E.O. Wilson has made a tremendous contribution to our understanding of biodiversity, while his insights on social and group behavior have changed our perception of ourselves. The stirring keynotes from this legendary Harvard biologist are both majestic overtures to all life on earth as well as eloquent pleas to government, corporate, and religious leaders to address the damage we have done to our planet.
Edward O. Wilson is widely considered the father of the modern environmental movement. Wilson’s latest book, Letters to a Young Scientist, offers advice and perspective from a lifetime of scientific work. It has been released to much fanfare, including this review from Bill Streever of The New York Times Book Review: “I want to express my gratitude. Thank you for reminding me and thousands of others why we became scientists.” Named one of America’s 25 Most Influential People by TIME magazine, and a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, he has made a giant contribution to our understanding of the rich spectrum of Earth’s biodiversity. In his lectures, he makes a persuasive, eloquent plea to government, corporate, and religious leaders to address environmental destruction before it’s too late. His 32nd book, The Origins of Creativity is a philosophical and scientific analysis of creativity: specifically, how it makes us human.
Wilson’s many other works include Ants and On Human Nature, which both won the Pulitzer Prize; The Future of Life, which offers a plan for saving Earth’s biological heritage; Consilience, which draws together the sciences, humanities, and the arts into a broad study of human knowledge; The Creation, a plea for science and religion to work together to save the planet; and From So Simple a Beginning, a collection of the four seminal works of Darwin, with his own original introduction. His book The Superorganism was hailed by The New York Times as "an astonishing account of the intricate and unexpected swarm intelligence of wasps, bees, ants and termites," and The Social Conquest of Earth, a groundbreaking book on evolution, was a New York Times bestseller. In 2014, Wilson released three titles: the National Book Award nominee The Meaning of Human Existence, the stunning book of photography and prose A Window on Eternity, and Letters to a Young Scientist.
One of Wilson’s recent projects, The Encyclopedia of Life website, catalogs all key information about life on our planet—including data about every living species—and makes it accessible to everyone, anywhere. Launched with compensation from his 2007 TED Prize, the Encyclopedia of Life recently received an additional ten million dollars from The MacArthur Foundation. Wilson is also the recipient of the U.S. National Medal of Science, the Crafoord Prize (a sister to the Nobel Prize), and the Audubon Medal. He is the University Research Professor Emeritus at Harvard University, and continues to research at the Museum of Comparative Zoology. Recently, Wilson teamed with Harrison Ford to create a new PEN Literary award titled the PEN/E.O. Wilson Award for Literary Science Writing.