Dr. John Todd (1939- ) is an important biologist working in the field of ecological design. His ideas often involve applications that make use of alternative technologies. His principle interests include solving the problems of food production and waste-water processing. As an author, he has presented the outcome of the work that he and colleagues have undertaken in a series of books, as well as in the requisite scientific papers. Jump to: navigation, search 1939 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Jump to: navigation, search A biologist is a scientist devoted to and producing results in biology through the study of organisms. ... Jump to: navigation, search (Ecology is sometimes used incorrectly as a synonym for the natural environment. ... Alternative technology is a term sometimes used by environmental advocates to refer to technologies which are more environmentally friendly than the functionally equivalent technologies dominant in current practice. ...

Todd was born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada in 1939. He earned his B.Sc. (1961) in agriculture and his M.Sc. (1963) in parasitology and tropical medicine at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, after which he did doctoral work in fisheries and oceanography at the University of Michigan. His early professional interest, involving the behavioral ecology of fish, was the basis of his work as an assistant professor of ethology at San Diego State University (1968-1970), after which he joined the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, as an assistant scientist. Jump to: navigation, search Motto: Together Aspire - Together Achieve Area: 1,117. ... Jump to: navigation, search Motto: Ut Incepit Fidelis Sic Permanet (Loyal she began, loyal she remains) Other Canadian provinces and territories Capital Toronto Largest city Toronto Lieutenant-Governor James K. Bartleman Premier Dalton McGuinty (Liberal) Area 1,076,395 km² (4th) • Land 917,741 km² • Water 158,654 km² (14. ... Parasitology is the study of parasites, their hosts, and the relationship between them. ... Tropical medicine is the branch of medicine that deals with health problems that either occur uniquely in tropical and subtropical regions or are either more widespread in the tropics or more difficult to prevent or control. ... Jump to: navigation, search McGill University is a publicly funded, research-intensive, non-denominational, co-educational, international university located in the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. ... Montreal courthouse in 1880. ... A fishery (plural: fisheries) is an organized effort by humans to catch fish or other aquatic species, an activity known as fishing. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Jump to: navigation, search University of Michigan, Ann Arbor The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (U-M) is a public coeducational university in Michigan, United States. ... Jump to: navigation, search A landmark architecture featured in the school logo. ... The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) is devoted to scientific research and science- and engineering-education leading to MS and PhD degrees in oceanography and related fields. ... Woods Hole is a census-designated place and village within the town of Falmouth in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, at the extreme southwest corner of Cape Cod, near the island of Marthas Vineyard, and is the site of three famous scientific institutions: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the Marine Biological Laboratory...

Todd's wife, Nancy Jack Todd, trained as a dancer and is a skilled writer and editor. She has edited and added introductions to many of John Todd's books, and co-written the most recent. Back in the Woods Hole days, John had begun to develop his ideas about how complicated biological food chains worked, and in their conversations Nancy wondered if ecological concepts could serve people's needs. She suggested science needed "a human face."

In 1969 the Todds co-founded the New Alchemy Institute to do both fundamental research into aspects of biology and deciplines as well as to apply biological science to technology. Todd and colleagues have designed miniature ecosystems, largely self-perpetuating, which bring ecological principles into service of human requirements. Besides designing and prototyping food-producing systems and approaches for communities of people, this work has resulted in innovative new approaches to processing sewage and industrial waste water. Todd's approach has involved applications of micro-organisms, fish, and plants (phytoremediation). Jump to: navigation, search This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Jump to: navigation, search Sewage is domestic, municipal, or industrial liquid waste products disposed of via a pipe or similar structure. ... Phytoremediation is the technical term used to describe the treatment of environmental problems (remediation) through the use of plants. ...

Todd and colleagues have developed what they call "living machines." In principle, a living machine is an ecologically engineered technology developed to restore, conserve, or remediate sewage or other polluted water, by replicating and accelerating the natural purification processes of streams, ponds and marshes. In practical application, a living machine is a self-contained treatment system designed to treat a specific waste stream using the principles of ecological engineering. It does this by using diverse communities of bacteria and other microorganisms, algae, plants, trees, snails, fish and other living creatures. The concept of living machines represents a particularly interesting variant on intelligent machines, and has mostly been associated with water treatment systems that make use of natural bioremediation processes such as wetlands to remove contaminants from sewage and other waste water sources. ... Jump to: navigation, search A running stream. ... A pond is a body of water smaller than a lake. ...

John Todd developed a greenhouse waste treatment plant in Cape Cod that turns sewage into water. Bacteria eat the organic sewage and turn ammonia into nitrates. The nitrates are used as fertilizer-food for algae and duckweed. Zooplankton and snails eat the algae. Fish eat the zooplankton. Floating plants soak up the leftovers. Bulrushes, cattails, and hyacinths make the toxins harmless. Trees absorb heavy metals. The byproducts are decorative plants and minnows, which are sold (the minnows are sold as bait). Aquatic plants using open air lagoons for sewer treament is used in California, Florida, and Mississippi. Todd's system makes it possible to do this in the colder northern climates. The town of Harwich, Massachusetts began using Todd's system in 1990. Jump to: navigation, search A greenhouse in Saint Paul, Minnesota. ... Sewage treatment is the process that removes the majority of the contaminants from waste-water or sewage and produces both a liquid effluent suitable for disposal to the natural environment and a sludge. ... Jump to: navigation, search Cape Cod and the Massachusetts and Rhode Island coastline Cape Cod and Cape Cod Bay from space, April 1997. ... Jump to: navigation, search Phyla/Divisions Actinobacteria Aquificae Bacteroidetes/Chlorobi Chlamydiae/Verrucomicrobia Chloroflexi Chrysiogenetes Cyanobacteria Deferribacteres Deinococcus-Thermus Dictyoglomi Fibrobacteres/Acidobacteria Firmicutes Fusobacteria Gemmatimonadetes Nitrospirae Planctomycetes Proteobacteria Spirochaetes Thermodesulfobacteria Thermomicrobia Thermotogae Bacteria (singular, bacterium) are a major group of living organisms. ... Jump to: navigation, search Ammonia is a compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the formula NH3. ... this is a negative ion,NO3- Discussion In inorganic chemistry, nitrates are the salts of nitric acid. ... Genera Landoltia Lemna Spirodela Wolffia Wolffiella Lemnaceae, or the Duckweed family, is a family of monocot flowering plants containing the duckweeds (also known as water lentils). ... Photomontage of plankton organisms Plankton is the aggregate community of weakly swimming but mostly drifting small organisms that inhabit the water column of the ocean, seas, and bodies of freshwater. ... A seaweed (Laurencia) up close: the branches are multicellular and only about 1 mm thick. ... The term bulrush (or sometimes as bullrush) typically refers to tall, herbaceous plants that grow in wetlands. ... Species See text. ... The name Hyacinth can refer to: the Hyacinth from Greek mythology. ... Heavy metals, in chemistry, are chemical elements of a particular range of atomic weights. ... The word minnow can mean, in decreasing order of specificity: The Eurasian minnow, Phoxinus phoxinus (Linnaeus, 1758) Any, particularly small, fish of the family Cyprinidae Fish of the family Galaxiidae, in particular those of genus galaxiid occurring in the Southern Hemisphere. ... (This article is about the town in England. ... Jump to: navigation, search State nickname: Bay State Other U.S. States Capital Boston Largest city Boston Governor Mitt Romney (R) Senators Edward Kennedy (D) John Kerry (D) Official language(s) English Area 27,360 km² (44th)  - Land 20,317 km²  - Water 7,043 km² (25. ...

Todd served as NAI's President until 1981. In 1980, he co-founded Ocean Arks International. He also co-founded Living Technologies Inc., an ecological design, engineering, and construction firm in Burlington, Vermont. From 1999 he has been Research Professor & Distinguished Lecturer in the University of Vermont. Burlington is the name several things: Burlington Industries manufactures clothing and household goods Places in Canada: Burlington, Ontario Places in the United States: Burlington, Colorado Burlington, Connecticut Burlington, Illinois Burlington, Indiana Burlington, Iowa Burlington, Kansas Burlington, Kentucky Burlington, Maine Burlington, Massachusetts Burlington, Michigan Burlington, New Jersey Burlington, New York Burlington... Jump to: navigation, search State nickname: The Green Mountain State Other U.S. States Capital Montpelier Largest city Burlington Governor Jim Douglas (R) Senators Patrick Leahy (D) Jim Jeffords (I) Official language(s) None Area 24,923 km² (43th)  - Land 23,974 km²  - Water 949 km² (3. ... University of Vermont The University of Vermont is a university in Burlington, Vermont. ...

While Todd has pursued much of his work with the developing world in mind, applications for the benefit of industrialized and affluent societies have been part and parcel.

Among the awards Dr. Todd has received have been, in 1994, the Daimler/Chrysler Award for Innovation in Design, in 1996, the Environmental Merit Award (from the US Environmental Protection Agency), in 1998, the Bioneers Lifetime Achievement Award; also in 1998, he and Nancy Jack Todd together received the Lindbergh Award in recognition of their work in technology and the environment. Todd was profiled in Inventing Modern America, published by the Lemelson-MIT Program for Invention and Innovation, in which story of the development of his innovative ecological waste treatment systems is highlighted. Jump to: navigation, search EPA redirects here. ...

Books

Authored or co-authored by John Todd:

• The Village as Solar Ecology (1980)
• Tomorrow is Our Permanent Address (1980)
• Reinhabiting Cities & Towns: Designing for Sustainability (1981)
• Bioshelters, Ocean Arks, City Farming: Ecology as the Basis of Design (1984)
• From Eco-cities to Living Machines ¨1994)

External links

• "Slice of Life" in Business People, Vermont
• "Ocean Arks"
• "Research Projects"

References

• John Todd c.v.: http://www.uvm.edu/giee/cvs/Toddvita.htm
• John Todd biographical article, "Heroes for the Planet" series. Web: http://www.time.com
• John Todd bio sketch Web: http://www.schumachersociety.org