David Sloan Wilson

David Sloan Wilson is a SUNY Distinguished Professor of biology and anthropology at Binghamton University. He is also President of the Evolution Institute and Editor-in-Chief of Evolution: This View of Life, an online general-interest magazine.

He is the author of multiple books including Evolution for Everyone: How Darwin’s Theory Can Change the Way We Think About Our Lives and This View of Life: Completing the Darwinian Revolution.

His scientific reputation rests on multilevel selection, the argument that natural selection acts on groups as well as on individuals, which was heterodox for decades and is the reason cooperation and altruism can be explained in Darwinian terms rather than explained away.

He has since taken the theory out of the laboratory. ProSocial World, which he leads, applies Elinor Ostrom’s design principles for managing shared resources to ordinary groups, from schools to businesses, and he ran a long study of prosocial behaviour in his own city of Binghamton. He also wrote Atlas Hugged, a novel answering Ayn Rand from the opposite direction.

Wilson holds a PhD from Michigan State University and a BA from the University of Rochester.