Pioneeer of modern ecology
by Anisa S. Jimenez
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EUGENE ODUM was attracted to ecology, he said, because it is “a bridge between man and nature.” Odum went on to serve as ecology’s steward, encouraging a holistic view of the science and fostering interdisciplinary research.
An avid ornithologist, much of his early research focused on birds. His research interests soon expanded and, together with his brother Howard, he published a groundbreaking, award-winning paper on coral reefs that demonstrated the symbiosis between corals and algae. Odum also influenced policymakers. For example, he helped gain support for the Coastal Marshlands Protection Act by making Georgians aware of the value of protecting wetlands.
Odum is credited with making the term “ecosystem” a household word, thus helping to implant ecological issues into the American psyche, and he literally wrote the book on ecology. His textbook Fundamentals of Ecology—the first of its kind—was originally published in 1953 and is now in its fifth edition.
He was responsible for securing a grant from the Atomic Energy Commission in 1951 to initiate ecological research at its Savannah River nuclear facility, paving the way for UGA’s Savannah River Ecological Laboratory. Also in the 1950s, he led development of UGA’s Marine Institute on Sapelo Island.
For more on Odum, read Eugene Odum, Ecosystem Ecologist and Environmentalist by Betty Jean Craige, professor and director of the UGA Center for Humanities and Arts.
—Anisa Jimenez is public relations coordinator in the Odum School of Ecology.
Eugene Odum’s biggest legacy is UGA’s Institute of Ecology, which he founded and which is now a free-standing school named for him. Photo by Richard Fowlkes
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