Gorongosa’s beloved E.O. Wilson Laboratory celebrates its 12th Anniversary.
Text/photos – Piotr Naskrecki. Top image – Thanks to the Wilson Lab team, we now know more about the composition of the biodiversity of our national park then any other African protected area in history.
March 27, 2026 – Today marks the 12th anniversary, or Duodecennium, of the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Laboratory in Gorongosa National Park. Those twelve years have seen an unbelievable growth in the scope and depth of research in the park, allowing us to learn more about its rich, complex ecosystems that we ever thought possible.
Thanks to the amazing team of people who joined the lab over the years and the continually growing stream of visiting researchers, students and collaborators (now counting in the hundreds), the Wilson Lab is now widely considered one of the most active and scientifically productive research centers on the continent.
Those years have also been a time of a significant expansion of our educational program that started soon after the lab’s opening and quickly blossomed to become one of the most sought-after educational programs in Mozambique.
I couldn’t be more greatful to the phenomenal Wilson Lab team for the years of often hard but ultimately extremely satisfying work. There are too many people who contributed to the development of the Wilson Lab to be listed here but I must single out Dr. Marc Stalmans, Dr. Tara Massad, and Jason Denlinger, whose support over the years was absolutely critical to the lab’s growth and success. I thank them and everybody else who has made the vision of a modern biodiversity research and education center in the middle of African wilderness a reality.
