Edward O. Wilson
American Biologist known as the most famous founder of sociobiology, among others. Born in Alabama, he obtained a degree at Harvard and stayed there. In his sensational 1975 book Sociobiology, he tried to provide the framework for the new study of the biological basis for social behavior, from amoeba colony to human society. Despite some vehement arguments and actions against this attempt (and some of his Harvard colleagues were most active in that), he has survived and keeps producing a wealth of ideasCincluding two Pulitzer Prize winners On Human Nature (1978) and The Ants (1990).
Most recently, in his Consilience (1998), he tries to defend the legacy of the thinkers of Enlightenment: the unity of science, the consilience (Whewell's word for expressing convergence or fitting together of various branch of knowledge) in terms of reductionism. He is also active for biodiversity and environmental problems.