2007

Al Gore

Albert Arnold (Al) Gore Jr. Born: 31 March 1948, Washington, DC, USA Residence at the time of the award: USA Prize motivation: "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change" Field: Humanitarian work, world organizing

Photo: Ken Opprann

Biography
Former Vice President Al Gore is chairman of Current TV, an award winning, independently owned cable and satellite television nonfiction network for young people based on viewer-created content and citizen journalism. He also serves as chairman of Generation Investment Management, a firm that is focused on a new approach to sustainable investing.

Gore is a member of the board of directors of Apple and a senior adviser to Google. He is a Visiting Professor at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and chairs the Alliance for Climate Protection, a non-profit organization designed to help solve the climate crisis. Al Gore was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1976, 1978, 1980 and 1982 and the U.S. Senate in 1984 and 1990. He was inaugurated as the forty-fifth vice president of the United States on January 20, 1993, and served eight years. During the Administration, Al Gore was a central member of President Clinton's economic team. He served as President of the Senate, a Cabinet member, a member of the National Security Council, and as the leader of a wide range of Administration initiatives. He is the author of the bestsellers Earth in the Balance and An Inconvenient Truth and is the subject of an Oscarwinning documentary. Al Gore is the co-winner, with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for "informing the world of the dangers posed by climate change." He and his wife, Tipper, live in Nashville, Tennessee. They have four children and three grandchildren.

2008
The Nobel Peace Prize 2008
Martti Ahtisaari
Born: 23 June 1937, Viipuri (now Vyborg), Finland (now Russia) Residence at the time of the award: Finland Prize motivation: "for his important efforts, on several continents and over more than three decades, to resolve international conflicts" Field: Negotiation

Photo: Ken Opprann

Biography
Martti Ahtisaari was born on June 23, 1937 in the city of Viipuri, then still part of Finland. Finland lost Viipuri when the Soviet Union attacked the country. Along with 400,000 fellow Karelians, Ahtisaari became an eternally displaced person in the rest of Finland. With his mother, he moved from one household to another before settling in the eastern part of Finland, in the city of Kuopio. For Martti Ahtisaari this experience, which millions of people around the world have gone through, provided him with a sensitivity that helps explain his desire to advance peace and thus help others who have gone through similar experiences. For the past 45 years, his career has been intertwined with development issues and peacemaking. He made his career, first and foremost, as a civil

servant in the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the United Nations. During his career he has worked on several continents, becoming a citizen of the world, an honorary citizen of Namibia and a New Yorker. Mr. Ahtisaari joined the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland in 1965, holding various posts in the Ministry's Bureau for Technical Co-operation from 1965 to 1972, and serving as Assistant Director from 1971 to 1972. He served as Deputy Director in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, in the Department for International Development Cooperation between 1972 and 1973. He was also a member of the Government Advisory Committee on Trade and Industrialisation Affairs of Developing Countries from 1971 to 1973. At the age of 36, Mr. Ahtisaari became the Ambassador of Finland to the United Republic of Tanzania (1973 1976) and was also accredited to Zambia, Somalia and Mozambique (19751976). This experience led him to become involved with Namibia. He first served as a member of the Senate of the UN Institute for Namibia between 1975 and 1976. Mr. Ahtisaari acted as United Nations Commissioner for Namibia from 1977 to 1981 and moved to New York. In July 1978 he was appointed Special Representative of the Secretary General for Namibia. Still acting as the Special Representative for Namibia, Mr. Ahtisaari returned to Finland where he served from 1984 to 1986 as Under-Secretary of State in charge of International Development Co-operation in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland. He was Governor for Finland in the African Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, as well as in the International Fund for Agricultural Development. During that period, he was Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Finnish Industrialisation Fund for developing countries. From Finland, Martti Ahtisaari moved again to New York when then-Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar appointed him Under-Secretary General for Administration and Management, effective on January 1, 1987. Mr. Ahtisaari retained his role as Special Representative of the Secretary General for Namibia and led the United Nations Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG) in Namibia from 1989 to 1990. UNTAG was the first ever UN operation that included both a traditional peacekeeping force and a civilian component dealing with electoral, police, human rights and educational matters. After 13 years of UN Namibia involvement, Mr. Ahtisaari's position as Under-Secretary General ended on June 30, 1991. His first peace making task resulted in the independence of Namibia. This experience has had crucial importance in his later work. Starting on July 1, 1991, Mr. Ahtisaari served as State Secretary in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland in Helsinki. From September 1992 to April 1993 he began his involvement in the Balkans when he was appointed Chairman of the Bosnia-Herzegovina Working Group of the International Conference on the former Yugoslavia. Beginning in July 1993, for a period of four months Mr. Ahtisaari served as Special Adviser to the International Conference on the former Yugoslavia and to the Secretary General's Special Representative for the former Yugoslavia. After this distinguished career with the United Nations and the Finnish Foreign Ministry, Martti Ahtisaari was elected President of the Republic of Finland in February 1994. He held office from March 1, 1994 to February 29, 2000. During this time Finland joined the European Union and overcame a severe economic recession. Upon leaving office as President of the Republic of Finland, Mr. Ahtisaari wanted both to continue his career in international peace mediation and conflict resolution and to leave his legacy and know-how to future peace mediators. This led him in 2000 to found the Crisis Management Initiative, a non-governmental organisation of which he is Chairman of the Board.

The first of Martti Ahtisaari's post-presidential tasks was the inspection of the IRA's arms dumps together with fellow inspector Cyril Ramaphosa in 2000. In 2003 he chaired an independent panel on the security and safety of UN personnel in Iraq, after which he was appointed the Personal Envoy for Central Asia of the Chairman of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). At the same time he became the UN Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa, serving in this position between 2003 and 2005. In these assignments Martti Ahtisaari was assisted by CMI staff.

Martti Ahtisaari with his Nobel Peace Prize Medal and Diploma at the Award Ceremony in Oslo, Norway, 10 December 2008.

Copyright The Nobel Foundation 2008 Photo: Ken Opprann

2009

2009

Peace

The Nobel Peace Prize 2009

Barack H. Obama
The Nobel Peace Prize 2009 Nobel Peace Prize Award Ceremony Barack H. Obama

Photo: Pete Souza, Obama-Biden Transition Project, licensed by Attribution Share Alike 3.0

Barack H. Obama

The Nobel Peace Prize 2009 was awarded to Barack H. Obama "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples".
Photos: Copyright The Nobel Foundation
TO CITE THIS PAGE:

MLA style: "The Nobel Peace Prize 2009". Nobelprize.org. 28 May 2012 http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2009/

Barack H. Obama Born: 4 August 1961, Honolulu, HI, USA Residence at the time of the award: USA

Prize motivation: "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples" Role: 44th President of the United States of America Field: World organizing, arms control and disarmament

Photo: Pete Souza, Obama-Biden Transition Project, licensed by Attribution Share Alike 3.0

Biography
Barack H. Obama is the 44th President of the United States. His story is the American story values from the heartland, a middle-class upbringing in a strong family, hard work and education as the means of getting ahead, and the conviction that a life so blessed should be lived in service to others. With a father from Kenya and a mother from Kansas, President Obama was born in Hawaii on August 4, 1961. He was raised with help from his grandfather, who served in Patton's army, and his grandmother, who worked her way up from the secretarial pool to middle management at a bank. After working his way through college with the help of scholarships and student loans, President Obama moved to Chicago, where he worked with a group of churches to help rebuild communities devastated by the closure of local steel plants.

He went on to attend law school, where he became the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review. Upon graduation, he returned to Chicago to help lead a voter registration drive, teach constitutional law at the University of Chicago, and remain active in his community. President Obama's years of public service are based around his unwavering belief in the ability to unite people around a politics of purpose. In the Illinois State Senate, he passed the first major ethics reform in 25 years, cut taxes for working families, and expanded health care for children and their parents. As a United States Senator, he reached across the aisle to pass groundbreaking lobbying reform, lock up the world's most dangerous weapons, and bring transparency to government by putting federal spending online.

Barack H. Obama delivering his Nobel Lecture in the Oslo City Hall, 10 December 2009.

2010

2010

Peace

The Nobel Peace Prize 2010

Liu Xiaobo
The Nobel Peace Prize 2010 Nobel Peace Prize Award Ceremony Liu Xiaobo

Copyright The Nobel Foundation Photo: Bi Yimin

Liu Xiaobo
The Nobel Peace Prize 2010 was awarded to Liu Xiaobo "for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China".

The Nobel Peace Prize 2010

Liu Xiaobo
The Nobel Peace Prize 2010 Nobel Peace Prize Award Ceremony Liu Xiaobo

Liu Xiaobo Born: 28 December 1955 Residence at the time of the award: China Prize motivation: "for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China" Field: Human rights

Copyright The Nobel Foundation Photo: Bi Yimin

Biography
Liu Xiaobo, a prominent independent intellectual in China, is a long-time advocate of political reform and human rights in China and an outspoken critic of the Chinese communist regime; Liu has been detained, put under house arrest and imprisoned many times for his writing and activism. According to his lawyers defence statement in his 2009 trial, Liu has written nearly 800 essays, 499 of them since 2005. Liu is a drafter and a key proponent of Charter 08. Liu was born on December 28, 1955 in Changchun, Jilin. He received a BA in literature from Jilin University, and an MA and PhD from Beijing Normal University, where he also taught. In April 1989, he left his position as a visiting scholar at Columbia University to return to Beijing to participate in the 1989 Democracy Movement. On June 2, Liu, along with Hou Dejian, Zhou Duo, and Gao Xin, went on a hunger strike in Tiananmen Square to protest martial law and appeal for peaceful negotiations between the students and the government. In the early morning of June 4, 1989, the four attempted to persuade the students

to leave Tiananmen Square. After the crackdown, Liu was held in Beijings Qincheng Prison until January 1991, when he was found guilty of "counter-revolutionary propaganda and incitement" but exempted from punishment.

As a tribute to the absent Nobel Laureate, Liu Xiaobo's Nobel Medal and Diploma were placed on an empty chair during the Nobel Peace Prize Award Ceremony in Oslo, Norway, 10 December 2010.

2011
The Nobel Peace Prize 2011
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee, Tawakkol Karman
The Nobel Peace Prize 2011 Nobel Peace Prize Award Ceremony Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Leymah Gbowee Tawakkol Karman

Photo: K. Opprann

Photo: K. Opprann

Photo: K. Opprann

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Leymah Gbowee Tawakkol Karman

The Nobel Peace Prize 2011 was awarded jointly to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkol Karman "for their non-violent

struggle for the safety of women and for womens rights to full participation in peace-building work".
Photos: Copyright The Nobel Foundation

Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Ellen Johnson Sirleaf with her Nobel Diploma at the Nobel Peace Prize Award Ceremony in Oslo, Norway, 10 December 2011.

Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Leymah Gbowee with her Nobel Diploma at the Nobel Peace Prize Award Ceremony in Oslo, Norway, 10 December 2011.

Tawakkol Karman Born: 7 February 1979 Residence at the time of the award: Yemen Prize motivation: "for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for womens rights to full participation in peace-building work"

Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Tawakkol Karman with her Nobel Diploma at the Nobel Peace Prize Award Ceremony in Oslo, Norway, 10 December 2011.

Member States of the United Nations

Membership

o o o o o o

About Membership List of UN Member States Member States On the Record Growth in the UN Membership Membership of the Principal UN Organs National Holidays Contribution to UN regular budget Honour Roll: Contribution Received in Full for 2012 Arrears in the Payment of Contribution Permanent Missions Geneva Vienna Permanent Observers About Permanent Observers Non-Member States Intergovernmental Organizations Related Links Information Sources Member State

Date of Admission

Afghanistan

o o

19-11-1946

Albania

o o

14-12-1955

Algeria

o o

08-10-1962

Andorra

o o

28-07-1993

Angola

01-12-1976

o o o o o o

Antigua and Barbuda

o o

11-11-1981

Argentina

o o

24-10-1945

Armenia

o o

02-03-1992

Australia

o o

01-11-1945

Austria

o o

14-12-1955

Azerbaijan

o o o o o o o o o o o o
Belgium

02-03-1992

B
o

Bahamas

o o

18-09-1973

Bahrain

o o

21-09-1971

Bangladesh

o o

17-09-1974

Barbados

o o
*

09-12-1966

Belarus

24-10-1945

o o

27-12-1945

Belize

o o

25-09-1981

Benin

o o

20-09-1960

Bhutan

21-09-1971

o o o o o o o o

Bolivia (Plurinational State of)

o o
*

14-11-1945

Bosnia and Herzegovina

o o

22-05-1992

Botswana

o o

17-10-1966

Brazil

o o

24-10-1945

Brunei Darussalam

o o

21-09-1984

Bulgaria

o o

14-12-1955

Burkina Faso

o o

20-09-1960

Burundi

o o

18-09-1962

C
o

o o o o o o o

Cambodia

o o

14-12-1955

Cameroon

o o

20-09-1960

Canada

o o

09-11-1945

Cape Verde

o o

16-09-1975

Central African Republic

o o

20-09-1960

Chad

o o

20-09-1960

Chile

24-10-1945

 o o o o o o o o o o

China

o o

24-10-1945

Colombia

o o

05-11-1945

Comoros

o o

12-11-1975

Congo

o o

20-09-1960

Costa Rica

o o

02-11-1945

Cte D'Ivoire

o o
*

20-09-1960

Croatia

o o

22-05-1992

Cuba

o o

24-10-1945

Cyprus

o o
*

20-09-1960

Czech Republic

o o o o o o o o
Denmark

19-01-1993

D
o

Democratic People's Republic of Korea

17-09-1991

Democratic Republic of the Congo

20-09-1960

o o

24-10-1945

Djibouti

o o

20-09-1977

Dominica

o o

18-12-1978

Dominican Republic

o o

24-10-1945

E
o

o o o o o o o

Ecuador

o o
*

21-12-1945

Egypt

o o

24-10-1945

El Salvador

o o

24-10-1945

Equatorial Guinea

o o

12-11-1968

Eritrea

o o

28-05-1993

Estonia

o o

17-09-1991

Ethiopia

o o

13-11-1945

F
o

o o o

Fiji

o o

13-10-1970

Finland

o o

14-12-1955

France

o o o o o
Gabon

24-10-1945

G
o

o o

20-09-1960

Gambia

 o o o o o o o o o

o o

21-09-1965

Georgia

o o
*

31-07-1992

Germany

o o

18-09-1973

Ghana

o o

08-03-1957

Greece

o o

25-10-1945

Grenada

o o

17-09-1974

Guatemala

o o

21-11-1945

Guinea

o o

12-12-1958

Guinea Bissau

o o

17-09-1974

Guyana

o o

20-09-1966

H
o

o o o

Haiti

o o

24-10-1945

Honduras

o o

17-12-1945

Hungary

o o o o

14-12-1955

I
o

Iceland

o o

19-11-1946

India

 o o o o o o

o o
*

30-10-1945

Indonesia

o o

28-09-1950

Iran (Islamic Republic of)

o o

24-10-1945

Iraq

o o

21-12-1945

Ireland

o o

14-12-1955

Israel

o o

11-05-1949

Italy

o o

14-12-1955

J
o

o o o

Jamaica

o o

18-09-1962

Japan

o o

18-12-1956

Jordan

o o o o o o o

14-12-1955

K
o

Kazakhstan

o o

02-03-1992

Kenya

o o

16-12-1963

Kiribati

o o

14-09-1999

Kuwait

o o

14-05-1963

Kyrgyzstan

 o o o o o o o

02-03-1992

L
o

Lao Peoples Democratic Republic

o o

14-12-1955

Latvia

o o

17-09-1991

Lebanon

o o

24-10-1945

Lesotho

o o

17-10-1966

Liberia

o o
* *

02-11-1945

Libya

14-12-1955

Following the adoption by the General Assembly of resolution 66/1, the Permanent Mission of Libya to the

United Nations formally notified the United Nations of a Declaration by the National Transitional Council of 3 August changing the official name of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya to "Libya" and changing Libya's national flag.

o o o

Liechtenstein

o o

18-09-1990

Lithuania

o o

17-09-1991

Luxembourg

o o

24-10-1945

M
o

o o o o

Madagascar

o o

20-09-1960

Malawi

o o
*

01-12-1964

Malaysia

17-09-1957

o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

Maldives

o o

21-09-1965

Mali

o o

28-09-1960

Malta

o o

01-12-1964

Marshall Islands

o o

17-09-1991

Mauritania

o o

27-10-1961

Mauritius

o o

24-04-1968

Mexico

o o

07-11-1945

Micronesia (Federated States of)

17-09-1991

Monaco

o o

28-05-1993

Mongolia

o o
*

27-10-1961

Montenegro

o o

28-06-2006

Morocco

o o

12-11-1956

Mozambique

o o

16-09-1975

Myanmar

o o

19-04-1948

N
o

Namibia

23-04-1990

o o o o o o o o

Nauru

14-09-1999

Nepal

o o

14-12-1955

Netherlands

o o

10-12-1945

New Zealand

o o

24-10-1945

Nicaragua

24-10-1945

Niger

o o

20-09-1960

Nigeria

o o

07-10-1960

Norway

o o

27-11-1945

O
o

Oman

o o o o o o o o
Papua New Guinea

07-10-1971

P
o

Pakistan

o o

30-09-1947

Palau

o o

15-12-1994

Panama

13-11-1945

o o

10-10-1975

Paraguay

24-10-1945

 o o o o

Peru

o o

31-10-1945

Philippines

o o

24-10-1945

Poland

o o

24-10-1945

Portugal

o o

14-12-1955

Q
o

Qatar

o o

21-09-1971

R
o

o o o o o

Republic of Korea

o o

17-09-1991

Republic of Moldova

o o

02-03-1992

Romania

o o
*

14-12-1955

Russian Federation

o o

24-10-1945

Rwanda

o o

18-09-1962

S
o

o o o

Saint Kitts and Nevis

o o

23-09-1983

Saint Lucia

o o

18-09-1979

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

16-09-1980

 o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

Samoa

15-12-1976

San Marino

o o

02-03-1992

Sao Tome and Principe

o o

16-09-1975

Saudi Arabia

o o

24-10-1945

Senegal

o o
*

28-09-1960

Serbia

o o

01-11-2000

Seychelles

o o

21-09-1976

Sierra Leone

o o
*

27-09-1961

Singapore

o o
*

21-09-1965

Slovakia

o o
*

19-01-1993

Slovenia

o o

22-05-1992

Solomon Islands

o o

19-09-1978

Somalia

o o

20-09-1960

South Africa

o o
outh Sudan
*

07-11-1945

14-07-2011

o o o o o o o o o

Spain

o o

14-12-1955

Sri Lanka

o o

14-12-1955

Sudan

o o

12-11-1956

Suriname

o o

04-12-1975

Swaziland

o o

24-09-1968

Sweden

19-11-1946

Switzerland

o o
*

10-09-2002

Syrian Arab Republic

o o

24-10-1945

T
o

o o o o o o o

Tajikistan

o o

02-03-1992

Thailand

o o
*

16-12-1946

The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

o o

08-04-1993

Timor-Leste

o o

27-09-2002

Togo

o o

20-09-1960

Tonga

o o

14-09-1999

Trinidad and Tobago

18-09-1962

o o o o

Tunisia

o o

12-11-1956

Turkey

o o

24-10-1945

Turkmenistan

o o

02-03-1992

Tuvalu

o o

05-09-2000

U
o

o o o o o o o o

Uganda

o o

25-10-1962

Ukraine

o o

24-10-1945

United Arab Emirates

o o

09-12-1971

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

o o
*

24-10-1945

United Republic of Tanzania

o o

14-12-1961

United States of America

o o

24-10-1945

Uruguay

o o

18-12-1945

Uzbekistan

o o

02-03-1992

V
o

o o

Vanuatu

o o

15-09-1981

Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of)

15-11-1945

Viet Nam

o o

20-09-1977

Y
o

Yemen

o o

30-09-1947

Z
o

o o

Zambia

o o

01-12-1964

Zimbabwe

25-08-1980

Source: Press Release ORG/1469 of 3 July 2006

United Nations
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For a list of United Nations member states, see Member states of the United Nations. For other uses, see United Nations (disambiguation). "UN" redirects here. For other uses, see UN (disambiguation).

United Nations Organisation des Nations unies Organizacin de las Naciones Unidas

Flag

Map showing the Member states of the United Nations This map does not represent the view of its members or the UN concerning the legal status of any country,[1] nor does it accurately reflect which areas' governments have UN representation.

Headquarters

International territory in New York City,New York USA

Arabic Chinese Official languages English French Russian Spanish

Membership

193 member states

Leaders

Secretary-General Deputy Secretary-General General Assembly President

Ban Ki-moon Asha-Rose Migiro Nassir Abdulaziz AlNasser

Security Council President

Susan Rice

Establishment United Nations Charter signed Entry into force of Charter 26 June 1945 24 October 1945

Website UN.org

The United Nations (abbreviated UN in English, and ONU in its other official languages), is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement ofworld peace. The UN was founded in 1945 after World War II to replace the League of Nations, to stop wars between countries, and to provide a platform for dialogue. It contains multiple subsidiary organizations to carry out its missions. There are 193 member states, including every internationally recognised sovereign state in the world but Vatican City. From its offices around the world, the UN and its specialized agencies decide on substantive and administrative issues in regular meetings held throughout the year. The organization has six principal organs: the General Assembly (the main deliberative assembly); the Security Council (for deciding certain resolutions for peace and security); the Economic and Social Council (for assisting in promoting international economic and social cooperation and development); the Secretariat (for providing studies, information, and facilities needed by the UN); the International Court of Justice (the primary judicial organ); and the United Nations Trusteeship Council (which is currently inactive). Other prominent UN System agencies include the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Food Programme (WFP) and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). The UN's most prominent position is SecretaryGeneral which has been held by Ban Ki-moon of South Korea since 2007.

The United Nations Headquarters resides in international territory in New York City, with further main offices at Geneva, Nairobi, and Vienna. The organization is financed from assessed and voluntary contributions from its member states, and has six official languages: Arabic, Chinese,English, French, Russian, and Spanish.[2]
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF UNITED NATIONS ORGANIZATION (UNO) : 1. To maintain international peace and security to help in finding a peaceful solution of disputes. 2. To Support recognition of mutual regard for each other's rights establishment of an environment of mutual friendship and people's right of self determination. 3. To help various nations in resolving international economic, culture, social and humans problems. 4. To safeguard human rights without prejudice to colour, creed, language or religion. 5. To provide a central forum for the collective struggle for achievement of all those objectives. 6. To provide a central forum for the collective struggle for the achievement of all these objectives.

Science & Nature

Tue
December 7, 2010

Top 10 Greatest Mathematicians

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by M. R. Sexton

Often called the language of the universe, mathematics is fundamental to our understanding of the world and, as such, is vitally important in a modern society such as ours. Everywhere you look it is likely mathematics has made an impact, from the faucet in your kitchen to the satellite that beams your television programs to your home. As such, great mathematicians are undoubtedly going to rise above the rest and have their name embedded within history. This list documents some such people. I have rated them based on contributions and how they effected mathematics at the time, as well as their lasting effect. I also suggest one looks deeper into the lives of these men, as they are truly fascinating people and their discoveries are astonishing too much to include here. As always, such lists are highly subjective, and as such please include your own additions in the comments!

10
Pythagoras of Samos

Greek Mathematician Pythagoras is considered by some to be one of the first great mathematicians. Living around 570 to 495 BC, in modern day Greece, he is known to have founded the Pythagorean cult, who were noted by Aristotle to be one of the first groups to actively study and advance mathematics. He is also commonly credited with the Pythagorean Theorem within trigonometry. However, some sources doubt that is was him who constructed the proof (Some attribute it to his students, or Baudhayana, who lived some 300 years earlier in India). Nonetheless, the effect of such, as with large portions of fundamental mathematics, is commonly felt today, with the theorem playing a large part in modern measurements and technological equipment, as well as being the base of a large portion of other areas and theorems in mathematics. But, unlike most ancient theories, it played a bearing on the development of geometry, as well as opening the door to the study of mathematics as a worthwhile endeavor. Thus, he could be called the founding father of modern mathematics.

9
Andrew Wiles

The only currently living mathematician on this list, Andrew Wiles is most well known for his proof of Fermats Last Theorem: That no positive integers, a, b and c can satisfy the equation a^n+b^n=c^n For n greater then 2. (If n=2 it is the Pythagoras Formula). Although the contributions to math are not, perhaps, as grand as other on this list, he did invent large portions of new mathematics for his proof of the theorem. Besides, his dedication is often admired by most, as he quite literally shut himself away for 7 years to formulate a solution. When it was found that the solution contained an error, he returned to solitude for a further year before the solution was accepted. To put in perspective how ground breaking and new the math was, it had been said that you could count the number of mathematicians in the world on one hand who, at the time, could understand and validate his proof. Nonetheless, the effects of such are likely to only increase as time passes (and more and more people can understand it).

Isaac Newton and Wilhelm Leibniz

I have placed these two together as they are both often given the honor of being the inventor of modern infinitesimal calculus, and as such have both made monolithic contributions to the field. To start, Leibniz is often given the credit for introducing modern standard notation, notably the integral sign. He made large contributions to the field of Topology. Whereas all round genius Isaac Newton has, because of the grand scientific epic Principia, generally become the primary man hailed by most to be the actual inventor of calculus. Nonetheless, what can be said is that both men made considerable vast contributions in their own manner.

7
Leonardo Pisano Blgollo

Blgollo, also known as Leonardo Fibonacci, is perhaps one of the middle ages greatest mathematicians. Living from 1170 to 1250, he is best known for introducing the infamous Fibonacci Series to the western world. Although known to Indian mathematicians since approximately 200 BC, it was, nonetheless, a truly insightful sequence, appearing in biological systems frequently. In addition, from this Fibonacci also contributed greatly to the introduction of the Arabic numbering system. Something he is often forgotten for. Haven spent a large portion of his childhood within North Africa he learned the Arabic numbering system, and upon realizing it was far simpler and more efficient then the bulky Roman numerals, decided to travel the Arab world learning from the leading mathematicians of the day. Upon returning to Italy in 1202, he published his Liber Abaci, whereupon the Arabic numbers were introduced and applied to many world situations to further advocate their use. As a result of his work the system was gradually adopted and today he is considered a major player in the development of modern mathematics.

6
Alan Turing

Computer Scientist and Cryptanalyst Alan Turing is regarded my many, if not most, to be one of the greatest minds of the 20th Century. Having worked in the Government Code and Cypher School in Britain during the second world war, he made significant discoveries and created ground breaking methods of code breaking that would eventually aid in cracking the German Enigma Encryptions. Undoubtedly affecting the outcome of the war, or at least the time-scale. After the end of the war he invested his time in computing. Having come up with idea of a computing style machine before the war, he is considered one of the first true computer scientists. Furthermore, he wrote a range of brilliant papers on the subject of computing that are still relevant today, notably on Artificial Intelligence, on which he developed the Turing test which is still used to evaluate a computers intelligence. Remarkably, he began in 1948 working with D. G. Champernowne, an undergraduate acquaintance on a computer chess program for a machine not yet in existence. He would play the part of the machine in testing such programs.

5
Ren Descartes

French Philosopher, Physicist and Mathematician Rene Descartes is best known for his Cogito Ergo Sum philosophy. Despite this, the Frenchman, who lived 1596 to 1650, made ground breaking contributions to mathematics. Alongside Newton and Leibniz, Descartes helped provide the foundations of modern calculus (which Newton and Leibniz later built upon), which in itself had great bearing on the modern day field. Alongside this, and perhaps more familiar to the reader, is his development of Cartesian Geometry, known to most as the standard graph (Square grid lines, x and y axis, etc.) and its use of algebra to describe the various locations on such. Before this most geometers used plain paper (or another material or surface) to preform their art. Previously, such distances had to be measured literally, or scaled. With the introduction of Cartesian Geometry this changed dramatically, points could now be expressed as points on a graph, and as such, graphs could be drawn to any scale, also these points did not necessarily have to be numbers. The final contribution to the field was his introduction of superscripts within algebra to express powers. And thus, like many others in this list, contributed to the development of modern mathematical notation.

4
Euclid

Living around 300BC, he is considered the Father of Geometry and his magnum opus: Elements, is one the greatest mathematical works in history, with its being in use in education up until the 20th century. Unfortunately, very little is known about his life, and what exists was written long after his presumed death. Nonetheless, Euclid is credited with the instruction of the rigorous, logical proof for theorems and conjectures. Such a framework is still used to this day, and thus, arguably, he has had the greatest influence of all mathematicians on this list. Alongside his Elements were five other surviving works, thought to have been written by him, all generally on the topic of Geometry or Number theory. There are also another five works that have, sadly, been lost throughout history.

3
G. F. Bernhard Riemann

Bernhard Riemann, born to a poor family in 1826, would rise to become one of the worlds prominent mathematicians in the 19th Century. The list of contributions to geometry are large, and he has a wide range of theorems bearing his name. To name just a few: Riemannian Geometry, Riemannian Surfaces and the Riemann Integral. However, he is perhaps most famous (or infamous) for his legendarily difficult Riemann Hypothesis; an extremely complex problem on the matter of the distributions of prime numbers. Largely ignored for the first 50 years following its appearance, due to few other mathematicians actually understanding his work at the time, it has quickly risen to become one of the greatest open questions in modern science, baffling and confounding even the greatest mathematicians. Although progress has been made, its has been incredibly slow. However, a prize of $1 million has been offered from the Clay Maths Institute for a proof, and one would almost undoubtedly receive a Fields medal if under 40 (The Nobel prize of mathematics). The fallout from such a proof is hypothesized to be large: Major encryption systems are thought to be breakable with such a proof, and all that rely on them would collapse. As well as this, a proof of the hypothesis is expected to use new mathematics. It would seem that, even in death, Riemanns work may still pave the way for new contributions to the field, just as he did in life.

2
Carl Friedrich Gauss

Child prodigy Gauss, the Prince of Mathematics, made his first major discovery whilst still a teenager, and wrote the incredible Disquisitiones Arithmeticae, his magnum opus, by the time he was 21. Many know Gauss for his outstanding mental ability quoted to have added the numbers 1 to 100 within seconds whilst attending primary school (with the aid of a clever trick). The local Duke, recognizing his talent, sent him to Collegium Carolinum before he left for Gottingen (at the time it was the most prestigious mathematical university in the world, with many of the best attending). After graduating in 1798 (at the age of 22), he began to make several important contributions in major areas of mathematics, most notably number theory (especially on Prime numbers). He went on to prove the fundamental theorem of algebra, and introduced the Gaussian gravitational constant in physics, as well as much more all this before he was 24! Needless to say, he continued his work up until his death at the age of 77, and had made major advances in the field which have echoed down through time.

1
Leonhard Euler

If Gauss is the Prince, Euler is the King. Living from 1707 to 1783, he is regarded as the greatest mathematician to have ever walked this planet. It is said that all mathematical formulas are named after the next person after Euler to discover them. In his day he was ground breaking and on par with Einstein in genius. His primary (if thats possible) contribution to the field is with the introduction of mathematical notation including the concept of a function (and how it is written as f(x)), shorthand trigonometric functions, the e for the base of the natural logarithm (The Euler Constant), the Greek letter Sigma for summation and the letter /i for imaginary units, as well as the symbol pi for the ratio of a circles circumference to its diameter. All of which play a huge bearing on modern mathematics, from the every day to the incredibly complex. As well as this, he also solved the Seven Bridges of Koenigsberg problem in graph theory, found the Euler Characteristic for connecting the number of vertices, edges and faces of an object, and (dis)proved many well known theories, too many to list. Furthermore, he continued to develop calculus, topology, number theory, analysis and graph theory as well as much, much more and ultimately he paved the way for modern mathematics and all its revelations. It is probably no coincidence that industry and technological developments rapidly increased around this time.

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