Edward Wilson. Caricature of the American biologist, naturalist and author Edward Osborne Wilson (born 1929). Wilson is a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction. He is best known for his scientific career, his role as one of the founders of the field of sociobiology, his environmental advocacy, and his secular-humanist and deist ideas pertaining to religious and ethical matters. In 1975 he published 'Sociobiology' in which he showed that social animal behaviour was governed by genetic factors. He controversially claimed that the same factors controlled human behaviour and emotions.