Wangari Maathai

Wangari Maathai (1940–2011) was a Kenyan biologist and environmental activist. She studied biology in the United States and Germany and founded the Green Belt Movement afforestation project in 1977. She also founded the Green Party of Kenya. In 2002, she was elected to Kenya’s Parliament and, from 2003, served as deputy minister for the environment. In 2004, she received the Nobel Peace Prize, becoming the first African woman to do so. She died in Nairobi in September 2011.