VMU Invites Students to a Meeting With Prof. Birutė Galdikas
Birutė Marija Galdikas, a world-renowned anthropologist, conservationist, and the world’s foremost orangutan researcher of Lithuanian parentage, will be visiting Lithuania. She is a specialist in modern primatology, nature conservation, and ethology, and the author of books on endangered orangutan species.
On 5 June – World Environment Day – Prof. Galdikas will participate in the solemn award ceremony of the Environmental Prize of Valdas Adamkus Presidential Library-Museum and Dana Gedvila Fund, which will take place in the Presidential Palace, Vilnius. The professor is a member of the Prize Committee. This year, the prize will be awarded to scientist and inventor Prof. Dr. Tatjana Paulauskienė.
The world-renowned orangutan researcher and VMU Honorary Doctor, Prof. Birutė Galdikas, invites university students and schoolchildren to meet at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas on 6 June at 4 p.m., where she will deliver a public lecture.
The event will be held in English, at V. Putvinskio g. 23, room 414.
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Prof. Galdikas last visited Vytautas Magnus University in October 2021, where she also gave a public lecture to students and schoolchildren.
More information on Prof. Galdikas’ previous visit can be found here.
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Birutė Marija Galdikas is a world-renowned anthropologist, conservationist, and the world’s foremost orangutan researcher of Lithuanian parentage. She is a specialist in modern primatology, nature conservation, and ethology, and the author of several books on endangered orangutan species. She was awarded the regalia of VMU Honorary Doctor in 2010.
Prof. Birutė Galdikas was born on 10 May 1946 in Wiesbaden, Germany. In 1966, she earned her bachelor’s degrees in psychology and zoology from the University of British Columbia and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), her master’s degree in anthropology from UCLA in 1969 and her doctorate in biological anthropology, also from UCLA, in 1978.
Since 1979, she has been a professor at the Universitas Nasional in Jakarta, Indonesia, and since 1989, has been a professor at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia.
She was encouraged to study primates by the famed British paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey. From 1967 to 1979, she participated in archaeological excavations in Southern California and the Balkan countries. In 1971, she arrived to Indonesia and established the Camp Leakey research centre in the Tanjung Puting National Park. She developed and implemented seven projects on orangutan research and conservation. In 1986, she founded the Orangutan Foundation International in Los Angeles, which has divisions functioning in Indonesia, Australia, Canada, and Great Britain.
The life and works of Prof. Galdikas are described in six books and depicted in documentaries in Indonesia, Japan, USA, France, Italy, and Australia.
The event will be photographed and/or filmed; therefore, please note that you might be featured in photos or videos which can be published in various media outlets.
