Highlights
Edward O. Wilson
Main Conference Opening Plenary Speaker
Thursday, July 13 at 5 p.m.
One of today's greatest scholars and naturalists, author of two Pulitzer Prize winning books, On Human Nature and The Ants, Dr. Wilson has spent a lifetime teaching at Harvard, where he is currently Professor and Curator of Entomology at the Museum of Comparative Zoology.
Dr. Wilson is well known for his pioneering and controversial work in the field of sociobiology and has put forth the idea that animal and human behavior can be understood in an evolutionary framework. He has written a series of groundbreaking books, including: Sociobiology: A New Synthesis, The Diversity of Life, Naturalist, Consilience, and The Future of Life.
Dr. Wilson has received some 75 awards in international recognition for his contributions to science and humanity, including 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), Saudi Arabia's King Faisal International Prize for Science (2000), and the Franklin Medal of the American Philosophical Society (1999). In 1995 he was named by Time Magazine as one of the 25 most influential people in America. For his conservation work he has received the Audubon Medal of the National Audubon Society and the Gold Medal of the World Wide Fund for Nature. He is also the recipient of 27 honorary doctoral degrees from North America and Europe.
Topic: The Future of Life
Considered by many to be the father of the modern environmental movement, Harvard professor Edward O. Wilson has made enormous contributions to the field of conservation. In this new presentation, he draws on the ideas of his best-selling book, The Future of Life, to make a passionate and eloquent plea for a new approach to the management and protection of our eco-system. Marshalling arguments from science, economics, and ethics, he demonstrates that proper stewardship of the earth's bio-diversity is not an option—it is a necessity, and a choice we must make if life is going to continue to thrive on the only home we have.
