Eugene Odum
Eugene Pleasants Odum | |
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systems ecologist | |
Institutions | University of Georgia |
Eugene Pleasants Odum (September 17, 1913 – August 10, 2002) was an American biologist at the University of Georgia known for his pioneering work on ecosystem ecology. He and his brother Howard T. Odum wrote the popular ecology textbook, Fundamentals of Ecology (1953). The Odum School of Ecology is named in his honor.
Biography
Son of the
Instead, he chose the Graduate Department of
After getting his Ph.D. in 1939, Odum was hired to be the first resident biologist at the
Marriage and family
Odum and Martha Ann Huff, whom he had met as a student, married at her home in Wilmette, Illinois, on November 18, 1939. She continued her work as an artist. Odum was very proud of Martha's accomplishments as an artist. She often painted landscapes when traveling with her husband across the US and overseas. Martha Ann Odum joined her husband in Rensselaerville, where he continued to work at the Huyck Preserve. His research included studying
Academic career at University of Georgia
In September 1940, Odum took a job as an instructor of biology at the University of Georgia (Athens, Georgia).[4] In the late 1940s, while serving on the University's biology faculty committee, which was then drawing up a new curriculum, he concluded there was an urgent need to incorporate the subject of ecology, since he learned that his colleagues generally did not know what ecology (in its own right) might be. He founded the Institute of Ecology, later named for him.
In 2007 the Institute of Ecology, which Odum founded at the University of Georgia, was named as the
Work
Ecosystems
In the 1940s and 1950s, "ecology" was not yet a field of study that had been defined as a separate discipline. Even professional biologists seemed to Odum to be generally under-educated about how the Earth's ecological systems interact with one another. Odum brought forward the importance of ecology as a discipline that should be a fundamental dimension of the training of a biologist.
Odum adopted and developed further the term "
Odum wrote a textbook on ecology with his brother, Howard Thomas Odum, a graduate student at Yale. The Odum brothers' book (first edition, 1953), Fundamentals of Ecology, was the only textbook in the field for about ten years. Among other things, the Odums explored how one natural system can interact with another.
Environmentalism
While Odum did wish to influence the knowledge base and thinking of fellow biologists and of college and university students, his historical role was not as a promoter of public environmentalism as we now know it. However, his dedication in his 1963 book, Ecology, expressed that his father had inspired him to "seek more harmonious relationships between man and nature".
By 1970, when the first Earth Day was organized, Odum's conception of the living Earth as a global set of interlaced ecosystems became one of the key insights of the environmental movement that has since spread through the world. He was, however, an independent thinker who was at times, gently critical of the slogans and fashionable concepts of the environmentalist movement.
Legacy
Odum's will stipulated that, after his death, his 26 acres (110,000 m2) on the Middle Oconee River in Athens, Ga. would be sold and developed according to plans he laid out before his death. He would often show friends and colleagues hand sketched plans for his vision of this green community. Plans included that over 50 percent of the property would be protected greenspace and walking trails, managed by the Oconee River Land Trust. Profits from the sale of the land would go to the Eugene and William Odum Ecology Fund, after $1 million is set aside for a professorial chair at UGA in Odum's name. The land was sold to builder John Willis Homes who is honoring Odum’s wishes at Beech Creek Preserve.[6]
Odum's financial contributions were focused on not only the University of Georgia, but also the University of Virginia given his son's faculty appointment there, and the University of North Carolina where his father was a prolific scholar. Ultimately, his wealth—partly the product of book royalties—benefited those institutions that he respected. The Ecological Society of America offers the Eugene P. Odum Award for Excellence in Ecology Education, which was endowed by, and named for, Odum.[7]
Publications
- Books
- Odum, Eugene P. (1939). Variations in the heart rate of birds: a study in physiological ecology. Champaign-Urbana: University of Illinois (diss.). OCLC 703669172.
- see also: Odum, Eugene P. (1941). "Variations in the heart rate of birds: a study in physiological ecology". Ecological Monographs. 11 (3): 299–326. JSTOR 1943206.
- —— (1953). Fundamentals of Ecology. Philadelphia / London: W.B. Saunders Cy.
- 1963. Ecology
- 1975. Ecology, the link between the natural and the social sciences
- 1983. Basic Ecology
- 1993. Ecology and Our Endangered Life Support Systems
- 1998. Ecological Vignettes: Ecological Approaches to Dealing with Human Predicament
- 2000. Essence of Place (co-authored with Martha Odum)
- Articles, a selection
- 1969. The Strategy of Ecosystem Development
- Comparison of population energy flow of a herbivorous and a deposit-feeding invertebrate in a salt marsh ecosystem (with Alfred E. Smalley)
- About Odum
- Rotabi, K. S. (2008). Ecological theory origin from natural to social science or vice versa? : A brief conceptual history for social work. Advances in Social Work, 8 (1), 113-123. (Online)
- Craige, Betty Jean (2001). Eugene Odum : ecosystem ecologist and environmentalist. Athens, Ga. [u.a.]: Univ. of Georgia Press. ISBN 0-8203-2281-4.[8]
References
- ^ a b Smith, S. & Mark, S. (2009). "The Historical Roots of the Nature Conservancy in the Northwest Indiana/Chicagoland Region: From Science to Preservation". The South Shore Journal, 3. "South Shore Journal - the Historical Roots of the Nature Conservancy in the Northwest Indiana/Chicagoland Region: From Science to Preservation". Archived from the original on 2016-01-01. Retrieved 2015-11-22.
- JSTOR 1446660.
- ^ ISBN 0-8203-2281-4.
- ^ The Red and Black. The Red and Black Publishing Company. Archived from the originalon January 9, 2008. Retrieved 2008-03-25.
- JSTOR 1930070.
- ^ "Beech Creek Preserve Official site". Retrieved 2008-03-25.
- ^ Ecological Society of America "Eugene P. Odum Award for Excellence in Ecology Education" Accessed July 21, 2019.
- .
External links
- Eugene Odum — Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences
- Eugene Odum (1913-2002) Biography in the New Georgia Encyclopedia
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