The 2009 Nobel Prizes
The Nobel Prize has been awarded each year since 1901.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, US President Barack Obama, UN Secretary General Ban ki Moon and Libyan Leader Muammar Gaddafi pose for a photo on the third day of the G8 summit July 10 in L'Aquila, Italy. Oli Scarff/Getty Images hide caption
The Nobel Committee recognized President Obama for his efforts to change the tenor abroad. Here, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, U.S. President Barack Obama, UN Secretary General Ban ki Moon, Libyan Leader Muammar Gaddafi and the extended members of the G8 world leaders pose for a "family photo" on the third day of the G8 summit on July 10, 2009. Oli Scarff/Getty Images hide caption
The winners of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, from left: Thomas Steitz, Ada Yonath and Venkatraman Ramakrishnan. Michel Marzlend/Yale University, Michael Probst/AP, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology hide caption
Gunnar Oquist (left), permanent secretary of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and Ingemar Lindstrom of the Academy sit next to portraits of the 2009 Nobel Physics Prize winners in Stockholm on Tuesday. Scanpix Sweden/Bertil Ericson/AP hide caption
Biologists Elizabeth H. Blackburn (left) and Carol Greider pose next to a bust of Paul Ehrlich before being awarded the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize in Frankfurt, Germany. on March 19. Michael Probst/AP hide caption