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Almost 60 years after they both gave their very first presentation at an international scientific conference, the world-renowned primatologist Jane Goodall and the former Utrecht ľ�ϸ���Ӱ�� Professor Jan van Hooff met once again onstage at Utrecht Science Park on Friday, 6 December. Van Hooff: “Back then, I talked about facial expressions in primates and you told how primates make and use tools. I remember well that someone came to me and said: What’s that woman with all of the ridiculous assertions doing here?”

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Deafening

Times have certainly changed. The meeting between the two scientists is part of a lecture initiative by the Utrechtse Biologen Vereniging (UBV), and the applause was deafening when host Twan Huys introduced Jane Goodall. The biologists hailed their triumphant heroine. The 500 students who managed to obtain a ticket hung on her every word as she told about her fascination for animals – she took worms with her to bed as a young child – about the constant support her mother provided, the first time she visited Tanzania, and the unforgettable moments she experienced among the great apes.

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Little time

Goodall is both a scientist and an activist, as illustrated by the second half of her story. How can the most intellectual being on Earth work to destroy its own home? Goodall places her hope in the younger generation; the students in the audience who truly understand the problems. And she passes on that hope to the scientists of the future: “We can all make a difference. Don’t be afraid!” 

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Moving reunion

After nature photographer Frans Lanting’s brief presentation of images illustrating Goodall’s story, Twan Huys invited the entire party to join him onstage. The moment had arrived for students to ask their own questions. There were plenty of questions to go around, but the main thing those in attendance took away from the event was the moving reunion of old acquaintances reminiscing - for example about Goodall’s famous legs - and the undiminished passion they share for science, nature, and most of all the behaviour of primates.