Wilson to Hold New Professorship

Baird Professor of Science Edward O. Wilson will become only the 15th professor ever accorded Harvard's highest faculty honor, the University announced yesterday.

Effective July 1, Wilson will hold the newly-established Pellegrino University Professorship . The University professorship award, established in 1935, is granted only to top faculty members whose work crosses traditional intellectual boundaries.

Wilson, 64, won the 1979 Pulitzer Prize for his book On Human Nature, which explored the role of biology in socialization. He also shared the 1991 Pulitzer for the work The Ants with Bert Holldobler, a former Harvard zoologist.

"Professor Wilson is one of our truly imaginative and humane scientists and thinkers," President Neil L. Rudenstine said yesterday in a press release.

"It is a distinct pleasure for me to be able to make his appointment," Rudenstine said. "Not only because Professor Wilson embodies Harvard's highest tradition of a scholar and teacher, but because he is, in addition, a person whose personal qualities...are also so remarkable."

As a University professor, Wilson will be able to teach in any of Harvard's faculties.

Wilson said in the release that he is "thrilled" by the honor, and regards it as the "culmination of a virtual lifetime of teaching and research."

The new chair was established by Joseph P. Pellegrino '60, who graduated from Harvard College with a degree in finance.

Wilson, an Alabama native, earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Alabama in 1949 and 1950, respectively.

He received his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1955 and joined the Harvard faculty in 1956. Wilson was tenured in 1964.

Wilson, a well-liked teacher, won the 1992 Levenson Prize for excellence in teaching. He offers the popular core class Science B-15, "Evolutionary Biology."

The biology professor received the International Prize for Biology from the Japanese government in 1993.

Wilson also won the Crafoord Prize in 1990 from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for his research on biodiversity and population biology.

In addition, he will receive the 1994 Award for Increasing the Public Understanding of Science, from the Council of Scientific Society Presidents.

Wilson, besides the Baird Professorship, also holds the Mellon Professorship in the sciences.

He is curator of entomology in the Museum of Comparative Zoology.