Marc A. Edwards

About

Marc A. Edwards is a University Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech, serving in the Charles E. Via, Jr. Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering. His research focuses on water treatment, corrosion, arsenic removal, and applied aquatic chemistry. Edwards has held various academic positions at Virginia Tech since 1997, including Lunsford Professor of Civil Engineering and University Distinguished Professor since 2017. His educational background includes a B.S. in Bio-Physics from SUNY Buffalo, an M.S. and Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from the University of Washington. Throughout his career, Edwards has contributed significantly to the fields of water quality and public health, earning numerous awards and honors such as the Hoover Medal, multiple honorary doctorates, and recognition from organizations like AAAS, IEEE, and the American Society of Civil Engineers. His work has involved addressing critical issues related to water safety, microbial ecology in water systems, and public health advocacy, notably in the context of water crises such as Flint. Edwards is known for his extensive research on microbial and chemical processes in water systems, and his efforts have advanced understanding and solutions for safe drinking water and environmental health.

Research topics

• Artificial Intelligence
• Political Science
• Data Mining
• Computer Science
• Machine Learning
• Epistemology
• Biology
• Water resource management
• Philosophy
• Environmental engineering

Selected publications

• Critical Review: Propensity of Premise Plumbing Pipe Materials to Enhance or Diminish Growth of Legionella and Other Opportunistic Pathogens

  Pathogens · 2020 · 90 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  and other opportunistic pathogens (OPs) in drinking water premise plumbing poses an increasing public health concern. Premise plumbing is constructed of a variety of materials, creating complex environments that vary chemically, microbiologically, spatially, and temporally in a manner likely to influence survival and growth of OPs. Here we systematically review the literature to critically examine the varied effects of common metallic (copper, iron) and plastic (PVC, cross-linked polyethylene (P…

  DOI

• Drinking Water in the United States: Implications of Water Safety, Access, and Consumption

  Annual Review of Nutrition · 2020 · 56 citations

  Recent water quality crises in the United States, and recognition of the health importance of drinking water in lieu of sugar-sweetened beverages, have raised interest in water safety, access, and consumption. This review uses a socioecological lens to examine these topics across the life course. We review water intakes in the United States relative to requirements, including variation by age and race/ethnicity. We describe US regulations that seek to ensure that drinking water is safe to consum…

  DOI

• Developing a framework for classifying water lead levels at private drinking water systems: A Bayesian Belief Network approach

  Water Research · 2020 · 38 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  DOI

• Guidance for Residents Addressing Copper Problems in Drinking Water: Opportunities and Challenges

  ACS ES&T Water · 2024-08-12 · 8 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Residents and their pets may experience aesthetic or health concerns resulting from elevated copper in their drinking water. The United States Environmental Protection Agency Lead and Copper Rule focuses on addressing systemwide corrosion issues, but gaps in the rule leave some municipal water consumers and residents with private well water vulnerable to high cuprosolvency. We developed guidance to aid residents in understanding, detecting, and addressing cuprosolvency issues in their drinking w…

  PublisherDOI

• Untangling the Effects of Hydraulic Design on Opportunistic Pathogen Growth Potential with an at-Scale Plumbing Rig

  ACS ES&T Water · 2025-01-03 · 6 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  A building plumbing rig experiment simultaneously examined how water temperature (cold/hot lines), influent disinfectant residual (0–1 mg/L chloramine), flow rate (0.5–2.2 gpm), and water retention time (WRT) of 0–17-days impacted water quality at the point of use. In cold water lines with no disinfectant, WRT was a key driver of bacterial growth, with total cell counts (TCC) in the water increasing by up to 20× relative to influent water at 6.7-days WRT. A chloramine residual in cold influent w…

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• SusChEM GOALI: Transformative Approach to Sustain Potable Water Infrastructure: Fundamental Mechanisms of In-Situ Autogenous Repair

  NSF · $536k · 2013–2017

• RAPID: Potable water hazards and resource needs in private well communities impacted by extreme flooding events

  NSF · $200k · 2017–2019

• Accelerated Testing of Corrosion

  NSF · $110k · 1993–1996

Frequent coauthors

• Amy Pruden

  Virginia Tech

  85 shared

• William J. Rhoads

  54 shared

• Kelsey J. Pieper

  Northeastern University

  40 shared

• Jeffrey Parks

  38 shared

• Laurie S. McNeill

  36 shared

• Siddhartha Roy

  33 shared

• Dietmar Glindemann

  Virginia Tech

  28 shared

• Adrienne Katner

  Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center New Orleans

  24 shared

Similar researchers at Virginia Tech

• Stanley Granth-53
• John C. Littleh-52
• Gabriel Isaacman-VanWertzh-47