Jane Goodall

Jane Goodall was born in London in 1934 and grew up in Bournemouth, on the southern coast of England. Her love for animals began when she was a small child. At the age of 23, without any formal university education and with minimal savings, she traveled to Africa. There, she met the renowned anthropologist Dr. Louis Leakey, who became her mentor and encouraged her to study the behavior of chimpanzees in their natural habitat. In 1960, she arrived in Tanzania, at what is now Gombe National Park, and began the research that established her as one of the world's leading scientists. Five years later, she earned a Ph.D. in Ethology from the University of Cambridge. For many years, she has dedicated all her time to traveling from country to country in an effort to raise awareness about the dangers threatening the environment and our very lives. She leads the global environmental and humanitarian organization Roots and Shoots, which is aimed at children and teenagers.