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Edward Osborne Wilson Template:Postnominals (June 10, 1929 – December 26, 2021) was an American biologist, naturalist, ecologist, and entomologist known for developing the field of sociobiology.

Born in Alabama, Wilson found an early interest in nature and frequented the outdoors. At age seven, he was partially blinded in a fishing accident; due to his reduced sight, Wilson resolved to study entomology. After graduating from the University of Alabama, Wilson transferred to complete his dissertation at Harvard University, where he distinguished himself in multiple fields. In 1956, he co-authored a paper defining the theory of character displacement. In 1967, he developed the theory of island biogeography with Robert MacArthur.

Wilson was the Pellegrino University Research Professor Emeritus in Entomology for the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, a lecturer at Duke University,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. The Royal Swedish Academy awarded Wilson the Crafoord Prize. He was a humanist laureate of the International Academy of Humanism.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He was a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction (for On Human Nature in 1979, and The Ants in 1991) and a New York Times bestselling author for The Social Conquest of Earth,<ref name="CowlesG">Template:Cite news</ref> Letters to a Young Scientist,<ref name="CowlesG" /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}Template:Cbignore</ref> and The Meaning of Human Existence.

Wilson's work received both praise and criticism during his lifetime. His 1975 book Sociobiology: The New Synthesis was a particular flashpoint for controversy, and drew criticism from the Sociobiology Study Group.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=":1">Template:Cite journal</ref> Wilson's interpretation of the theory of evolution resulted in a widely reported dispute with Richard Dawkins about multilevel selection theory.<ref name=":5">Template:Cite news</ref> Examinations of his letters after his death revealed that he had supported the psychologist J. Philippe Rushton, whose work on race and intelligence is widely regarded by the scientific community as deeply flawed and racist.<ref>Template:Multiref</ref><ref>Template:Multiref</ref>

Early lifeEdit

Edward Osborne Wilson was born on June 10, 1929, in Birmingham, Alabama. He was the only child of Inez Linnette Freeman and Edward Osborne Wilson Sr.<ref name="nytobit">Template:Cite news</ref> According to his autobiography, Naturalist, he grew up in various towns in the Southern United States which included Mobile, Decatur, and Pensacola.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> From an early age, he was interested in natural history. His father was an alcoholic who eventually committed suicide. His parents allowed him to bring home black widow spiders and keep them on the porch.<ref name="last">Template:Cite news</ref> They divorced when he was seven years old.

In the same year that his parents divorced, Wilson blinded himself in his right eye in a fishing accident.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Despite the prolonged pain, he did not stop fishing. He did not complain because he was anxious to stay outdoors, and never sought medical treatment. Several months later, his right pupil clouded over with a cataract. He was admitted to Pensacola Hospital to have the lens removed. Wilson writes, in his autobiography, that the "surgery was a terrifying [19th] century ordeal". Wilson retained full sight in his left eye, with a vision of 20/10. The 20/10 vision prompted him to focus on "little things": "I noticed butterflies and ants more than other kids did, and took an interest in them automatically." Although he had lost his stereoscopic vision, he could still see fine print and the hairs on the bodies of small insects. His reduced ability to observe mammals and birds led him to concentrate on insects.<ref name="Wilson-2006">Template:Cite book</ref>

At the age of nine, Wilson undertook his first expeditions at Rock Creek Park in Washington, D.C. He began to collect insects and he gained a passion for butterflies. He would capture them using nets made with brooms, coat hangers, and cheesecloth bags.<ref name="Wilson-2006"/> Going on these expeditions led to Wilson's fascination with ants. He describes in his autobiography how one day he pulled the bark of a rotting tree away and discovered citronella ants underneath.<ref name="Wilson-2006"/> The worker ants he found were "short, fat, brilliant yellow, and emitted a strong lemony odor".<ref name="Wilson-2006"/> Wilson said the event left a "vivid and lasting impression".<ref name="Wilson-2006"/> He also earned the Eagle Scout award and served as Nature Director of his Boy Scouts summer camp. At age 18, intent on becoming an entomologist, he began by collecting flies, but the shortage of insect pins during World War II caused him to switch to ants, which could be stored in vials. With the encouragement of Marion R. Smith, a myrmecologist from the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, Wilson began a survey of all the ants of Alabama. This study led him to report the first colony of fire ants in the U.S., near the port of Mobile.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

EducationEdit

Wilson said he went to 15 or 16 schools during 11 years of schooling.<ref name="last"/> He was concerned that he might not be able to afford to go to a university, and he tried to enlist in the United States Army, intending to earn U.S. government financial support for his education. He failed the Army medical examination due to his impaired eyesight,<ref name="Wilson-2006"/> but was able to afford to enroll in the University of Alabama, where he earned his Bachelor of Science in 1949 and Master of Science in biology in 1950. The next year, Wilson transferred to Harvard University.<ref name="Wilson-2006"/>

Appointed to the Harvard Society of Fellows, he traveled on overseas expeditions, collecting ant species from Cuba and Mexico and traveling the South Pacific, including Australia, New Guinea, Fiji, and New Caledonia, as well as to Sri Lanka. In 1955, he received his Ph.D. and married Irene Kelley.<ref name="Academy of Achievement">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="contempauthors">Template:Cite book</ref>

In Letters to a Young Scientist, Wilson stated his IQ was measured as 123.<ref>Letters to a Young Scientist, Chapter 6. "I personally made do with an underwhelming 123."</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

CareerEdit

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Wilson in 2003

From 1956 until 1996, Wilson was part of the faculty of Harvard. He began as an ant taxonomist and worked on understanding their microevolution, specifically how they developed into new species by escaping environmental disadvantages and moving into new habitats. He developed a theory of the "taxon cycle".<ref name="Academy of Achievement"/>

In collaboration with mathematician William H. Bossert, Wilson developed a classification of pheromones based on insect communication patterns.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In the 1960s, he collaborated with mathematician and ecologist Robert MacArthur in developing the theory of species equilibrium. In the 1970s he and biologist Daniel S. Simberloff tested this theory on tiny mangrove islets in the Florida Keys. They eradicated all insect species and observed the repopulation by new species.<ref name="chambers1989">Template:Cite book</ref> Wilson and MacArthur's book The Theory of Island Biogeography became a standard ecology text.<ref name="Academy of Achievement"/>

In 1971, he published The Insect Societies, which argued that insect behavior and the behavior of other animals are influenced by similar evolutionary pressures.<ref name="larousse19942">Template:Cite book</ref> In 1973, Wilson was appointed the curator of entomology at the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology.<ref name="mooredecker2008">Template:Cite book</ref> In 1975, he published the book Sociobiology: The New Synthesis applying his theories of insect behavior to vertebrates, and in the last chapter, to humans. He speculated that evolved and inherited tendencies were responsible for hierarchical social organization among humans. In 1978 he published On Human Nature, which dealt with the role of biology in the evolution of human culture and won a Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.<ref name="Academy of Achievement"/>

Wilson was named the Frank B. Baird Jr., Professor of Science in 1976 and, after he retired from Harvard in 1996, he became the Pellegrino University Professor Emeritus.<ref name="mooredecker2008"/>

In 1981 after collaborating with biologist Charles Lumsden, he published Genes, Mind and Culture, a theory of gene-culture coevolution. In 1990 he published The Ants, co-written with zoologist Bert Hölldobler, winning his second Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.<ref name="Academy of Achievement"/>

In the 1990s, he published The Diversity of Life (1992); an autobiography, Naturalist (1994); and Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge (1998) about the unity of the natural and social sciences.<ref name="Academy of Achievement"/> Wilson was praised for his environmental advocacy, and his secular-humanist and deist ideas pertaining to religious and ethical matters.<ref name="cnn">Template:Cite news</ref>

Wilson was characterized by several titles during his career, including the "father of biodiversity,"<ref name="Father of Biodiversity">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> "ant man,"<ref name="Obit-Guardian">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and "Darwin's heir."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In a PBS interview, David Attenborough described Wilson as "a magic name to many of us working in the natural world, for two reasons. First, he is a towering example of a specialist, a world authority. Nobody in the world has ever known as much as Ed Wilson about ants. But, in addition to that intense knowledge and understanding, he has the widest of pictures. He sees the planet and the natural world that it contains in amazing detail but extraordinary coherence".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Disagreement with Richard DawkinsEdit

Although evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins defended Wilson during the so-called "sociobiology debate",<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> a disagreement between them arose over the theory of evolution.<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":3">Template:Cite news</ref> The disagreement began in 2012 when Dawkins wrote a critical review of Wilson's book The Social Conquest of Earth in Prospect Magazine.<ref name=":5" /> In the review, Dawkins criticized Wilson for rejecting kin selection and for supporting group selection, labeling it "bland" and "unfocused," and he wrote that the book's theoretical errors were "important, pervasive, and integral to its thesis in a way that renders it impossible to recommend".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Wilson responded in the same magazine and wrote that Dawkins made "little connection to the part he criticizes" and accused him of engaging in rhetoric.<ref name=":3" />

In 2014, Wilson said in an interview, "There is no dispute between me and Richard Dawkins and there never has been, because he's a journalist, and journalists are people that report what the scientists have found and the arguments I’ve had have actually been with scientists doing research".<ref name=":3" /> Dawkins responded in a tweet: "I greatly admire EO Wilson & his huge contributions to entomology, ecology, biogeography, conservation, etc. He's just wrong on kin selection" and later added, "Anybody who thinks I'm a journalist who reports what other scientists think is invited to read The Extended Phenotype".<ref name=":3" /> Biologist Jerry Coyne wrote that Wilson's remarks were "unfair, inaccurate, and uncharitable".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 2021, in an obituary to Wilson, Dawkins stated that their dispute was "purely scientific".<ref name=":4">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Dawkins wrote that he stands by his critical review and doesn't regret "its outspoken tone", but noted that he also stood by his "profound admiration for Professor Wilson and his life work".<ref name=":4" />

Support of J. Philippe RushtonEdit

Prior to Wilson's death, his personal correspondences were donated to the Library of Congress at the library's request.<ref name="Farina-2022">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Following his death, several articles were published discussing the discrepancy between Wilson's legacy as a champion of biogeography and conservation biology and his support of scientific racist pseudoscientist J. Philippe Rushton over several years. Rushton was a controversial psychologist at the University of Western Ontario, who later headed the Pioneer Fund.<ref name="Farina-2022" /><ref name="McLemore-2022">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} (registration required)</ref>

From the late 1980s to the early 1990s, Wilson wrote several emails to Rushton's colleagues defending Rushton's work in the face of widespread criticism for scholarly misconduct, misrepresentation of data, and confirmation bias, all of which were allegedly used by Rushton to support his personal ideas on race.<ref name="Farina-2022" /> Wilson also sponsored an article written by Rushton in PNAS,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and during the review process, Wilson intentionally sought out reviewers for the article who he believed would likely already agree with its premise.<ref name="Farina-2022" /> Wilson kept his support of Rushton's racist ideologies behind-the-scenes so as to not draw too much attention to himself or tarnish his own reputation.<ref name="Schulson-2022">Template:Cite news</ref> Wilson responded to another request from Rushton to sponsor a second PNAS article with the following: "You have my support in many ways, but for me to sponsor an article on racial differences in the PNAS would be counterproductive for both of us." Wilson also remarked that the reason Rushton's ideologies were not more widely supported is because of the "... fear of being called racist, which is virtually a death sentence in American academia if taken seriously. I admit that I myself have tended to avoid the subject of Rushton's work, out of fear."<ref name="Farina-2022" />

In 2022, the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation issued a statement rejecting Wilson's support of Rushton and racism, on behalf of the board of directors and staff.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} The Foundation's statement was first issued in February 2022 prior to a full investigation. It was updated in April 2022, reaffirming the original statement, after reviewing the correspondence.</ref>

WorkEdit

Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, 1975Edit

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Wilson used sociobiology and evolutionary principles to explain the behavior of social insects and then to understand the social behavior of other animals, including humans, thus establishing sociobiology as a new scientific field.<ref name=npr>Template:Cite news</ref> He argued that all animal behavior, including that of humans, is the product of heredity, environmental stimuli, and past experiences, and that free will is an illusion. He referred to the biological basis of behavior as the "genetic leash".<ref name="con">E. O. Wilson, Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge, New York, Knopf, 1998.</ref>Template:Rp The sociobiological view is that all animal social behavior is governed by epigenetic rules worked out by the laws of evolution. This theory and research proved to be seminal, controversial, and influential.<ref name="wolfe2012">Template:Cite book</ref>

Wilson argued that the unit of selection is a gene, the basic element of heredity. The target of selection is normally the individual who carries an ensemble of genes of certain kinds. With regard to the use of kin selection in explaining the behavior of eusocial insects, the "new view that I'm proposing is that it was group selection all along, an idea first roughly formulated by Darwin."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Sociobiological research was at the time particularly controversial with regard to its application to humans.<ref name=NYTnov1975>Template:Cite news</ref> The theory established a scientific argument for rejecting the common doctrine of tabula rasa, which holds that human beings are born without any innate mental content and that culture functions to increase human knowledge and aid in survival and success.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Reception and controversyEdit

Sociobiology: The New Synthesis was initially met with praise by most biologists.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> After substantial criticism of the book was launched by the Sociobiology Study Group, associated with the organization Science for the People, a major controversy known as the "sociobiology debate" ensued,<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> and Wilson was accused of racism, misogyny, and support for eugenics.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Several of Wilson's colleagues at Harvard,<ref name="grafen75">Template:Cite book</ref> such as Richard Lewontin and Stephen Jay Gould, both members of the Group, were strongly opposed. Both focused their criticism mostly on Wilson's sociobiological writings.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Gould, Lewontin, and other members, wrote "Against 'Sociobiology'" in an open letter criticizing Wilson's "deterministic view of human society and human action".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Other public lectures, reading groups, and press releases were organized criticizing Wilson's work. In response, Wilson produced a discussion article entitled "Academic Vigilantism and the Political Significance of Sociobiology" in BioScience.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

In February 1978, while participating in a discussion on sociobiology at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Wilson was surrounded, chanted at and doused with waterTemplate:Efn by members of the International Committee Against Racism, who accused Wilson of advocating racism and genetic determinism. Steven Jay Gould, who was present at the event, and Science for the People, which had previously protested Wilson, condemned the attack.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Gould Fox">Template:Cite book</ref>

Philosopher Mary Midgley encountered Sociobiology in the process of writing Beast and Man (1979)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and significantly rewrote the book to offer a critique of Wilson's views. Midgley praised the book for the study of animal behavior, clarity, scholarship, and encyclopedic scope, but extensively critiqued Wilson for conceptual confusion, scientism, and anthropomorphism of genetics.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

On Human Nature, 1978Edit

Wilson wrote in his 1978 book On Human Nature, "The evolutionary epic is probably the best myth we will ever have."<ref>Wilson (1979), On Human Nature, p. 21.</ref> Wilson's fame prompted use of the morphed phrase epic of evolution.<ref name="cnn" /> The book won the Pulitzer Prize in 1979.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

The Ants, 1990Edit

Wilson, along with Bert Hölldobler, carried out a systematic study of ants and ant behavior,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> culminating in the 1990 encyclopedic work The Ants. Because much self-sacrificing behavior on the part of individual ants can be explained on the basis of their genetic interests in the survival of the sisters, with whom they share 75% of their genes (though the actual case is some species' queens mate with multiple males and therefore some workers in a colony would only be 25% related), Wilson argued for a sociobiological explanation for all social behavior on the model of the behavior of the social insects.

Wilson said in reference to ants that "Karl Marx was right, socialism works, it is just that he had the wrong species".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He asserted that individual ants and other eusocial species were able to reach higher Darwinian fitness putting the needs of the colony above their own needs as individuals because they lack reproductive independence: individual ants cannot reproduce without a queen, so they can only increase their fitness by working to enhance the fitness of the colony as a whole. Humans, however, do possess reproductive independence, and so individual humans enjoy their maximum level of Darwinian fitness by looking after their own survival and having their own offspring.<ref>Template:Cite interview</ref>

Consilience, 1998Edit

In his 1998 book Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge, Wilson discussed methods that have been used to unite the sciences and might be able to unite the sciences with the humanities. He argued that knowledge is a single, unified thing, not divided between science and humanistic inquiry.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Wilson used the term "consilience" to describe the synthesis of knowledge from different specialized fields of human endeavor. He defined human nature as a collection of epigenetic rules, the genetic patterns of mental development. He argued that culture and rituals are products, not parts, of human nature. He said art is not part of human nature, but our appreciation of art is. He suggested that concepts such as art appreciation, fear of snakes, or the incest taboo (Westermarck effect) could be studied by scientific methods of the natural sciences and be part of interdisciplinary research.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Spiritual and political beliefsEdit

Scientific humanismEdit

Wilson coined the phrase scientific humanism as "the only worldview compatible with science's growing knowledge of the real world and the laws of nature".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Wilson argued that it is best suited to improve the human condition. In 2003, he was one of the signers of the Humanist Manifesto.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

God and religionEdit

On the question of God, Wilson described his position as "provisional deism"<ref>The CreationTemplate:Page needed</ref> and explicitly denied the label of "atheist", preferring "agnostic".<ref name="slate">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He explained his faith as a trajectory away from traditional beliefs: "I drifted away from the church, not definitively agnostic or atheistic, just Baptist & Christian no more."<ref name="con" /> Wilson argued that belief in God and the rituals of religion are products of evolution.<ref>Human NatureTemplate:Page needed</ref> He argued that they should not be rejected or dismissed, but further investigated by science to better understand their significance to human nature. In his book The Creation, Wilson wrote that scientists ought to "offer the hand of friendship" to religious leaders and build an alliance with them, stating that "Science and religion are two of the most potent forces on Earth and they should come together to save the creation."<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Wilson made an appeal to the religious community on the lecture circuit at Midland College, Texas, for example, and that "the appeal received a 'massive reply'", that a covenant had been written and that a "partnership will work to a substantial degree as time goes on".<ref>Scientist says there is hope to save planet {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} mywesttexas.com, September 18, 2009</ref>

In a New Scientist interview published on January 21, 2015, however, Wilson said that religious faith is "dragging us down", and:

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I would say that for the sake of human progress, the best thing we could possibly do would be to diminish, to the point of eliminating, religious faiths. But certainly not eliminating the natural yearnings of our species or the asking of these great questions.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>{{#if:|{{#if:|}}

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EcologyEdit

Wilson said that, if he could start his life over he would work in microbial ecology, when discussing the reinvigoration of his original fields of study since the 1960s.<ref>Template:Cite video</ref> He studied the mass extinctions of the 20th century and their relationship to modern society, and identifying mass extinction as the greatest threat to Earth's future.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 1998 argued for an ecological approach at the Capitol:

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From the late 1970s Wilson was actively involved in the global conservation of biodiversity, contributing and promoting research. In 1984 he published Biophilia, a work that explored the evolutionary and psychological basis of humanity's attraction to the natural environment. This work introduced the word biophilia which influenced the shaping of modern conservation ethics. In 1988 Wilson edited the BioDiversity volume, based on the proceedings of the first US national conference on the subject, which also introduced the term biodiversity into the language. This work was very influential in creating the modern field of biodiversity studies.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 2011, Wilson led scientific expeditions to the Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique and the archipelagos of Vanuatu and New Caledonia in the southwest Pacific. Wilson was part of the international conservation movement, as a consultant to Columbia University's Earth Institute, as a director of the American Museum of Natural History, Conservation International, The Nature Conservancy and the World Wildlife Fund.<ref name="Academy of Achievement" />

Understanding the scale of the extinction crisis led him to advocate for forest protection,<ref name="slide2" /> including the "Act to Save America's Forests", first introduced in 1998 and reintroduced in 2008, but never passed.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Forests Now Declaration called for new markets-based mechanisms to protect tropical forests.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Wilson once said destroying a rainforest for economic gain was like burning a Renaissance painting to cook a meal.<ref name="the Guardian-2021">Template:Cite news</ref> In 2014, Wilson called for setting aside 50% of Earth's surface for other species to thrive in as the only possible strategy to solve the extinction crisis. The idea became the basis for his book Half-Earth (2016) and for the Half-Earth Project of the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation.<ref name="Alberts">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Hiss">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Wilson's influence regarding ecology through popular science was discussed by Alan G. Gross in The Scientific Sublime (2018).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Wilson was instrumental in launching the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> initiative with the goal of creating a global database to include information on the 1.9 million species recognized by science. Currently, it includes information on practically all known species. This open and searchable digital repository for organism traits, measurements, interactions and other data has more than 300 international partners and countless scientists providing global users' access to knowledge of life on Earth. For his part, Wilson discovered and described more than 400 species of ants.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Retirement and deathEdit

In 1996, Wilson officially retired from Harvard University, where he continued to hold the positions of Professor Emeritus and Honorary Curator in Entomology.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He fully retired from Harvard in 2002 at age 73. After stepping down, he published more than a dozen books, including a digital biology textbook for the iPad.<ref name="nytobit" /><ref name="Obit-Telegraph">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

He founded the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation, which finances the PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award and is an "independent foundation" at the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University. Wilson became a special lecturer at Duke University as part of the agreement.<ref name="Tenure at Duke">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Wilson and his wife, Irene, resided in Lexington, Massachusetts.<ref name="Academy of Achievement" /> He had a daughter, Catherine.<ref name="the Guardian-2021" /> He was preceded in death by his wife (on August 7, 2021) and died in nearby Burlington on December 26, 2021, at the age of 92.<ref name="nytobit" /><ref name="Obit-Telegraph" />

Awards and honorsEdit

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Wilson addresses the audience at the dedication of the Biophilia Center named for him at Nokuse Plantation in Walton County, Florida.

Wilson's scientific and conservation honors include:

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  • Honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Mathematics and Science at Uppsala University, Sweden, 1987<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • His books The Insect Societies and Sociobiology: The New Synthesis were honored with the Science Citation Classic award by the Institute for Scientific Information.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • Dauphin Island Sea Lab christened one of its research vessel the R/V E.O. Wilson.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • E.O. Wilson Biophilia Center<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • EarthSky Science Communicator of the Year, 2010<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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Main worksEdit

  • Template:Cite journal, coauthored with William Brown Jr.; paper honored in 1986 as a Science Citation Classic, i.e., as one of the most frequently cited scientific papers of all time.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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Edited worksEdit

  • From So Simple a Beginning: Darwin's Four Great Books, edited with introductions by Edward O. Wilson (2005, W. W. Norton) Template:ISBN

ReferencesEdit

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