The MTSU-Nobel connection

The 2009 Nobel Prizes are being announced this week, and it's a pretty good year for Americans. Seven of the 11 winners announced so far (the prize in Economics has yet to be awarded) hold U.S. citizenship.

But did you know that MTSU has a few claims to Nobel fame?

James M. Buchanan, the 1986 winner of the Nobel prize in Economics, is a 1940 graduate of MTSU, or as it was called then, the State Teacher's College. A study room on the 4th floor of the library is named for his family and houses displays of his work.

Muhammad Yunus, co-winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, held his first teaching job in the economics department of MTSU from 1969-1972. Yunus developed the concept of microcredit, or very small loans to spur entrepreneurialism among impoverished people in the developing world.

And perhaps it's a stretch, but we could also claim former Vice President Al Gore, who was co-winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, as one our own. After all, he taught a course here on community building for several semesters beginning in 2001. The Gore Research Center on campus houses the papers of his father, Albert Gore, Sr., an MTSU alumnus and former Congressman.

So who will be our next Nobel laureate? Could it be you?