John Todd

Internationally recognized biologist John Todd is considered a global leader in the field of ecological water purification. Developer of Eco Machines™, he was named one of the 20th century’s top 35 inventors by the Lemelson-MIT Program for Invention and Innovation, and a “Hero of the Earth” by Time magazine in 1999. He is the cofounder of several foundations and companies with ecological missions:

The New Alchemy Institute, founded in 1969, has evolved into The Green Center, Inc., on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, a nonprofit educational institute with aims to support ecologically derived forms of energy, agriculture, aquaculture, housing, and landscapes.

Ocean Arks International, of which Todd is the president, is a nonprofit ecological research, education, and technological development organization founded in 1981.

Living Technologies, Inc. uses principles of ecological design and environmental engineering to design and operate revolutionary treatment facilities known as Living Machines™—their goal is to create simple, cost effective, and aesthetically pleasing systems for the treatment and reclamation of water. Living Technologies has the largest number of completed projects in the field of ecological water purification.

John Todd was the Buckminster Fuller Challenge Award winner in 2008 and received the Bioneers Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998. Todd and his wife, Nancy Jack Todd, received the Lindbergh Award in 1998, in recognition of their work in technology and the environment. In the late 1990s, Todd won two EPA awards in for his innovations with Living Machines.

Todd is author of more than 200 technical and popular articles on biology and planetary stewardship, and author of The Village as Solar Ecology; Tomorrow Is Our Permanent Address; Reinhabiting Cities and Towns: Designing for Sustainability; and From Eco-Cities to Living Machines. He is currently a professor at the University of Vermont and serves on a number of environmental and technical boards.