Ed Wilson is wearing a beige windbreaker and a sheepish grin – he's late for his interview. "Forgive me," he says. It's an unnecessary request. For E.O. Wilson, an ant specialist turned evolutionary biologist, blind in one eye, nearly deaf in one ear, stands in rare space. Besides the prizes, including the National Medal of Science, the Craaford, and two Pulitzers, he cofounded sociobiology, later withstanding a maelstrom of peer-launched criticism for his 1975 book that detailed how human social and cultural advancement is rooted in biological evolution. He later expanded his passion for nature to incorporate its conservation, a mission he has not forsaken.