This year the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Barack Obama "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples". The Nobel Prize Committee said that "His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world's population".

The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel in 2008 awarded Paul Krugman "for his analysis of trade patterns and location of economic activity".
The Nobel Prize for Peace in 2008 awarded Martti Ahtisaari "for his important efforts, on several continents and over more than three decades, to resolve international conflicts".

The Nobel Prize in Literature in 2008 awarded Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio, "author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilization".
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2008 awarded Harald zur Hausen, "for his discovery of human papilloma viruses causing cervical cancer" and Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier, "for their discovery of human immunodeficiency virus".