Barack Obama has been added to the list of Nobel Prize winners.  There a few people on this planet that are credited with this prestigious title. The criteria that are used to select people into this prestigious group vary and an unknown and expected person may even win for that year. Some are chosen for their contribution to humanity towards global peace.  The main theme of the Nobel Prize is Peace, and one’s effort in our society to contribute to world peace is a factor in being nominated into this elite group. Who knows who will be next.

Here is the list of the Nobel Prize winners since 1980

• 2009: U.S. President Barack Obama

• 2008: Martti Ahtisaari

• 2007: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Al Gore

• 2006: Muhammad Yunus, Grameen Bank

• 2005: International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei

• 2004: Wangari Maathai

• 2003: Shirin Ebadi

• 2002: Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter

• 2001: United Nations, Kofi Annan

• 2000: Kim Dae-jung

• 1999: Medecins Sans Frontieres

• 1998: John Hume, David Trimble

• 1997: International Campaign to Ban Landmines, Jody Williams

• 1996: Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, Jose Ramos-Horta

• 1995: Joseph Rotblat, Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs

• 1994: Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres, Yitzhak Rabin

• 1993: Nelson Mandela, F.W. de Klerk

• 1992: Rigoberta Menchu Tum

• 1991: Aung San Suu Kyi

• 1990: Mikhail Gorbachev

• 1989: The 14th Dalai Lama

• 1988: U.N. Peacekeeping Forces

• 1987: Oscar Arias Sanchez

• 1986: Elie Wiesel

• 1985: International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War

• 1984: Desmond Tutu

• 1983: Lech Walesa

• 1982: Alva Myrdal, Alfonso Garcia Robles

• 1981: Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees

• 1980: Adolfo Perez Esquivel