A Weekend with Dr. E.O. Wilson

	Dr. E.O. Wilson at the boat dedication.

The Sea Lab was honored to host Dr. E.O. Wilson for a weekend that included a fundraiser, a boat dedication and a documentary. 

Dr. Wilson, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and noted entomologist from Harvard University, is an honorary member of the DISL Foundation's Board of Trustees.  On April 1, he was the special guest of the Foundation's fundraiser "Cocktails with the Critters," a gathering at the Mobile Museum of Art that featured the artwork of noted Gulf Coast painter Stig Marcussen.  The artist presented Dr. Wilson with a specially commissioned portrait.  The fundraiser, a whimsical fusion of marine science and art netted the Foundation over $11,000.

The next morning, Dr. Wilson was on hand to dedicate the Sea Lab's newest research vessel, the R/V E.O. Wilson, a 46-foot boat built to Sea Lab specifications by Newton Boats in Slidell, LA, which will be used primarily for research in the offshore waters of the Gulf of Mexico.  In his remarks, Dr. Wilson expressed his delight at the honor of having this boat named after him, especially in light of the Wilson family history on the ocean:

	Stig Marcussen, left, presents Dr. Wilson with a portrait of the scientist as a young man in the Mobile Delta.

"Being a Southerner, I need to bring a story of my 'folks' and marine affairs in Mobile.  My great-great grandfather was an engineer on a boat that burned and sank and killed him.

My great-grandfather was also an engineer in Mobile Bay in the 1870's, and was also on a boat that burned and sank...

My great-grandfather was a bar pilot captured by Farragut as he was running a blockade, and put in prison and it broke his health and he died young in 1872.

The point of the story is, if you're religious, that the Good Lord was trying to tell the Wilsons to stay off the water!"

Dr. Wilson then graciously and pointedly expressed his belief that the Sea Lab is an emerging leader in marine science research in the nation.  "This lab is coming along to first-rate status now...this location and prospect for it will keep moving on to world-class status.  It's inevitable.  The opportunity is great, the location is ideal here at the center of the Gulf.  The region needs its scientific expertise of this sort.

I think you'll move right on up.  I mean this, I'm not being just a faithful Mobilian.  It'll be right up there in the ranks of Scripps and Woods Hole.  So it's a matter of finding the support in the State."

After dousing the vessel in champagne and taking a quick trip aboard the Wilson into Mobile Bay, Dr. Wilson toured the research laboratories in Marine Science Hall.