This week’s Wednesday’s Women in STEM Series features Jane Goodall, the world’s expert on chimpanzees. If you love animals and wonder how that relates to STEM, then read on to learn how Goodall turned her passion into a career that has taught so many about animal behaviors and conservation.
Jane Goodall wasn’t given a teddy bear as a child. Instead, her parents gave her a stuffed chimpanzee whom she named Jubilee. Friends warned her parents that such a gift would cause nightmares for a child, but Jane loved the toy. (Fun Fact: to this day Jubilee sits on a chair in her home in England!) When she was just 23, she was given the opportunity to travel to Kenya. She never attended college but started working as a secretary for the famous archaeologist and paleontologist, Luis Leaky. Through his encouragement, she attended Newnham College and became the eighth person to obtain a PhD without first getting an undergraduate degree.
In 1960, she traveled to Tanzania to pursue her passion for wildlife. With little more than her notebook and binoculars, Goodall began to explore the wild world of chimpanzees. As human’s closest living relatives, she immersed herself in their habitat living among them, not just as an observer. She learned how chimpanzees live in communities and the bonds they form with each other and eventually with her.
Her work also highlighted the urgent need for conservation to protect chimpanzees and other species from extinction. Her foundation, The Jane Goodall Institute, carries on her work and mission by aiming to inspire people to conserve the natural world we all share. In 1900, there were more than 1 million chimpanzees living in the wild but today that number is less than 340,000. Jane Goodall’s work and mission to protect all animals and educate the public on conservation has helped save these amazing animals from extinction.
*Photo credit for all images: janegoodall.org