Odum, Howard T. (Howard Thomas), 1924-2002

Howard Thomas Odum was born September 1, 1924 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where his father, Howard Washington Odum, worked as a sociology professor at the University of North Carolina. He served in the U.S. Air Force from 1943-1946, studying meteorology in Puerto Rico and serving as an instructor at the Air Force Tropical Weather School in Panama. He earned an A.B. degree in zoology from North Carolina in 1947, and a Ph.D. from Yale in 1951. Although his degree was in zoology, his dissertation focused on the biogeochemistry of strontium.

From 1950 to 1954 he taught limnology and biology at the University of Florida and conducted research on springs and estuaries. He initiated microcosm studies while employed at Duke University in 1954, and he served as Director of the Institute of Marine Science at the University of Texas from 1956 to 1963. From 1963 to 1966 he worked as Chief Scientist at the Puerto Rico Nuclear Center, which was operated by the University of Puerto Rico for the Atomic Energy Commission. While there, he initiated large scale environmental experiments on irradiation of rainforests in the Luquillo Mountains. From 1966 to 1970 he served at the University of North Carolina as a professor in zoology, botany and environmental sciences and engineering.

...