Dr Jane Goodall DBE awarded Honorary Degree from the University of Cambridge and becomes Honorary Fellow of Newnham College

Dr Jane Goodall DBE (NC 1961) spoke on ‘Reasons for Hope’ this week, followed by the award of an Honorary Degree from the University of Cambridge, and being made an Honorary Fellow of Newnham College.

Dr Goodall is a renowned primatologist and environmental campaigner, known for her breakthroughs in our understanding of primates’ cognitive ability.

In her Rede Lecture, 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.

“We have the choice to use the gift of our life to make the world a better place–or not to bother”

The Principal of Newnham, Dame Carol Black, says: “It was a great honour and pleasure to have Jane stay with us in the Lodge for two days, showing us her indomitable spirit and love for wild life.”

The talk, to a packed hall, was followed by the conferment of an Honorary Doctor of Science Degree, and then an Honorary Fellowship from her own college, Newnham. A celebratory feast brought together Newnham’s Fellows, current students and guests – and Dr Goodall closed her speech with a dramatic chimpanzee call.

Newnham Fellow and geneticist Dr Naomi Moris said, “Not many guest dinners include a chimp call greeting, as if we were deep in the Gombe forest! So very honoured to have met Dame Jane Goodall, Newnham’s latest Honorary Fellow, and a continued source of inspiration for me, and for many scientists carving a new path in research.”

Dr Goodall’s unexpected research path

Jane Goodall had a fascination with animals and with Africa from childhood. But, for a young woman growing up in Britain in the 1950s, a career as a zoologist seemed an unlikely option. Rather than studying for a University degree, she attended secretarial college, before travelling to Kenya in 1957.

There, she met Dr Louis Leakey, renowned palaeontologist, who was seeking someone to begin a study of chimpanzees. He arranged for her to have initial training in London, before she headed out on her first field studies, among the chimpanzees in the forest at Gombe Stream National Park, Tanzania. Alarmed by the thought of a young British woman doing field studies alone, the national park warden insisted that Goodall’s mother, a novelist, accompany her for three months.

“We need to heed her call for action on climate action and take on her indomitable hope for the future.”

It was in Gombe that Goodall made her great breakthrough. After long months of patient observation, she was able to demonstrate that chimpanzees make and use tools, and photograph them doing so; prior to her National Geographic publication, it was thought that humans were the only species to use tools. Meanwhile, her mother Vanne Morris-Goodall set up a health clinic for local fishermen.

Goodall worked towards her PhD in Ethology at Newnham from 1962 to 1966, continuing her field work in Gombe. She was only the 8th person to be accepted to do a PhD without having an undergraduate degree. Her supervisor, Prof Robert Hinde, who had been doing behavioural research on macaques in Cambridge, supported the development of Goodall’s quantitative research skills.

Goodall published numerous papers during this period, including one in the National Geographic. She received criticism from scientists and scholars for giving the chimpanzees names rather than numerical codes.

Nevertheless, her work revolutionised primatology, and over her many years of research, her work continued a series of surprising insights. However, some have said that her greatest academic legacy is the many distinguished women scientists empowered by her example to enter the field of primatology. When Goodall began her work, primatology was a male-dominated endeavour: today, that is very far from the case.

Dr Goodall’s legacy

Goodall founded the Jane Goodall Institute for Wildlife Research, Education and Conservation in 1977. A decade later, she began her work to conserve wild chimpanzees, threatened by habitat destruction across Africa. This work has taken numerous forms: in 1994, Goodall launched the Lake Tanganyika Catchment Reforestation and Education project, helping communities around the lake through programmes of sustainable agriculture, micro-finance and conservation education

In 2002, Dr Goodall was appointed as a UN Messenger of Peace. She now travels the world, speaking both about the environmental crises we face, and her reasons for hope that we will ultimately solve the problems we have imposed on the earth.

Sam Leggett, Newnham PhD student, said “Dr Goodall inspired me to study biology and pursue a PhD at Newnham College. We need to heed her call for action on climate action and take on her indomitable hope for the future.”

Read Jane Goodall’s 1963 piece for the National Geographic

See photographs of Jane Goodall’s early fieldwork