2009- Barrack Obama, President of the United States
Barack H. Obama, the 44th President of the United States, had been in power for less than eight months when he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009. Among the reasons it gave, the Nobel Committee lauded Obama for his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between...
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2008 – Martti Ahtisaari, international diplomat
After a distinguished career with the United Nations and the Finnish Foreign Ministry, Martti Ahtisaari was elected President of the Republic of Finland in 1994. Throughout his career he has been actively involved in conflict resolution, state building and mediation. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize “for his important...
(continue)2007 – Al Gore and The IPCC, climate change
Al Gore, Jr. is an American environmental activist, author, businessperson, former politician and former journalist. He served as the forty-fifth Vice President of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. Gore was the Democratic nominee for president in the 2000 presidential election. He won the popular...
(continue)2006 – Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank, microcredit
Muhammad Yunus is a Bangladeshi banker and economist known to many as “The Banker to the Poor”. He was previously a Professor of Economics and is famous for his successful application of microcredit – the extension of small loans. These loans are given to entrepreneurs too poor to qualify for...
(continue)2005 – Mohamed ElBaradei and the IAEA
Dr. ElBaradei was born in Cairo, Egypt, in 1942. He earned a Doctorate in International Law at the New York University School of Law in 1974. He began his career in the Egyptian Diplomatic Service, and in 1980 he left the Diplomatic Service to join the United Nations. He was...
(continue)2004 – Wangari Maathai, 30 million trees
Wangari Maathai is the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. As leader of the Green Belt Movement for nearly thirty years, she mobilized poor women to plant trees to counteract the deforestation occurring in her country. She has also campaigned for broader women’s rights, education, family planning...
(continue)2003 – Shirin Ebadi, Iranian human rights attorney
Shirin Ebadi graduated from the University of Tehran with a law degree and until 1979 was one of the first female judges in Iran. After the revolution in 1979, she was forced to resign. She now works as a lawyer and teaches at the University of Tehran. Ebadi is known...
(continue)2002 – Jimmy Carter, International peacemaker and humanitarian
Jimmy Carter, thirty-ninth president of the United States, was born October 1, 1924, in the small farming town of Plains, Georgia. On July 7, 1946, he married Rosalynn Smith of Plains.In 1962 he won election to the Georgia Senate. He became Georgia’s 76th governor in 1971. He was elected president...
(continue)2001 – Kofi Annan and the United Nations
He has been called a “rock star of international diplomacy”. Born in Kumasi, Ghana in 1938, Kofi Annan is the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations, and the first to be elected from the ranks of UN staff. In 1962, after receiving a master’s degree in management from Massachusetts Institute...
(continue)2000 – Kim Dae Jung, architect of the Korean Sunshine Policy
Kim Dae Jung was elected to South Korea’s National Assembly in 1961. One month later, Gen. Park Chung-hee seized control of the government through a military coup, launching Kim’s career as a fiery and popular opposition figure. In 1971, in his first presidential race, Kim won 46 percent of the...
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