College of Engineering
Prescott/Brown Professional Development Lecture Series
Washington DC Lead Crisis 2001-2006: Prelude to Flint, MI
Thursday, April 21, 2016
Marc Edwards, Ph.D.
Charles Lunsford Professor of Civil Engineering At Virginia TechMarc Edwards received his bachelor’s degree in Bio-Physics from SUNY Buffalo in 1986.
He received his M.S. and Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from the University of
Washington, in 1988 and 1991, respectively. 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. 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 (AEESP) and the 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. In 2013 Edwards’ was the 9 th recipient (in a quarter
century) of the IEEE Barus Award for “courageously defending the public interest at
great personal risk .”
Edwards is currently the Charles Lunsford Professor of Civil Engineering at Virginia
Tech, where he teaches courses in environmental engineering, applied aquatic chemistry
and engineering ethics. Since 1995, undergraduate and graduate students advised by
Edwards have won 25 nationally recognized awards for their research work. He has published
more than 180 peer reviewed journal articles, made more than 300 national and international
conference presentations, and has delivered dozens of keynote and endowed lectures.
Edwards is a Past-President of the Association of Environmental and Engineering Science
Professors, and in 2004 and 2010 he testified to the United States Congress on the
issue of lead in Washington DC drinking water and scientific misconduct at the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control (CDC), respectively. His research group is currently emphasizing
research on premise plumbing-- a problem costing consumers in the U.S. billions of
dollars each year and which also can endanger the safety of potable water. The National
Science Foundation, individual water utilities and homeowners’ groups, the AWWA Research
Foundation, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA), and the
Copper Development Association and have supported that research. His students’ work
has been featured in Time Magazine, Materials Performance, National Public Radio,
Prism, Salon, Good Housekeeping, Environmental Science and Technology, Public Works,
Earth and Sky, and in newspaper articles around the country, and has spurred several
new Federal laws to protect the public from lead in water hazards.
Role of Innovation an Entrepreneurship in Science and Engineering Education
Friday, April 4, 2014
Arden Bement, Ph.D.,
David A. Ross Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Nuclear Engineering, Chief Global Affairs Officer Emeritus and Inaugural Director Emeritus, Global Policy Research Institute, Purdue University, Purdue, IndianaDr. Arden L. Bement Jr. is the Inaugural Director Emeritus of the Purdue University’s Global Policy Research Institute and Purdue’s Chief Global Affairs Officer Emeritus. In 2010 he took a ten-year leave of absence from Purdue to serve as the Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology from 2001 – 2004 and Director of the U.S. National Science Foundation from 2004 – 2010. He served as a member of the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO and as the vice-chair of the Commission’s Natural Sciences and Engineering Committee. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering (30 year pin), European Science Academy, Pan American Academy of Engineering, Washington, D.C. Science Academy, and Indiana Science Academy. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Panel members include:
- Charlie Brock, CEO and President of Launch Tennessee, Nashville, Tennessee;
- Steve Canfield, Ph.D., Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Tennessee Tech University, Cookeville Tennessee;
- Richard DeMartino, Ph.D., Director of Simone Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and Albert J. Simone Endowed Chair for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Rochester Institute of Technology , Rochester, New York
- James Roberto, Ph.D., Associate Laboratory Director of Science and Technology Partnership, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee;
- Sam C. Weaver, Ph.D., President and CEO, Proton Power Inc., Lenior City, TN. Dr. Bement will moderate.
Engineering Education in a rapidly changing world - Some things old, some things new
Monday, Jan. 24, 2011
Don P. Giddens, Ph.D.
Dean, Georgia Tech University College of Engineering, the Lawrence L. Gellerstedt Jr. Chair in Bioengineering, and a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent ScholarDr. Giddens received all his degrees (B.A.E. 1963, M.S.A.E. 1965, and Ph.D. 1966) from Georgia Tech and joined the Georgia Tech faculty in 1968, after two years in the aerospace industry. In 1992, he left his position as the Chair of Aerospace Engineering to serve as the Dean of the Whiting School of Engineering and Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the Johns Hopkins University until 1997. In 1997, Giddens rejoined Georgia Tech to establish the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, a joint department between Georgia Tech’s College of Engineering and Emory University’s School of Medicine. He served as the founding Chair until July 2002, when he became the Dean of the College of Engineering.
Dr. Giddens is a member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), President-Elect for the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) and ASEE Fellow, Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES), Big 10+ Deans Council, a founding Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, and Fellow of the American Heart Association and the American Society of Mechanical Engineering (ASME). He received the H.R. Lissner Award from ASME in 1993 and was the ASME Thurston Lecturer in 1996. He is currently on the National Advisory Council of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering of NIH, chair of the ASEE Engineering Dean’s Council, and Secretary of the Georgia Tech Research Corporation (GTRC) Board of Directors. He is the author of over 300 publications, book chapters and presentation, and continues an active research program in biomedical engineering.
Dean Giddens recently chaired an NAE project that developed a report, “Changing the Conversation: Messages for Improving the Public Understanding of Engineering.”