It’s a raw Tuesday evening in early April. Rain clouds darken downtown Chicago, veiling the night sky. But in a roped-off exhibition room at the Field Museum of Natural History, the stars are plain to see.

Jane Goodall is here, on her 84th birthday, chatting amiably with museum staff and patrons. The iconic primatologist is in town for tonight’s gala event: the screening of a new feature-length documentary (produced by National Geographic) about her decades of immersive fieldwork among the chimps of Gombe, Tanzania.

But Goodall is not the only trailblazing scientist in the room. Another woman—wearing brown bangs and a black dress—is also holding court. As cocktail glasses clink and hors d’oeuvre platters drift by, she mingles with guests