Death of American researcher Edward Osborne Wilson, father of sociobiology and defender of biodiversity
An ant specialist, the biologist, who died on December 26 at the age of 92, holder of two Pulitzers and a Crafoord Prize, insisted on the importance of genetics in animal behavior, including humans.
His work is so vast that some have believed him to be a "new Darwin", while others have more affectionately nicknamed him "Ant Man," the Ant-Man. American biologist Edward Osborne Wilson died on December 26, 2021 in Burlington, Massachusetts, at the age of 92.
“It would be hard to underestimate Ed's scientific accomplishments, but his impact spans all facets of society. He was a true visionary with a unique ability to inspire and galvanize. He has expressed, perhaps better than anyone, what it means to be human, ”said David J. Prend, chairman of the board of the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation - a cause embraced by the scholar.
Geneticist Richard Dawkins praised his memory on Twitter: “Sad news of the passing of Ed Wilson. Great entomologist, ecologist, greatest myrmecologist, inventor of sociobiology, pioneer of island biogeography, genius humanist and biophile, Crafoord and Pulitzer Prize, great Darwinian (one exception, the blind spot of kinship selection). Rest in peace. "This eulogy with an acid criticism as a coda is like what the researcher, experienced in academic battles, could arouse: immense respect for his erudition and his various contributions to the sciences of evolution, sometimes accompanied by questioning. of its conclusions on the origin of behavior, especially human behavior.
At Harvard his whole career
E.O. Wilson was born on June 10, 1929 in Birmingham, Alabama. He consoled himself for his parents' divorce when he was 8 years old by observing plants and animals. He loses one eye, injured by a hook, while fishing. "The attention of my surviving eye has turned to the ground," he wrote in an autobiography, The New York Times recalls. He then developed a passion for ants, of which he would become the undisputed specialist, discovering the importance of pheromones. After a doctorate at Harvard, he spent his entire career at the prestigious university.
“He was first of all a very good field naturalist,” indicates Laurent Keller (University of Lausanne), who studied the social organization of fire ants as a postdoctoral fellow in his laboratory in the 1990s. describes a genus of ants that has about a thousand species. His encyclopedic knowledge will crystallize in Les Fourmis, co-authored with Pulitzer Prize-winning entomologist Bert Hölldobler (1991), one of his many best-selling books. "He had an ability to write, a gift for synthesis. He was a huge worker. We hardly saw him in the laboratory, he returned every two weeks with 40 handwritten pages, and only two or three erasures, ”admires Laurent Keller.