ThePBBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge award in the Ecology and Conservation Biology categoryhas ended up in its third edition at the hands of the British naturalistEdward O. Wilson, considered the father of the term biodiversity, as well as “one of the most influential thinkers of our time, one of the most exceptional biologists and an outstanding expert in natural history”, as explained by the jury.
Known by the nickname of“the lord of the ants”, this emeritus professor at Harvard University (USA) and the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology, does not hide his eternal fascination for these insects, which arose in childhood, which has led him to make fundamental contributions both in the field of biology as in the social sciences. Thus, Wilson is thefounder of Sociobiology, which investigates the biological bases of human behavior, and has won the Pulitzer Prize twice: in 1979 for ‘Human Nature’ and in 1991 for ‘The Ants’.
As an entomologist, he was thefirst to describe the social behavior of antsand other social insects. He also managed to unravel the “chemical language” by which these insects build their routes and communicate, and to demonstrate the action of pheromones. These works inspired his theory of Island Biogeography, developed in the mid-sixties with Robert MacArthur and currently considered a fundamental work for designing conservation strategies. This theory recognizes that preserving only a part of the habitat of a species does not guarantee its conservation, something that has contributed to “improving the design of nature reserves to minimize extinctions,” the jury’s minutes explained.
Regarding the contributions outside the strictly biological field, the jury highlights how his works “have united humanistic culture with Evolutionary Ecology”. Specifically, his works Sociobiology and Consilience? Laid a solid foundation for a new discipline, theEvolutionary Psychology, which is currently revolutionizing fields as diverse as Anthropology, Linguistics and History?
In love with ants
“This award represents the culmination of my career ,” Wilson said yesterday by phone after hearing the ruling. “It is a very valuable award, for the category of its jury and for its international scope. But also, because it recognizes advances in knowledge in its broadest sense. In this era the most important thing is synthesis, the ability to combine advances in various areas and create a common body of knowledge. This is what the BBVA Foundation recognizes “.
Wilson is still, at 81, a lover of ants, which he observes wherever he goes? “I will be delighted to do so when I go to Madrid for the award ceremony,” he says. And it highlights how much we humans can learn from them. ? They are the animals that have the most complex social structure, apart from us. Many people ask me how I can compare ants with humans, but the truth is that the study of ants has had an enormous influence on the study of human behavior ?
Wilson is satisfied that “the idea of biodiversity is now everywhere”, but calls for much more effective actions to conserve it: “I must say that the public and political leaders are not yet sufficiently aware of the importance of biodiversity. “. Remember, for example, that “we only know 10% of all insects” , and that filling these large gaps in the knowledge of the other organisms that populate the planet is essential for our own development.
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