Odum, Eugene Pleasants

Odum, Eugene Pleasants (1913–   ) ecologist, educator; born in Lake Sunapee, N.H. The son of a prominent sociologist, he graduated from the University of North Carolina (1934) and received a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois (1939). He was resident biologist at a New York State nature preserve before joining the faculty of the University of Georgia in 1940. He turned from an early interest in birds to ecology; he became one of the founders of a rigorously scientific approach to ecology and was an influential advocate of resource conservation. His Fundamentals of Ecology appeared in 1971. He became an emeritus professor at Georgia in 1985.