E.O. Wilson Wins Prize for Work on Insects and Ecology

Baird Professor of Science Edward O Wilson has won the $150,000 John and Alice Tyler Ecology Energy prize for his work on preserving the environment, the Executive Committee of the Tyler Prize announced yesterday.

Wilson will share the prize with Roger R. Revelle, Saltonstall Professor of Population Policy Emerintic, who currently is a professor of science and public policy at the University of California at San Diego Revelle taught at Harvard from 1964 to 1976 and helped the Center for Population Studies.

The prize, awarded annually, recognizes "the protection, maintenance, improvement, or understanding in the world." Director of the Tyler Prize Jerome B. Walker said yesterday.

Wilson said the prize would help him continue his studies in tropical ecology. "This is a subject for which many of my colleagues and I feel a sense of urgency because a large part of the world's fauna and flota is being extinguished at an accelerating rate by the clearing of forests," he stated.

The selection committee based its decision on Wilson's work on island biogeography--the study of small isolated habitats because of its impact on conservation in the Amazon jungle, and on the chemical secretions of insects, because of its contribution to non-toxic insect control, according to Walker.

"Wilson is the best known ecologist in the world today," said McKay Professor of Applied Biology, who is a member of the selection committee.

Revelle said he was "surprised and pleased" to win the Tyler award and would donate his $75,000 to various collages and universities.

Revelle has pioneered work on the effects of nuclear radiations and the "greenhouse effect" of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

John and Alice Tyler, Los Angeles natives, established the prize in 1973 with the assistance of then Governor Ronald Reagan because of the "increasing evidence of the ravages of pollution," Walker said.

The University of Southern California administers the prize and has awarded almost $1.5 million since its was founded.

Wilson and Revelle will each receive $75.000 and a gold medallion at a formal dinner ceremony in Beverly Hills May 23.