World-renowned conservationist and ethologist Dr Jane Goodall, DBE, Founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and UN Messenger of Peace, will deliver this year’s Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE) Lecture at the University’s Canterbury campus on the 25th February.
Taking place in a sold-out Woolf College, Dr Goodall’s public talk will be part of the University’s Distinguished Visitor Lecture series, in which leading academics and scientists present their insights to inspire and inform others.
Her talk, ‘Gombe and Beyond: Chimpanzees, conservation and change‘, will address her early research at Gombe in eastern Tanzania which began in 1960, and the Jane Goodall Institute’s programmes that have evolved over 60 years.
Dr Goodall will also talk about her Roots & Shoots programme, soon to be joined by the University, which empowers young people of all ages in more than 50 countries to become involved in hands-on programmes to benefit the community, animals (including domestic animals) and the environment we all share.
Before the lecture, Dr Goodall will meet with a group of Kent students to discuss how they will become involved in Roots & Shoots, sharing her experiences in relation to their own conservation work and that of the Kent Conservation Society.
The event is raising funds for the Jane Goodall Institute UK and the DICE MSc Scholarship Fund, and all the ticket proceeds will help support conservation work around the world. There will be book sales and a signing with Dr Goodall following her lecture.
Professor Bob Smith, Director of DICE, said of the event: “We are absolutely delighted and honoured that Dr Goodall is giving this year’s DICE Lecture, given all her inspirational achievements. We will be celebrating our 30th Anniversary and our recent award of a Queen’s Anniversary Prize, so this will make the event even more special.”
Speaking from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Dr Goodall said, “I am looking forward to being at the University of Kent and to involving students there in our ever-expanding global Roots & Shoots university network.”
