Wilson, Edward O.
Wilson, Edward O. ( Osborne) (1929– ) US entomologist, ecologist and sociobiologist. In 1956, a year after obtaining his Ph.D. from Harvard University, Wilson and William L. Brown introduced the concept of ‘character displacement’ to describe how closely related species undergo rapid evolutionary differentiation after first coming into contact with each other. In Theory of Island Biogeography (1967), Wilson and Robert MacArthur developed the notion that “a dynamic equilibrium number of species exists for any island.” Wilson's Insect Societies (1971) is a definitive study of ants and other social insects. In Sociobiology: The New Synthesis (1975), Wilson presented his controversial theories about the biological basis of human social behaviour. Wilson won a Pulitzer Prize for On Human Nature (1978), in which he explored the contribution of sociobiology to the understanding of human aggression and sexuality. He received a second Pulitzer Prize for The Ants (1988, written with Bert Hölldobler). In The Diversity of Life (1992) and The Future of Life (2001), Wilson examined the threat to biodiversity posed by human activity. Other works include the autobiography Naturalist (1994). See also evolution
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Wilson, Edward O.
