The municipality is naming three new roads in the Vroondaal development after special Nobel Prize laureates: Wangari Muta Mathaai, Ralph Johnson Bunche, and Frits Zernike. These three have made exceptional contributions to the environment, peace, and science. Their names will adorn the neighborhood, where other streets have also been named after Nobel Prize laureates.
Robert Barker, alderman for public spaces: “Wangari Mathaai, Ralph Bunche, and Frits Zernike have all worked hard, from various perspectives, for a greener and better world. They’ve had to swim against the tide to achieve this. By naming three new roads after Mathaai, Bunche, and Zernike, The Hague shows that it stands for progress.”
Wangari Mathaaiweg
Wangari Mathaai (1940-2011) was a Kenyan environmental and political activist. In 1977, she founded the Green Belt Movement, a broad grassroots movement committed to combating poverty and conserving nature through tree planting. At the turn of the century, Mathaai achieved political success as a Member of Parliament and Deputy Minister for Environment and Natural Resources. For her contributions to sustainable development, democracy, and peace, she became the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004.
Frits Zernikeweg
Frits Zernike (1888-1966) was a highly influential Dutch physicist. He specialized in mathematical and theoretical physics, as well as physical optics. In the 1930s, Zernike discovered the phase-contrast method and pioneered the phase-contrast microscope. Thanks to this invention, the previously invisible suddenly became visible. For his discovery, Zernike received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1953.
Ralph Johnson Buncheweg
Ralph Bunche (1904-1971) was an American political scientist and diplomat known for his tireless commitment to peace. After growing up with his grandmother, who was born into slavery, he emerged as a scholar. Bunche graduated top of his class from UCLA in 1927 and was the first African American to receive a doctorate in political science from Harvard University. Later, as a diplomat, he was involved in the founding of the United Nations and championed global decolonization. In 1950, Bunche became the first African American to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his mediation in the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Text: Gemeente Den Haag. Translation: The Hague Online