Eugene Pleasants Odum, interviewed December 5, 1984, discusses the Institute of Ecology, including its origins, its approaches to research, its relationship with colleges and universities, its structural and funding challenges, and its demise.
Dr. Odum was born September 17, 1913 at Lake Sunapee, New Hampshire, where his family vacationed to escape the summer heat of the South. Odum spent most of his childhood in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and took an early interest in natural history. His father, Howard W. Odum was a well-known sociologist at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and his brother, Howard T. Odum became a fellow ecologist, studying under G. Evelyn Hutchinson at Yale University. Eugene was most memorable for his contributions in elevating ecology from a sub-discipline of biology to the integrative science that it is today. He perceived that ecology had great potential for linking the natural and social sciences. He spent most of his career at the University of Georgia, and was primarily responsible for the establishment of the Marine Institute on Sapelo Island, the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, and the Institute of Ecology.
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