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