Marc Edwards, the Charles P. Lunsford Professor in Virginia Tech's Via Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE), was recognized by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine for excellence in teaching, research, and public service during a ceremony on Feb. 8 at the Library of Virginia in Richmond.
Edwards and Virginia Tech colleague Doris Zallen, a professor in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences' Department of Science and Technology in Society, were among 12 college and university faculty selected from a statewide pool of 95 nominees to receive the Virginia Outstanding Faculty Award, the Commonwealth's highest honor for faculty.
The Outstanding Faculty Award program, now in its 21st year, is administered by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) and funded by a grant from the Dominion Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Dominion.
Featured by Time in April 2004 as one of the nation's leading scientific innovators, Edwards — dubbed "The Plumbing Professor" by the national news magazine — has used his expertise in drinking water quality and corrosion to help identify and solve some critical problems, including the leaching of lead into home water supplies in Washington, D.C.
Edwards came to Virginia Tech in 1997 from the University of Colorado at Boulder, where, in 1996, the National Science Foundation (NSF) selected him as one of only 20 young engineering faculty in the nation to receive a Presidential Faculty Fellowship. Since joining the Via department faculty at Virginia Tech, he has achieved international renown for applying the principles of aquatic chemistry to solving problems related to corrosion and drinking water infrastructure degradation.
When Edwards learned in 2003 that lead levels were elevated in District of Columbia drinking water, he and his graduate students began investigating and found that chloramine, a compound used in drinking water treatment, was causing lead to leach from pipes in thousands of homes. As a result of that research, Edwards was asked to testify before Congress about the corrosion problem and was interviewed on National Public Radio's "Living on Earth."
Edwards has become sought after as a consultant by water authorities throughout the nation. Along with CEE colleagues Andrea Dietrich and G.V. Loganathan, he is co-principal investigator on a $1.64 million NSF project aimed at solving widespread problems related to the effects of corrosion on drinking water quality and infrastructure.
In 2003 Edwards received the Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize from the American Society of Civil Engineers and in 2004 he was appointed to the Lunsford Professorship at Virginia Tech. His research has been published extensively in professional journals and conference publications, and a number of CEE graduate and undergraduate students have won national research awards under his guidance.
Edwards completed his master's degree and Ph.D. in environmental engineering at the University of Washington and earned his bachelor's degree in bio-physics from the State University of New York at Buffalo.