The Hamilton Award was established in 2006 in memory of William D. Hamilton (1936–2000) to honour a senior scientist for outstanding lifetime achievement in the biology of social insects. In addition to their profound contributions to the scientific field, awardees are also acknowledged for the influence they have had on colleagues and students. The award is presented at the quadrennial Congress of the IUSSI.

The first Hamilton Award was awarded to Ross Crozier in 2006. Charles Michener received the Hamilton Award in 2010, Mary Jane West-Eberhard in 2014 and Jacobus (Koos) Boomsma in 2018. Berthold (Bert) K. Hölldobler was the 2022 recipient of the fifth Hamilton Award.

In 2018 the Editor-in-Chief of Insectes Sociaux, Miriam Richards, and the Secretary General of the IUSSI, Madeleine Beekman, established a new tradition of publishing the acceptance speeches of Hamilton Awardees in Insectes Sociaux. In doing so we build a long-lasting record of the profiles of the influential scientists recognized by the Hamilton Award. Bert Hölldobler’s acceptance speech, read by Christina Kwapich, is the second to be published.