John Todd

 

Dr. Todd, one of the pioneers in ecological design, has been active in shaping the field for over forty years. Educated at McGill University (Agriculture (BA) & Parasitology (MSc) and has a PhD from University of Michigan (Fisheries & Oceanography). He has received two honorary doctorates.

 

Currently he is a Research Professor and Distinguished Lecturer at the University of Vermont, and a Fellow at the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics. He is Founder and Chairman of John Todd Ecological Design, Inc, and President of Ocean Arks International an NGO dedicated to publishing, and to healing the inshore oceans. He is based in Wood Hole, MA. He co-founded the New Alchemy Institute (1969).

 

Dr. Todd is widely published and is the author of over two hundred scientific, technical and popular articles. He is the author or co-author of seven books. He is the inventor of Eco-Machines and the holder of a number of patents. His passion and his work revolve around the broad field of planetary healing and regeneration

 

Awards

 

In 2008, he was the first winner of the Buckminster Fuller Challenge for the best idea to help save humanity. The entry was "Design for a Carbon Neutral World: The Challenge of Appalachia". Other awards he has won:

 

  • In 2006 he received the Global Visionary Award, the City of Chicago
  • In 1999 named “Hero of the Planet” by Time Magazine
  • In 1998 with his wife Nancy, a Bioneers Lifetime Achievement Award
  • In 1998 he, with his wife Nancy, he received the Charles and Ann Morrow Award for technological innovation on behalf of the planet
  • In 1996 he was honored with the US EPA Environmental Merit Award
  • In 1994 he received the Chrysler Award for Design.In 1991 the Discovery Award for Technological Innovation
  • In 1990 the Teddy Roosevelt Award for Conservation from President Bush Sr
  • In 1990 the United Nations (FUNEP) Award for contributions to the Global Environment
  • In 1989 the USEPA Chico Mendes Memorial Award for Environmental Restoration
  • In 1980 the Swiss Threshold Award for his Contributions to Human Knowledge

 

Recognition in Print & Exhibit

 

In 2002 Dr. Todd was named one of the 20th Century’s top thirty-five inventors by the Lemelson-MIT Program for Invention and Innovation, in their book entitled “Inventing Modern America: from the Microwave to the Mouse”(MIT Press).

In 2010, his Eco-Machine housed at the Center for Sustainable Living at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY was recognized as a significant design breakthrough by the Smithsonian Institution. The drawings and film of the project were displayed in the Cooper-Hewitt Museum of Design in NYC.

Nancy Jack Todd

Jakob Schenker

 

Jakob Schenker is a Master's candidate at the Rubenstein School of Natural Resources at the University of Vermont. He comes to the table with an undergraduate degree in environmental studies and biology as well as a wealth of environmental knowledge after pursuing sustainability initiatives throughout Indonesia, working with communities to develop sustainable livelihood practices, environmental remediation of coral reef systems.

 

Throughout all of this he became deeply involved with community aspects of environmentalism and interested in pursuing a career of ecological remediation for poor and underprivelaged communities around the world. His current research leads him to Grafton, Massachussetts where he is investigating how eco-machines can remediate factory oil waste from water bodies.