Thread by @phylogenomics

When I was a senior at @harvard in 1990 I started an "Environmental Issues" journal as part of activities leading to the 20th anniversary of Earth Day. I hoped to get EO Wilson to be our faculty sponsor. I phoned his office and arranged a meeting with him via his assistant 1/n

https://twitter.com/hopihoekstra/status/1475347714640691200

I figured, with a prof. like him this would be a very brief meeting. But instead I got to his office, and there was Wilson, and he was so excited about something. He had a new book out on Ants he wanted to show me. And we looked it over for like an hour. 2/n

Then, he took me on a tour of his lab (I think he showed me ant colonies and other ant things). And then we sat down for another hour and discussed Earth Day and student activism and other environmental issues. And yes, he agreed to be the faculty sponsor of the journal. 3/n

I also got a p/t job as a shelver in the library in the MCZ area there and fell in love with butterflies due to the Nabokov material / collection they had. Many times when I went to work I would stop by and say hello to Wilson and he would always take time to chat 4/n

Wilson was happy I was into insects even though I was into the wrong ones. And we discussed ideas for the journal. I never actually got the journal fully going but another student got it going the next year. 5/n

Wilson's warmth & kindness were instrumental in the development of my career & in my belief that being a good person is the most important part of being a scientist. I will miss you E. O. Wilson. Thanks for the inspiration and may the ants be ever in your favor. 6/n

We interacted on and off over the years. The best time for me was in 2012 when I was in DC to give a talk at #Tedmed. ted.com/talks/jonathan… 7/n

Wilson was there too - to also give a talk and I saw him outside the Kennedy Center signing a book for a fan

https://twitter.com/phylogenomics/status/190926071636557826

. 8/n

Wilson and I were to speak in the same session at the meeting

https://twitter.com/KariOakes/status/190430439238942720?s=20

9/n

I went up to him and introduced myself, hoping he would remember me. And, thankfully, he did. He asked what I was working on these days I I told him it was all microbes all the time, although I had done some work on microbes in insects so never lost my interest there 10/n

And we chatted for a bit and it was really nice. I then got caught up stressing about my talk, gave my talk & then went backstage to watch the other talks. And when Wilson came up shortly after me he referenced my talk and microbes multiple times with praise. Made my year 11/n

Oh, and I note. Wilson and I also chatted about how I had tried to get into his oversubscribed "Sociobiology" class he taught at @harvard and how, well, I wanted in b/c I did not like a lot of his writings on the topic. 12/n

He said it was too bad I did not get in because he especially wanted to hear critiques and diverse responses from students. And he said something akin to - it was OK, as long as I liked biodiversity it was OK I did not like some of his sociobiology work 13/n

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