Who was the British-Kenyan paleoanthropologist who mentored Jane Goodall?

Louis Leakey was the British-Kenyan paleoanthropologist who mentored Jane Goodall and helped launch her career in chimpanzee research. Leakey studied human evolution and became convinced that observing living great apes could illuminate the behavior of early humans.

In 1957, Goodall met Leakey while working as a secretary at the Coryndon Museum in Nairobi, now the Nairobi National Museum. Impressed by her interest in animals and her knowledge of African wildlife, he hired her to assist with research. He later selected her to study wild chimpanzees at what is now Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania.

Leakey arranged funding and helped Goodall begin fieldwork in 1960, even though she had not attended university at the time. He also encouraged her to pursue a doctorate at the University of Cambridge, which she completed in 1966.

A frequent mix-up is Mary Leakey, Louis’s wife and a renowned archaeologist, or Richard Leakey, their son and a prominent Kenyan paleoanthropologist. Both were important scientists, but Louis was Goodall’s mentor and research sponsor.