Kistler Prize
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RECIPIENTS 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
2000 Recipient
Pellegrino University Research Professor and Biological Theorist
Harvard University
 Dr.
Edward O. Wilson, celebrated biological theorist, Pulitzer Prize-winning
author, Professor Emeritus of biology and zoology at Harvard University,
and proclaimed by Time Magazine as one of America’s 25 most influential
people of the 20th century, was honored in August 2000 with the first
award of the Kistler Prize, bestowed by the Foundation For the Future
to recognize original work investigating the implications of genetics
for human society.
The Kistler Prize was the latest in a long list of
awards and recognition earned by Dr. E.O. Wilson in his 40+ years
of service to science. Among his numerous awards are such confirmations
of international recognition as the U.S. National Medal of Science
(1976), Japan’s International
Prize for Biology (1993), the Crafoord Prize from the Royal Swedish
Academy of Sciences (1990), the French Prix du Institut de la Vie (1990),
Germany’s Terrestrial Ecology Prize (1987), and Saudi Arabia’s
King Faisal International Prize for Science (2000).
The work for which
Dr. Wilson was awarded the Kistler Prize is the introduction of biological
thought into the social sciences and humanities to create a new field
called sociobiology. In his book Sociobiology: The New Synthesis (1975),
which extended neo-Darwinism into the study of social behavior, Wilson
suggested that a discrete discipline should be established on a foundation
of genetics and population biology. The field of sociobiology provides
the framework to determine to what extent human social behavior is
genetically determined. It provides a bridge between the natural sciences
on one side and social sciences and humanities on the other.
Wilson
began his academic career with B.S. and M.A. degrees in biology from
the University of Alabama, and a Ph.D. in biology from Harvard University.
He joined the Harvard faculty in 1956 and distinguished himself over
the next four decades as Professor of Zoology, Curator in Entomology
at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, and Researcher. Today he continues
entomological research at the Museum of Comparative Zoology.
Throughout
his career Dr. Wilson has been a prolific writer. Two of his 21 books
have been awarded Pulitzer prizes: On Human Nature (1978) and The Ants (1990, co-authored with Bert Hölldobler). With his
more recent books, Dr. Wilson has continued to generate significant
attention. The Diversity of Life (1992) was named one of the outstanding
books of the century by the New York Public Library. In Naturalist (1994), winner of many awards, Dr. Wilson describes his growth as a
scientist and the development of key principles of evolutionary biology.
Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge (1998) draws together the sciences,
humanities, and the arts into a broad study of human knowledge. Biological Diversity: The Oldest Human Heritage (1999)
is an introduction to conservation biology intended to educate young
people about the importance of biodiversity. In addition to his books,
Dr. Wilson has written over 370 articles for scientific journals.
 “How
can we shift to a culture of permanence, not just for ourselves, but
also for the biosphere that sustains us? … We’ve
entered the Century of the Environment, in which the future is usefully
considered as a bottleneck. We must
employ the best that we can bring to bear in science and technology
and in moral reasoning to take us through that bottleneck.”
—From Dr. Wilson's acceptance speech at the 2000 Kistler Prize Banquet
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