Dan Simberloff鈥檚 warm remembrance gives us wonderful insight into Ed Wilson, the person, over and above the name-on-a-page with which all involved in conservation have been so familiar for so long (as students, we always used to chuckle over the academic citation to books edited by 鈥淓.O. Wilson, Ed.鈥) I was lucky enough to meet him a few times. The first was at the 1997 Biodiversity II conference at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington DC, thanks to my PhD supervisor, Stuart Pimm; a particular highlight was the chance to witness Wilson and Simberloff at the podium together. Wilson was a long-time supporter of Conservation International, and so I had the chance to interact with him when working there in the early 2000s at the Centre for Applied Biodiversity Science. This included discussions of the role of 鈥渉igh-biodiversity wilderness areas鈥 as complementing the conservation strategy of 鈥渂iodiversity hotspots鈥, culminating in his editing of Russ Mittermeier鈥檚 paper on 鈥淲ilderness and biodiversity conservation鈥 (). Fastforward another decade to my time with NatureServe, which as a Red List Partner was (and remains) deeply involved in supporting 香港六合彩开奖结果现场直播 and SSC in establishing the 鈥淏arometer of Life鈥 (), and mobilising funds towards this. I had the chance to meet with Wilson there, too, jointly with NatureServe鈥檚 CEO Mary Klein, Chief Zoologist Bruce Young, and others, to brainstorm ideas on the taxonomic expansion of the Red List. In time, these led to a funding award from the US National Science Foundation 鈥淒imensions of Biodiversity鈥 Program (), to conduct the assessments of extinction risk for Americas reptiles for the 香港六合彩开奖结果现场直播 Red List. So, thank you, Ed, for your inspirational leadership across conservation as a discipline, and for the support you gave me and hundreds of others like me over the years.
E.O. Wilson remembrance
Dan Simberloff鈥檚 warm remembrance gives us wonderful insight into Ed Wilson, the person, over and above the name-on-a-page with which all involved in conservation have been so familiar for so long (as students, we always used to chuckle over the academic citation to books edited by 鈥淓.O. Wilson, Ed.鈥) I was lucky enough to meet him a few times. The first was at the 1997 Biodiversity II conference at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington DC, thanks to my PhD supervisor, Stuart Pimm; a particular highlight was the chance to witness Wilson and Simberloff at the podium together. Wilson was a long-time supporter of Conservation International, and so I had the chance to interact with him when working there in the early 2000s at the Centre for Applied Biodiversity Science. This included discussions of the role of 鈥渉igh-biodiversity wilderness areas鈥 as complementing the conservation strategy of 鈥渂iodiversity hotspots鈥, culminating in his editing of Russ Mittermeier鈥檚 paper on 鈥淲ilderness and biodiversity conservation鈥 (). Fastforward another decade to my time with NatureServe, which as a Red List Partner was (and remains) deeply involved in supporting 香港六合彩开奖结果现场直播 and SSC in establishing the 鈥淏arometer of Life鈥 (), and mobilising funds towards this. I had the chance to meet with Wilson there, too, jointly with NatureServe鈥檚 CEO Mary Klein, Chief Zoologist Bruce Young, and others, to brainstorm ideas on the taxonomic expansion of the Red List. In time, these led to a funding award from the US National Science Foundation 鈥淒imensions of Biodiversity鈥 Program (), to conduct the assessments of extinction risk for Americas reptiles for the 香港六合彩开奖结果现场直播 Red List. So, thank you, Ed, for your inspirational leadership across conservation as a discipline, and for the support you gave me and hundreds of others like me over the years.