Jane Goodall

Sent into the field with no university degree, Goodall's patient, unconventional observations overturned the long-held belief that tool use was uniquely human.

An Unconventional Beginning

Goodall began her pioneering research in 1960 at Gombe Stream in Tanzania without a university degree, an unusual path into serious scientific research made possible by paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey, who believed her patient, careful observational approach was well suited to studying primates.

Patient, Groundbreaking Observation

Goodall's methodical, patient observation techniques allowed her to document chimpanzee behaviors previously unknown to science, gradually earning the trust of wild chimpanzee groups that allowed unprecedented close observation of their daily lives.

Redefining "Tool Use"

Goodall's discovery that chimpanzees make and use tools — stripping leaves from twigs to fish termites from their mounds — directly challenged the long-held scientific belief that tool use was a uniquely human trait, prompting Leakey to famously declare that scientists would need to redefine either "tool," "human," or accept chimpanzees as more human-like than previously believed.

Complex Social Lives

Her research also revealed that chimpanzees possess remarkably complex social structures, emotional lives, and even capacity for violence and warfare between rival groups, findings that dramatically reshaped scientific understanding of primate cognition and behavior.

A Lifelong Conservation Advocate

Goodall later founded the Jane Goodall Institute and has spent decades as a leading global advocate for wildlife conservation, environmental education, and animal welfare, remaining an influential and active voice in conservation science well into her later years.