Dian Fossey (San Francisco, January 16, 1932 – Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda, December 26, 1985) was an American zoologist who dedicated much of her life, from 1966 until her murder in 1985, to observation and study of mountain gorillas.
Fossey spent 20 years in Rwanda, where she supported conservation efforts, strongly opposed poaching and tourism in wildlife habitats, and got more people to recognize the wisdom of gorillas. Gorillas in the Mist, a book published two years before her death, is Fossey's account of her scientific study of gorillas at the Karisoke Research Center and her earlier career. It was adapted into a 1988 film of the same name (Gorillas in the Mist) starring Sigourney Weaver.