A highly respected but controversial biosphere ecologist and biologist, Woodwell was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. With his parents, who were both educators, Woodwell spent most of his summers on the family farm in Maine, where he was able to learn firsthand about biology, ecology, and the environment.

Woodwell graduated from Dartmouth College in 1950 with a bachelor's degree in zoology. Soon after graduation, he joined the Navy and served for three years on oceanographic ships. After returning to civilian life, he took advantage of a scholarship to pursue graduate studies and earned both a master's degree (1956) and a doctorate (1958) from Duke University. He began teaching at the University of Maine and was later appointed a faculty member and guest lecturer at Yale University. Throughout most of the 1960s and the early 1970s, Woodwell worked as senior ecologist at the...