
Instructors
Marc Edwards received his bachelor’s degree in Bio-Physics from SUNY Buffalo and an MS/PhD in Environmental Engineering from the University of Washington. His M.S. Thesis and PhD 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 amongst the 4 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 (2003), State of Virginia Outstanding Faculty Award (2006), a MacArthur Fellowship (2008-2012), and the Praxis Award in Professional Ethics from Villanova University (2010). 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 Edwards have won 22 nationally recognized awards for their research work on corrosion and water treatment. 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.
Yanna Lambrinidou, PhD is a medical ethnographer and Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Science and Technology Studies (STS) at Virginia Tech. She is the founder of the non-profit children’s environmental health organization Parents for Nontoxic Alternatives. Since 2007, Dr. Lambrinidou and Dr. Marc Edwards have teamed on researching the historic 2001-2004 Washington, DC lead-in-drinking-water contamination. This work exposed wrongdoing and unethical behavior on the part of local and federal government agencies and evolved into several successful, interdisciplinary research proposals, presentations, and peer reviewed publications. In 2010, Dr. Lambrinidou conceived and co-taught the new graduate level engineering ethics class “Ethics in Engineering, Science, and Public Policy.” In 2011, Drs. Lambrinidou, Edwards, and their collaborators were awarded a 3-year grant from the Ethics Education in Science and Engineering (EESE) program of the National Science Foundation (NSF) for further development and national dissemination of this course. Dr. Lambrinidou is also teaching engineering ethics for continuing education of practicing engineers. Her previous research focused on hospice and pediatric cancer care.