11
the jungle in Tanzania in 1960 to observe chimpanzees, she had
no formal training in science, and her only work experience was
as a secretary. “I didn’t know the first thing about studying chimps
so I had no idea what I would find. They had never been stud-
ied in the wild before,” she says. “I wasn’t interested in being a
scientist. I wanted to learn about chimpanzees and write books
about them, that was all.”
7
She made ground-
breaking discoveries, including the fact
that chimpanzees use tools, and she
eventually earned a PhD.
Sue Hendrickson never got a
high school diploma but has re-
ceived honorary degrees from
several universities for her work
in underwater archaeology and
paleontology. As a diver, she
has explored shipwrecks and re-
covered artifacts. As a paleontolo-
gist (a scientist who studies fossils),
she found the world’s largest and most
complete fossil skeleton of a
Tyrannosau-
rus rex
in 1990.
The skeleton was named Sue after her and is
now a major attraction at the Field Museum of Natural History in
Chicago. “I love the thrill when I find something new,” says Hen-
drickson. “I’m like a 4-year-old on an egg hunt—I just want to
find stuff; I don’t care if it’s underwater or on land. I’m addicted
to looking for and finding things. That’s my true passion in life.”
8
Richard Leakey is another adventurer who never got a formal
education. He grew up in Kenya, where his parents worked as
paleontologists. Leakey found his first fossil—a jawbone from an
extinct giant pig—when he was just six years old. He dropped
out of school at age sixteen but found work on paleontological
expeditions. By the 1960s he was leading his own expeditions
and became the director of the National Museum of Kenya. Over
the following decades, his finds—including early human skulls
“I didn’t know the first
thing about studying
chimps. . . . I wasn’t inter-
ested in being a scientist.
I wanted to learn about
chimpanzees and write
books about them, that
was all.”
7
—Jane Goodall, primatologist
