New Science Center Established To Coordinate Biological Studies

Harvard biologists have established a center to promote teaching and research in the study of organisms--everything from amoebas to men--and how they react to their environment.

Known as the center of Environmental and Behavioral Biology, it will coordinate the activities and facilities of several Harvard institutions already involved in this work. "It's a consortium of interested persons, scattered in different areas of study, who have recognized this as a coherent field," Edward O. Wilson, professor of Zoology and chairman of the new center, said last night.

The Center's primary objectives are to acquire increased research facilities and to advise on new Faculty appointments in fields relating to environmental and behavioral biology. "It's a problem of finding room for professors and then getting them here. We're quite understaffed," Wilson said. Additional appointments, he added, will lead to expanded course offerings in these fields.

Participating institutions include the Museum of Comparative Zoology, the Biological Laboratories, the Harvard Forests, and the Institute of Plant Sciences. The directors of these four institutes will serve as members ex officio of the Center.

Six-Story Wing

The Center's current project is finding funds to finance a new six-story wing for the Museum of Comparative Zoology, which will house teaching and research laboratories.

Wilson said planning for new facilities, especially in field research, was an "immediate concern" of the Center.

Long range plans include seeking funds for research and fieldwork on both the graduate and undergraduate levels. Wilson said he expected most of the funds will come from such federal organizations as the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Health.

Wilson predicted "that environmental and behavioral biology will become a major focus of science in the 1970's."

Wilson said: "This kind of study is far less advanced than studies of the physics and chemistry of the cell because organisms and species are much more complex systems. But we are beginning to develop the kinds of modern tools and techniques needed. Because of its great resources Harvard is in a position to lead in these new efforts, and the new Center for Environmental and Behavioral Biology has been set up to promote them."

"Homo sapiens," he added, "shares the earth with several millions of other species, and just as man's activities affect other forms of life so do they influence man's well-being. Together with man's political behavior, man's environment is the crucial factor that determines his future. Thus the study of the whole organis mis not only deeply preoccupying in itself, but it has important practical applications.