When the young Englishwoman, Jane Goodall, travelled to Africa and met the famed naturalist and paleontologist, Louis S. B. Leakey, she was armed only with secretarial training and a love of animals. However, that meeting, in the summer of 1960, launched a distinguished scientific career that has enlightened man about the animal kingdom and has put him in touch with his evolutionary past.
For over three decades, Goodall's work at Gombe National Park in Tanzania has provided an unprecedented view into the lives of chimpanzees. Although her behavioral studies were initially dismissed by her male colleagues, the primatologist's groundbreaking discoveries set the standards for natural history field research and have redefined the distinctions between man and other animals. Her pioneering work has inspired a generation of young scientists and has led to a world-wide conservation effort for the chimpanzee.
A recipient of numerous conservation awards, Dr. Goodall regularly contributes to National Geographic, Nature and other journals. Her life and work have been the subject of several television specials and she is the author of seven major books, including the 1971 classic, In the Shadow of Man.
