Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE, Founder of the Jane Goodall Institute, UN Messenger of Peace and world-renowned ethologist, conservationist, and humanitarian, has died at the age of 91 of natural causes.

Dr. Jane was known around the world for her 65-year study of wild chimpanzees in Gombe, Tanzania. However, in the latter part of her life she expanded her focus and became a global advocate for human rights, animal welfare, species and environmental protection, and many other crucial issues.

Jane was passionate about empowering young people to become involved in conservation and humanitarian projects and she led many educational initiatives focused on both wild and captive chimpanzees. She was always guided by her fascination with the mysteries of evolution, and her staunch belief in the fundamental need to respect all forms of life on Earth.

Born Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall, Jane was the eldest daughter of businessman and racing car driver Mortimer Herbert Morris-Goodall and writer Margaret Myfanwe Joseph.

Jane was passionate about wildlife from early childhood, and she read avidly about the natural world. Her dream was to travel to Africa, learn more about animals, and write books about them. Having worked as a waitress to save enough money for a sea passage to Kenya, Jane was advised to try to meet respected paleontologist Dr. Louis Leakey. Louis employed her as a secretary at the National Museum in Nairobi, and this led to her being offered the opportunity to spend time with Louis and Mary Leakey in at the Olduvai Gorge in search of fossils.

Having witnessed Jane’s patience and determination there, Louis asked her to travel to Tanzania, to study families of wild chimpanzees in the forest of Gombe. Looking back, Jane always said she’d have “studied any animal” but felt extremely lucky to have been given the chance to study man’s closest living relative in the wild.

On 14th July 1960, Jane arrived in Gombe for the first time. It was here that she developed her unique understanding of chimpanzee behaviour and made the ground-breaking discovery that chimpanzees use tools. An observation that has been credited with “redefining what it means to be human.”

Knowing Jane’s work would only be taken seriously if she was academically qualified, and despite her having no degree, Louis arranged for Jane to study for a PhD in Ethology at Newnham College, Cambridge. Jane’s doctoral thesis, The Behaviour of Free-living Chimpanzees in the Gombe Stream Reserve, was completed in 1965. Her three-month study evolved into an extraordinary research program lasting decades and it is still ongoing today.

Jane was married twice. Her first husband, Hugo van Lawick, was a Dutch baron and wildlife photographer working for National Geographic when they met. Jane and Hugo divorced in 1974, and Jane later married Derek Bryceson, a member of Tanzania’s parliament and a former director of Tanzania’s National Parks. Derek died in 1980.

During her life Jane authored more than 27 books for adults and children, and featured in numerous documentaries and films, as well as two major IMAX productions. In 2019, National Geographic opened Becoming Jane, a travelling exhibit focused on her life’s work, which is still touring across the United States. Her latest publication, The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times, has been translated into more than 20 languages.

Her awards and accolades span the scale of human achievement. In 2002, she was named a United Nations Messenger of Peace. Two years later, she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) at Buckingham Palace. Jane was also awarded the United States Presidential Medial of Freedom, French Légion d’honneur, the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Life Science, Japan’s prestigious Kyoto Prize, the Ghandi-King Award for Nonviolence, The Medal of Tanzania, and the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement. In addition, she has been recognised by local governments, educational establishments, and charities around the world.

Jane founded the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) in 1977, initially to support the research at Gombe. There are now 25 JGI offices operating diverse programs around the world.

In 1991, Jane founded Roots & Shoots, her global humanitarian and environmental program for young people of all ages. The initiative began with just 12 high school students in Dar es Salaam. Today, Roots & Shoots is active in over 75 countries. Roots & Shoots members are empowered to become involved in hands-on programs to affect positive change for animals, the environment, and their local communities.

In 2017, Jane founded the Jane Goodall Legacy Foundation, to ensure the ongoing stability of the core programs she’d created – her life’s work.

Throughout her life and remarkable career, Jane inspired generations of scientists, brought hope to countless people from all walks of life, and urged us all to remember that “every single one of us makes a difference every day – it is up to us as to the kind of difference we make”. Her legacy continues with the ongoing research at Gombe, the community-centered conservation program Tacare, the work of the sanctuaries Chimp Eden in South Africa and Tchimpounga in the Republic of the Congo, and Roots & Shoots empowering young people to become involved in hands on programs for the community, animals and the environment.

Though Jane travelled 300 days a year, her home was in Bournemouth, UK, in the house her grandmother and mother had lived in before her. Her sister Judy Waters and her family played a huge role in supporting Jane’s work over the decades, providing a warm welcome whenever she returned home. Jane is survived by her son Hugo Eric Louis van Lawick (affectionately known as Grub) and her three grandchildren, Merlin, Angel, and Nick, as well as her sister Judy.