Dr. Marc Edwards received his bachelor’s degree in Bio-Physics from SUNY Buffalo and an M.S./Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from the University of Washington. His M.S. thesis and Ph.D. dissertation won national awards from the American Water Works Association (AWWA), the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors and the Water Environment Federation. In 2004, Time Magazine dubbed Dr. Edwards the "Plumbing Professor” and listed him among the four most important “innovators” in water from around the world. The White House awarded him a Presidential Faculty Fellowship in 1996. In 1994, 1995, 2005 and 2011 Edwards received Outstanding Paper Awards in the Journal of American Waterworks Association and he received the H.P. Eddy Medal in 1990 for best research publication by the Water Pollution Control Federation (currently Water Environment Federation). He was later awarded the Walter Huber Research Prize from the American Society of Civil Engineers in 2003, the State of Virginia Outstanding Faculty Award in 2006, a MacArthur Fellowship from 2008 to 2012, the Praxis Award in Professional Ethics from Villanova University in 2010, and the IEEE Barus Award for Defending the Public Interest in 2012. His paper on lead poisoning of children in Washington D.C., due to elevated lead in drinking water, was judged the outstanding science paper in Environmental Science and Technology in 2010. Since 1995, undergraduate and graduate students advised by Dr. Edwards have won 23 nationally recognized awards for their research work on corrosion and water treatment. Dr. Edwards is currently the Charles Lunsford professor of Civil Engineering at Virginia Tech, where he teaches courses in environmental engineering ethics and applied aquatic chemistry.
