LIFE IN THE FIELD

1934 – Born Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall in London.

1957 – Travels to Kenya to visit a school friend, meeting palaeoanthropologist Dr Louis Leakey while she’s there. Unbeknown to her, Leakey is looking for someone to study chimps in their natural habitat.

1960 – Arrives with her mother at Gombe Stream Chimpanzee Reserve (now Gombe National Park) in what is now Tanzania, where she discovers that chimpanzees make and use tools. In the same year, she also discovers that chimps are omnivorous, not vegetarian as previously thought.

1961 – Begins her PhD at Cambridge University, becoming one of the few people to be admitted without an undergraduate degree.

1963 – Appears on the front cover of National Geographic, bringing her story into the public spotlight.

1971 – Publishes In The Shadow Of Man, a now-classic account of her early field research in Gombe.

1974-1978 – Witnesses the ‘Four-Year War’, a violent conflict between two chimp communities in Gombe, which reveals that chimp societies – much like human ones – have a dark side.

1977 – Founds the Jane Goodall Institute to support the research in Gombe and help protect chimpanzees and their habitats.

1991 – Founds the Roots & Shoots youth programme, now active in nearly 100 countries around the world, with the aim of inspiring the next generation of conservationists.

2002 – Named a United Nations Messenger of Peace for her work in raising awareness of conservation and environmental issues.