# Edward O. Wilson
Edward Osborne Wilson (June 10, 1929 – December 26, 2021) was an American biologist and entomologist at Harvard University, recognized as a leading authority on ants and a leading proponent of sociobiology, the systematic study of the biological basis of social behavior.[1](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edward-O-Wilson) His three signature works, *The Insect Societies* (1971), *Sociobiology: The New Synthesis* (1975), and *The Ants* (1990), defined fields of research, and his later career made him a leading advocate for biodiversity conservation.[2](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2023/05/edward-osborne-wilson-92/)
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born | June 10, 1929, Birmingham, Alabama[1](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edward-O-Wilson) |
| Died | December 26, 2021, Burlington, Massachusetts, age 92[1](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edward-O-Wilson) |
| Training | B.S. and M.S., University of Alabama (1949, 1950); Ph.D. in biology, Harvard University, 1955[3](https://hwpi.harvard.edu/files/mcz/files/eowilson_cv_25_aprili_2018.pdf) |
| Harvard chairs | Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science (1976–94); Pellegrino University Professor (1994–97); Pellegrino University Research Professor Emeritus (from 2002)[3](https://hwpi.harvard.edu/files/mcz/files/eowilson_cv_25_aprili_2018.pdf) |
| Signature works | *Sociobiology: The New Synthesis* (1975); *The Ants* (1990); "The evolution of eusociality" (Nature, 2010)[2](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2023/05/edward-osborne-wilson-92/) |
| Major honors | National Medal of Science (1977)[4](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abn9848); Crafoord Prize (1990)[5](https://www.britannica.com/contributor/Edward-O-Wilson/12354665); multiple Pulitzer Prizes (1979, 1991)[2](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2023/05/edward-osborne-wilson-92/) |
| Conservation legacy | Encyclopedia of Life; Half-Earth proposal (2016)[6](http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/721257) |
## Life and career
Wilson was born in [Birmingham, Alabama](https://www.edgepedia.org/birmingham-alabama), to Inez Linnette Freeman and Edward Osborne Wilson, Sr.[3](https://hwpi.harvard.edu/files/mcz/files/eowilson_cv_25_aprili_2018.pdf) A fishing accident at age seven blinded him in one eye, which steered him toward close-range observation of small animals and, eventually, ants.[2](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2023/05/edward-osborne-wilson-92/) While still in high school he discovered the first colony of fire ants in the United States.[7](https://eowilsonfoundation.org/about-us/e-o-wilson/)
He took his B.S. and M.S. in biology at the [University of Alabama](https://www.edgepedia.org/university-of-alabama) in 1949 and 1950, then briefly enrolled in a doctoral program at the [University of Tennessee](https://www.edgepedia.org/university-of-tennessee) before transferring to Harvard, where he completed his Ph.D. in 1955.[3](https://hwpi.harvard.edu/files/mcz/files/eowilson_cv_25_aprili_2018.pdf) His dissertation was on the systematics of the ant genus *Lasius*, which includes the widespread black garden ant, and in 1954 he had set out for [Melanesia](https://www.edgepedia.org/melanesia), including New Guinea, to study ant taxonomy and biogeography.[8](https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00078-7)
According to his Harvard CV, he was a Junior Fellow of the Society of Fellows from 1953 to 1956, joined the faculty in 1956, and rose through a sequence of chairs: Professor of Zoology (1964–76), Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science (1976–94), and Pellegrino University Professor (1994–97), remaining Pellegrino University Research Professor Emeritus from 2002.[3](https://hwpi.harvard.edu/files/mcz/files/eowilson_cv_25_aprili_2018.pdf) From 1973 to 1997 he was Curator in [Entomology](https://www.edgepedia.org/entomology) at Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology.[3](https://hwpi.harvard.edu/files/mcz/files/eowilson_cv_25_aprili_2018.pdf) According to the Harvard Gazette, he died on December 26, 2021, in Burlington, Massachusetts, at age 92, from complications following a fall, weeks after planning collecting expeditions to Cuba and Brazil.[2](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2023/05/edward-osborne-wilson-92/) • [1](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edward-O-Wilson)
## Myrmecology and The Ants
Wilson's scientific base was [myrmecology](https://www.edgepedia.org/myrmecology), the study of ants. His early experimental work established how ants communicate through chemical signals: in 1958 he identified an alarm and digging pheromone in the harvester ant *Pogonomyrmex badius*, and in 1959 a trail-making pheromone in the [red imported fire ant](https://www.edgepedia.org/red-imported-fire-ant) *Solenopsis invicta*.[6](http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/721257) Working with a Harvard mathematician, he showed in 1959 how ants communicate through the release of these pheromones, work that inspired a generation of researchers in behavioral physiology.[9](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2022/01/a-trailblazing-biologist-and-beloved-mentor-and-friend/)
His taxonomic output included the 2003 monograph *Pheidole in the New World*, an 818-page volume containing descriptions and his own illustrations of 341 new ant species.[2](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2023/05/edward-osborne-wilson-92/) In 1990 he published *The Ants*, which, according to the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation, is regarded as the definitive work on ants and the only professional science work to win a [Pulitzer Prize](https://www.edgepedia.org/pulitzer-prize), awarded in 1991 for General Nonfiction.[7](https://eowilsonfoundation.org/about-us/e-o-wilson/)
## Sociobiology and its controversy
Wilson introduced the term sociobiology in *The Insect Societies* (1971) as the systematic study of the biological basis of social behavior, and extended it to vertebrates in *Sociobiology: The New Synthesis* (1975), the first book to address the evolution and organization of societies in organisms ranging from colonial bacteria to primates, including humans.[7](https://eowilsonfoundation.org/about-us/e-o-wilson/) A poll of Animal Behavior Society officers and fellows ranked the 1975 book the most important book on animal behavior of all time.[7](https://eowilsonfoundation.org/about-us/e-o-wilson/)
The book's first and last chapters, which applied the approach to human behavior, provoked an acrimonious debate known as the "sociobiology wars" in the mid to late 1970s.[10](https://plato.stanford.edu/Entries/sociobiology/) Wilson contended that many human behaviors, including altruism, hypocrisy, and tribalism, have biological underpinnings.[11](https://www.nytimes.com/1994/10/16/books/wilson-they-said-your-all-wet.html) Fifteen Boston-area scholars, including two of Wilson's Harvard colleagues, signed a letter to *The New York Review of Books* associating his view with racism and genocide; critics accused him of genetic determinism, overly strong adaptationism, and ignoring learning and culture.[11](https://www.nytimes.com/1994/10/16/books/wilson-they-said-your-all-wet.html) • [10](https://plato.stanford.edu/Entries/sociobiology/) According to the Harvard Gazette, in 1978 protesters affiliated with the International Committee Against Racism poured a pitcher of cold water on Wilson's head at a meeting of the American Anthropological Association.[2](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2023/05/edward-osborne-wilson-92/) Most scholars now agree Wilson won the argument, and the field's descendants include human behavioral ecology, evolutionary psychology, and dual inheritance theory, sometimes grouped as the evolutionary social sciences.[8](https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00078-7) • [10](https://plato.stanford.edu/Entries/sociobiology/)
## Island biogeography and conservation
Wilson developed the theory of island biogeography, building on his conception of species equilibrium and published as *The Theory of Island Biogeography* in 1967, a work that introduced the concept of r/K selection.[8](https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00078-7) In the late 1960s he tested the theory's predictions with experiments on islands in the [Florida Keys](https://www.edgepedia.org/florida-keys).[7](https://eowilsonfoundation.org/about-us/e-o-wilson/) The theory's concepts apply to the fragmented habitats pervading much of the world, and Wilson applied them to conservation.[4](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abn9848)
According to a memorial article in *The American Naturalist*, Wilson proposed the Encyclopedia of Life, a digital, accessible account of all species on Earth, in 2003; it was established in 2007 with the aim of a webpage for every species.[6](http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/721257) In his 2016 book *Half-Earth: Our Planet's Fight for Life* he called for humanity to devote half of Earth's surface to nature; Half-Earth principles informed three key indicators of the 2022 Global Biodiversity Framework, and at COP15 the UN Convention on Biological Diversity agreed a target to conserve at least 30 percent of land, seas, and freshwater by 2030.[7](https://eowilsonfoundation.org/about-us/e-o-wilson/)
## The eusociality dispute
In 2010, Wilson published "The evolution of eusociality" in *Nature* (466: 1057–1062); according to [Bert Hölldobler](https://www.edgepedia.org/bert-holldobler)'s PNAS memoir of Wilson, the paper disavowed a central tenet of his own earlier work: that patterns of genetic relatedness, formalized in [W. D. Hamilton](https://www.edgepedia.org/w-d-hamilton)'s inclusive fitness or kin selection theory, drive the evolution of the complex societies seen in insects like ants.[12](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8812546/) • [2](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2023/05/edward-osborne-wilson-92/) His earlier review [Eusociality: Origin and consequences](https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0505858102) had appeared in the *Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences* in 2005. The provocation was timely: in 1971, the year *The Insect Societies* appeared, Hamilton's 1964 article had been cited only 38 times, but its citation rate reached nearly 100 per year by decade's end and 10,324 through 2021.[6](http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/721257) The paper provoked a high-profile debate in *Nature*.[2](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2023/05/edward-osborne-wilson-92/)
## Honors and legacy
Wilson received the US National Medal of Science in 1977, shared the 1990 Crafoord Prize of the [Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences](https://www.edgepedia.org/royal-swedish-academy-of-sciences), and won Pulitzer Prizes for General Nonfiction for *On Human Nature* (1979) and *The Ants* (1991); his foundation counts more than 150 international awards.[4](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abn9848) • [5](https://www.britannica.com/contributor/Edward-O-Wilson/12354665) • [2](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2023/05/edward-osborne-wilson-92/) • [7](https://eowilsonfoundation.org/about-us/e-o-wilson/)
A 2025 retrospective of his sociobiology fifty years on records that after his death Wilson was revealed to have been a covert supporter of a prominent scientific racist, and that newer societies in the field, the European Human Behavior and Evolution Association (2008) and the Cultural Evolution Society (2015), were founded in the debate's wake.[13](https://doi.org/10.1525/hsns.2025.55.1.77) The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy notes that some debates surrounding sociobiology are still ongoing.[10](https://plato.stanford.edu/Entries/sociobiology/)
## References
1. [E.O. Wilson, Britannica](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edward-O-Wilson)
2. [Edward Osborne Wilson, 92, Harvard Gazette](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2023/05/edward-osborne-wilson-92/)
3. [E.O. Wilson CV, 25 April 2018, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard](https://hwpi.harvard.edu/files/mcz/files/eowilson_cv_25_aprili_2018.pdf)
4. [Edward O. Wilson (1929–2021), Science](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abn9848)
5. [E. O. Wilson, Britannica contributor page](https://www.britannica.com/contributor/Edward-O-Wilson/12354665)
6. [In Memoriam Edward O. Wilson (1929–2021), The American Naturalist](http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/721257)
7. [E.O. Wilson, E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation](https://eowilsonfoundation.org/about-us/e-o-wilson/)
8. [Edward O. Wilson (1929–2021), Nature obituary](https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00078-7)
9. [A trailblazing biologist, Harvard Gazette](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2022/01/a-trailblazing-biologist-and-beloved-mentor-and-friend/)
10. [Sociobiology, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy](https://plato.stanford.edu/Entries/sociobiology/)
11. ['Wilson,' They Said, 'Your All Wet!', The New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/1994/10/16/books/wilson-they-said-your-all-wet.html)
12. [Edward Osborne Wilson, Naturalist (1929–2021), PNAS memoir](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8812546/)
13. [The Legacy of Wilson's Sociobiology, Fifty Years On](https://doi.org/10.1525/hsns.2025.55.1.77)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Life and health › Life and health scientists › Life scientists › Researchers in entomology*
*Initially written Sep 21, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 25, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Sep 25, 2026*
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