Wangari Maathai, African Environmentalist and Nobel Laureate

Honored
Maathai holds her prize and certificate at Oslo City Hall on December 10, 2004. The win made her the first African woman in history to receive the award, and the first environmentalist to be granted the honor since the prize's inception in 1901. In her acceptance speech, she called for a societal "shift to a new level of consciousness," that took into account each individual's stake in the environment and its improvement.

• The Legacy of Wangari Maathai, Nobel Environmentalist