The American Ecological Engineering Society (AEES) awarded The Ohio State University Department of Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering (FABE) professor Jay Martin with the 2024 Odum Award at its annual conference held in Virginia last month.
Established in 2018, the Odum Award is the highest honor bestowed by AEES, named in recognition of two of the most influential figures in defining and pioneering the concepts and practices of Ecological Engineering. This award recognizes a lifetime of achievement and contributions during one's career to research, education, and practice in the field of Ecological Engineering, which led to the development and growth of AEES.
Martin joined Ohio State in 2000 and has worked tirelessly as a faculty member of FABE and a faculty co-lead for the OSU Sustainability Institute, seeking to use natural systems to improve water quality and increase sustainability.
His interdisciplinary research links field studies, watershed models, and socio-economic analyses with stakeholder groups to investigate connections between downstream water quality and management practices in upstream watersheds.
In 2021-2022, Martin received the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences Distinguished Professor honor. During his time at the university, he's been awarded over $35M for his research. He also is the faculty advisor of the Ecological Engineering Society, a student organization dedicated to the development and education of the field. Martin joins Bill Mitsch as the second Ohio State faculty to receive the Odum Award, setting OSU as the only institution with multiple winners.