–2000) Andrew Varley (1934–2018), B.S. Agricultural Economics (1957), speaker of the Iowa House of Representatives (1973–1975) Jo Ann Zimmerman (1936–2019), took graduate classes but did not receive a degree, first female lieutenant governor of Iowa (1987–1991) and member of the Iowa House of Representatives (1983–1987
Other U.S. officials Katharine Abraham (born 1954), B.S. Economics 1976, commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (1993–2001), member of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Obama (2011–2013) James Clark Jr. (1918–2006), B.A. Animal Husbandry (1941), president of the Maryland State Senate (1979–1983) Harvey Gantt (born 1943), transferred to Clemson University, becoming the first black student to be admitted, mayor of Charlotte, NC (1983–1987) Gwynn Garnett (1909–1995), B.S. 1934, administrator of the Foreign Agricultural Service 1955–1959, author of the first draft of what would become the Food for Peace program Bayard T. Hainer (1860–1933), B.S. 1884, justice of the Territorial Oklahoma Supreme Court (1898–1907) Spencer Haven (1868–1938), B.S. 1890, attorney general of Wisconsin (1918–1919) Willet M. Hays (1859–1928), M.A. Agriculture 1885, U.S. assistant secretary of Agriculture (1904–1913) Jon Lindgren (born 1938), B.S. 1960, mayor of Fargo, North Dakota, 1978–1994 and pioneering LGBT supporter Thomas Harris MacDonald (1881–1957), Civil Engineering B.S. 1904, led the development of the Interstate Highway System Elwood Mead (1858–1936), Civil Engineering PhD 1883, commissioner of U.S. Bureau of Reclamation during construction of the Hoover Dam, namesake of Lake Mead Lenora Moragne (1931–2020), B.S. 1953, nutritionist Patrick A. Murphy (born 1958), B.A. 1982, Adjutant General of New York Trudy Huskamp Peterson, B.S. 1967, Archivist of the United States (1993–1995) Robert W. Sennewald, B.A. 1951, commanding general, United States Army Forces Command (1984–1986) Scott Stanzel, B.A. 1995, deputy press secretary at the White House in the George W. Bush administration Steven VanRoekel, Management of Information Systems B.A. 1994, second Federal Chief Information Officer of the United States
International
Heads of state and government
Parviz Davoodi (born 1952), Economics PhD 1981, first vice president of Iran John Garang (1945–2005), Economics PhD 1981, former commander of SPLA and former vice president of Sudan Lee Teng-hui (1923–2023), Agricultural Economics M.S. 1953, former president of the Republic of China (Taiwan)
Cabinet ministers
Luis Ernesto Derbez (born 1947), Economics PhD 1980, current academic rector for the Universidad de las Américas Puebla (UDLAP), former Mexican Secretary of Foreign Affairs (2003–2006) and Secretary of Economics (2000–2002)