Edward O. Wilson

E. O. Wilson
Wilson in February 2003
Born	Edward Osborne Wilson (1929-06-10) June 10, 1929 (age 87) Birmingham, Alabama, United States
Nationality	American
Fields	Biology
Institutions	Harvard University Duke University
Alma mater	University of Alabama Harvard University
Thesis	A Monographic Revision of the Ant Genus Lasius (1955)
Doctoral advisor	Frank M. Carpenter
Doctoral students	Daniel Simberloff Donald J. Farish Corrie Moreau
Known for	Popularizing sociobiology Epic of Evolution Character displacement Island biogeography
Influences	William Morton Wheeler
Notable awards	Newcomb Cleveland Prize (1967) Leidy Award (1979) Pulitzer Prize (1979) Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement (1984) Crafoord Prize (1990) Pulitzer Prize (1991) International Prize for Biology (1993) Carl Sagan Award for  Public Understanding of Science (1994) Kistler Prize (2000) Nierenberg Prize (2001) BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Ecology and Conservation Biology (2010) International Cosmos Prize (2012)

Edward Osborne Wilson (born June 10, 1929), usually cited as E. O. Wilson, is an American biologist, researcher (sociobiology, biodiversity, island biogeography), theorist (consilience, biophilia), naturalist (conservationist) and author. His biological specialty is myrmecology, the study of ants, on which he is considered to be the world's leading expert.

Wilson is known for his scientific career, his role as "the father of sociobiology" and "the father of biodiversity", his environmental advocacy, and his secular-humanist and deist ideas pertaining to religious and ethical matters. Among his greatest contributions to ecological theory is the theory of island biogeography, which he developed in collaboration with the mathematical ecologist Robert MacArthur, which is seen as the foundation of the development of conservation area design, as well as the unified neutral theory of biodiversity of Stephen Hubbell.

Wilson is (2014) the Pellegrino University Research Professor, Emeritus in Entomology for the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, a lecturer at Duke University, and a Fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. He is a Humanist Laureate of the International Academy of Humanism. He is a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction (for On Human Nature in 1979, and The Ants in 1991) and a New York Times bestseller for The Social Conquest of Earth,Letters to a Young Scientist, and The Meaning of Human Existence.