Jane Goodall

Goodall was at the Save the Chimps sanctuary in Florida on April 30, 2009, when astronauts Scott Carpenter and Robert L. Crippen visited to pay tribute to the chimps who paved the way for the United States' successful missions into space and to acknowledge the chimps' contributions to the space program. Save the Chimps was established in 1997 in response to the U.S. Air Force's announcement that it was getting out of the chimpanzee research business. In 1999, Save the Chimps was awarded permanent custody of 21 chimps, survivors and descendants of those captured in Africa in the 1950s and used by the Air Force as test subjects for the original NASA space program. This event marked the first time astronauts visited the sanctuary. Goodall read a statement and presented Commander Carpenter and Captain Crippen with a plaque to honor their extraordinary efforts to the United States space program and for their recognition of the chimpanzees.

In January 2006, she was inducted by French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin as an Officer of the French Legion of Honor, France's highest honor. In a separate ceremony in Paris that same week, she received the UNESCO 60th Anniversary Medal.

She will be receiving an Honorary Doctorate of Science degree at the Rutgers University (State University of New Jersey) commencement ceremonies for graduate students on May 16, 2005 and will give the commencement address at Rutgers University-Douglass College in New Brunswick, New Jersey on May 17, 2005. [May 2005]

She travels around the world and lectures on her organization, the Jane Goodall Foundation. [2004]

She was awarded Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2003 Queen's Birthday Honours List for her services to the environment and conservation.

In 2002, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan named her a United Nations Messenger of Peace.

Her son, with Hugo Van Lawick, is named Hugo Eric Louis van Lawick, but he has always been called Grub (and sometimes Grublin). He was born in 1967.