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Living Machines
Dr. John Todd, a professor at the University
of Vermont, is a pioneer in the field of ecology, having applied his knowledge
and research to helping better the environment. His most significant invention,
"Living Machines," sends contaminated wastewater through a series
of tanks full of algae, plants, and small fish and animals. In a few days, these
organisms digest most of the pollution in the water, leaving it clean and relatively
pure.
Todd was trained in agriculture, parasitology, and tropical medicine. He earned
a BSc and MSc at McGill University in Montreal,
and received his doctorate in fisheries and oceanography from the University
of Michigan. His early work involved the behavioral ecology of fish as an
Assistant Professor of Ethology at San Diego State
University (1968-1970) and as an Assistant Scientist at the Woods
Hole Oceanographic Institution (1970-1974).
In 1969, Todd co-founded the New Alchemy Institute with his wife, Nancy, to
create a science and engineering testing ground for ecological problems. He
served as President and Executive Director of the institute from 1970-1981.
In 1980 he founded Ocean Arks International.
There, throughout the 1980s, he developed an ecological design field which included
energy, architecture, waste, food and ocean transport components. His work was
published in a series of books and articles.
In 1984, Todd began developing technologies for treating wastes and purifying
water. His "Living Machines" were the most visible result of his research. Today,
facilities based on the "Living Machines" concept have been built or are under
construction in eight countries: Scotland, England, Czechoslovakia, India, Brazil,
Australia, the United States and Canada. Todd's "machines" cost about half as
much to install as traditional treatment plants laden with concrete and plumbing.
Some treat municipal waste, others industrial. The largest, for a food processing
plant in Australia, can handle 100,000 gallons of waste per day, about as much
as a town of 2,000 people would produce.
In 1990, Todd received the Teddy Roosevelt Conservation Award for Innovations
in Design, and in 1994, he received the Chrysler Award for Innovation in Design,
being the first biologist to receive either of these prestigious awards. In
1996 he was awarded the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency's Environmental Achievement Award for his innovations in wastewater
treatment and aquaculture.
Today (Nov., 2001), Todd is a Research Professor and Distinguished Lecturer
at the University of Vermont. He teaches ecological design and living machines
and oversees an ecological design studio. The South Burlington, Vermont, Municipal
Sewage Treatment Plant employs Todd's "Living Machines" concept. At the facility,
raw sewage and air are pumped into a series of linked giant steel tanks in which
plants of 200 species are suspended in wire mesh containers. While the plants
drink up nutrients in the sewage, bacteria and microbe roots break down pollutants.
As the sewage proceeds from tank to tank, the water becomes cleaner and cleaner,
eventually pure enough for irrigation, toilet flushing or car washing.
Todd is also working on developing an Eco-Industrial Park for the City of
Burlington. The park's small farmers will produce food year round in a 1 1/2
acre greenhouse warmed by waste heat from the city's wood-fired electrical generating
plant. Among other projects, he's also planning for the creation of "ecological
malls" where communities can produce food, generate energy and recycle wastes
in a biologically propelled loop.
[November 2001]
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