First one is last year:
Nobel Peace Prize awarded to alumnus
by Jim Patterson
Muhammad Yunus, who earned a Ph.D. in economics at Vanderbilt in 1971, won the Nobel Peace Prize on Oct. 13 for his work combating poverty through a bank that gives small loans to poor people.
Yunus’
concept of micro-credit – small loans given to poor villagers in
Bangladesh to help them buy livestock or fund an enterprise – has grown
from $27 he loaned out of his own pocket into the Grameen Bank,
which has loaned more than $5.7 billion to some 6.61 million borrowers.
Despite lack of collateral or signed loan documents, 99 percent of the
loans have been paid back. The Grameen Bank provides services to more
than 71,000 villages in Bangladesh through 2,226 branches.“Lasting
peace cannot be achieved unless large population groups find ways in
which to break out of poverty,” the Nobel Committee said in its
citation. “Micro-credit is one such means. Development from below also
serves to advance democracy and human rights.”“Very few people
have made as profound a difference in the lives of so many as Muhammed
Yunus,” said Chancellor Gordon Gee. “The Nobel Prize is a recognition
of his enormous contributions to society, and the Vanderbilt community
joins in the celebration.”Yunus, who has visited the Vanderbilt
campus regularly since his graduation, was named the university’s first
Distinguished Alumnus in 1996. He refers to Vanderbilt as his “second
home” to this day.
“His
parents were determined that he become a physician,” said James Foster,
professor of economics at Vanderbilt. “I think he’s achieved that by
becoming a physician to the economy. Vanderbilt’s economics department
and all of Vanderbilt are thrilled at this richly deserved recognition.”The
Grameen (which means “rural” in Bengali) Bank began in the village of
Jobra in 1976, when Yunus gave $27 to 42 self-employed crafts workers.
He reasoned that if financial resources are made available to the poor
on terms and conditions that are appropriate and reasonable, “these
millions of small people with their millions of small pursuits can add
up to create the biggest development wonder.”In a January 2005
lecture at Vanderbilt’s Wilson Hall, Yunus told a standing-room-only
crowd that his return to Bangladesh following graduation was initially
overwhelming. Armed with a top-notch education and high hopes, in the
face of the poverty of his homeland he felt powerless to help.“Arrogance
makes you think you can solve any problem,” he said, “but you see how
incapacitated you are in the face of real problems. I thought I would
go into a village and do something to help, even for a day. That was my
mission every day. I did a lot of little things.”Over time
Yunus developed the system that would later be coined micro-lending or
micro-credit, in which people without means are loaned a small amount
of money – in some cases a few cents or a few dollars – to fund an
enterprise and get out of the cycle of poverty.“When I was able
to help, it made them so happy,” Yunus said. “They thought it was a
miracle. I thought, if you can make so many people happy with so little
money, why not do more of it?” Yunus describes this mission in his
autobiography The Banker to the Poor: Micro-lending and the Battle Against World Poverty.“I
once asked Yunus what he did for fun,” Vanderbilt’s Foster said. “He
told me he spent his spare time thinking of new strategies to help
people help themselves. That’s the kind of person he is.”Click here to listen to a Vanderbilt lecture delivered by Yunus on Jan. 28, 2005.
Posted 10/23/06
Second one is this year:
Gore wins Nobel Prize
10-12-2007
Al GoreFormer Vice President Al Gore, a former Vanderbilt student and moderator for a decade of annual Family Re-Union conferences held at the university, was named a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for his work to combat global warming.
The 2007 Nobel was awarded to Gore jointly with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It was announced by the Norwegian Nobel committee in Oslo.
“Al Gore has for a long time been one of the world’s leading
environmentalist politicians, the Nobel committee said in a statement.
“He became aware at an early stage of the climatic challenges the world
is facing. His strong commitment, reflected in political activity,
lectures, films and books, has strengthened the struggle against
climate change.“He is probably the single individual who has done the most to create
greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be
adopted.”Since narrowly losing his bid for the presidency in 2000, Gore has
devoted himself to calling attention to the dangers of global warming.
A film on the topic based on his presentations on the subject, An Inconvenient Truth, won an Academy Award this year.“I am deeply honored to receive the Nobel Prize,” Gore said in a
statement. “This award is even more meaningful because I have the honor
of sharing it with the IPCC – the world’s pre-eminent scientific body
devoted to improving our understanding of the climate crisis – a group
whose members have worked tirelessly and selflessly for many years.”Gore said he would donate the about $750,000 in Nobel prize money to the Alliance for Climate Protection, a nonprofit environmental group.
“We face a true planetary emergency. The climate crisis is not a
political issue, it is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of
humanity. It is also our greatest opportunity to life global
consciousness to a higher level.Gore has been a friend and frequent visitor to Vanderbilt since his days in the 1970s taking classes at Vanderbilt Divinity School and Vanderbilt Law School.
From 1992 to 2002 he and wife Tipper Gore were the moderators of the
annual Family Re-Union conference. The conferences bring together
families and those who work with them to discuss and design better ways
to strengthen family life in America.Gore’s mother, the late Pauline Gore, was among the first female graduates of Vanderbilt Law School.
Last year Muhammad Yunus, a Vanderbilt alumnus, won the Nobel for his work helping the poor through small loans.
Media contact: Jim Patterson, (615) 322-NEWS
jim.patterson@vanderbilt.edu
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