Renowned Champion of Biodiversity Has Died

December 27, 2021

Edward O. Wilson, the Harvard biologist who championed the importance of preserving diverse species and ecosystems, has died. He was 92. Wilson made his case partly in Issues, in a 1985 article he called “among the first to document and assess the problem of biodiversity in the context of public policy.” He later wrote in Issues that advances in technology, particularly information technology and genomics, could make it possible to create “an electronic encyclopedia of life designed to organize and make immediately available everything known about each of the millions of species.” Scientists and policymakers could use the information “to meet the concerns of greatest importance to the geographic region in which the research is conducted, being equally relevant to agriculture, medicine, and economic growth.”