Why do we love Jane?
Inspired by the Tarzan books she read as a child, Valerie Jane Goodall believed she herself should have been Tarzan's mate. Encouraged by her mother to follow her dreams, Jane traveled to Africa at the age of 20 where she met the noted anthropologist/paleontologist, Dr. Louis Leakey. She became his assistant and traveled with him and his wife to Olduvai Gorge where they would make some of the most important discoveries on the origins of humans in history. Dr. Leakey chose Jane to head up an unprecedented and revolutionary study of the social behavior of chimpanzees in the Gombe Stream Reserve of Tanzania in 1960. Traveling by herself into the wilds amid protests from the scientific establishment and the British government that no woman should undertake such an endeavor, Jane made groundbreaking discoveries such as the fact that chimpanzees used tools (at the time it was believed humans were the first primates to use tools) and their social systems were startlingly similar to humans'. Becoming the world's foremost primatologist, she returned many times to continue her studies, leaving the forest only to heighten awareness of the dire state of chimpanzee habitats and populations. She has concentrated her efforts on educating children of the importance of protecting the planet and all its inhabitants.
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Biography:
Born - April 3, 1934
London, England
Achievements:
- Established the Jane Goodall Institute for Wildlife Research, Education and
Conservation in 1977. The Institute now has chapters and offices all over
the world.
- Her work inspired the establishment of the Jane Goodall Research Center (JGRC) at the University of Southern California, to preserve and make accessible to scholars materials gathered from her more than thirty years of studying chimpanzees at Gombe. The JGRC also houses the Louis S. B. Leakey Foundation Media Archive, an extensive collection of media relating to the life of Louis Leakey and other anthropologists associated with him.
- She has written 12 books, five of them for children.
- In 1991, she founded Roots & Shoots, a youth environmental education and activism program, in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, with 17 children. It now includes tens of thousands of children in 1,500 U.S. chapters. It is growing
by 30 chapters a month.
- Recipient of over 40 awards for science, education, conservation,
leadership, and achievement, including:
- 1963-64--Franklin Burr Award for Contribution to Science, National Geographic Society.
- 1980--Order of the Golden Ark - World Wildlife Award for Conservation by Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands.
- 1985--Living Legacy Award from the International Women's League, San Diego, California.
- 1987--The Albert Schweitzer Award of the Animal Welfare Institute, Washington, D.C.
- 1988--Centennial Award, National Geographic Society, Washington, D.C.
- 1989--Encyclopaedia Britannica Award for Excellence on the Dissemination of Learning for the Benefit of Mankind.
- 1990--The Kyoto Prize in Basic Science (the Japanese equivalent of the Nobel Prize).
- 1995--CBE, presented by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
- 1995--The National Geographic Society Hubbard Medal for distinction in exploration, discovery, and research, presented by Vice-President Al Gore.
- 1996--The Tanzanian Kilimanjaro Medal for contribution to wildlife conservation, presented by President Mwinyi (only non-Tanzanian so awarded).
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In her own words -- On Tarzan's Jane and on her philosophy of life:
"I was frightfully jealous. I also thought she was a wimp, and I would have made a much better mate for Tarzan myself, which of course, I would have."
"I believe that the most important message to all humanity is that every single individual matters, including non-humans. Every single one of us has
a role to play in this life. And every single one of us can make a difference."
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