Dr. John Todd to speak in Fowler Center as part of Lecture~Concert Series

Feb. 3, 2005--Dr. John Todd, internationally recognized biologist, will speak at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 16, at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro at the Fowler Center, 201 Olympic Drive.

Todd’s presentation will be the third event of the 2004-05 Lecture~Concert Series. The topic of Todd’s presentation will be “What Can Be Destroyed Can Be Healed: The Promise of Ecological Design.” It is presented with the support of the College of Agriculture, the College of Sciences and Mathematics, the Environmental Sciences Ph.D. Program and the Judd Hill Foundation. This presentation is held in conjunction with the 2005 Agri-business Conference slated for earlier in the day, where Todd will be a featured speaker.

Todd was named “Hero of the Earth” in 1999 by Time Magazine and one of the 20th century’s top 35 inventors by the Lemelson-MIT program for invention and innovation. He holds four patents and is inventor of “living machines,” or ecological engines, for the treatment of waste, production of foods, generation of fuels and restoration of damaged aquatic environments.

Todd is the founder and president of Ocean Arks International, a non-profit research and education organization and co-founder of Living Technologies Inc., an ecological design, engineering and construction firm in Vermont. He is also a research professor and distinguished lecturer at the University of Vermont Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources.

He holds degrees in agriculture, parasitology and tropical medicine from McGill University and a doctorate in fisheries and ethology from the University of Michigan. He has also received two honorary doctorate degrees in science and engineering. 

Todd has won many awards including the Bioneers Lifetime Achievement Award, the Charles and Ann Morrow Lindbergh Award for technological innovation on behalf of the environment, the Daimler/Chrysler Award for innovation in design, the Discover Award for technological innovation and the Teddy Roosevelt Conservation Award, presented by President George H.W. Bush in 1990.

Todd has written more than 200 technical and popular articles on biology and planetary stewardship. Most recently, he published a book of short stories titled “Man Overboard: Natural and Unnatural Histories from the Edge of the Sea.”

The next Lecture~Concert Series event will be on Thursday, Feb. 24, with pianist Ian Hominick. All Lecture~Concert programs are free and open to the public. The Lecture~Concert Series presents diverse programs to enrich the cultural life of the campus, community and region.

For more information, please contact Dr. Gil Fowler, interim Dean of The Honors College, at 870-972-2308 or via email him at gfowler@astate.edu. 

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