Prof. Ødegaard received his MSc in Civil Engineering at Norwegian Institute of Technology (NTH) in 1969 and his PhD (Dr.ing.) of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the same university (now NTNU) in 1975.

Since 1977 he was professor of Water and Wastewater Treatment at Department of Hydraulic and Environmental Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, Norway. In 2011 he retired from this position and is now Professor Emeritus at NTNU.

He was visiting professor at EAWAG, ETH, Switzerland (1991), Hokkaido University, Japan (1999) and CSIRO, Molecular Science, Melbourne (2000).

His research was focused on treatment of drinking water, wastewater and industrial process water. His specialities are: Particle separation processes; Biofilm processes; Disinfection processes; Removal of humic substance in drinking water treatment; Nutrient removal in water and wastewater treatment. He has written more than 500 publications, out of which several books and more than 300 refereed papers published internationally. He is the inventor of the moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) and holds 5 international patents.

He has been appointed the Honorary Member of IWA as well as IWA Distinguished Fellow. For his contribution in water research, he was awarded the Royal Norwegian St. Olavs order – officer, knight of 1. Class in 2011.

He has more than 50 years of experience with treatment of water (drinking water, wastewater and industrial process water) and he is still doing consulting work through his company Scandinavian Environmental Technology AS. Over the last years, he has carried out reviewing, planning and design of numerous, treatment plants all over the world, in particular plants based on The Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor (MBBR).