Dr Jane Goodall DBE awarded 2021 Templeton Prize

Alumna and Honorary Fellow, Dr Jane Goodall DBE, has been named the winner of the 2021 Templeton Prize, in recognition of her life’s work for conservation and animal intelligence.

Dr Goodall is a renowned primatologist and environmental campaigner, known for her breakthroughs in our understanding of primates’ cognitive ability. Previous recipients of the Templeton Prize have included the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

In her Rede Lecture at Cambridge in 2019, she told an enthusiastic audience never to give up hope. “We have the choice to use the gift of our life to make the world a better place–or not to bother,” she told us. Unsurprisingly, the $1.5m (£1.1m) prize money will be used by Goodall for her environmental work.

The Templeton Prize celebrates individuals who harness the power of science to questions about the universe and humanity’s purpose. Heather Templeton Dill, president of the John Templeton Foundation, said Goodall’s work exemplified “humility, spiritual curiosity and discovery”.