Muhammad Yunus

A professor of economics that won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his efforts in developing social and economic improvements through microcredit operations. Most notably, Yunus founded the Grameen Bank, which is known for loaning billions of dollars to the less fortunate all over the world.

Born in June 28, 1940, in Bangladesh, Yunus completed his BA and MA at Bangladesh's Dhaka University. He would later complete his PhD in economics at the United States' Vanderbilt University in 1969. Yunus would return to Bangladesh to become the head of Chittagong University's Economics department in the early 1970s. But it wouldn't be until 1976, when his academic work in microcredit would lead him towards the beginnings of forming the Grameen bank and his future Nobel Prize.