List of alumni of the University of Chile

Pablo Neruda

Arturo Prat

Pedro Aguirre Cerda

Michelle Bachelet

Ricardo Lagos

The following is a list of notable alumni of the University of Chile.

Government, law, and public policy

Heads of state

• Pedro Aguirre Cerda (1938–1941) – lawyer and teacher
• Arturo Alessandri (1920–1925; 1932–1938) – lawyer
• Jorge Alessandri (1958–1964) – engineer
• Salvador Allende (1971–1973) – physician
• Patricio Aylwin (1990–1994) – lawyer
• Michelle Bachelet (2006–2010) – physician
• Ramón Barros Luco (1910–1915) – lawyer
• Carlos Dávila (de facto leader) – lawyer
• Federico Errázuriz Echaurren (1896–1901) – lawyer
• Federico Errázuriz Zañartu (1871–1876) – lawyer
• Emiliano Figueroa (1925–1927) – lawyer
• Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle (1994–2000) – civil engineer
• Gabriel González Videla (1946–1952) – lawyer
• Ricardo Lagos (2000–2006) – lawyer
• Juan Esteban Montero (1931–1932) – lawyer
• Pedro Montt (1906–1910) – lawyer
• Aníbal Pinto (1876–1881) – lawyer
• Germán Riesco (1901–1906) – lawyer
• Juan Luis Sanfuentes (1915–1920) – lawyer
• Domingo Santa María (1881–1886) – lawyer

Foreign heads of state

• José López Portillo (México: 1976–1982) – lawyer
• Carlos Mesa (Bolivia) – lawyer
• Camilo Ponce Enríquez (politician) (Ecuador: 1956–1960) – lawyer

Non-Chilean politicians

• Schafik Handal – general secretary of Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front of El Salvador; law studies
• Marcelo Quiroga Santa Cruz – socialist political leader from Bolivia; brutally abducted and subsequently assassinated by military forces in 1980; law and drama studies
• José Vicente Rangel – Vice President of Venezuela (2002–2007); law studies
• José Serra – Governor of São Paulo state and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Brazil; Masters in Economics.

Notable lawyers

• Cecilia Medina – Gruber Prize recipient, judge
• Arturo Prat Chacón – national hero, lawyer
• José Zalaquett – lawyer and professor on Human Rights, National Prize for Humanities and Social Sciences 2003

Civil Servants

• Joaquín Marcó Figueroa  – superintendent of the Casa de Moneda de Chile, and author
• Valentina Quiroga  – Undersecretary of Education (2014–2018)

Business

• Eliodoro Matte – industrial engineer; billionaire; president of Empresas CMPC
• Julio Ponce Lerou – forestry engineer; businessman; controlling shareholder of Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile

Economists

• Armando Di Filippo – Argentine economist
• Eduardo Engel – engineer and economist
• Manfred Max Neef – Right Livelihood Award winner, economist
• Aníbal Pinto Santa Cruz – economist National Prize for Humanities and Social Sciences 1995
• Paulo Renato Souza – economist and politician

Arts

Literature

• José Donoso – National Literature Prize 1990
• Roque Dalton – Salvadoran poet and activist
• Jorge Edwards – National Literature Prize 1994
• Alberto Fuguet – writer, journalist, film director
• Gabriela Mistral – Nobel Prize 1945, National Literature Prize 1951; teacher
• Pablo Neruda – Nobel Prize 1971, National Literature Prize 1945
• Raquel Olea (born 1944), writer, professor
• Mariano Picón Salas – National Literature Prize of Venezuela 1954
• Antonio Skármeta – writer
• Volodia Teitelboim – National Literature Prize 2002

Music

• Luis Advis
• Mario Iriarte
• Víctor Jara
• Sergio Ortega
• Sonia Paz Soto-Aguilar Orellana (Pachi)
• Pablo Rosetti (Pablo)
• Horacio Salinas
• Santiago Vera-Rivera

Visual arts

• Graciela Aranis
• Matilde Pérez
• Laura Rodig
• Cecilia Vicuña
• Catalina Bauer
• Benjamín Vicuña
• Ximena Cristi

Humanities and Social Sciences

Anthropology

• María Ester Grebe  – ethnomusicologist
• Sonia Montecino – National Prize for Humanities and Social Sciences 2013

History

• José Toribio Medina – bibliographer, prolific writer and historian
• Gabriel Salazar – National Prize of History 2006
• Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna – prolific writer and historian

Philosophy

• Carla Cordua Roberto Torretti – National Prize for Humanities and Social Sciences 2011
• Humberto Giannini – National Prize for Humanities and Social Sciences 1999
• Olga Grau, writer, professor, philosopher

Sociology

• Manuel Antonio Garretón – National Prize for Humanities and Social Sciences 2007
• Emir Sader – Brazilian sociologist, one of the World Social Forum organizers
• Clodomir Santos de Morais – Brazilian sociologist who originated the Organization Workshop (OW) and the associated Activity-based Large Group Capacitation Method (LGCM)

Exact sciences

• Justicia Acuña
• Ricardo Baeza-Yates
• Claudio Bunster
• Claudio Donoso
• Cristina Dorador
• Eric Goles
• Humberto Maturana – National Prize of Natural Sciences 1994
• Hugo K. Sievers