WILSON Edward Osborne (Wilson Edward Osborne)

(p. 1929)
Born June 10, 1929 in Birmingham (pc. Alabama). He studied at the University of Alabama, in 1950 received a master's degree in biology in 1955 - a Ph.D. from Harvard University. In 1964-1972 Wilson - Professor of Zoology at Harvard University, from 1972 - the curator of entomology at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, from 1973 - president of the Society for the Study of Evolution.
Wilson is known for his research on the behavior and ecology of ants, and is considered a leading expert in this area. The first work on the communication of ants using special chemicals - pheromones wrote in 1959, for more information in the book Ants (The Ants, 1990), written by Wilson in collaboration with B. Holldoblerom. In 1971 in the Community of insects (The Insect Societies) Wilson presented the results of studies of social behavior of ants, termites, bees and wasps. In the following work, Sociobiology: The new synthesis (Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, 1975), formulated the theory of biological underpinnings of social behavior of animals and humans. In the last chapter of the book Wilson tried to prove that some aspects of human behavior (eg, division of labor by sex), genetically determined, and in this respect man is no different from animals. The concept of Wilson gave rise to serious criticism, to which Wilson responded in his next book - On Human Nature (On Human Nature, 1978), won the Pulitzer Prize.

In 1980 Wilson addressed the problem of species extinction of plants and animals. In 1992 published a variety of work life (The Diversity of Life), which presented the results of the study and systematization of the biological world.