Our Founder
George M. Woodwell
The Woods Hole Research Center was founded in 1985 as an institute for research on the Great Issues of Environment by renowned ecologist George M. Woodwell, whose broad interests and achievements in environmental issues and policies have had a major worldwide impact.
For its first 18 years, the Center’s headquarters were in the village of Woods Hole. In 1999, several acres of land and an old inn on the Woods Hole Road were acquired and formed the basis of the WHRC Gilman Ordway Campus. Dr. Woodwell led the campaign to build a building that would not burn fossil fuels but would instead be a model of green architecture and sustainable energy systems. The new building was dedicated in 2003. Dr. Woodwell later wrote a book about its concept and construction, The Nature of a House: Building a World That Works (Island Press, 2009), with a foreword by the architect, William A. McDonough. In 2008, the WHRC staff, the Board of Directors, and the community honored Dr. Woodwell with a special symposium by other world-class scientists, and at that time named the building after him. Today the Ordway Campus comprises the George M. Woodwell Building and the 100-year-old Carriage House, a building that underwent a deep-energy retrofit and was opened in 2010.
Prior to founding the Woods Hole Research Center, Dr. Woodwell was founder and director of the Ecosystems Center of the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole and a senior scientist at Brookhaven National Laboratories. He was also a founding trustee and continues to serve on the board of the Natural Resources Defense Council. He is a former chairman of the board of trustees and currently a member of the National Council of the World Wildlife Fund, a founding trustee of the World Resources Institute, a founder and currently an honorary member of the board of trustees of the Environmental Defense Fund, and former president of the Ecological Society of America. Dr. Woodwell is the author of more than 300 major papers and books in ecology. He holds a doctorate in botany from Duke University and is the recipient of several honorary degrees as well as the 1996 Heinz Environmental Award and the Volvo Environment Prize of 2001. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
