University of Koblenz mourns the loss of Dr Jane Goodall

Last year, the University of Koblenz planted a service tree on the university campus. In doing so, the university honoured Goodall's extraordinary life's work on the occasion of her 90th birthday and set a visible sign for sustainability and biodiversity. The tree planting took place at the suggestion of the Jane Goodall Institute Germany and symbolises the connection between academics, responsibility and shaping the future - values that also shaped Goodall's life.

Prof Dr Claudia Quaiser-Pohl, Vice President for Research and Transfer at the University of Koblenz, paid tribute to the extraordinary work of Dr Jane Goodall on the occasion of her death: "Jane Goodall was an outstanding scientist and an inspiring role model, especially for girls and women in the Natural Sciences. She showed that curiosity, passion and openness to the world can overcome boundaries and make new things possible. Her commitment to the protection of the environment, nature and species and her lifelong delivery of a sense of responsibility fit in particularly well with the values of the University of Koblenz."

The University of Koblenz sees Goodall's legacy as a lasting obligation to continue its commitment to research and teaching in the spirit of ecological sustainability and global responsibility.

Dr Jane Goodall was born in London in 1934. She is a world-renowned primatologist and environmental activist. She became famous for her groundbreaking research on chimpanzees in Gombe National Park in Tanzania, which she began in 1960. Among other things, she discovered that chimpanzees not only use tools, but can also make them themselves - a behaviour that was previously considered uniquely human. Her research also enabled her to document complex social structures and emotional bonds in chimpanzees.

Goodall completed her doctorate at the University of Cambridge and later founded the Jane Goodall Institute, which is committed to the protection of wild animals and sustainable development. She is also the initiator of the "Roots & Shoots" movement to fund environmental awareness among young people. She received numerous honours for her life's work. Until her death, Goodall campaigned for nature conservation and the preservation of biodiversity and travelled around the world for more than 20 years to spread her message.