E.O. Wilson (pictured in 2003). The Royal Swedish Academy, which awards Nobel Prizes, awarded Wilson the Crafoord Prize, an award in biosciences and geosciences not included in Nobel Prize categories.
E.O. Wilson, considered the father of biodiversity and “Darwin’s heir”, died Dec. 26, 2021 at the age of 92.
Dr. Wilson was one of the most distinguished American scientists in modern history and devoted his life to studying the natural world, becoming the world authority on ants and later focusing on the critical link between conserving functional ecosystems and the survival of all species on our planet.
As a young student, University of Delaware entomologist Doug Tallamy, FIConservancy’s mentor for transforming our tangled Parade Grounds into rolling meadows, met and was inspired by “E.O.”
“My work studying native plants and insects, and how crucial they are to food webs, was inspired by Wilson’s eloquent descriptions of biodiversity and how the myriad interactions among species create the conditions that enable the very existence of such species,” Tallamy wrote in a thoughtful and heartfelt tribute to E.O.Wilson.
