List of Famous people born in Riga, Latvia
Mikhail Shifman
Mikhail "Misha" Arkadyevich Shifman is a theoretical physicist, formerly at Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics, Moscow, currently Ida Cohen Fine Professor of Theoretical Physics, William I. Fine Theoretical Physics Institute, University of Minnesota.
Gil Kane
Gil Kane was a Latvian-born American comics artist whose career spanned the 1940s to the 1990s and virtually every major comics company and character.
Elya Baskin
Ilya Zalmanovich Baskin Russian: Илья (Элиа) Залманович Баскин; born 11 August 1950), known as Elya Baskin, is a Russian–American character actor. He first gained attention for his role in Moscow on the Hudson (1984), as Robin Williams' character's best friend. He is also known for playing Peter Parker's landlord, Mr. Ditkovich, in Spider-Man 2 (2004) and Spider-Man 3 (2007).
Eliyahu Rips
Eliyahu Rips is an Israeli mathematician of Latvian origin known for his research in geometric group theory. He became known to the general public following his coauthoring a paper on what is popularly known as Bible code, the supposed coded messaging in the Hebrew text of the Torah.
Eduards Loze
Nils Ušakovs
Nils Ušakovs is a Latvian Russian politician, former mayor of Riga and former journalist. He has been the board chairman of the left-wing party alliance Harmony Centre (2005–2014) and afterwards board chairman of the Social Democratic Party "Harmony" (2014–2019). In 2009 Ušakovs was elected the Mayor of Riga, becoming the first Riga Mayor of Russian descent since Latvia's restoration of sovereignty in 1991, a position he continuously held until his dismissal in 2019.
Wilhelm Ostwald
Friedrich Wilhelm Ostwald was a Baltic German chemist and philosopher. Ostwald is credited with being one of the founders of the field of physical chemistry, with Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff, Walther Nernst, and Svante Arrhenius. He received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1909 for his scientific contributions to the fields of catalysis, chemical equilibria and reaction velocities.
Erik Hornung
Erik Hornung is an Egyptologist and one of the most influential modern writers on ancient Egyptian religion. He is Professor Emeritus of Basel University.
Indra Devi
Eugenie Peterson, known as Indra Devi, was a pioneering teacher of yoga as exercise and an early disciple of the "father of modern yoga", Tirumalai Krishnamacharya.
Aigars Kalvītis
Aigars Kalvītis is a Latvian businessman and a former politician who was the Prime Minister of Latvia from 2004 to 2007. Currently he is the president of Latvian Ice Hockey Federation and the Chairman of the Board of Latvian gas company Latvijas Gāze. He is the Chairman of the Council of Latvian telecommunications company Tet.