Edward O. Wilson (Alabama, United States, 1929 – Burlington, Massachussetts, 2021) earned a PhD in Biology from Harvard University in 1955. The following year, he was appointed Assistant Professor of Biology at this same center and by 1994 had risen to the post of Pellegrino University Research Professor, which he held in an emeritus capacity until the end of his life.
Author of 433 technical articles and 24 books, as well as editor of another seven, he won the Pulitzer Prize on two occasions: in 1979 for ‘On Human Nature’ and in 1991 for ‘The Ants’. Besides these winning publications, his best known books are his autobiography ‘Naturalist’, along with ‘Sociobiology, The Diversity of Life’, ‘Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge’ and ‘The Future of Life’. Other titles like ‘The Social Conquest of Earth’ (2012), ‘Letters to a Young Scientist’ (2013) or ‘The Meaning of Human Existence’ (2014) reached the best-seller lists since they were first published.
Wilson held honorary doctorates from forty universities and received the National Medal of Science from the U.S. government, the International Prize for Biology (Japan) and the Crafoord Prize of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, to name just a few of the 130 awards honoring his professional achievements.
Speech
Ecology and Conservation Biology, 3rd edition
Beneath his office in the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University (United States) lay the world’s largest ant collection: almost one million specimens of five thousand different varieties. The study of these animals was a rich learning experience for Edward O. Wilson, the 2010 BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge laureate in Ecology and Conservation Biology. Learning about ants, of course, but also about humans, society… and life. Founder of new scientific areas; unifier of disciplines; an inspirational figure for generations of researchers, Wilson was the 21st-century embodiment of the great Enlightenment figures. And the naturalist par excellence.
“One of the most influential thinkers of our time, one of the most exceptional biologists in the world as well as an outstanding natural historian,” read the jury’s citation.“His impact has been truly extraordinary in creating and inspiring new areas of ecology and conservation biology, and indeed of science in general and its popularization. Few biologists working today have not been influenced in some way by his work and writings.”
“His impact has been truly extraordinary in creating and inspiring new areas of ecology and conservation biology, and indeed of science in general and its popularization. Few biologists working today have not been influenced in some way by his work and writings.”
TUITEAR
Not in vain did Wilson’s autobiography bear the title ‘Naturalist’. Born in Alabama in 1929, this University Research Professor Emeritus at Harvard University and Honorary Curator of Entomology in the same center’s Museum of Comparative Zoology, awoke fully to nature at the age of seven, during a summer in Playa Paraíso, Florida, spent watching jellyfish and rays. “Most children go through a phase of being fascinated by bugs; I guess I never outgrew mine,” Wilson mused. “Every species, large or small, was a wonder to be examined, thought about, and, if possible, captured and examined again.”
Wilson was concerned that children in developed countries had little direct experience of nature. “A child comes to the edge of deep water with a mind prepared for wonder,” he wrote. A splinter that lodged in his eye during a fishing accident that same summer, added to a hereditary hearing defect, would end up marking his professional life: it was easier for him to observe small insects than large mammals, and he could not make out different birdsongs. “I am blind in one eye and cannot hear high-frequency sounds; therefore I am an entomologist,” he explained.
At the age of nine, Wilson undertook his first expeditions at the Rock Creek Park in Washington, and at thirteen, in Alabama, he discovered his first colony of fire ants. At the age of eighteen, he began collecting flies, but a shortage of insect pins during the Second World War convinced him to switch to ants, which could be stored in vials. After taking a biology degree at the University of Alabama, he obtained his doctorate from Harvard University, to which he remains associated to this day. His studies on ants, which he pursued throughout his academic career, earned him the soubriquet “Lord of the Ants”.
Wilson was the first to describe the social behavior of ants and other social insects, deciphering the “chemical language” they utilize to communicate and plan their routes. He also coined and popularized the term “biodiversity”, echoing the concept that nature operates as a concert of species all interconnected in a fine and delicate balance.
Through his work, Wilson not only helped design better strategies to preserve this balance, he also worked to persuade others of the importance of doing so. “The living world is the part of nature that matters the most to humanity,” he contended. “Our own lives ultimately depend upon it. The diversity of species creates the exact environment we need for our own existence. We are carelessly destroying a large part of this diversity. We are harming ourselves, dangerously.”
It was a cause of some satisfaction to Wilson that “the idea of biodiversity is everywhere nowadays,” but he called for stronger action to conserve it: “The public and political leaders are still insufficiently aware of the importance of biodiversity.” He stressed that “we have only described about ten percent of all insects,” and filling these enormous gaps in our knowledge of the living things that inhabit our planet is vital to our own development. His own popularizing works were powerful transmitters of this message. Wilson won the Pulitzer Prize on two occasions: in 1979 for ‘On Human Nature’ and in 1991 for ‘The Ants’. And several other of his books, among them ‘Sociobiology, The Diversity of Life’, ‘Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge’, ‘The Future of Life’ and his autobiography, enjoyed considerable success.
What impresses in all of them is the way he moved so easily from scientific facts and theories to general comment and analysis, in consonance with his synthesizing vision of human knowledge. From this eclectic, profoundly erudite mind sprung a burgeoning new research area, sociobiology, which delves into the biological roots of human behavior. It was partly inspired by his studies of social insects: “I have thought about how the analysis of ant behavior can throw light on our human conduct since I began to formulate the scientific discipline of sociobiology in the 1970s. Ants are the animals with the most complex social structure aside from ourselves. And their study has had a huge influence on the study of human behavior.”
It is in his book ‘Consilience’ that gave fullest rein to his idea of a unity of knowledge; the contention that the sciences, the humanities and the arts are not isolated branches, but part of a whole. “In the times we live in, what matters most is synthesis, the ability to pool together advances in diverse areas and create a common body of knowledge,” he explained. “When we have sufficiently unified certain strands of knowledge, we will have a better understanding of who we are and why we are here.” Until the end of his life, Wilson retained his passion for ants and observed them wherever he went. And he also retained a guarded optimism. When asked if humankind would be able to preserve the wealth of life on Earth, he responded: “We are quite able to save it, if we learn more about it and make the effort. I believe we will act in time.”
