Biology, ’49 and M.S., ’50

Edward Osborne Wilson is an American biologist, researcher (sociobiology, biodiversity, island biogeography), theorist, naturalist and author. His biological specialty is myrmecology, or 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. He has a bachelor’s and master’s degree from UA. He is 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 bestseller for The Social Conquest of Earth, Letters to a Young Scientist and The Meaning of Human Existence.