Marc Edwards, Ph.D. is the Charles Edward Via Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Virginia Tech. He teaches courses in environmental engineering, applied aquatic chemistry and engineering ethics. His research group conducted the investigative science uncovering the 2001-2004 D.C. Lead Crisis and the 2014-2016 Flint Water Disaster, and today they manage the website http://www.uswaterstudy.org/.
Time Magazine dubbed Edwards “The Plumbing Professor” in 2004, listing him amongst the 4 most important “Innovators” in water from around the world. The White House awarded him a Presidential Faculty Fellowship in 1996, he won a MacArthur Fellowship in 2007, and in 2013 Edwards’ was the 9th recipient (in a quarter century) of the IEEE Barus Award for “courageously defending the public interest at great personal risk.” In
2016 he was named amongst TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential people in the World, the World’s 50 Greatest Leaders by Fortune Magazine, Politico Magazine’s Top 50 Visionaries who have transformed American politics, Foreign Policy Magazines 100 World’s Greatest Thinkers, and was short-listed amongst Flint whistleblowers as Time person(s) of the year. He was co-recipient of the inaugural 2017 MIT Disobedience Award, received the 2018 AAAS Scientific Freedom and Responsibility award, and the Hoover Humanitarian Medal in 2019. He is a Past President of the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors.
Professor Edwards received a B.S. (1986) from the State University of New York at Buffalo and an M.S. (1988) and Ph.D. (1991) from the University of Washington in Seattle.