The University of Bucharest (UB) will award, during a ceremony to be held on Friday, the Doctor Honoris Causa title to professor David Sloan Wilson, evolutionary biologist and promoter of interdisciplinary research in the social sciences.
"By awarding the title of Doctor Honoris Causa to professor David Sloan Wilson, the University of Bucharest reconfirms its support for the values that underlie its academic mission, promoting innovative scientific research, encouraging interdisciplinarity and stimulating dialogue between fields," a press release from the higher education institution states.
Professor emeritus of biological sciences and anthropology at Binghamton University, David Sloan Wilson is internationally recognised as the initiator of a true intellectual revolution: extending the principles of evolutionary thinking beyond biology, to all spheres of social life, from economics and public policies to education, community governance and institutional dynamics.
His work, which includes such reference volumes as "Unto Others: The Evolution and Psychology of Unselfish Behavior", "Darwin's Cathedral", "This View of Life", and "Prosocial: Using Evolutionary Science to Build Productive, Equitable, and Collaborative Groups", has contributed to the shaping of an integrative theoretical framework with explanatory and applicative power.
"Professor Wilson shows that the success of human communities depends on a balance between diversity and solidarity, diversity supporting adaptive capacity while solidarity is essential for resilience. He proposes a solid scientific framework for understanding and designing public institutions, civic organisations and local economies, so that they promote cooperation, trust and the assumption of shared responsibility. This approach introduces a new interpretive framework in the social sciences, centred on the idea of a biology of cooperation, with relevance for fields such as economics, public administration and business administration. According to Professor Wilson, the functioning of human communities depends on a balance between diversity and solidarity: diversity ensures adaptive capacity, and solidarity supports resilience," the same source mentions.
According to the press release, professor Wilson's contributions go beyond the theoretical level. Through the projects "The Evolution Institute and Prosocial World", he promotes the application of evolutionary principles in concrete social contexts with the aim of supporting the development of communities and organisations. A central element of this approach is the use of the Core Design Principles concept, inspired by research on good governance in human resource management. These tools provide a practical framework for strengthening cooperation and the equitable functioning of groups in various contexts - from work teams to public organisations and institutions.
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