Remembering Jane Goodall

Duke professor emerita Anne Pusey celebrates the life of her friend and colleague, Jane Goodall

Two people talking
Anne Pusey, on right, the James B. Duke Distinguished Professor Emerita of Evolutionary Anthropology, remembers her colleague and friend Jane Goodall, who died October 1, 2025.

I owe my career to Jane Goodall.

In 1970, she had already been studying chimpanzees in Gombe National Park, Tanzania for 10 years and was seeking a research assistant to join her team. I was finishing my zoology degree at Oxford and in search of graduate school opportunities to study animal behavior. Her former PhD advisor in Cambridge received our letters at the same time and put us in touch, changing my life forever.

I worked with Jane and her team following the chimpanzees daily over five magical years. After gaining my PhD I went on to study lions in Tanzania, keeping in touch with Jane as she continued her study. 

In 1987, at a conference celebrating the publication of her wonderful comprehensive scientific book, “The Chimpanzees of Gombe,” Jane entered the conference as a scientist planning to study the Gombe chimps forever, but came out an activist, determined to improve the plight of captive chimpanzees and mitigate the threats to wild chimpanzees across Africa. 

The author with Jane Goodall

By then, I was an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota, with computers and a workforce of students, and I offered to start archiving and computerizing the data Jane collected on the chimpanzees’ behavior. Up until that point, Jane had tallied and analyzed everything by hand.

So began a collaborative research consortium that has grown and continues today. Under Jane’s direction and funds raised by her Jane Goodall Institute, a permanent Tanzanian research team follows the chimpanzees at Gombe daily, with scientists from around the world visiting and studying there. Much of the data were computerized and analyzed first at the University of Minnesota, then at Duke where I moved in 2010. After my retirement in 2019, the archive moved to Arizona State University. Data on mothers and their infants are managed by former students of mine at Emory University and George Washington University.

With Jane’s encouragement and blessings, graduate students and post-docs from all these universities and others have launched their careers at Gombe, and countless undergraduates have worked with the data and written honors theses, many going on to graduate school.

Jane often visited us and encouraged our research. On an early visit she told me how jealous she was of the work we were doing, and how much she had loved, and now missed, poring over the data and writing about the chimps. But of course, by then, through her books, films and publications she had revolutionized our understanding of chimpanzee behavior and their closeness to us. Now, she was using her fame and skill to improve the welfare of captive chimpanzees and other animals, and to advocate for conservation of the planet on which we all depend. She ardently believed in empowering youth through her Roots and Shoots program. Traveling almost 300 days a year to give talks around the world, she inspired millions, including my daughter, with her message that everyone can make a positive difference through compassionate action. Jane’s legacy will continue through my colleagues, former students, children and grandchildren for years to come. 

Anne Pusey, the James B. Duke Distinguished Professor Emerita of Evolutionary Anthropology, remembers her colleague and friend Jane Goodall, who died October 1, 2025.