Margo Wilson

Biography

Wilson was born on October 1, 1942, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. She spent her childhood years in the Gwich'in community of Fort McPherson, where her mother, a nurse, provided medical services. She attended the University of Alberta, graduating with an undergraduate degree in psychology in 1964. She then studied behavioural endocrinology at the University of California and, after winning a Commonwealth Scholarship, at University College London, England, where she earned her PhD in 1972.

From 1972 through 1975, she was a visiting assistant professor at the University of Toronto, where she met her future husband, fellow psychologist Martin Daly. Together, they moved to Hamilton in 1978 after Daly was hired by McMaster University. In the 1980s, Wilson was appointed professor of Psychology at McMaster, where she remained for the rest of her career.

Wilson was elected president of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society in 1997. With Daly, she was, for 10 years, the editor-in-chief of the journal Evolution and Human Behavior,. In 1998, she was named a fellow of the Royal Society.

Wilson died in Hamilton on September 24, 2009, of cancer. In 2009, the Human Behavior and Evolution Society established the Margo Wilson Award (for best paper published in the previous year) to honour her contributions to the field.