Allan Wilson - Legacy

Legacy

Wilson's success can at least partially be attributed to his willingness to adopt new molecular techniques at the earliest stages of their development. For instance, he was one of the first scientists to apply DNA sequencing and PCR to the study of evolution. Throughout the course of his career, Wilson trained more than 200 graduate students and post-docs in molecular evolutionary biology. Indeed, his laboratory was a virtual obligatory passage point for anyone wishing to do empirical work in the field of molecular evolution in the 1970s and 1980s.

His investigations into the origins of humanity through biochemistry were revolutionary, yet at the time of his death in July 1991, while undergoing treatment for leukaemia, he was still a controversial figure. His theories on the evolution and age of modern humans still flew in the face of some anthropological thinking of the time, not to mention inciting anger from American creationists.

After Wilson's death Charles Laird published some thoughts on his lost colleague and friend.

"I have wondered about the parts of his personality that were so unusual even among first-rate scientists—his courage, his openness, his ability to focus on a problem and not let go, his special vision to see the final experiment and not to get distracted by intermediate ones and the details in between…"