Odum, Howard T.
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Howard T. Odum (1924 – 2002), American ecologist noted for his pioneering studies of energy flows in ecosystems, and for the application of those same principles to energy use in society. The results from Odum’s seminal research in the 1950s on the energetics of the food web in Silver Springs, Florida, and of the the coral reefs of Eniwetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands are found in nearly every text on ecology. Odum’s Environment, Power and Society (1971) was based on a pathbreaking application of thermodynamics and ecological energetics to energy flows in human society. Based on the work of Lotka, Odum argued that society faced many of the same energetic constraints that confront other organisms and systems. He introduced the concept of emergy, the amount of solar energy embodied in the products of the biosphere and human society. His work built important theoretical foundations for the subsequent development of the fields of ecological economics and ecological engineering. With his brother Eugene Odum, he was awarded the Crafoord Prize—the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in ecological sciences – from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1987.
Further Reading
- Beyers, Robert J. and Howard T. Odum, 1993. Ecological Microcosms (Springer Advanced Texts in Life Sciences). Springer Verlag. ISBN: 0387979808
- Ewel, Katherine C. and Howard T. Odum (Editor), 1985. Cypress Swamps. University Press, Florida, 472 pp. ISBN: 0813007143
- Hall, Charles A. S. (Editor), 1995. Maximum Power: A Festschrift on Ecology, Energy, and Economy in Honor of Howard T. Odum. University Press, Colorado. ISBN: 0870813625
- Odum, Howard T. and Odum, Elisabeth C., 2001. The Prosperous Way Down: Principles and Policies. University of Colorado Press.
- Odum, Howard T. and Odum, Elizabeth C., 2000. Modeling for all Scales: An Introduction to System Simulation, Bk&Cd-Rom edition, Academic Press, 80 pp. ISBN: 0125241704
- Odum, Howard T., and Woucik, Wlodzimierz and Pritchard, Lowell (Editors), 2000. Heavy Metals In The Environment: Using Wetlands for Their Removal. CRC Press, 344 pp. ISBN: 1566704014
- Odum, Howard T., 1996. Environmental Accounting: Emergy and Environmental Decision Making. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, USA, 370 pp. ISBN: 0471114421
- Odum, Howard T., Odum, Elisabeth C. and Mark T. Brown, 1998. Environment and Society in Florida. St. Lucie Press, 429 pp. ISBN: 1574440802
- Odum, Howard T., 1994. Ecological and General Systems: An Introduction to Systems Ecology. University Press, Colorado. ISBN: 087081320X
- Odum, Howard T., 1981. Energy Basis for Man and Nature. McGraw Hill Text. ISBN: 0070475113
- Odum, Howard T., 1971. Environment, Power, and Society. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN: 047165275X
