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Notable UW-Madison alumni

Thousands of scholars earned their UW-Madison alumni status over the weekend. Let’s check out some past grads that have made a big impact in Madison and beyond.

Camp Randall stadium view

Camp Randall hosted one of the two commencement ceremonies over the weekend. | Photo via Wikimedia Commons

There’s nothing quite like Madison in the spring. The trees are blooming, the weather is warming, and the students are leaving. This past weekend, over 8,000 students earned their UW-Madison alumni status.

We compiled a list of some notable former Badgers with whom the new grads now share this title:

John Bardeen — class of 1928 | Physicist and engineer, first person to win two Nobel Prizes in the same field

Gaylord Nelson — class of 1942 | Founder of Earth Day

Nancy O. Lurie — class of 1945 | Set the precedent for the use of anthropologists as key witnesses in land claim disputes

Herb Kohl — class of 1956 | US Senator, Kohl Center’s namesake

Allan ‘Bud’ Selig — class of 1956 | Former MLB commissioner, founder of MKE Brewers

Jerry Zucker — class of 1972 | Film director (Think: “Airplane,” “Ghost”)

Laurel Clark — class of 1987 | Doctor, US Navy captain, and NASA astronaut

Tammy Baldwin — class of 1989 | Wisconsin’s first woman to serve in US Senate

Virgil Abloh — class of 2002 | Former Louis Vuitton artistic director

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