Record

EC - Certificates of election and candidature for Fellowship of the Royal Society
- 1990 - Certificates of Election 1990

RefNo	EC/1990/46
Level	Item
Title	Wilson, Edward Osborne: certificate of election to the Royal Society
Date	1984
Description	Certificate of Candidate for Election to Foreign Membership. Citation typed
Citation	Wilson is widely regarded as the foremost authority on the social behaviour of insects and a founder of the theory of island biogeography and the subdiscipline of socio-biology. Recognition of his work includes: the United States National Medal of Science (1977); the Tyler E. Prize in Ecology (1984); the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction (1979); membership of the U.S. National Academy of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the German Academy of Sciences; and Honorary Life Membership of the American Genetic Association (1981) and the British Ecological Society (1983). In a series of books he integrated much of the knowledge of animal social organization, reinterpreting it in line with modern principles of ecology and genetics, in effect treating societies as analysable populations. These works include The Insect Societies (1971); Sociobiology: The New Synthesis (1975); Caste and Ecology in the Social Insects (with G.F. Oster, 1978); and (for human extensions) On Human Nature (1978) and Genes, Mind, and Culture (with C.J. Lumsden, 1981). Wilson's empirical research has contributed a great deal to present-day knowledge of the biology of ants. In 1967, for example, he led the description and analysis of Sphecomymra freyi, the first fossil ant of Mesozoic age and the evolutionary link between the ants and the non-social wasps. In 1958-59 he was the first to demonstrate the presence of a wide variety of pheromones governing other aspects of ant communication. With Bert Hoodobler (1976-80) he worked out a remarkable system of five coexisting chemical recruitment systems in animals, and discovered territorial pheromones in these ants, the first such phenomenon noted in social insects. He and William H Bossert developed (1963) the first general theory of pheromone transmission in animal communication. The distinction they drew between primer and releaser pheromones is still accepted as a natural division in physiological effects. Wilson's work on the classification of ants, resulting in revisions of much of the Pacific fauna, and his field work in Melanesia and Asia led him to an interest in biogeography and species formation. With William L. Brown he conducted an early analysis of character displacement (they also coined the expression), the interaction among species thought to be important in diminishing competition and increasing species diversity. Wilson also formulated (1959-61) the concept of the taxon cycle, which has since been documented in groups other than ants, and is one of the links between ecology and biogeography. These studies led in turn to a collaboration with the late Robert H. MacArthur and to the development of the first quantitative theory of species equilibrium. In The Theory of Island Biogeography (1967), MacArthur and Wilson postulated that area-species regularities result not from incomplete colonization (as was previously supposed), but from a balance between immigration and extinction on individual islands. There have been numerous predictions and techniques developed from island biogeography, especially species equilibrium theory, and these have had a substantial impact on both biogeography and ecology. Simultaneously, Wilson developed an interest in caste systems. In 1953 he traced the evolution of ant castes by alteration of allometric curves; in 1968 he applied linear programming models to the "ergonomics" of caste systems in social insects generally. In 1978 G.F. Oster and Wilson published a comprehensive theory of caste evolution based on optimisation analysis which has guided most research in the field since that time. Wilson's current work is mostly directed toward this particular subject.
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