List of secular humanists

This is a partial list of notable secular humanists.

A

Clark Adams (1969–2007): Former president of the Humanist Association of Las Vegas and Southern Nevada, and a life member of the American Humanist Association.Clark Adams: 1969–2007 , American Humanist Association News Flash, May 24, 2007. Retrieved 14 April 2008. Steve Allen: Humanist Laureate in The International Academy of Humanism,The International Academy of Humanism at the website of the Council for Secular Humanism. Retrieved 18 October 2007. Some of this information is also at the International Humanist and Ethical Union website and Chairman of the Council for Secular Humanism,A Tribute to Steve Allen , by Paul Kurtz, Skeptical Inquirer magazine, January/February 2001. Retrieved 18 October 2007. and received the Distinguished Service Award from the American Humanist Association. Ralph Alpher: American cosmologist. He is famous for the seminal paper on Big Bang nucleosynthesis called the Alpher–Bethe–Gamow paper. Philip Warren Anderson: American physicist and Nobel laureate in Physics. Was one of 21 Nobel Laureates who signed the Humanist Manifesto. James J. Andrews: American mathematician, a professor of mathematics at Florida State University who specialized in knot theory, topology, and group theory. He was a member for the organization, "African Americans For Humanism" (AAH) Advisory Board. John Ankwyll: Considered the first English humanist schoolmaster.Peace, Print and Protestantism, p.131, C.S.L. Davies, London: Hart-Davies, MacGibbon, 1976 Isaac Asimov: American Humanist Association's "Humanist of the Year" for 1984, Asimov also served as the organization's president from 1985 until his death in 1992, and was further a Humanist Laureate in the International Academy of Humanism. Taking great personal pride from the association, he became a strong public advocate for the movement. Michael Atiyah: British mathematician."Distinguished mathematician and supporter of Humanism."Professor Sir Michael Atiyah OM FRS Margaret Atwood: Canadian author. Named Humanist of the Year in 1987 by the American Humanist Association, and is a Humanist Laureate in the International Academy of Humanism. A. J. Ayer: Humanist Laureate in the International Academy of Humanism. Jim Al-Khalili: Iraqi-British theoretical physicist and science populariser who became vice president of Humanists UK in 2016 after stepping down as its president.

B

Ronnie Barker (1929–2005): British comedian.had a "humanist funeral service." A quiet goodbye for TV's Ronnie Barker, Telegraph.co.uk, 14 October 2005. Retrieved 29 March 2008. Ryan J. Bell (born 1971): Humanist Chaplain at the University of Southern California. Jeremy Bentham: English author, jurist, philosopher, and legal and social reformer. He became a leading theorist in Anglo-American philosophy of law, and a political radical whose ideas influenced the development of welfarism. He is best known for his advocacy of utilitarianism and animal rights, and the idea of the panopticon. John Bercow: British politician. Maria Berenice Dias: Progressive Brazilian judge and the first woman to take the bench in her home Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. Marshall Berman: American political scientist and Marxist humanist. Leonard Bernstein: American composer, conductor, author, music lecturer, and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim. Nye Bevan: Welsh MP and Labour Minister of Health who created the National Health Service in the UK. Niels Bohr: Danish physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum mechanics, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922. Hermann Bondi: Humanist Laureate in the International Academy of Humanism. Paul D. Boyer: American biochemist, analytical chemist, and a professor of chemistry at University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). He shared the 1997 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for research on the "enzymatic mechanism underlying the biosynthesis of adenosine triphosphate (ATP)" (ATP synthase) with John E. Walker; the remainder of the Prize in that year was awarded to Danish chemist Jens Christian Skou for his discovery of the Na+/K+-ATPase. Was one of 21 Nobel Laureates who signed the Humanist Manifesto. Johannes Brahms (1833–1897): German composer and pianist. Jacob Bronowski: Polish-British polymath and author of The Ascent of Man."Jacob Bronowski was a humanist, polymath and all round Renaissance man." Lester R. Brown: American environmental analyst, founder of the Worldwatch Institute, and founder and president of the Earth Policy Institute, a nonprofit research organization based in Washington, D.C. Named Humanist of the Year in 1991 by the American Humanist Association.Humanist Of The Year Roy W. Brown: British-born engineer, humanist and human rights activist; president of the International Humanist and Ethical Union 2003–2006 and its main representative at the United Nations."Ladies and Gentlemen, distinguished guests, free-thinkers, fellow Humanists." – First line of Brown's opening speech at the World Humanist Congress 2005. Mario Bunge: Argentine philosopher, philosopher of science and physicist mainly active in Canada.

C Mary Calderone: American physician and a public health advocate for sexual education. She served as president and co-founder of the Sex Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS) from 1954 to 1982. Selected as one of the Humanists of the Year in 1974 by the American Humanist Association. Helen Caldicott: Australian physician, author, and anti-nuclear advocate who founded several associations dedicated to opposing the use of nuclear power, depleted uranium munitions, nuclear weapons, nuclear weapons proliferation, war and military action in general. Named Humanist of the Year in 1982 by the American Humanist Association. Anton J. Carlson: A signer of the original Humanist Manifesto, and named Humanist of the Year in 1953 by the American Humanist Association. Owen Chamberlain: American physicist and Nobel laureate in Physics; one of 21 Nobel Laureates who signed the Humanist Manifesto. Charlie Chaplin: Stated in his autobiography that he was a humanist and used this as his argument in his defence of J. Edgar Hoover's insistence that Chaplin was a communist. Noam Chomsky: American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, and activist.The Humanist Interview: Noam Chomsky Arthur C. Clarke: Humanist Laureate in the International Academy of Humanism. Auguste Comte: French philosopher; a founder of the discipline of sociology and of the doctrine of positivism. Aaron Copland:To all appearances, and by all accounts, he was what many might call a secular humanist." Professor Leon Botstein writes: "He emerged as an adult without an ongoing connection to religion." American composer Andrew Copson: Chief Executive of Humanists UK and President of the International Humanist and Ethical Union. Brian Cox: British particle physicist, Royal Society University Research Fellow and television personality. Francis Crick: Humanist Laureate in the International Academy of Humanism, and received the Distinguished Service Award from the American Humanist Association in 1986. Paul J. Crutzen: Dutch Nobel Prize–winning atmospheric chemist; one of 21 Nobel Laureates who signed the Humanist Manifesto.

D Richard Dawkins: Named Humanist of the Year in 1996 by the American Humanist Association and by Humanists UK in 2012, and is a Humanist Laureate in the International Academy of Humanism. Daniel Dennett: Named Humanist of the Year in 2004 by the American Humanist Association, and is a Humanist Laureate in the International Academy of Humanism. Johann Deisenhofer: German biochemist who, along with Hartmut Michel and Robert Huber, received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1988 for their determination of the first crystal structure of an integral membrane protein, a membrane-bound complex of proteins and co-factors that is essential to photosynthesis. Was one of 21 Nobel Laureates who signed the Humanist Manifesto. John Dewey: Signer of the original Humanist Manifesto.Chapter 13: Publication of "A Humanist Manifesto", from The Genesis of a Humanist Manifesto, by Edwin H. Wilson, Humanist Press, a division of the American Humanist Association, 1995. Retrieved 19 October 2007 from The Secular Web. In 1954, the American Humanist Association named Dewey a Humanist Pioneer. John H. Dietrich: Signer of the original Humanist Manifesto, and was named a Humanist Pioneer by the American Humanist Association in 1976. Matt Dillahunty: Regularly engages in debates with theists, former president of the Atheist Community of Austin, and former host of The Atheist Experience. He is currently a frequent host of The Line. Paul Dirac: English theoretical physicist who made fundamental contributions to the early development of both quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics. He shared the Nobel Prize in Physics, in 1933, with Erwin Schrödinger, "for the discovery of new productive forms of atomic theory." Alf Dubs, Baron Dubs: Czech-born British peer and former MP, awarded Humanist of the Year by the British Humanist Association in 2016. Ann Dunham (1942–1995): Mother of Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States.Obama Family Tree | Stanley Ann Dunham | 'Most generous spirit'

E Roger Ebert: American journalist, film critic, and screenwriter. Umberto Eco: Humanist Laureate in the International Academy of Humanism. Sanal Edamaruku: Indian author and rationalist. Sonja Eggerickx: Belgian secular Humanist, president of the International Humanist and Ethical Union 2006–2015; awarded the Distinguished Services to Humanism Award 2016 for her work in secular education and ethics. Albert Einstein: Served on the advisory board of the First Humanist Society of New York Barbara Ehrenreich: American feminist, democratic socialist, and political activist; named Humanist of the Year in 1998 by the American Humanist Association. Albert Ellis: American psychologist who in 1955 developed Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT); named Humanist of the Year in 1971 by the American Humanist Association. Friedrich Engels: German-English industrialist, social scientist, author, political theorist, philosopher, and father of Marxist theory, alongside Karl Marx. Greg M. Epstein: Secular humanist chaplain at Harvard University, and a published author on the subject of secular humanism.About Greg Epstein at Harvard

F Richard Feynman: American physicist known for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics, and the physics of the superfluidity of supercooled liquid helium, as well as in particle physics (he proposed the parton model). For his contributions to the development of quantum electrodynamics, Feynman, jointly with Julian Schwinger and Sin-Itiro Tomonaga, received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965. Joseph Fletcher: American professor who founded the theory of situational ethics in the 1960s, and was a pioneer in the field of bioethics. Fletcher was a leading academic involved in the topics of abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, eugenics, and cloning; named Humanist of the Year in 1974 by the American Humanist Association. Tom Flynn: Senior Editor of Free Inquiry magazine. Joseph Fourier: French mathematician and physicist best known for initiating the investigation of Fourier series and their applications to problems of heat transfer and vibrations. The Fourier transform and Fourier's law are also named in his honour. Fourier is also generally credited with the discovery of the greenhouse effect. Levi Fragell: Norwegian humanist, chairman and secretary of the Norwegian Humanist Association, President of the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) between 1987 and 1990 (as one member of a troika) and, in his own right, between 1998 and 2003.