E.O. Wilson Facts
E.O. Wilson Facts
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| Interesting E.O. Wilson Facts: |
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| Wilson was born in Birmingham, Alabama but spent most of his formative years in Washington D.C. and the area around Mobile, Alabama. |
| A childhood accident left him blind in his right eye and made him focus on "little things". |
| He became interested in insects and at age 18, decided to become an entomologist. |
| Marion R Smith, a myrmecologist at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington encouraged Wilson to begin a survey of the ants of Alabama. |
| His survey found the first colony of fire ants in the U.S., near Mobile. |
| Wilson enrolled in the University of Alabama where he earned a B.S. and an M.S in biology. |
| He later earned a PhD in biology from Harvard University. |
| Because of his work with ants, Wilson formulated a theory that all social behavior has a sociobiological explanation. |
| He coined the phrase scientific humanism and in 2003, was one of the signers of the Humanist Manifesto. |
| Wilson received many honors for both his scientific works and his work in the field of ecology., including the U.S. National Medal of Science in 1976 and the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement in 1984. |
| His book, On Human Nature, won a Pulitzer Prize in 1979. |
| In 1990 he was awarded the Crafoord Prize for his work in ecology, a prize given by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in sciences not covered by the Nobel Prize. |
| That same year he and Bert Holldobler published The Ants which is considered the definitive work on ants and ant behavior. |
| In 2007 he received the TED Prize which is given to up to three people a year who have been judged to have positively impacted life on earth. |
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