“You’ll correct them in the second edition.”īut there were not many corrections to make. “You’ll learn as your write,” his father responded. “What if I don’t know enough yet?” Odum recalled asking his father, in an interview with Craige. Odum, a renowned sociologist at the University of North Carolina, who taught his sons to never to lose sight of the big picture, and who urged Eugene to write his textbook. These ideas were inspired in part by Odum’s father, Howard W. This book was the first to suggest that scientists approach nature “top-down.”Įugene Odum pioneered the concept of the ecosystem-the holistic understanding of the environment as a system of interlocking biotic communities. “Fundamentals of Ecology,” which Odum published in 1953 with his younger brother and fellow ecologist Howard, was the discipline’s only textbook for more than a decade.
“He was a true visionary he saw things that others didn’t,” said Betty Jean Craige, University of Georgia Professor Emerita of comparative literature and the author of “Eugene Odum: Ecosystem Ecologist and Environmentalist.” “He spoke intensely and passionately about saving the environment, but he used his model as a way of thinking about the world.” Odum School of Ecology- the world’s first stand-alone college of ecology.īefore lead was banned from gasoline, before Rachel Carson published “Silent Spring” about the dangers of pesticides, before the United States created Earth Day-which our nation celebrates this Saturday, April 22-Odum’s research and advocacy inspired the modern environmental movement. He is lionized throughout science as the father of modern ecology, and recognized by the University of Georgia as the founder of what became the Eugene P. That night, he began writing a guiding set of principles that would ultimately serve as the foundation for the discipline’s first textbook. Odum stormed out of the room but was not deterred. His fellow scientists looked at him and laughed. In a meeting with his colleagues, Odum suggested that his ecology class be required of all new biology majors.
Odum, then a young associate professor in the University of Georgia’s biology department, had taught a course on ecology for several semesters and was passionate about the subject.
Newswise - Eugene Odum was not given to fits of anger, but this time he was furious.
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