Edward O. Wilson

Background

Edward O. Wilson is one of history's greatest scientists. He founded the fields of sociobiology and biodiversity. He is a leading conservationist and environmental advocate. And he's a leading theorist with ideas such as biophilla, scientific humanism, and consilience—methods for uniting sciences with humanities to extend what humans can reliably know. He is the author of over two dozen books and the winner of two Pulitzer prizes for On Human Nature (1978) and The Ants (1990). Time magazine named him among the 25 most influential Americans in 1995. As a young scientist, Wilson focused on the study of ants, and he's now regarded as the world's leading authority on ants. In The Creation, he says scientists should "offer the hand of friendship" to religious leaders and vice versa, that these two most potent forces on Earth should to come together to save the creation. He is currently professor emeritus at Harvard and a special lecturer at Duke University, which houses the E.W. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation. His recent bestsellers include The Social Conquest of the Earth (2012), Letters to a Young Scientist (2013), and A Window on Eternity: A Biologist's Walk Through Gorongosa National Park (2014). This past speaker page shares his podium presentation as well as the Q&A.