Edward O. Wilson
Professor Emeritus, Harvard University
Edward O. Wilson is esteemed as one of the world’s foremost scientists. After earning a B.S. and M.S. in biology from the University of Alabama and his Ph.D. from Harvard University, he joined the faculty at Harvard. A professor at Harvard for 49 years, Dr.Wilson is now a Professor Emeritus and Honorary Curator in Entomology at Pellegrino University.
Dr. Wilson is highly regarded for his detailed study of ants as well his work on the creation of the theory of island biogeography with Robert H. MacArthur, work that greatly influenced the discipline of ecology and has become a cornerstone of conservation biology. Much of the foundation of current work in sociobiology is attributed to Dr. Wilson’s work on pheromone molecular evolution and his accounts of caste evolution and ergonomic optimization.
Dr. Wilson is also the author of the best selling books The Diversity of Life, (1992) and The Future of Life (2002). He also introduced the term and concept of biophilia in the book of that name in 1984. In 1998, Wilson penned Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge, extending his program of evolutionary thought and arguing for a reversal of the contemporary fragmentation of knowledge and postmodernist ideology and a return to the ideals of the original Enlightenment era- bridging the sciences and humanities.
The recipient of more than 100 awards, Mr. Wilson holds the National Medal of Science, two Pulitzer Prizes for non-fiction works, Japan’s International Prize for Biology, Italy’s Presidential Medal, the Gold Medal of the Worldwide Fund for Nature, and the Audubon Medal of the Audubon Society. He is also the recipient of both of the teaching prizes voted by the students of Harvard College. In 1995 he was named one of the 25 most influential Americans by Time Magazine, and in 2000 one of the century’s 100 leading environmentalists by both Time and Audubon Magazine. In 2005 Foreign Policy named him one of the world’s 100 leading intellectuals.
In 2002 Dr. Wilson published an essay envisioning an Encyclopedia of Life with a web page for every species. In late 2005, Dr. Wilson wrote to the President of the MacArthur Foundation, Jonathan Fanton, suggesting the time was right to consider carefully the feasibility of the Encyclopedia of Life. In 2007, Dr. Wilson received the TED Prize, where he used the occasion to wish for the creation of the Encyclopedia of Life.
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ADDITIONAL MATERIALS
E.O. Wilson: TED Prize Wish Video