Jane Goodall

Jane Goodall, one of the world’s most revered conservationists, who earned scientific stature and global celebrity by chronicling the distinctive behavior of wild chimpanzees in East Africa — primates that made and used tools, ate meat, held rain dances and engaged in organized warfare — died on Wednesday October 1 2025 in Los Angeles. She was 91. Jane Goodall, PhD., DBE was a Senior Advisor of Conservation and Biodiversity. Dr. Goodall served as a Member of Advisory-Board at Climate Clean, Inc. Dr. Goodall served as a Member of Advisory Board at Medisend International. Dr. Goodall established the Gombe Stream Research Center in 1965. In 1977, she established the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI), which supports the Gombe work and other research, education and conservation and development programs. Dr. Goodall began her landmark study of chimpanzees in Tanzania in June 1960. Her work at Gombe Stream would become the foundation of primatological research and redefine the relationship between humans and animals. Dr. Goodall defied scientific convention by giving the chimpanzees names instead of numbers and insisted on the validity of her observations that the chimps had distinct personalities, minds and emotions. She wrote of lasting chimpanzee family bonds. Through the years her work yielded surprising insights such as the discovery that chimp engage in a primitive kind of warfare. Dr. Goodall's scores of honors include the Medal of Tanzania, the National Geographic Society's Hubbard Medal, Japan's prestigious Kyoto Prize, Spain's Prince of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research, the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Life Science and the Gandhi/King Award for Nonviolence. In April 2002, Secretary-General Annan appointed Dr. Goodall to serves as a United Nations “Messenger of Peace,” and she was reappointed in June 2007 by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. In 2004, Prince Charles invested Dr. Goodall as a Dame of the British Empire, the female equivalent of knighthood. In 2006, Dr. Goodall received the French Legion of Honor, presented by Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, as well as the UNESCO Gold Medal. Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall was born in London on April 4, 1934, and grew up in Bournemouth Her mother was an author and novelist who wrote under the name Vanne Morris-Goodall. Her father was an engineer who raced cars for a time. The couple divorced after World War II. She is survived by her son Hugo Eric Louis van Lawick; her sister, Judy Waters; and three grandchildren.