Don E. Wilson

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Don Ellis Wilson (born April 30, 1944, in Davis, Oklahoma) is an American zoologist. His main research field is mammalogy, especially the group of bats which he studied in 65 countries around the world.

Career

Wilson spent his childhood and youth in Nebraska, Texas, Oregon and Washington. After finishing high school in Bisbee, Arizona in 1961 he graduated to Bachelor of Science from the University of Arizona in 1965. Still an under-graduate in 1964, he made his first expedition to the tropics, to which he travelled many times in the subsequent decades to study the mammalian fauna.

After working for the

Ph.D.
in 1970.

During this period he spent the summer months working as a naturalist for the

dissertation with the small tropical insectivorous bat Myotis nigricans
.

From 1986 to 1988, Wilson was president[1] of the American Society of Mammalogists. In 1992, he was president of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation. In addition, he was editor of the Journal of Mammalogy for five years, and editor of the publications Mammalian Species and Special Publications for three years. He also worked in various editorial boards. He is on the board of the organizations Bat Conservation International, the Biodiversity Foundation for Africa, Integrated Conservation Research and in the Lubee Bat Conservancy.

Publications

Wilson published more than 270 scientific publications, including the book Mammals of New Mexico and three monographs on bats. In 1997, the book Bats in Question – The Smithsonian Answer Book was published. In 2005, he was co-editor (along with

Dorling Kindersley
. He also authored a field guide to the North American mammal fauna as well as the work Smithsonian Book of North American Mammals.

Honors

Wilson won several awards, including the Smithsonian Institution Awards for outstanding contributions in the field of tropical biology, the Outstanding Publication Award from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Gerrit S. Miller Award from the North American Symposium on Bat Research, and the Hartley H. T. Jackson Award of the American Society of Mammalogists. In addition he received recognition of the Asociacion Mexicana de Mastozoologia for his outstanding scientific achievement and he received an honorary membership of the American Society of Mammalogists.

A species of snake, Myriopholis wilsoni, is named in honor of Don E. Wilson.[3]

Personal life

Wilson lives with his wife, whom he married in 1962 in Gainesville, Virginia. The couple has two daughters (who work as tutors) and four granddaughters.

References

  1. ^ "Past ASM Officers". American Society of Mammalogists. Retrieved June 26, 2020.
  2. ^ "Mammal species of the world: a taxonomic and geographic reference". Google Scholar. Retrieved September 2, 2015.
  3. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5
    . ("Wilson, D.E.", p. 287).

Further reading

External links
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