Eugene Odum
| Eugene Pleasants Odum | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
September 17, 1913 Newport, New Hampshire, USA |
| Died | August 10, 2002 (aged 88) Athens, Georgia, USA |
| Residence | USA |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields | ecologist, mathematician, natural philosopher, and systems ecologist |
| Institutions | University of Georgia |
| Alma mater | University of Illinois (Ph.D.) |
| Known for | pioneering the concept of the ecosystem; the interdependence of divergent ecosystems as the basis of how the earth functions |
| Notable awards | Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement (1977) Crafoord Prize (1987) |
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 Howard T. Odum wrote the popular ecology textbook Fundamentals of Ecology, published in 1953. Odum School of Ecology is named in his honor.
Son of the sociologist Howard W. Odum and brother of the ecologist Howard T. Odum, E.P. Odum credited his father for imparting to him a holistic approach to looking at things. When contemplating his advanced education, he rejected both the University of Michigan and Cornell University, as he did not feel that this holism was embodied in their approach to their biology departments. Instead, he chose the Graduate Department of Zoology at the University of Illinois where he earned his doctorate degree. There Odum was a student of Victor Shelford whose efforts led to the establishment of The Nature Conservancy.
After getting his Ph.D. in 1939, Odum was hired to be the first resident biologist at the Edmund Niles Huyck Preserve and Biological Research Station, in Rensselaerville, New York. The 430-acre preserve had been founded in 1931 and its research station established in 1938. The Preserve’s first summer research fellows, also selected in 1939, were Edward C. Raney and Donald Griffin. Raney, who had just finished his Ph.D. at Cornell, studied green frogs and bullfrogs and went on to become a leading ichthyologist (zoologist who studies fish). Griffin, who was completing his Ph.D. at Harvard, did research on bat echolocation (he later became famous for that work).
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