Eugen P. Odum “ The father of modern ecology ”

Eugen P. Odum“The father of modern ecology” (1913-2002) Movements in Biodiversity conservation and Achievements University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna Biodiversity Conservation Course Seminar Paper Kassahun Bekle Worku April 2012

Thought at University of Georgia until his death in 2002. • In the late 1940s, as a faculty committee suggested that Ecology be required as course in the curriculum. Laughed out of the room !

Odum demonstrated just what the word ‘Ecology’ meant to: • skeptical colleagues • academic biological community • later to the country and the world at large.

Before Odum, the ecology of specific organisms and environments had been studied on a more limited scale within individual sub-disciplines of biology.

ecosystem must be studied as an interactive whole, whose function could not fully be understood by examination of its parts alone. • "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts"; and that therefore reductionist scientific methods cannot adequately explain living systems.

One influence of his thinking that will be debated for a long time is his repeated attempts to outline ecology as an integrative discipline • Produced different publications and several papers.

“The Father of Modern Ecology” " the father of ecological ecosystem” "the ecologist's ecologist," Eugen P. Odum Gene NAMED AS

References • Betty Jean Craige 2001. Eugene Odum: Ecosystem Ecologist and Environmentalist. University of Georgia Press. Athens Georgia. ISBN 0-8203-2473-b • Odum, E. P. "The Emergence of Ecology as a New Integrative Discipline." Science 195, no. 4284 (March 25, 1977). • http://www.bookrags.com/research/dr-eugene-p-odum-1913--american-eco-enve-02/ • http://www.ecology.uga.edu/newsItem.php?Ecology_Thrives_at_UGA-18/ • http://ecotopia.org/ecology-hall-of-fame/eugene-odum/ • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Odum#cite_ref-Tansley1935_1-0 • http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-720 • http://people.wku.edu/charles.smith/chronob/ODUM1913.htm

Eugen P. Odum “ The father of modern ecology ”