Muhammad Yunus, Micro Lender
Daniel Sannum Lauten / AFP / Getty
Recognition
Twenty-three years after he founded the bank, Muhammad Yunus shared the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize with Grameen, "for their efforts to create economic and social development from below." Why did an economist get a Peace Prize? "Peace is inextricably linked to poverty," Yunus says, "Poverty is a threat to peace."