Pitt alumnus Wangari Muta Maathai dies

Pitt alumnus and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Wangari Muta Maathai died Sunday.

Maathai, 71,… Pitt alumnus and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Wangari Muta Maathai died Sunday.

Maathai, 71, graduated from Pitt in 1965 with a Master of Science degree in biology according to a University press release. She returned home to the Nyeri district in Central Kenya and earned her Ph.D. in anatomy from the University of Nairobi in 1971, becoming the first woman to earn a doctorate in east or central Africa.

In 2004 Maathai was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for “her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace.”

Her commitment to the environment and empowering women led to worldwide recognition. Maathai served on Kenya’s Parliament in 2002 and was elected as presiding officer of the Economic, Social and Cultural Council of the African Union in 2005.

Maathai launched the Green Belt Movement, a grassroots organization to restore the deforested land in Kenya. She mobilized women to plant 30 million trees in the region. On several occasions, Maathai addressed the United Nations and served on the U.N. Commission for Global Governance and the Commission on the Future.

“Wangari Muta Maathai dedicated her life to empowering women and girls, to restoring her once fertile and forested homeland and to working for democracy and global piece,” Chancellor Mark Nordenberg said in the release.

Her last visit to Pitt was in 2006 where Maathai delivered an address on her 30-year effort to reforest Kenya.

“I feel as though I am back home. I am deeply grateful for the gift that this institution gave me. I felt I was prepared to go forth, ready to serve the world,” she said during her visit.

Maathai received the Legion d’Honneur, France’s highest honor, and was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Times magazine and one of the 100 most powerful people in the world by Forbes magazine in 2006. She is listed in the United Nations Environment Programme Global 500 Hall of Fame.