1984 Tyler Laureate
Edward O. Wilson
Edward O. Wilson, the Frank Baird, Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard
and a member of the National Academy of Sciences, is one of the foremost
ecologists in the world. He is an entomologist who is perhaps best known
as one of the originators and the principal proponent of the discipline
of sociobiology. Sociobiology has become a major branch of the biological
sciences, at the core of what is exciting and significant in biology.
As a Tyler Laureate, he is being recognized in part for his work in the late sixties on the theory of island biogeography. This theory postulates that the living world is broken into patches, ecosystems on islands surrounded by water or on "habitat islands" surrounded by habitats of markedly different natures.
Working with the late Robert H. MacArthur of Princeton and Daniel Simberloff of Florida State University, Wilson produced evidence that in a given habitat the number of plants and animals is in equilibrium and can be predicted from two key qualities of that habitat: size and isolation. In general, the smaller and more isolated a habitat, the less various and numerous will be the species and individuals living there.
Dr. Wilson's work has direct relevance for ecology in the planning of wildlife refuges and conservation parks. Such research is helping produce a stronger discipline of conservation biology, through the optimum design in size and distribution of natural reserves to maintain a maximum species diversity. Wilson and others advocate that preserves be kept at or above a particular minimum size, as well as interconnected.
Interested in the social behavior of certain insects, Dr. Wilson did a considerable amount of the early work on pheromones, the chemical secretions used by animals. With William H. Bossert, he provided the first general theory of the evolution and physical properties of pheromones.
Sociobiology as a discipline has greatly improved the understanding of the various forms of social organization which adapts species to their environment. Dr. Wilson has argued that patterns of social behavior are part of the organism's genetic makeup and evolved in a way to improve chances for preservation of the species. His books include Sociobiology: the New Synthesis (1975), On Human Nature (1978), and Genes, Mind, and Culture (1981), written with C.J. Lunsden. In Biophilia, which will be published this fall by Harvard University Press, he deals with the deep affiliation that people form with other organisms, an understanding of which may lead to a stronger worldwide conservation ethic.
Among his numerous awards are the National Medal of Science (1976), the Leidy Medal of the Academy of Natural Sciences (1979), and the Pulitzer Prize (1979) .
Born in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1929, Wilson earned a B. S. and M. S. in biology from the University of Alabama in 1949 and 1950, respectively. He earned a Ph.D. five years later from Harvard. He joined the Harvard faculty in 1956.