Renowned primatologist Jane Goodall was awarded the fourth-annual Nierenberg Prize for Science in the Public Interest by the Scripps Institute of Oceanography on April 30.

The award is named for William Nierenberg, who served as director of SIO for more than two decades.

“For her dedication to her scientific work, and her efforts to enlighten the public to bring about change, we are today awarding her the Nierenberg Prize for Science in the Public Interest,” SIO Director Charles F. Kennel said.

The awards ceremony, held in front of Birch Aquarium, was followed by a speech by Goodall on the topic of “Reasons for Hope.”

“One of the foundations for hope is that all of us have the knowledge to make good decisions,” said Nico Nierenberg, son of William Nierenberg, in his introduction of Goodall. “To achieve this, there are three things that must happen. First, you must always work to advance your knowledge. Second, that knowledge must be shared with the population at large. And finally, we must inspire the following generation to continue this critical process.”

Goodall began her speech by addressing the audience with a chimp call that chimpanzees use to greet those at a distance. She used other calls within her speech, drawing applause and laughter from the audience.

She began by sharing the events of her childhood that led up to her eventual career as a scientist. She related a fable told to her by her mother of a bird that reaches the highest heights by hiding in the feathers of an eagle as he soars high, and then when the eagle has tired, flies above him, flying to the highest heights.

“I love symbols.” she said. “And to me, this is symbolic. If we think of our life as like an effort to always fly a little bit higher, to always be reaching for a goal that’s beyond our reach, how high can any of us fly on our own?”

Goodall traced the events of her path to becoming a scientist. She said that her dream to travel to Africa, live with animals and write about her experiences began when she was 11 years old and came from the books her mother gave her to read. In 1960, she managed to save enough money to travel to Africa, where she met scientist Louis Leakey, who would become her mentor.

She had no college degree, but Leakey sent her into the field to study the chimpanzees. It was not until after her landmark discovery that chimpanzees used tools, a trait formerly attributed only to humans, that she went back to school. She went to Cambridge University, where she received her doctorate without ever receiving a lower degree. Goodall characterized her experience at the university as the point where she learned that everything she had been doing was being done in the wrong manner. One of these faults was attributing human characteristics to the chimpanzees, as she always did then and still does today. She linked the ancestry of the human and the chimpanzee during her speech, relating the two creatures both to a common ancestor and to each other today.

“If you look around the world, you really can’t deny that we have some innate aggressive tendencies,” Goodall said. “And we do show them in the same kind of context as the chimpanzee. But at the same time, we equally have inherited from our distant primate past characteristics of love, compassion and altruism.”

Goodall exprsesed her admiraton of the human brain and the qualities it imparts on human beings.

“We have an extraordinary brain, which I believe is more capable than that of any other creature in controlling our innate biological behaviors,” Goodall said. “So each one of us can imagine having the good and the bad, the dark and the kind, and it is up to each one of us to develop the good side over the dark side. And most people do.”

Goodall transitioned from her talk about her past work to a discussion of her current projects and those of the Jane Goodall Institute, which she established in 1977 to further conservation of the earth’s resources. It is these programs, she said, which give her hope for the future, despite the problems of the present. Her programs seek to make changes all over the world in many different areas.

“One of the worst problems we face is our own apathy,” Goodall said.

Her Take Care program works to help native Africans understand their relationships with the land and with chimpanzees. It also helps to start to rebuild areas of Africa that have been destroyed. Although many of these areas have been ravaged by deforestation and poaching, Goodall says she finds hope from the small trees that are beginning to emerge in areas which had previously been destroyed.

She also discussed the Roots & Shoots program, which involves youth from all over the world. Goodall said she started this program after talking with young people who were feeling hopeless and discouraged. The program works with youth on a variety of projects that all work for to benefit society. Goodall says she finds hope in the energy and determination of children and the indomitable spirit she can see in every human.

“Young people are making a difference,” Goodall said. “They are changing the world. Every individual makes a difference every day.”

Goodall also touched on political issues, especially those of the events of 9/11, and the war in Iraq. She said that after 9/11, people asked her how she could retain hope for the future. Her answer was that although on that day she saw the worst of all evil, she also saw the greatest of heroism. In regards to this and the war in Iraq, she told a story of watching the migration of the cranes along the Platte River in Colorado. On this occasion, 12 million cranes gathered on the river. She said that she felt that the cranes brought a message of hope. This message came not only from the dance of the cranes, but also from the fact that, although the Platte River is environmentally endangered, it can still hold 12 million cranes.

Goodall ended her speech with this message of hope and reminders to the audience to do what they can to make changes in their lives. These included buying hybrid cars and non-genetically modified foods. She finished by reminding the audience to vote.

Her speech was followed by a question-and-answer session with audience members. The questions spanned topics from the brain of the human and chimpanzee to the use of chimpanzees in labs and how people can research which companies are environmentally friendly.