Jane Recieves the AAG Atlas Award in Washington, DC

Jane's second stop in her Spring 2010 USA lecture tour was Washington, DC, where she received the Atlas Award from the Association of American Geographers (AAG). Jane was the first recipient of the award, which is "designed to recognize and celebrate outstanding accomplishments that advance world understanding in exceptional ways." On April 16 at the Marriot Wardman Hotel in downtown Washington, Jane gave the keynote address to nearly 3,000 geographers and other guests.

Lilian Pintea, JGI's director of conservation science, joined Jane to describe the remote sensing and participatory mapping techniques JGI uses in the Greater Gombe Ecosystem and other areas in Africa to help protect chimpanzees and their habitat. You can learn more about how JGI uses GIS technology to track deforestation and land use patterns by watching our video, Putting Science into Action.

AAG Executive Director Doug Richardson presented Jane with the Atlas Award.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Jane's pioneering chimpanzee research. The AAG conference featured the new Gombe 50 logo on giant screens throughout the ballroom.

Several cameras were on hand to record Jane's speech.

Jane addressed the audience with Mr. H by her side.

So many geographers!

Jane met with AAG members after her presentation.

Jane holds the Atlas Award. According to AAG, "[T]he image of Atlas bearing the weight of the world on his shoulders is a powerful metaphor for this award program, as our nominees are those who have taken the weight of the world on their shoulders and moved it forward."

 Photos and text by John Trybus (JGI)