Author Bio
• Birth—June 10, 1929
• Where—Birmingham, Alabama, USA
• Education—B.S., M.S., University of Alabama; Ph.D. Harvard University
• Awards—Pulitzer Prize (twice)
• Currently—lives in Lexington, Massachusetts
Edward Osborne Wilson is an American biologist, researcher, theorist, conservationist, and author. His biological specialty is myrmecology, the study of ants, on which he is considered to be the world's leading expert.
He is known for his scientific career, his role as the "father" of both sociobiology and biodiversity," his environmental advocacy, and his secular-humanist and deist ideas pertaining to religious and ethical matters.
He is currently Professor Emeritus in Entomology 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, a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize (for General Non-Fiction), and a New York Times bestseller for The Social Conquest of Earth and Letters to a Young Scientist.
Early life
Wilson was born in Birmingham, Alabama. According to his autobiography Naturalist, he moved around with his father and his stepmother, growing up in several cities and towns, mostly around Washington, D.C. and Mobile, Alabama. From an early age, he was interested in natural history.
As a boy, he blinded himself in his right eye in a fishing accident, eventually undergoing surgery, which left him with full sight in only his left eye. In his autobiography, Naturalist, he recalls that, even though he had lost his stereoscopy, he could see fine print and the hairs on the bodies of small insects. His reduced ability to observe mammals and birds prompted him to concentrate on insects: "I noticed butterflies and ants more than other kids did, and took an interest in them automatically."
At the age of 18, intent on becoming an entomologist, he began by collecting flies, but the shortage of insect pins caused by 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 US, near the port of Mobile.
Wilson earned an B.S. and M.S. degrees in biology from the University of Alabama and, in 1955, a Ph.D. from Harvard University. He remained at Harvard, first as a Fellow then associate professor and eventually full professor. In 1996 he officially retired from teaching at Harvard though continues to hold the positions of Professor Emeritus and Honorary Curator in Entomology.
He and his wife Irene now reside in Lexington, Massachusetts.
Theories and beliefs
"The evolutionary epic," Wilson wrote in his book On Human Nature (1978), "is probably the best myth we will ever have." Wilson's use of "myth" means not a falsehood but a narrative that provides people with extraordinary moments of shared heritage. For Wilson his use of the word epic, "retold as poetry, is as intrinsically ennobling as any religious epic."
Human beings must have an epic, a sublime account of how the world was created and how humanity became part of it.... Religious epics satisfy another primal need. They confirm we are part of something greater than ourselves.... The way to achieve our epic that unites human spirituality, instead of cleaves it, it is to compose it from the best empirical knowledge that science and history can provide.
(Author bio adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 10/19/2014.)