Jane Goodall was born in England in 1934 and grew up with an insatiable curiousity for nature. In 1957, having worked as a waitress to pay for her ticket, Jane took a ship to Africa, where she met paleontologist Dr. Louis Leakey. Dr. Leakey was himself a controversial man, to whom we owe much of our current understanding on human evolution. Olduvai Gorge, where he was conducting his research, is now known as the Cradle of Mankind and is one of the most important prehistoric sites in the world. He hired Jane as his assistant. Before long he asked her to go into the wild to study chimpanzees as part of his work on the origins of humankind. Although she wasn't a qualified scientist, he thought Jane's enthusiasm, perseverance and passion made her the perfect researcher. He was right. In 1960, she began her groundbreaking research at Gombe Stream in what is now Tanzania, observing the behaviour of chimpanzees in their natural habitat. It was there that she discovered that chimpanzees fashion and use tools. Until that moment, humans had been defined by that particular skill: we talked of 'Man the Toolmaker'. On hearing about her amazing discovery, Leakey sent her a now-famous telegramme, saying: 'Now we must redefine tool, redefine man, or accept chimpanzees as human.' History had been made.

Jane took an unconventional approach to her research, viewing each primate as individuals with distinct personalities, minds and emotions. She felt it was the differences between individuals that made them fascinating. This approach didn't go down at all well in the scientific world. When she first presented her discoveries to a scientific audience, they dismissed and ridiculed her for giving the chimpanzees names and talking of their individual characteristics. But she persevered, graduating from Cambridge University with a PhD in ethology, the study of animal behaviour. Today she is the world's most respected primatologist.

Though she contributed significantly to the world of science as an academic, she gradually became more involved in activism, having seen the many and growing problems facing not just her beloved chimpanzees but other wild animals and the environment at large. In 1977, she founded the Jane Goodall Institute for Wildlife Research, Conservation and Education (JGI) .

Dr. Jane Goodall now travels 300 days a year and speaks to audiences around the world about threats to chimps and their habitat, as well as other environmental crises. She recently attended the Copenhagen Summit on Climate Change to contribute to discussions on deforestation. She continually urges her audiences to recognise their personal responsibility and reminds us that we all have the power to bring about change, through consumer action, lifestyle change and compassionate activism.